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spk01: Hello and welcome to the fourth quarter earnings conference call for Amphenol Corporation. Following today's presentation, there will be a formal question and answer session. Until then, all lines will remain in a listen-only mode. At the request of the company, today's conference is being recorded. If anyone has any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to introduce today's conference host, Mr. Craig Lampo. Sir, you may begin.
spk10: Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone. This is Craig Lampo, Amphenol CFO, and I'm here together with Adam Norwood, our CEO. We would like to welcome you to our fourth quarter 2021 conference call. Our fourth quarter and full year results were released this morning. I will provide some financial commentary, and then Adam will give you an overview of the business as well as current trends. Then we will take questions. As a reminder, during the call, we may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures and may make certain forward-looking statements, so please refer to the relevant disclosures in our press release for further information. In addition, all data discussed during this call will be on a continuing operations basis, unless otherwise noted. The company closed the fourth quarter with record sales of $3 billion and $27 million, and GAAP and adjusted diluted EPS of 72 cents and 70 cents, respectively. We are very proud that the fourth quarter represents the first time in Amphenol's history that we achieved quarterly sales in excess of $3 billion. Fourth quarter sales were up 25% in U.S. dollars and in local currencies and up 18% organically. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, the significant sales increase was primarily driven by the robust growth in the IT data, communications, industrial, mobile networks, commercial air, automotive, and broadband markets, including contributions from the company's acquisition program. Sequentially, sales were up 7% in U.S. dollars and organically, and 8% in local currencies. For the full year of 2021, sales were a record $10,876,000,000, which were up 26% in U.S. dollars, 25% in local currencies, and 18% organically compared to 2020. Quarters for the quarter were $3,278,000,000, which is up 30% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020 and up 9% sequentially, resulting in a strong book-to-bill ratio of 1.08 to 1. Breaking down fourth quarter sales into our two segments, the interconnect segment, which comprised 96% of our sales, was up 25% in U.S. dollars, while the cable segment was up 22% in U.S. dollars. Breaking down full year sales into our two segments, the interconnect segment was up 27% in U.S. dollars, and the cable segment was up 21% in U.S. dollars. Adam will comment further on trends by market in a few minutes. GAAP and adjusted operating income was $593 million and $608 million, respectively, in the fourth quarter of 2021. And GAAP operating margin was 19.6%, which decreased by 50 basis points compared to the Q4 of 2020 and by 70 basis points relative to the third quarter of 2021. Fourth quarter 2021 GAAP operating income included $15 million of acquisition-related costs related to the HALO acquisition, which closed during the fourth quarter. Excluding these costs, the fourth quarter 2021 adjusted operating margin was 20.1%, which decreased by 50 basis points compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, and by 20 basis points relative to the third quarter of 2021. The year-over-year decrease was primarily driven by the impact of the more challenging commodity and supply chain environment, together with a slight margin dilution of acquisitions. And these impacts were partially offset by the normal operating leverage on higher sales levels, as well as the lower negative cost impacts from the pandemic. On a sequential basis, the slight decrease in adjusted operating margin was due to the continued challenging commodity and supply chain environment, which has not yet been fully offset by pricing and other actions. For the full year, 2021, gap operating margin was 19.4%, and adjusted operating margin was 20%. The 80 basis point increase in adjusted operating margin as compared to 2020 was primarily driven by the normal operating leverage on higher sales volumes, as well as the lower negative cost impacts resulting from the pandemic. And these benefits were partially offset by the more challenging commodity and supply chain environment experience in 2021, as well as the current margin dilutive effect of the acquisitions we made during the year. From a segment standpoint, Operating margin in the interconnect segment was 22.1% in the fourth quarter of 2021, and operating margin in the cable segment was 2.4%. Our margins in the cable segment continue to be particularly impacted by the ongoing and significant increase in commodity and logistics costs, which have not yet been offset by pricing actions. Given the dynamic overall cost and supply chain environment, we are very proud of the company's operating performance. Our team's ability to effectively manage through all of these many challenges is a direct result of the strength and commitment of the company's entrepreneurial management team, which continues to foster a high-performance, action-oriented culture. The company's gap effective tax rate for the fourth quarter was 18.8%, and the adjusted effective tax rate was 23.8%, which compared to 21.7% and 24.5% in the fourth quarter of 2020, respectively. The slightly lower adjusted tax rate in the quarter reflected the year-to-date true-up of a full-year adjusted effective tax rate from the expected 24.5% to a slightly lower 24.3% as a result of a slightly more favorable mix of income for the full year. For the full year 2021, the company's GAAP effective tax rate was 20.6%, and the adjusted effective tax rate was 24.3%. which compared to 20.5% and 24.5% in 2020, respectively. In 2022, we expect our adjusted effective tax rate to be approximately 24.5%. GAAP diluted EPS was a record 72 cents in the fourth quarter, an increase of 26% compared to 57 cents in the prior year period, and adjusted diluted EPS was also a record 70 cents, and an increase of 23% compared to $0.57 in the fourth quarter of 2020. For the full year, GAAP diluted EPS was $2.51, a 28% increase from $1.96 in 2020, and adjusted diluted EPS was $2.48 in 2021, an increase of 33% compared to 2020. This was an excellent result, especially considering the significant cost the supply chain and other operational challenges the company faced in 2021. Operating cash flow in the fourth quarter was a record $464 million or 106% of adjusted net income and net of capital spending. Our free cash flow was also a record $379 million or 87% of adjusted net income. For the full year, 2021 operating cash flow was $1,524,000,000, or 98% of adjusted debt income. In additive capital spending, our free cash flow for 2021 was $1,167,000,000, or 75% of adjusted debt income. From a working capital standpoint, inventory days, day sales outstanding, and payable days were 80, 71, and 56 days respectively. all of which were within our normal range. And we are especially pleased that our teams focused on all elements of working capital management, which resulted in a significant reduction of the company's inventory days from the third quarter. During the quarter, the company repurchased 2.1 million shares of common stock at an average price of $81, bringing total repurchases during 2021 to 9.3 million shares, or $662 million. When combined with our normal quarterly dividend, total capital return to shareholders in 2021 was more than $1 billion. Total debt at December 31st was $4.8 billion, and net debt was $3.6 billion. Total liquidity at the end of the quarter was $2.9 billion, which included cash and short-term investments on hand of $1.2 billion, plus availability under existing credit facilities. For the quarter and full year 2021 GAAP EBITDA was $726 million and $2.6 billion respectively. And at the end of 2021, our net leverage ratio is 1.4 times. Lastly, as noted in the press release effective January 1st, 2022, we have aligned our businesses into three new reportable segments. We will report results for these new segments as well as comparable historical financial data starting in the first quarter of 2022. I will now turn the call over to Adam, who will provide some commentary on current market trends.
