PC Connection, Inc.

Good afternoon, and welcome to the third quarter, 2024, Connection Earnings Conference Call. My name is Antoine, and I will be your coordinator for today. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. Following their prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference is the property of Connection and may not be recorded or rebroadcast without specific permission from the company. On the call today, we have Tim McGrath, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Tom Baker, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. I will now turn the call over to the company.

Thanks, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. I will now read our cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements. Any statements or references made during the conference call that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. There is remarks that management may make about the company's future expectations, plans, and prospects constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in the risk factors section of the company's annual report on form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as in other documents that the company files with the Commission from time to time. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent management's view as of today and should not be relied upon as representing views as of any subsequent date. While the company may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so other than as required by law, even if estimates change. And therefore, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing management's views as of any date subsequent to today. During this call, non-GAAP financial measures will be discussed. A reconciliation between any non-GAAP financial measure discussed and its most directly comparable GAAP measure is available in today's earnings release and on the company's website at .connection.com. Please note that unless otherwise stated, all references to third quarter 2024 comparisons are being made against the third quarter of 2023. Today's call is being webcast and will be available on Connections website. The earnings release will be available on the SEC website at .sec.gov and in the investor relations section of our website at .connection.com. I would now like to turn the call over to our host, Tim McGrath, president and CEO. Tim?

Thank you, Samantha. Good afternoon, everyone. And thank you for joining us today for Connections Q3 2024 conference call. I'll begin this afternoon with an overview of our third quarter results and highlights of our performance. Tom will then walk us through a more detailed look at our Q3 financials. We are in a period of rapid innovation. Technology advancements are happening at an unprecedented pace. The promise of digital transformation enabled by hybrid AI has never been greater. We are confident that as demand recovers, we have the right strategy to help our customers navigate through this challenging IT environment. Connections achieved record net income in earnings per share of $1.02 for the third quarter of 2024. In addition, we experienced moderate growth and gross profit in each of our business segments while making strategic investments to better position ourselves for the evolving technology landscape and what lies ahead for our industry. We saw some evidence of a recovery year over year in select areas of our business in Q3. We experienced notebook mobility and desktop revenue growth of 17% driven by PC refresh initiatives by our customers. Approximately 25% of those PCs were AI enabled. However, demand for advanced technologies has been negatively affected by our customers' ongoing struggle with their IT roadmaps in the face of AI uncertainty. This resulted in a recovery that has been delayed longer than we anticipated. We believe our customers may continue to maintain this conservative approach for their IT spending for the balance of the year. In terms of advanced technology, our software category, which includes cloud and cybersecurity, had strong growth of 11%. This increase was offset by a 32% decline in networking solutions. This decrease in networking was in part the result of a tough compare against results in the prior year, which benefited from the resolution of supply chain issues, impacting networking equipment that had been backlogged. This contributed to an 11% decline in overall advanced technology revenue compared to the prior year quarter. Now let's discuss our Q3 performance. Consolidated net sales were 724.7 million, an increase of .6% compared to last year. Gross profit increased .7% to 135.4 million. Gross margins were down 30 basis points to .7% in Q3 compared to the prior year quarter. Operating income in Q3 was 30 million, a decrease of .2% compared to Q3 2023. Operating income as a percentage of sales was .1% compared to .6% of net sales in the prior year quarter. Net income in Q3 was a record 27.1 million, an increase of .7% compared to 25.6 million in the prior year quarter. In Q3 2024, our diluted earnings per share was a record $1.02, an increase of .4% from 97 cents in Q3 2023. We'll now look a little deeper into our segment performance. In our business solution segment, our Q3 net sales were 252.6 million, .1% lower than the year ago as we experienced a 20% decrease in sales of advanced technology products, partially offset by an increase of 4% in endpoint device sales. Gross profit for the business solution segment was 63.1 million, an increase of 0.7%. Gross margin increased 170 basis points compared to the prior year quarter to a record 25%. Our net sales and gross margins were favorably affected by customer mix, an increase in cybersecurity, and software sales. In our public sector solutions business, Q3 net sales were 175.1 million, .7% higher than a year ago. Sales to federal government increased by 25.6 million, while sales to state and local government and education institutions increased by 2 million. Gross profit for the public sector segment was 26.1 million, an increase of .4% compared to Q3 2023. Gross margin decreased by 200 basis points to .9% for the quarter compared to the prior year. The revenue increase and margin decline resulted from a few large project rollouts in Q3 2024 that were at lower margins. In our enterprise solutions segment, Q3 net sales were 297 million, .4% higher than a year ago as we experienced a 14% increase in sales of endpoint devices. Gross profit for the enterprise segment was 46.2 million, .4% higher than the prior year quarter. Gross margin decreased by 40 basis points to .6% for the quarter. The margin decrease was a result of lower software license fees and product mix. I'll now turn the call over to Tom to discuss additional financial highlights from our income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement. Tom?

