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spk18: Good afternoon and welcome to DIODE Incorporated fourth quarter and fiscal 2022 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. At the conclusion of today's conference call, instructions will be given for the question and answer session. If anyone needs assistance at any time during the conference call, please press the star key followed by the zero on your touchtone phone. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded today, Monday, February 6, 2023. I would now like to turn the call over to Leanne Seavers of Shelton Group Investor Relations. Leanne, please go ahead.
spk17: Good afternoon and welcome to DIODE's fourth quarter 2022 financial results conference call. I'm Leanne Seavers, president of Shelton Group, DIODE's investor relations firm. Joining us today from Taiwan are Diode's Chairman, President, and CEO, Dr. Kei-Shu Liu, Chief Financial Officer, Brett Whitmire, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing, Emily Yang, Senior Vice President of Business Groups, Gary Yu, and Director of Investor Relations, Ramit Dhaliwal. Before I turn the call over to Dr. Liu, I'd like to remind our listeners that the results announced today are preliminary as they are subject to the company's finalizing its closing procedures in and customary quarterly review by the company's independent registered public accounting firm. As such, these results are unaudited and subject to revision until the company files its Form 10-K for its full fiscal year ending December 31, 2022. In addition, management preparable remarks contain forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties, and management may make additional forward-looking statements in response to your questions. Therefore, the company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements that is contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ from those discussed today, and therefore, we refer you to a more detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties in the company's filings with the Securities Exchange Commission, including Forms 10-K and 10-Q. In addition, any projections of the company's future performance represent management's estimates as of today, February 6, 2023. DODES assumes no obligation to update these projections in the future, as market conditions may or may not change, except to the extent required by applicable law. Additionally, the company's press release and management statements during this conference call will include discussions of certain measures and financial information in GAAP and non-GAAP terms. Included in the company's press release, and reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP items, which provide additional details. Also, throughout the company's press release and management statements during this conference call, We refer to net income attributable to common stockholders as GAAP net income. For those of you unable to listen to the entire call at this time, a recording will be available via webcast for 90 days in the investor relations section of DIODE's website at www.diodes.com. And now I'll turn the call over to DIODE's chairman, president, and CEO, Dr. Kashi Liu. Dr. Liu, please go ahead.
spk16: Thank you, Leanne. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'm pleased to report record performance in 2022, with revenue growth 10.8% over 2021, even when considering the COVID-related shutdown and the power outage throughout the year in China, as well as the global economic slowdown. In fact, The fourth quarter represented our ninth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. Additionally, our earning power and cash generation in 2022 were also significantly highlighted with gross margin expansion 422 basis points to 41.3%. Operating margin expanding 510 basis points to 20.4%. And gap EPS increased 44% to $7.20. And down gap EPS grew 42% to $7.36. We also achieved record cash flow for operating of $393 million, underpinning the company's worth-not-see performance. was continued strong growth in our automotive end market, which increased 40% over 2021 and reached 15% of product revenue for the year. We also continued to drive growth in our industrial end market through our ongoing content expansion efforts. which contributed to our industrial and automotive end market represent 42% of product revenue and exceeding our target model of 40%. The growth in those end markets combined with the ongoing increase of our Pelcom products also contributed to our strong gross margin expansion throughout the year. As part of our product mix improvement efforts, reaching the $2 billion revenue level in 2022 was a significant and meaningful achievement of the entire dial team, with the gross profit growth 23% to $827 million for the year. We have taken another giant step toward the next goal in our 2025 financial targets to achieve $1 billion in annual gross profit. I'm very proud of our accomplishment and our ability to consistently deliver both top-line growth and significantly expanded earnings for our shareholders. With that, let me now turn the call over to Brett to discuss our fourth quarter and full-year financial results. and our first quarter 2023 guidance in more detail.
spk12: Thanks, Dr. Liu, and good afternoon, everyone.