spk09: Well, thank you very much, Craig. And I'd like to also extend my welcome to all of you here on the phone today. And hopefully it's not too late for me to wish you and your families all a Happy New Year. I also want to just express my wishes that everybody here on the call, together with your family, your friends, and your colleagues, are all managing to stay safe and healthy, in particular amidst the Omicron wave that's occurring in many areas of the country. As Craig mentioned, I'm going to highlight some of our fourth quarter and, in particular, our full year achievements. I'll discuss our trends and progress across our served markets, and then I'll make a few comments on our outlook in the first quarter. And, of course, we'll have time for Q&A thereafter. With respect to the fourth quarter, we're truly proud to have finished the year with record sales and adjusted earnings per share in the fourth quarter, both of which were significantly above the guidance that we gave just 90 days ago. Sales grew by a very strong 25% in U.S. dollars and in local currencies, reaching a new record of $3.27 billion. On an organic basis, our sales increased by 18%, driven in particular by robust growth in the IT datacom, mobile networks, industrial and automotive, and markets. And I'll talk through each of those markets here in a moment. The company booked a record $3,278,000,000 in orders in the fourth quarter, which represented another strong book-to-bill of 1.08 to 1. Despite the many operational challenges we and others continue to face, including ongoing cost increases related to commodities, supply chain, and other pressures, our adjusted operating margins in the quarter reached a very strong 20.1%. Adjusted diluted EPS was a new record 70 cents and represented robust growth of 23% from prior year, an excellent demonstration of our organization's continued strong execution. And as Craig mentioned, we generated record operating and free cash flow in the quarter of $464 million and $379 million, respectively, both of which are clear reflections of the quality of the company's earnings. Just at the end of this quarter, I'm extremely proud of our team as these quarter's results once again reflect the discipline and the agility of our entrepreneurial organization who continue to perform very well amidst a very challenging environment. We're also very pleased that in the quarter we announced on December 1st, the acquisition of Halo Technology Limited for a purchase price of approximately $715 million. Halo is a leading provider of active and passive fiber optic interconnect components for the communications infrastructure markets, with expected sales this year of approximately $250 million. Halo's product offerings are highly complementary to our existing high-speed and fiber optic interconnect solutions and represent a significant long-term growth opportunity for Amphenol in particular with customers in our IT datacom, mobile networks, and broadband markets. We're especially excited that Halo significantly bolsters our position in active fiber optic interconnect products, which is a technology with truly high growth potential as customers around the world are upgrading their networks to support the acceleration of high-speed data traffic. Halo is an agile supplier of these important products to a wide variety of customers, across these communications infrastructure markets whose unique technology and service offering enables them to realize strong operating results. I'm just very excited to welcome the highly talented and entrepreneurial HALO team to the MFNL family and look forward to great things from them in the future. We also announced on December 1st the closing of the sale of the MTS test and simulation business to Illinois Tool Works, or ITW. We remain extremely pleased with the entirety of the MTS acquisition, which, as you'll all recall, was announced last year in the fourth quarter, meaning 2020. With the disposition of test and simulation to ITW, we have now acquired one of the leading sensor companies in the industry, further strengthening our broad offering of high technology sensors. We're very proud of the performance of the MTS sensors team during their first three quarters as part of the Amphenol family. And we look forward to them driving outstanding value for many years to come. I remain very confident that our acquisition program will continue to create great value for the company. And in fact, our ability to identify and execute upon acquisitions and then to successfully bring these new companies into Amphenol remains a core competitive advantage for the company. Now turning to the full year of 2021, I can just say it was an extremely successful year for Amphenol, despite the many operational and cost challenges that we faced. We expanded our position in the overall market, growing sales by a very strong 26% in U.S. dollars and 18% organically, reaching a new sales record of $10,876,000,000. I would just note that, in fact, over the past two years, both of which have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We've grown our sales by more than 32% from our 2019 levels, which is a great confirmation of the value of the company's diversification and the agility of our management team in every environment. Our full year 2021 adjusted operating margins reached 20%, which was an increase of 80 basis points from last year, from 2020, despite the multiple pressures and margins that we experienced around the world. And this strong level of profitability enabled us to achieve record-adjusted diluted earnings per share of $2.48. We generated operating and free cash flow of $1,524,000,000 and $1,167,000,000, respectively. Again, excellent confirmations of the company's superior execution and disciplined working capital management. We also put that cash to work with our acquisition program that created great value in 2021 with seven new companies added to the Amphenol family. MTS Sensors, Halo, Positronic, LCab, Unlimited Services, CableCon, and Euromicron have collectively expanded our position across a broad array of technologies and markets. while bringing outstanding and talented individuals into the Amphenol family and thereby strengthening our organization. We're excited that these acquisitions represent expanded platforms for the company's future performance. In addition, as Craig noted, in 2021, we bought back over 9.3 million shares under our share buyback program and increased our quarterly dividend by 38%. representing a total return of capital to shareholders of just over $1 billion for the year. So while there continued to be a high level of volatility in the overall environment in 2021, as we enter 2022, our agile entrepreneurial management team is confident that we have built further strength from which we can drive superior long-term performance. Now let me turn to the performance of the company across our served markets, and I would just note that We remain very pleased that the company's balanced and broad end market diversification continues to create value for Amphenol, with no single end market representing more than 25% of our sales in 2021, and that market, industrial, being really one of our most diversified markets across the segments within industrial. We believe that this diversification mitigates the impact of the volatility of individual end markets while continuing to expose us to the leading technologies wherever they may arise across the electronics industry. Now, turning to the military market, military represented 10% of our sales in the fourth quarter and 11% of our sales for the full year of 2021. Our sales grew from prior year by 6% in U.S. dollars in the fourth quarter as we benefited from acquisitions. On an organic basis, our sales did moderate by about 4%, driven by reduced sales related to airframe applications and ground vehicles. Sequentially, our sales increased slightly as we had expected coming into the quarter. For the full year, 2021, sales to the military market grew by 13% in U.S. dollars and 4% organically, reflecting our leading market position and strong execution across virtually all segments of the military market. together with the benefits of the MTS sensors and positronic