Thanks, Tim. SG&A increased by .6% compared to the prior year quarter. The increase in SG&A was primarily due to an increase in investments and resources to strengthen our sales, technical sales, and service capabilities. In addition, we spent an incremental $1.5 million on targeted technical marketing events for our customers. On a percentage of sales basis, SG&A increased 14 basis points to .5% of net sales in the quarter compared to .4% in the prior year quarter. Interest income for Q3 amounted to $4.9 million compared to $2.7 million last year, an increase of $2.2 million. Included in other income is $1.7 million of income from a legal settlement received during the quarter. Our effective tax rate was 26%, down from 26.3%. Net income for the quarter was $27.1 million, an increase of .7% from $25.6 million last year. And diluted earnings per share was $1.02, an increase of 5.4%. Adjusted diluted earnings per share remained flat at $0.97. Our trailing 12-month adjusted earnings for interest income taxes depreciation and amortization, or adjusted EBITDAB, was $123.6 million compared to $121.3 million a year ago, an increase of 2%. In terms of returning cash to shareholders, we paid a $0.10 per share quarterly dividend in August, and we repurchased shares having an aggregate purchase price of $3.9 million in the quarter at an average price of $66.02 per share. As of September 30, 2024, we had $64.6 million remaining for stock repurchases under our existing stock repurchase program. Today, we announced that our board of directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.10 per share. The dividend is payable to shareholders of record on November 12, 2024, and payable on November 29, 2024. Cash flow generated from operations for the first nine months of 2024 was $148.6 million. Our accounts receivable balance decreased $20.9 million for the first nine months of 2024. Our DSO decreased to 67 days from 71 days for the same period a year ago. Our inventory balance decreased $10.5 million for the first nine months of 2024. Our accounts payable balance increased $29.1 million for the first nine months of 2024, largely due to the timing of payments at the end of the quarter. Cash used in investing activities of $109.7 million was a result of $255.1 million of investment purchases offset by $150.6 million of investment maturies. We used $16.4 million of cash for financing activities during the first nine months of 2024, consisting primarily of payments of dividends to shareholders of $7.9 million and aggregate stock repurchases of $7.7 million. We ended Q3 with $429.1 million of cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments. In terms of capital allocation, we remain committed to growing the business and have an ongoing program focused on investing in both organic and inorganic opportunities. Furthermore, as announced above, we have continued to return cash to shareholders in the form of a quarterly dividend and plan to continue to repurchase stock in a disciplined manner. I will now turn the call back over to Tim to discuss current market trends.

Thanks, Tom. We have customized our -to-market approach for each of our verticals, resulting in consistent growth across our key market sectors. While large deals continue to contribute to accelerating this momentum, we attribute our continued success to the strength of our vertical focus, which underpins our sustained performance and strong execution throughout all levels of the business. Healthcare revenue increased 20% year over year as our healthcare customers continued to prioritize software and system upgrades. Also, we gave us success with large client electronic health record system refreshes. Retail revenue increased 23% year over year as a number of our large retail customers began their device refresh. The strong revenue growth in retail in both our business solutions and enterprise solutions group was the result of multiple large customer deployments of endpoint solutions. Manufacturing revenue increased 1% year over year. Software endpoint device, networking, and cybersecurity continue to be a heavy focus for manufacturers as they look for productivity gains while keeping their businesses secure. We believe that many of our manufacturing customers are facing the need to modernize their facilities and technology infrastructure in support of the integration of intelligent digital technologies in manufacturing and in industrial processes. And many manufacturers continue to be targets of cybersecurity threats. Financial services increased 5% year over year, in part to address cybersecurity, flexibility, and interoperability between IT systems. We continue to make good progress in our solutions business driven by ongoing investments in technology, talent, and tools. This has resulted in strong growth in cloud, cybersecurity, and our managed services business. AI remains a focus of investment as many of our customers assess their AI strategies. We continue to strengthen our AI capabilities through the Connection Helix initiative. The Connection Helix Center for Applied AI and Robotics is foundational to our AI capabilities and fostering innovation for our customers. Through focused collaboration with key partners, we've developed specialized programs and vertical strategies positioning us as a provider of AI infrastructure and solutions. Our early investments are setting the foundation for future growth as our customers refine their AI strategies and objectives. Our Connection Helix Center and the technology services team stand ready to support our clients. In Q3, we faced similar headwinds to those that we saw in Q2. Customers continue to navigate their IT roadmaps in the face of AI uncertainty, Windows 10 expiration, and infrastructure changes. Additionally, uncertainty around the November 5 election has caused customers to remain guarded, and we believe that will continue for the balance of 2024. We expect that device demand will improve in 2025 overall. IT demand may continue to be impacted by deal scrutiny and cautious investments in infrastructure due to the macroeconomic backdrop. In terms of profitability, device refresh and the assumed change in product mix will continue to produce downward pressure on gross margins. As a result, for the remainder of 2024, we anticipate demand to remain somewhat muted. We are confident that we can outperform the IT market growth by 200 basis points. We remain committed to stay at the forefront of the technology curve, ensuring that our integrated solutions effectively meet the evolving needs of our customers. We believe our focus and business strategy remain well aligned with the shifting dynamics of how customers deploy, utilize, and consume technology. We continue to connect our customers with technology that enhances growth, elevates productivity, and empowers innovation. We help our customers expertly navigate through a complex set of choices within the technology landscape. We help calm the confusion of IT for our customers. We know that in this complex world of technology, change happens and expertise wins. On that note, I'd like to take a moment to thank our extremely dedicated and valued employees for their continued and extraordinary efforts during this rapidly changing environment. We'll now entertain your questions. Operator?