spk13: Revenue for the fourth quarter 2022 was $496.2 million, increasing 3.3% from $480.2 million in the fourth quarter 2021. and down 4.8% from the $521.3 million in the third quarter 2022. Full-year 2022 revenue grew to a record $2 billion, an increase of 10.8% over the $1.8 billion in 2021. Gross profit for the fourth quarter was $206.2 million, or 41.6% of revenue, increasing from $190.7 million, or 39.7% of revenue in the prior year quarter, and down from $217.8 million, or 41.8% of revenue in the prior quarter. For the full year, GAAP gross profit was a record $827.2 million, a 23.4% increase over 2021, and GAAP gross margin improved 420 basis points to a record 41.3%. GAAP operating expenses for the fourth quarter were $109.7 million, or 22.1% of revenue, and on a non-GAAP basis were $105.9 million, or 21.3% of revenue. which excludes $3.8 million of amortization of acquisition-related intangible asset expenses. This compares to GAAP operating expenses in the fourth quarter, 2021, of $104.7 million, or 21.8% of revenue, and in the third quarter, 2022, of $105.4 million, or 20.2% of revenue. Non-GAAP operating expenses in the prior quarter were $101.3 million, or 19.4% of revenue. Total other expense amounted to approximately $1.7 million for the quarter, consisting of $490,000 of other income, $2.9 million in interest expense, a $400,000 foreign currency loss, and $1.1 million of interest income. Income before taxes and non-controlling interest in the fourth quarter 2022 was $94.8 million compared to $108.8 million in the prior year quarter and $109.1 million in the previous quarter. Turning to income taxes, our effective income tax rate for the fourth quarter was approximately 1.5%, which includes taxes related to non-GAAP items. On a non-GAAP basis, the tax rate for the fourth quarter was approximately 18.7%. And for the full year, 2022, the non-GAAP tax rate was approximately 18.5%. GAAP net income for the fourth quarter, 2022, was $92.1 million, or $2 per diluted share, compared to $65.5 million, or $1.43 per diluted share in the fourth quarter 2021, and $86.4 million, or $1.88 per diluted share in the third quarter 2022. For the full year 2022, GAAPNet income was a record $331.3 million, or a record $7.20 per diluted share, which was approximately 45% increase from the $228.8 million or $5 per diluted share in 2021. The share count used to compute GAAP diluted EPS for the fourth quarter 2022 was 46.1 million shares and 46 million shares for the full year. Non-GAAP adjusted net income in the fourth quarter was $79.6 million or $1.73 per diluted share, which excluded net of tax $3.1 million of acquisition-related intangible asset costs. This compares to $73.3 million or $1.60 per diluted share in the fourth quarter 2021 and $92.2 million or $2 per diluted share in the prior quarter. For the full year, Non-GAAP adjusted income was a record $339 million, or a record $7.36 per diluted share, an increase of approximately 43% from the $237.2 million, or $5.18 per diluted share, in 2021. Excluding non-cash share-based compensation expense of $7. net of tax for the fourth quarter and $28.7 million for the full year, both GAAP earnings per share and non-GAAP adjusted EPS would have increased by $0.16 and $0.62 per diluted share respectively. EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $129.6 million, or 26.1% of revenue. compared to $139 million or 28.9% of revenue in the fourth quarter 2021 and $141.9 million or 27.2% of revenue in the prior quarter. We had a gain on investment in the fourth quarter of 2021 that benefited EBITDA in that quarter. For the full year, EBITDA improved 19.7% to a record $520.4 million or 26% of revenue compared to $434.6 million or 24.1% of revenue in 2021. We have included in our earnings release a reconciliation of GAAP Net Income to non-GAAP Adjusted Net Income and GAAP Net Income to EBITDA which provides additional details. Cash flow generated from operations was $102.9 million for the fourth quarter, and a record $392.5 million for 2022. Free cash flow was $39.1 million, which included $63.8 million for capital expenditures, and for the full year, free cash flow was $180.8 million, including $211 million Net cash flow was a negative $44.7 million, including the pay down of $114.1 million of total debt. And for the full year, net cash flow was a negative $25.7 million, which includes the net pay down of $112.3 million of total debt. Turning to the balance sheet, at the end of the fourth quarter, cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, plus short-term investments totaled approximately $348 million. Working capital was $729 million, and total debt, including long-term and short-term, was $186 million. In terms of inventory, at the end of the fourth quarter, Total inventory days were approximately 117 as compared to 113 last quarter. Finished goods inventory days were 33 compared to 32 last quarter. Total inventory dollars decreased $14.5 million from the prior quarter to approximately $360.3 million. Total inventory in the quarter consisted of a $12.1 million decrease in finished goods, a $3.2 million decrease in raw materials, and a $0.7 million increase in work in process. Capital expenditures on a cash basis were $63.8 million for the fourth quarter, and for the full year, approximately $211.7 million, or 10.6% of revenue. full-year capex was higher than our target model due to targeted expansion of our JK Wafer Fab in Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan. Without this investment, we would have been within our target model of 5% to 9%, and we expect to remain in this range this year. Now turning to our outlook, for the first quarter of 2023, we expect revenue to be approximately $467 million. plus or minus 3%. Gap gross margin is expected to be 41.0%, plus or minus 1%. Even with the revenue and loading decrease in the first quarter, we expect to maintain our gross margin effectively comparable to the last quarter and above our target model of 40%. Non-GAAP operating expenses, which are GAAP operating expenses adjusted for amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets, are expected to be approximately 22.2% of revenue, plus or minus 1%. We expect net interest expense to be approximately $2.5 million. Our income tax rate is expected to be 19%, plus or minus 3%, and shares used to calculate EPS for the first quarter are anticipated to be approximately $46.5 million. Not included in these non-GAAP estimates is amortization of $3.1 million after tax for previous acquisitions. With that said, I will now turn the call over to Emily Yang.