acquisitions completed earlier in the year. Looking ahead, we expect sales in the first quarter to increase slightly from these fourth quarter levels, and we continue to be excited by the strength of the company's position in the military market. As militaries around the world continue to accelerate their adoption of next-generation technologies, our industry-leading breadth of high-technology interconnect and sensor products positions the company strongly across essentially all major defense programs. And this gives us confidence for our long-term performance. The commercial aerospace market represented 2% of our sales in the fourth quarter and as well for the full year of 2021. Sales in the quarter grew 27% in U.S. dollars and 6% organically as we benefited from the beginnings of a recovery in procurement to support growing aircraft production, as well as from the contributions from our recent acquisitions. Sequentially, we were very pleased that our sales grew a robust 15 percent from the third quarter, which was in line with our expectations coming into the quarter. For the full year, sales declined by 10 percent, reflecting the significant impact of the ongoing pandemic on travel and aircraft production. Looking into the first quarter, we expect a sequential moderation in sales from these levels. Regardless of the challenges in the Comair market in both 2020 and 2021, our team working in this market remains very committed to leveraging the company's strong interconnect and sensor technology positions across a wide array of aircraft platforms and next-generation systems integrated into those airplanes. As personal and business travel continues to recover from the pandemic-impacted lows, We look forward to benefiting as jet manufacturers expand their production and, in turn, their procurement of our products. The industrial market represented 25 percent of our sales in the fourth quarter and for the full year, and sales in this market significantly exceeded our expectations coming into the quarter, increasing by a very strong 42 percent in U.S. dollars and 25 percent organically from prior year. we experienced robust strength in essentially all segments of the industrial market, with particular strength in battery and heavy electric vehicle, transportation, rail mass transit, factory automation, heavy equipment, as well as oil and gas. On a sequential basis, our sales increased by 2%, which was significantly better than our expectation for a sequential moderation, as we saw broad-based strength. For the full year 2021, Sales in the industrial market grew by a very strong 46% in U.S. dollars and 27% organically, as we saw, again, broad-based growth across virtually all market segments of the global industrial market. Looking into the first quarter of 2022, we do expect a sequential moderation in sales from these very strong fourth-quarter sales levels. Our outstanding global team working in the industrial market continues to find new opportunities for growth across the many segments of this exciting market. I remain confident that our long-term strategy to expand our high technology interconnect, antenna, and sensor offerings, both organically as well as through complementary acquisitions, has positioned us to capitalize on the many revolutions happening across the industrial electronics markets. We look forward to realizing the benefits of this strategy for many years to come. The automotive market represented 19% of our sales in the fourth quarter and 20% for the full year 2021. Sales in automotive were actually much stronger than we had anticipated coming into the quarter with revenue growing by a very strong 18% in U.S. dollars and 16% organically versus prior year. And this was driven particularly by a strength of our sales in the hybrid and electric vehicle applications, as well as our sales to customers in Asia. Sequentially, our automotive sales increased by a very strong 10%, well above our prior expectations for a high single-digit decline, as we saw strong demand from customers in anticipation of improving production volumes in the first quarter. For the full year 2021, Our sales to the automotive market increased by a strong 47% in U.S. dollars and 41% organically, reflecting the continued recovery of the automotive market as well as our expanded position in next-generation electronics integrated into cars, including in particular electric and hybrid drivetrains. Looking into the first quarter, we expect a high single-digit sequential moderation in sales from these very lofty levels that we achieved in the fourth quarter. I remain extremely proud of our team working in the automotive market, who has demonstrated an incredible degree of agility and resiliency in both driving a significant recovery from the reduced sales levels in 2020, while also expertly navigating the myriad of supply chain challenges that struck the entire automotive industry during the course of this year. We look forward to benefiting from their efforts long into the future. The mobile devices market represented 14% of our sales in the fourth quarter and 12% of our sales for the full year of 2021. Our sales to mobile device customers declined from prior year by 5% in U.S. dollars and 6% organically. As declines in products incorporated into smartphones more than offset the growth that we did realize in wearable devices, laptops, and tablets. Sequentially, our sales increased by a better than expected 14% driven by higher sales to smartphones and wearable devices. For the full year 2021, sales in the mobile devices market increased by 4% in U.S. dollars and 2% organically, as we benefited from growth in our products used in laptops and wearables, offset in part by a moderation of sales related to smartphones and tablets, which, as you will recall, were particularly strong during 2020 with all of the work from home and study from home dynamics that were there early on in the pandemic. Looking into the first quarter, we anticipate a typical seasonal sequential decline of approximately 35%. While mobile devices will always remain one of our most volatile markets, our outstanding and agile team is poised as always to capture any opportunities for incremental sales that may arise in 2022 and beyond. our leading array of antennas, interconnect products, and mechanisms continue to enable a broad range of next-generation mobile devices, which positions us well for the long term. The mobile networks market represented 5% of our sales in the quarter and for the full year, and we're very pleased that sales in mobile networks increased from prior year by a very strong 36% in U.S. dollars and 28% organically, And this was with growth particularly from our sales to mobile network operators in support of their next generation 5G network buildouts. Sequentially, our sales increased by a higher than expected 7%. For the full year of 2021, our sales to the mobile networks market grew by 12% from prior year and 7% organically. Looking into the first quarter of 2022, we do expect sales to moderate from these very strong levels. Our team continues to work aggressively to realize the benefits of our long-term efforts at expanding our position in next-generation 5G equipment and networks around the world. As customers continue to ramp up their investments into these advanced systems, we look forward to benefiting from the increased potential that comes from our unique position with both equipment manufacturers and mobile service providers. The information technology and data communications market represented 22 percent of our sales in the fourth quarter and 21 percent of our sales for the full year. Sales in the fourth quarter in IT Datacom were much stronger than expected, rising by 53 percent in U.S. dollars and 49 percent organically from prior year. as we benefited from broad-based demand for our industry-leading high-speed, power, and fiber optic solutions. While we saw strength really across server, networking, and storage applications, we experienced especially robust growth from web service providers and other data center operators in the quarter. Sequentially, our sales grew by 10%, which was significantly higher than our expectations, which had been coming into the quarter of