Thank you. At this time, we will conduct a question and answer session. To ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while I compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from Adam Tindal from Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Okay, thank you. Good afternoon. Tim, I just wanted to start. I noticed that gross margin was down 30 basis points and understand that PC mix may be driving some of that, but wanted to ask on the competitive environment as well. One of your main competitors this morning cited an increasingly competitive environment. So just wondering what you're seeing from that standpoint in the quarter and how you're expecting that to evolve going forward.

Well, thanks, Adam. I would say really our gross margin pressure was the result of large project rollouts for big contract wins that we had, in particular with the federal government and in enterprise. Those were the main drivers. However, no doubt about it, in this economic backdrop, customers are cautious. They're really, they've been very concerned about what that IT budget is gonna look like next year, how they adopt AI, where that fits into the budget. And that has made the market more competitive as customers evaluate their options.

Got it, okay. And Tom, Tim had mentioned that the device refresh is gonna continue to mix down and input pressure on the gross margin line, which makes sense. Just wondering how you're thinking about the impact to operating margin and ability to grow earnings. Any initiatives that you're considering to sort of offset that gross margin pressure and how we should think about operating margin and ability to grow earnings,

thanks. Yeah, so I think what you're seeing, Adam, is a few things. One, if we get a pickup in the device, the endpoint device market, which I think pretty much everyone agrees is gonna happen in 2025, we'll see some margin rate compression, but we should see overall gross profit growth. So we'll grow the dollars. Frankly, kind of the struggle we had this quarter, and we didn't say it's necessarily a struggle, but our operating, our SG&A was up. And we've been investing, we've had the opportunity to hire some people, and we've been taking advantage of it. We're trying to improve our technical sales capabilities, and those things just take a little bit of time to manifest themselves and to improve profit. But we're really trying to get set up for next year. So I think that's kind of where we're at.

Okay. Got it, okay, one last one, Tim, just kind of near term as we think about Q4 trends. I think you mentioned that the advanced tech segment has been negatively impacted by AI pausing, and you're expecting a delayed recovery that's gonna continue for 2024. I know that category tends to be important for budget flush in Q4. Just how you're thinking about the trends in Q4 and expectations for budget flush based on the pipeline that you're seeing. And Tom, any parameters that you might wanna give us from a modeling standpoint for Q4, just so we are on the same page, thanks.

Well, thanks, that is a great question. You know, there's been a lot of speculation around what might happen after November 5th in the election, but if we look at kind of where the quarter has started, it feels an awful lot like Q3, and still, we're optimistic that in 2025, advanced technologies will be a real driver of growth. We believe that on-prem technology, edge technology, will be a driver of growth, but we're just not seeing that for Q4. Q4, everything has kind of remained in that, I think you use the term AI fog, that AI fog is out there in our customer environment. We do have, as you know, the drivers in 2025, including Windows 10 exploration, but for the balance of the year, we think it's a lot like what we've been seeing.

Yeah, I think, Adam, I went back and looked from 2019 to today at the sequential growth, Q3 to Q4, and you can't really discern any patterns. What I would tell you is kind of the way Q4 has started out, it's probably gonna be a little bit on the weaker side. That's the way it's looking. In terms of modeling, I think we should see, I wouldn't expect to see a huge change in the gross margin rate. SG&A should be down a little, because we're gonna pull out some of those one-time events that we had this quarter. So I think other than that, kind of gonna look like Q3, like Tim said.