a slight decline. We do believe our sales growth benefited from some modest pulling of demand from the first quarter as customers prepared for potential supply chain issues related to Chinese New Year. For the full year 2021, our sales to the IT Datacom market grew by a very strong 26% in U.S. dollars and 24% organically as we continued to benefit from our strong technology solutions and leading position across a broad array of applications. Again, sales to web service providers were a significant contributor to our full year growth in 2021. Looking ahead, we do expect a high single-digit moderation in the first quarter, reflecting the very robust demand in the fourth quarter. Nevertheless, we're excited by our strength in technology position, especially with the addition of Halo's active and passive fiber optic interconnect products. I remain encouraged by the company's outstanding position in the global IT datacom market. Our OEM and service provider customers continue to drive their equipment and networks to ever higher levels of performance in order to manage the continued dramatic increases in demand for bandwidth and processor power. We look forward to realizing the benefits of our leading position for many years to come. And finally, the broadband market represented 3% of our sales in the quarter and 4% for the full year. Sales increased by 14% in U.S. dollars and 2% organically from prior year, as we benefited from increased spending by cable operators as well as the contributions from our recent acquisitions. On a sequential basis, sales grew by a better than expected 10%. For the full year of 2021, sales to the broadband market grew by 9% in U.S. dollars and 1% organically. Looking ahead, we expect sales to increase in the low double digits from these levels as we benefit from the addition of Halo's product sales into the broadband market. We remain encouraged by the company's position with broadband customers, and we look forward to continuing to support our service provider customers around the world all of whom are working to increase their bandwidth to support the expansion of high-speed data applications to both homes and businesses. Now, turning to our outlook, the current market environment no doubt remains highly uncertain, with significant continuing supply chain and inflationary challenges, as well as the impact of the ongoing pandemic. Assuming that conditions do not meaningfully worsen and also assuming constant exchange rates, For the first quarter, we expect sales in the range of $2,690,000 to $2,750,000, as well as adjusted diluted EPS in the range of $0.59 to $0.61. This guidance represents very strong sales growth over prior year of 13% to 16%, as well as adjusted diluted EPS growth of 13% to 17% compared to the first quarter of last year. Finally, I just want to note, as we described in our press release, effective January 1st of this year, we have aligned our business units into three newly formed divisions, harsh environment solutions, communication solutions, and interconnect and sensor systems. This new alignment will allow us to further scale our business beyond the $10 billion sales level that we crossed last year. Very importantly, this alignment further strengthens our unique and strong Amphanolian culture of entrepreneurship while reinforcing the accountability of our 130 general managers around the world. We look forward to providing more detail, financial detail, about these reportable segments at the time of our April earnings release. I come away from this quarter still so confident in the ability of our outstanding management team to adapt to the continued challenges in the marketplace and to capitalize on the many future opportunities to grow our market position and expand our profitability. In addition, our entire organization remains committed to delivering long-term sustainable value, all while prioritizing the continued safety and health of each of our employees around the world. And most importantly, I'd just like to close by taking this opportunity to once again thank the entire Amphenol team. In particular, I'd like to extend my thanks to all of our factory workers around the world. You know, while many of us have been able to work from home on occasion during these last two pandemic impacted years, I'm just so inspired by the dedication of our factory workers who never worked a single day at home. And it was just a phenomenal thing to see. And the results that we saw in the fourth quarter really are a great credit to their and our entire Amphel organization's dedication. And with that, operator, we'd be very happy to take any questions that you may have.
spk01: Thank you. The question and answer period will now begin. Please limit to one question per caller. Our first question is from Amit Daryani. With Evercore, you may go ahead.
spk03: Thanks for taking my questions. Adam, as I think about the demand vectors that you're seeing, there's obviously some worry out there that you might be overshipping versus end demand to some degree. If I think about 24% growth in December, your guide is implying a very healthy 14%, 15% growth in March. I think your compares actually are difficult. I'd love to get any perspective you have in terms of the growth that you're seeing. If it's truly end demand or you think there's a bit of an inventory build happening at the customer level, And maybe as a way to think about this in terms of your growth vectors, direct versus the channel, that would be helpful to you.
spk09: Yeah, well, thanks so much, Amit, and Happy New Year. Look, we don't have a perfect visibility into, as you know, our OEM customers and their warehouses and how much inventory they're holding. But there's no doubt about it that across the electronics industry, and I guess across really all industries, customers have probably gotten a little more gun-shy because of supply chain challenges. At the same time, I can tell you there's robust demand. And I think if you take a market like the automotive industry as one example, trying to go out and buy a car today, it's not an easy thing. I know Craig went out and recently bought a car, and he shared with me that there was nothing to buy. And the choices that one has, when one is willing and ready to go out and buy something is just not there still today. And so whether there is, you know, a mismatch of components that ultimately is creating difficulty for our end customers to ship things, and that can create some challenges across their supply chain, that may very well be. But the end demand by end consumers for things like cars, for things like semiconductors, for things like high-speed data, You know, this end demand still seems relatively robust. You know, as it relates to the channel, as you know very well, distribution represents for us, I think this year it was about 17 or so percent of our sales, which was a little tick up from years past when it was 15, 16 percent. And we saw very strong demand from distribution through the course of the year. And I wouldn't say that we've seen any inventory build. To the contrary, I would say that probably inventories are a little bit lighter inside distribution, reflecting the strength of the pull-through of demand. What does that mean here going into the first quarter? No doubt about it, there remains a lot of volatility. There remain a lot of supply chain challenges. But I'm sure that whatever comes along, our team is going to be very agile and nimble to jump on any opportunities to ship products, like we were in the fourth quarter.
spk01: Thank you. The next question is from Matt Sheeran with Stifle. You may go ahead.
spk02: Yes, thank you and good afternoon. Adam, I just wanted to talk about the upside that you saw across several end markets at a time when a lot of your peers are either missing numbers or you're talking about big revenue opportunities that they missed as a result. And I'm wondering whether Amphenol's unique operating model when you've got you know, many operating units running on their own. Does that put you at an advantage in a market like this? And then just as a follow-up, regarding your inventory reduction, are you expecting to build in some markets because of the supply chain issues?
spk09: Well, Matt, thank you very much. I mean, this is a question that, as you know, is very close to my heart. I mean, the simple answer to your question is yes. We do believe that our unique operating model It creates a competitive advantage in the marketplace because of the agility, the reactivity, and the flexibility that it instills at every level of the company. I mentioned in my prepared remarks that we have taken this step, effective January 1st, of creating the three operating divisions of the company. And the purpose of this is to ensure the long-term scalability of that unique operating model. making sure that every one of our 130 general managers around the world has reports to somebody who has the bandwidth to support them in every way that we need to drive collaboration, to stimulate them to exceed beyond levels that they ever thought they could do. And that is really the magic of the Amphenol operating model. You know, when I joined the company 23 years ago, We were just some general managers reporting to our then CEO, Martin Loeffler, and it was when we were about to reach $2 billion in sales that we created the first concept of a grouping of those general managers, again, to ensure the appropriate span of control, the appropriate attention, and the stimulation of all of the value that comes from inside the company. And that group model, we eventually became seven operating groups, And as we have evolved, it became very clear that to continue fostering that unique operating model, we needed to create more operating groups. And I can't have, you know, 12 of them reporting to me. And that's why we create now this concept of the divisions. But at the end of the day, all of our jobs is to enable those 130 general managers around the world because that is ultimately what makes this company special and why we're able to succeed in in really good times than bad, and in particular in volatile times like today. In terms of inventory, I mean, I think we're very proud of the work of our team in actually reducing our inventory in the fourth quarter, even with a 7% sequential increase in sales, and bringing our inventory days basically to a normal level at the end of the year in a time period where there's so much supply chain chaos. And you can imagine in the first quarter that maybe days would go up with the sequential sales that we have guided. But this is a phenomenal reflection of the fact that these 130 general managers, they're not just responsible for sales. They're not just responsible for gross margin. They're responsible for the entirety of their businesses. Every line item of the P&L, every line item of the cash flow, every line item of the balance sheets. And that allows them to really perform in challenging times like today.
spk01: Thank you. Our next question is from Samik Chatterjee with JP Morgan. You may go ahead. Hi.
spk00: Thanks for taking my question. I guess I'm more, I'm looking back and you've typically also provided some color on the expectations in the past. you maybe if you can comment on the thinking behind not providing a full year guide, and if you can share how you're thinking about the sustainability of the growth rate that you have in 1Q through the remainder of the year, and any thoughts on margins, just to give us some guide points about how to think about the year.
spk09: I mean, look, very simply put, we remain in a once in a century global pandemic. I know we here live in Connecticut where We've just gone through the Omicron wave. That Omicron wave is probably going to other places around the world, including places in which we manufacture products. And it doesn't seem prudent at this point to try to get out ahead of our skis on guessing where a pandemic is going to strike and could potentially impact our customers anywhere in the world. And in such an environment, we don't think it's prudent to give guidance beyond the quarter that we've given, and that includes guidance on margins, on sales by market, and all the other aspects.
spk01: Thank you. The next question is from Will Stein with Truist Securities. You may go ahead.
spk08: Great. Thanks for taking my question. Congrats on the very good results and outlook. I have a question about the new segments and operating structure that you highlighted. Adam, several years ago you sort of forecasted this to some degree. You said that at some point you might need to add a new layer of management. So now we're seeing it. But the question I have is about how this compares to the current organization and in particular the current end markets. Will we still have the same end market disclosure at least on the earnings call? And will those, in fact, roll up to segments so that we can use one to forecast the other? Or are these sort of orthogonal cuts at revenue? And maybe along with that, from a management perspective, remind us, did the end markets have business leaders, one per end market? Or is that just, is the end market discussion more for our understanding and analysis and not the way that company is managed internally? Sorry for the compound question, but thank you.
spk09: No, well, number one, you have a memory like a steel trap, as always. And number two, I think you essentially answered your question in certain ways here. Look, we organize our company not by markets. And so our 130 general managers are each responsible for a certain distinct type of product across the extraordinary array of products that we see in the interconnect, as we define broadly interconnect products from, you know, connectors to value-add cable assemblies, printed circuit assemblies to sensors to antennas and, you know, just the tens and tens and tens of thousands of different types of products that we make. And ultimately, because our general managers are responsible for manufacturing and design of and quality and everything, it is really a product focus that each of them have. And as you know, we've talked for many years that one of our strategies that has been so successful is the way that we diversify the company is we design products maybe initially for a customer in a certain market, but then we work very aggressively and collaboratively across the company to proliferate that product across all markets that we can see. So an example, is high-speed products. Originally, high-speed products were developed for IT applications, for things like core routers and the like. But as high-speed data starts to proliferate into other areas, for example, a fighter jet, now our team in high-speed would work collaboratively with the team who is maybe more focused in the defense market to make sure that we're creating the broadest product offering for those customers. And so what that ends up meaning is that many of our general managers work across multiple markets. Some of them are focused. Some are not, depending on the type of product. And at the end of the day, the divisions that we now will report as reportable segments, they will each sell into multiple of our markets, and the markets won't map to the divisions, as it were. But we'll provide disclosure information. on what markets are in which division. But you're going to end up finding that, you know, most of our markets are serviced by all three of those divisions.
spk10: And we'll continue to guide by end market as we have done historically. We will not be guiding kind of by division, but we will be giving, similar to we give today, financial information, you know, revenue, income information at the segment level. But nothing will change from a guidance perspective in terms of how we talk about guidance.
spk09: And we're not going to change the transparency that we give to all of you with all of our end markets.
spk01: Thank you. The next question is from Mark Delaney with Goldman Sachs. You may go ahead.
spk11: Yes, good afternoon and thanks very much for taking the question. Something you could talk a bit about how to think through conversion margins at the EBIT level going forward. Very understandably, you mentioned a few headwinds in terms of M&A and supply chain that impacted the fourth quarter on a year-over-year basis. So I'm curious if you should think it's possibly better than typical conversion margins this year as you have more opportunity to offset some of those challenges and so maybe above the historical conversion margin levels for 2022. Thank you.
spk10: Yeah, thanks, Mark. No, no doubt. I just wanted to start with just saying that we really are actually proud of kind of what we achieved here for the full year, 2021, and for the fourth quarter, being at 20.1% and 20% for the full year. Amidst a really challenging year from a cost and supply chain perspective, the team really did, I think, an outstanding job of kind of navigating that as the year really continued to progressively get worse in regards to just the underlying costs you know, that, you know, the organization was seeing, and to be able to kind of navigate that through pricing and other actions, I think the team did a pretty outstanding job of doing that, which ultimately resulted in the results we have today. As we look into the first quarter, you know, kind of implied in our guidance, I know we don't per se, you know, talk about or guide to specific, you know, EBIT numbers, but, you know, our implied guidance would reflect actually some level of progress made in the first quarter in regards to pricing and other actions. So in a way you could see that really is kind of the sequential conversion. Typically on a lower revenue level, especially going from Q4 to Q1 where we have high single digit, 10% sequential reduction in revenue, we would see typically kind of high 20s, even 30% kind of negative conversions. And in this implied guide, there's close to the kind of mid-20s sequential conversion. That's even including some negative impact from a conversion perspective related to Halo in regards to because they're around our company average, but that doesn't necessarily bring with it the normal conversion level. So I think from that perspective, we are seeing some positive momentum as we move into the first quarter. I don't think I'll talk past the first quarter at this point. Obviously, the team continues to work hard at improving the bottom line, and we'll see what happens with the underlying environment as well. But I am confident, as we saw in 2021, that the team has done a good job and will continue to do, I think, a very good job of navigating this very difficult environment.