Got it, that's helpful, thank you.

Thank you,

Adam. Thank you, one moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Anthony Lebeszynski from Sadoe & Co, please go ahead.

Good morning, and actually good afternoon, sorry. And thanks for taking the questions. So I guess just to follow up on the previous comment about the strategic investments in terms of AI readiness, technical sales, and customer engagement. I guess, when would it be reasonable for you guys to start to see the benefits of that spending? Would it be Q1 or later? I mean, just any sort of ballpark estimate would be helpful just for us to gauge as far as when we could expect tangible benefits from that.

Well, thanks, Anthony. So I think there are a couple of different components that really make up that. And so I do think that in 2025, you'll see continued uptick in the AI device side of the ecosystem. Again, a lot of that just driven by the aging install base in Windows 10 and the need to refresh. But we do think that AI at the edge, at the PC level is gonna be a continued driver. However, the AI applications and the proof of concepts and a lot of the on-prem AI implementations, we think are pushed more to the back half of the year. There are longer term engagements, they require a lot of study, a lot of proof of concept and customers are still cautious as they really look at what the RLIs will be. So the irony is probably the greatest promise for technology in our industry that we've seen since the advent of the internet, yet the timing of that I think does remain a little delayed.

Yeah, I think Anthony, you know, the investments we've made and technical sellers, technical salespeople and just salespeople that we've hired over the past year, those are starting to take hold now. I mean, we have a tremendous amount of activity going on in terms of trying to land new logos and expand our wallet share. It just takes a little bit of time. So to answer your question directly, hopefully Q2 will start seeing some of this stuff come through, Q1 is usually a pretty light quarter to begin with, but I think that's probably, Q2, Q3 I think, is where we're still seeing some tangible results.

Gotcha, okay, well, that's good to hear. And as far as, so looking at the court, obviously even with the tough macro environment, your sales were up in two out of the three segments. In terms of just the business solutions, which was down, how should we think about the recovery for that segment? You think it will be delayed till next year? Like, what are your thoughts just on business solutions?

Yeah, again, a good question, Anthony. So we're seeing our enterprise customers really start to plan for the future. So we're seeing an uptick in RFPs, in requests for quotations. So the enterprise business is really starting to move. We're also seeing some continued growth in the federal space. But in our SMB space, our customers have been more cautious. And we talked about endpoint upgrades, and the reality is a lot of Windows upgrades are being done on current devices rather than new devices. And we didn't expect that, not to the level that we're seeing that. And that SMB customer, I think, is more dependent on the macro economic backdrop, very concerned about the outcome of the election, and just cautious overall. So we don't see that SMB customer coming back with the speed or the velocity that we think that enterprise customer will be coming on.

Yeah, Anthony, I was like

-

You know, the revenue was down in SMB, but the gross profit was up. I mean, that's pretty impressive, actually.

Yes, indeed. And that's actually, you know, just to actually follow up on the SMB gross margin. So this is even with a bit of, I guess, headwind, right, as far as the, I think you had a 4% increase in endpoint devices and business solutions. So yeah, so what drove that gross margin percentage increase? Is it just a favorable mix shift, or what else is behind the scenes there?

I had a couple of large customers that didn't buy a lot, and we have cloud sales, cloud and software. Yeah,

cloud and software.

Gotcha, okay, that's helpful, okay. And then just touching based on the balance sheet, you guys made further progress with your inventory, and obviously that has a nice impact on cash flows. I mean, do you think you're capped out with inventory reductions, or do you think you could make some further progress there?

I think we're probably about as low as we're gonna go for the time being, and you know, because once the device ecosystem starts picking up, that's gonna probably put $20 million of inventory in play pretty quickly. So I think maybe make a little more headway with our receivables, although our DSO is probably as good as it's been in three or four years. So that part of the business is actually kind of clicking pretty well for us.

But I'll add, Anthony, that we have a big focus on operational efficiencies, and we're using AI to drive efficiencies internally, and very focused on getting better there. So there should be some continuous improvement as you would expect with our business.

Gotcha, right. And it's helpful to hear the comment about your AR. So despite the uncertainties in the macro environment, sounds like generally speaking, people are paying their bills on time. So that's good to hear. So thanks very much, and best of luck.

Thank you.

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I will turn it over to Tim McGrath for closing remarks.

Well, thank you, Antoine. I'd like to thank all of our customers, vendor partners, and shareholders for their continued support, and once again, our coworkers for their efforts and extraordinary dedication. I'd also like to thank those of you who are listening to our call this afternoon. Your time and interest and connection are appreciated. Have a great evening.

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.