spk01: Thank you. The next question is from Wamsi Mohan with Bank of America. You may go ahead.
spk07: Yes, thank you. Adam, Craig, you both mentioned commodity and logistics costs several times, and you noted that you're taking ongoing price actions. When do you expect these actions to fully offset? I guess Craig mentioned partly in one queue you are making progress, but if these costs stayed relatively fixed, let's say, given the price action that you've taken across your portfolio, when should we think that you would be able to mitigate the entire amount? And secondarily, would you say that these pricing actions that you've taken are broad-based across the entire portfolio, or are there areas like auto which typically take longer to have price discussion and price increases filtered through, you know, sort of behind the curve? And maybe if you could just characterize, Adam, like what percent of the portfolio maybe has seen price increases. Thank you.
spk10: Thanks, Wamsi. I think in regards to when our pricing actions could fully offset, I mean, this is kind of a theoretical question because it's difficult to say ultimately what's going to happen with the underlying environment. I think to assume that the underlying environment is going to stay exactly where it is today is a little bit unrealistic. So whether or not it gets better or it gets worse, but I could tell you, and I, you know, that, you know, again, as I mentioned a minute ago that the team is doing, you know, I think a good job and we are starting to see progress here in the first quarter. You know, so I would, I'm not really sure I would, can tell you exactly when that would be, but I would tell you that we are confident that, you know, based on some of the, you know, progress we've started to make here in the first quarter that we're starting to make some headway on it, you know, given the current environment, but, you know, we're sitting here again in a, You know, continuing into a pandemic, continuing into an economic environment, that's a bit uncertain. So for me to kind of try to predict when we're going to completely offset the current cost environment is just not something that I guess I'm prepared to do.
spk09: And then just, Wamsi, relative to, you know, our pricing strategy and every customer, every market, every region, every circumstance is different. Pricing is an art. It's not a science. You can bet that every one of our 130 general managers has this at the forefront of their mind. We also know that, you know, there are some markets where it's easier to raise price. For example, in distribution, you just sort of announce a price list increase. And there are others where it's more challenging and where you have maybe longer-term contracts or where there's just not a – people are not accustomed to the concept. And so there's a real process of educating customers, of being transparent with them, and ultimately bringing them around to the understanding that what you're talking to them about is reasonable. And especially that it's reasonable in light of your company's steadfast support for them, which is something where I think we stand on very solid ground. We were there for our customers through the pandemic. We were there for them when maybe others were not through the supply chain crisis. And so all things being equal should position us well to be able to ask nicely of our customers that they should share in that. Also, our markets have a lot of different time cycles to them. Some of them are very short cycle markets where there's really no price change. Others are longer cycle markets. You know, to give you a percent of all where, you know, we've been able to achieve pricing, I couldn't even do it. You know, we don't have one computer system that can sort of push a button and spit that out. But I think we're having increasing success. Craig alluded to that as well. It's a hard job. It's a job that is ultimately the responsibility of our general managers who are best positioned to know what costs are going up and then who themselves sit in front of the customers and have those very difficult negotiations. I think we're going to continue to make good progress over the course of this year when ultimately we, quote, fully offset it, as Craig said, is a theoretical question that's not so easy for us to answer.
spk01: Thank you. The next question is from Nick Todorov with Longbow Research. You may go ahead.
spk04: Thanks. I appreciate it. And good afternoon, guys. Sorry, another pricing question, maybe for Craig. Craig, is there a way to break for us the headwind from supply chain versus M&A in 2021? I ask because 2021 was pretty busy for you from an M&A perspective for you.
spk10: Yeah, and I would say that if you look at our kind of overall conversion for 2021, it was probably actually pretty close to what our target is on an organic basis. You know, that's, you know, because we had some benefit from some pandemic costs offset by some supply chain related costs. And then kind of the difference, you know, that is related to our acquisitions, which did bring with them, at least currently, a lower operating margin, which over time we believe that we should be able to get up to the company average. So I think that's the way to think about it. I think that, you know, again, we're very proud of the ability to really actually You know, Adam alluded to, you know, our two-year increase in revenue over kind of, you know, through a pandemic in the supply chain, you know, we call it crisis, and, you know, of over 32%. And the reality is, is actually our EPS, our earnings actually increased by roughly that same amount, a little bit even higher than that slightly. So, you know, I think that, you know, typically we want to, you know, have a slightly higher EPS increase, and I think that given that The fact that we've done a really good job of kind of offsetting some of these costs, I think ultimately, you know, we were able to, you know, really continue to increase our earnings over that two-year period, you know, at a rate that's, you know, slightly under that we would have hoped from an organic perspective, but actually very, I think, respectable and very actually, you know, I'm very proud of considering, you know, all the costs that existed over the last couple years here.
spk01: Thank you. The next question is from Steven Fox with Fox Advisors. You may go ahead.
spk06: Thanks. Good afternoon. I guess I was just wondering, respectfully, looking at the last few quarters, the company has sort of looked for moderation in industrial and IT datacom, and it's continued to perform a lot better than you guys were thinking. And now you're sort of calling for the same thing again. Just stepping back and looking at the past versus going forward, is there anything different in your thinking now that you're seeing in the markets or just still trying to be conservative and any other risk you would point out that maybe we should appreciate? Thanks.
spk09: Well, thanks so much, Stephen. Good afternoon to you. And no disrespect at all taken. I think it's a very good question. Look, we come into every quarter in this very uncertain and relatively volatile environment and try to give you and our entire investor base the best assessment that we can give on the basis of what we're hearing from our customers and on the basis of what we're seeing in the supply chain and our operations and all of that. And I think we have outperformed in industrial and IT data. And we were really pleasantly surprised last quarter. I mean, this was a very significant outperformance that we achieved last here in the fourth quarter. I think maybe a little bit less outperformance, but still very strong in the third quarter. Are we going to outperform what we've guided in the first quarter in IT Datacom and industrial? I'm not going to say that right now, but you can imagine our team is a very hungry team who really takes a real make-it-happen attitude and tries to do everything we can. And ultimately, their goal is not just to maximize revenues so that we can report higher revenues, but their goal is to make sure that we're there for our customers when they need us. And in particular, we're there for our customers when others are not there for them. Because we believe that these two years have really created an opportunity for us to solidify our position with customers in a way that we actually weren't able to do prior to this real crisis over these last two years. And so whenever we hear from a customer that they need something desperately because others are not able to get it to them, that's where our 130 general managers spring into action with even more vigor and energy than they have before. And because we see that as something that's able to create a long-term platform of sustainable strength with our customers that will create dividends for many years to come. And so, you know, what does that ultimately mean here for the first quarter? We're trying to give the best guidance that we can in light of what we see today in what is still a highly uncertain environment. But there's no doubt about it that the Amphenol team is going to fight hard for every possible opportunity to deliver whatever upside is available to us.
spk01: Thank you. The next question is from Luke Young with Baird. You may go ahead.
spk05: Good afternoon. I had a bigger picture question this afternoon, Adam. As Amphenol becomes a larger company with sales of course exceeding $10 billion for the first time this year, Does that alter your approach to M&A at all, either in terms of the companies that you're targeting or your ability to integrate deals of all sizes? And I suppose the new segment structure could also play into this. Specifically, you've done two fairly large deals now in an eight-month window in the form of MTS and Halo. Does it say something about the future direction of the company, or am I just reading too much into your recent deals?
spk09: No, Luke, it's a great question. I think when we talk about scaling the company, we really think about that in every aspect. Most importantly, we think about making sure that we preserve, secure, and evolve that unique operating culture and that we can scale the company amidst that operating culture. That's really step one. But every other aspect of what we do also needs to scale, and that includes our M&A program. And I find it really interesting over the course of my – coming close to quarter of a century that I've been with this company, 23 years, you know, I started in Amphenol as an M&A intern. So I've been deeply involved in our M&A program all the way back to 1998. And, you know, we have said consistently from that time that we would expect that over the long term acquisitions would roughly represent about a third of our growth. And that's been the case when we were a less than $900 million revenue company when I joined. all the way to today when we were close to an $11 billion revenue company. And what is interesting, I've referred to these last two years through the cycle, and Craig referred to that as well, we grew by roughly 32% through that cycle, and our organic growth was just over 20% during that time, which tells you that even in a pandemic, and even with the size and scale of the company as it is, we've been able to still have acquisitions represent a third of the company's growth. And how do you do that? Well, you know, the arithmetic is pretty straightforward. As the company grows, either you have to make more acquisitions of the same size or you have to make acquisitions of bigger size. And the fact is, I think we've done all of the above. And so when we look at what we have done here with the MTS acquisition, our first ever public company, when we look at the acquisition at the end of the year of Halo, you know, these are not insignificant sized acquisitions. Yet we didn't defocus ourselves for making also the really unique enabling tuck-in acquisitions, companies like Positronic and LCAB and Euromicron and CableCon and the like and unlimited services. So we will continue to make acquisitions of all size. Now, with the new division alignment, it actually opens even further the aperture of the types of deals that we may be able to execute upon. Because part of what we're doing is creating the bandwidth in our leadership team such that they can devote more time to things like driving collaboration, working with key customers, and also making acquisitions. And with the size of these divisions, it would make it just as easy as we bring in a $50 million company with the general manager and we say you're now just part of Amphenol, nothing changes. We can do that with a billion-dollar company one day if we find the appropriate company. And so... The range of acquisitions, the range of the scale of acquisitions that we can make, I think, is really limitless. The opportunity and the resources that we have to devote to executing on those and also making sure that they're successful once we bring them in is also really expanded by this new alignment. And so we see no reason to think amidst this, what is still a very highly fragmented market that we participate in, that M&A can't continue to be a driver like it has been for already more than two decades so far.
spk01: Thank you. The next question is from Chris Snyder with UBS. You may go ahead.
spk13: Thank you. I just want to follow up on the previous commentary on M&A strategy. You know, so as the range of acquisitions widens and maybe the average size pushes higher to kind of achieve that one-third growth coming from M&A Target. You know, is there any impact on the multiples that the company is willing to pay or maybe has to pay to go after these larger acquisitions? And is there any, you know, maybe increased challenges or difficulty, you know, integrating these larger businesses into the broader Amphenol? Thank you.
spk09: Thanks so much, Chris. I mean, look, simply put, I don't think it does have an impact on the multiple. I mean, I will just tell you that you take the MTS acquisition as an example, and we announced just last quarter that we closed on the disposition of the test and simulation business. The net multiple that we ended up paying for one of the most precious assets in the industry of some of the most highest technology sensors that there is was not a double-digit multiple when all was said and done. And I think that is a real testament to our ability to navigate a very challenging and very complex acquisition process, our first ever public company, our first ever concurrent disposition of an asset. And in the end, we get a phenomenal organization with some of the best technology in the industry, amazing people, and we do that for a single digit multiple. So I think that is a confirmation of the fact that big does not necessarily equal more expensive. And in terms of the integration, we are never going to relax on the very simple principles that we have always applied to acquisitions large and small. We look for three things when we look for acquisitions. We look for great people with great products and great position. And it's that first criteria, the great people, that is for us the true litmus test of whether we will or will not buy a company. And if it does not have those great people, We walk away every day of the week. And by having those great people, that means that they're people that we can rely upon, and we bring them into our organization, especially as it's newly aligned, and we let them go do their thing. And all we do is we open doors for them for new opportunities that can only come by being part of a company as broad, as global, and as strong as Amphenol. And so we think if anything else, if anything, as we have grown, as we've scaled the company, it's added momentum to really what has been a flywheel effect of our acquisition program over many years.
spk01: Thank you. The next question is from Joseph Spack with RBC Capital Market. You may go ahead.
spk15: Thanks. I wanted to focus on your automotive business for a second. You outperformed production by an incredible 40% this year. And I was wondering, if you could maybe distill that down into how much you think of that came from, from mix and some of the, the broader trends in automotive versus versus share gains and maybe recenter us for what a, you know, obviously that's not sustainable at that level, but like, what's a more reasonable go forward, you know, not in any given period, but over time sort of outgrowth over the coming years, given the trends you see in that sector.
spk09: Well, thanks so much, Joe. And, you know, I hadn't actually done the math because we don't follow so much, uh, what is production and what is not production. I mean, we care about the applications that these next-generation technology applications. But no doubt about it, our team did a phenomenal job this year, and in particular did a phenomenal job in capitalizing on new applications. And, you know, I would just point to something like the electrification trend where, you know, we just had fabulous growth in electrified applications this really outperforming and taking more than our fair share of the opportunities in that space. And that's always been our long-term strategy in automotive. We're not trying to take business out of the pockets of those who have it already. That's not a great approach in automotive, but rather we look for these sort of technological innovations and those new adoptions of electronics, and then we aggressively pursue those with our agile entrepreneurial team and And I think that that's been really successful here in this year. You know, if I look over the course of kind of the last, I'd call it 13 years since I've been CEO, which really goes back to the low watermark of our automotive business, I mean, we've consistently outperformed in automotive by a very significant margin, you know, kind of year in and year out. And, you know, what does that mean in terms of a go-forward outperformance You know, I've never put numbers on this, but we would certainly expect that our team would be able to continue to outperform overall units. And what that translates into for content versus share versus new applications, you know, I'll let you, who's a much bigger expert in this market than me, kind of suss out those numbers. But we clearly believe that we can continue to outperform.
spk01: Thank you. Our next question is from Jim Suva with Citigroup. You may go ahead.
spk12: Thank you very much. As we wrap it up, a lot of my questions have been answered. I just want to ask one about the new segment reporting and kind of your ERP system. Your company has been very well known as being very lean and mean and good with controls and folding in everything. So I'm just wondering, I assume this doesn't mean like a new ERP system. It doesn't mean a lot more layers of management. Earlier in the call you mentioned layers of management or somebody mentioned that. I'm not sure that's what you meant as opposed to just more oversight and communication. But can you talk to us about ERP system because you've done a lot of M&A. Now you're talking about new reporting. And sometimes people wonder about risk there, but I kind of view it as, just providing us more information and not more cost and not a new ERP system. If you can clarify, that'd be great. Thank you.
spk09: Tim, it's a fabulous question and we do appreciate it. The answer is a very hard no. I mean, we run 130 ERP systems around the company. Each of our general managers is responsible for their own ERP systems. Craig has a fabulous and very simple off-the-shelf consolidation software that works over the web, and the fact that we now align those businesses into divisions does not change our computer system whatsoever. And, yes, I mean, I think it was, I believe, Will who asked the question and alluded to, you know, the concept of a layer. I mean, we have appointed three new presidents of these divisions recently, which is technically a layer, but it's not a layer of bureaucracy like you would see in many organizations. I mean, in terms of the cost of doing this, it's nothing at all. I mean, it's a very marginal incremental investment because the staff at these divisions is effectively a head of the division with a financial controller by his or her side. So this is not building infrastructure and building layers and bureaucracy. Far from it. It's just creating the bandwidth across our leadership team, across what is now 12 group general managers in those three divisions, whereby the 130 general managers can be enabled. We can drive them. We can set aggressive goals, work with them on solving problems when they're small enough to solve. and capitalize on opportunities when they're small enough and early enough to capitalize and to capture. And that's been the Amphenol style ever since. I was a general manager just reporting to the CEO. But as we've grown, you cannot just have 130 people reporting to one. That doesn't work. You lose the benefit of being part of a broader Amphenol and then become just a holding company. And that's not what we are. We're not at all a holding company. In fact, there is a close interaction close collaboration, a synthesis across those 130 entrepreneurial general managers. We have a term for it. We call it a collaborative entrepreneur. And that's really, you know, when we say an Amphanolian, that's really what we mean. So this is not at all creating new computer systems, new layers, new costs. Rather, it's enabling and ensuring the scalability of our unique entrepreneurial structure for many, many years to come as we pass 10 billion a year in sales.
spk01: Thank you. The next question is from David Kelly with Jefferies. You may go ahead.
spk14: Good afternoon, Adam and Craig. Thanks for squeezing me in. I was hoping to get some color on recent gross margin trends in light of some of the unique moving parts, inflation, supply chain. You've also done several acquisitions. And in longer term, you know, you've been at 32% historically. Is that the right way to think about core gross margins for the core business?
spk10: Yeah, thanks, David. Gross margins is always kind of sometimes a difficult thing to specifically look at with our business. I mean, over time, you know, maybe it's the trending of it is more applicable, but, you know, certainly in any quarters, it's kind of difficult just because of the our markets do bring with them different gross margins and also different operating expense levels. And so that's why we really just don't look at gross margins or measure ourselves based on the gross margin level. We really look at kind of an operating margin level. I think what you kind of need to look at is ultimately that operating margin and that trending over time. And certainly over the last 10 years, we've had a certainly a strong performance and growth of that operating margin level, and that's kind of what you kind of need to focus on. I think, you know, 10, 20, 50 basis points, even 100 basis point movements in our gross margin isn't necessarily unexpected, given, you know, strength in maybe a mobile device market or industrial market, which bring very different gross margins, or a sensor business tends to have higher gross margins and higher SG&As. So, I really just wouldn't so much focus. We do tend to get these questions quite a bit, but it's really the operating margins that ultimately we measure ourselves on, we drive our performance on, and ultimately I think we should probably focus more on.
spk01: Thank you. And our last question comes from Joe Giordano with Cohen. You may go ahead.
spk16: Hey, guys. Thanks for squeezing me in here. We kind of picked through most. I just wanted to... touch on the orders. I mean, I think everyone understands that there's a pretty good underlying demand across a lot of these, a lot of these markets, but there does seem to be in, not just with your results, but others like, like a scrambling to order stuff in this fourth quarter. Like as you think about the underlying demand and what the orders look like right now, like entering January, do you, do you feel like book to bill goes below one, like at some point over the next couple of quarters? I know we're not doing full year guidance, but just, you know, can you kind of compare orders to underlying demands?
spk09: Yeah, I think, Joe, it's hard for us to give a prognosis on what our book to bill is going to be. We had a very strong book to bill in the year. We finished with a strong book to bill. It's clear that our customers want to give us orders. What that book to bill will be going forward is actually really hard to predict. Well, Operator, I think if that's all of our questions, I'd like to just extend my appreciation to everybody on the phone here for spending your precious time with us. I wish you all the best as you start the year, and most importantly, I just hope that all of you are able to stay safe and healthy, and we look forward to hearing from you again in just 90 days. Thanks so much, and Happy New Year again. Thank you, everybody. Bye-bye.
spk01: Thank you for attending today's conference, and have a nice day.
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