spk03: Thank you, Brad, and good afternoon.
spk04: As Dr. Liu and Brad mentioned, 2022 was a record year for DIOS, across all financial matrix. Fourth quarter revenue was down 4.8% sequentially, which is above our midpoint of our guidance and slightly better than our typical systemality. Looking more closely at the fourth quarter revenue, POS was record in Europe. Distributor inventory in terms of weeks increased quarter over quarter, which is higher than our normal range of 11 to 14 weeks. This increase is due mainly to demand softness in China related to COVID and our anticipation of COVID recovering in Q2, as well as our anticipation of labor shortage around Chinese New Year. We position more product to minimize the potential impact and quick response once the market recovers. Overall, demand and backlog remain stable across all regions, especially for automotive, industrial, and markets. Looking at the global sales in the fourth quarter, Asia represented 73% of revenue, Europe 15%, and North America 12%. In terms of our end market, industrial represented 28% of DIOS product revenue, computing 23%, consumer 18%, communication 14%, and our automotive end market reached a record 17% of the product revenue. Our automotive and industrial end market combined totals 45% of product revenue for the quarter, which is 5 percentage points above our 2025 target and about 40% for the fourth consecutive quarter. This further demonstrates Dio's ability to quickly adjust our capacity allocation from low-end PC, consumer, and smartphone segments to high-demand end markets like automotive and industrial. Now let me review the end market in greater detail. Our automotive market continued to be a highlight for both the quarter and the full year, setting revenue records for 10 consecutive quarters and growing 40% in 2022. Our consistent strong growth in this market can be contributed to our ongoing demand creation efforts, as well as market share gain across new and existing customers. Our design momentum continues in our three application-focused areas of connected driving, comfort, style, safety, and electrification. In connected driving, we continue to see increased interest for our USB Type-C re-drivers, analog switches, dial controllers, LDLs, DC-DC buck converters, Zener diodes and TVS in the real estate entertainment, ADAPT, infotainment, smart corporate, telematics, and instrument cluster applications. We also saw increased design-in for our video switches used in MIPI, DisplayPort, and USB switches in telematic communication systems by multiple customers. In comfort, style, and safety, our linear LED drivers and DC-DC buck converters were designed into next-generation LED lighting applications. Our sensors business grew significantly, driven by applications including electronic steering, control lock, refueling covers, window lifters, and water pumps. High voltage switching diodes and Zener diodes also grew in the quarter, primarily in the air quality sensors and HVAC applications. Several of our SBR automotive products were designed into battery-powered electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles for automotive safety applications. We also secured a number of new design wings for ESD charging controllers for in-vehicle USB charging devices. Lastly, in the electrification, our 32-bit I.O. expansors were designed into EV vehicles control units, and our TVS product designed into a high-speed data line for in-vehicle display in electric vehicles. Our production products also have strong growth in applications, including VN battery control, onboard diagnosis systems. Additionally, we ramped up our MOSFET product in multiple new applications across several different customers while releasing a number of low-voltage MOSFET products for the battery-managed system and Wi-Fi applications. In our industrial market, revenue also set on the record, representing the sixth consecutive quarter of growth. Our PCI Express 3.0 packet switch continued to gain traction in industrial automation applications as they enable enhanced performance by connecting SoCs and CPUs to the endpoint. Additionally, our high-voltage but industrial IoT devices experience very strong demand for the smart electric meters. Similarly, our LED controllers ramp up in the LED power supply for power industrial commercial LED lighting. and our industrial sensor business continue to gain traction in power tools, air condition, DC motors, and the washing machine applications. Additionally, we continue to secure design wins for our CIS products in AOI applications like battery film, PCB, wafer inspection, and check scanners. Also, our switching diodes, Zener diodes, fast-recovering rectifier, and LED drivers has been helping to support smart, efficient, green factory automation applications, including utility metering, industrial sensors, cameras, scanners, elevators, and image processing equipment. BIOS SBR products are also being widely used in power over Ethernet, while MOSFETs are tractioning new power applications. In the computing market, despite the softness in low-end PC applications, Our momentum for SBR, TVS, MOSFET, and current monitoring product continue in the notebook and tablet designs. We secure numerous design wings for I3C switches, SNBUS level shifters, analog switching, IO expanders, and TVS in the cloud server protection applications. Additionally, our EDP redrivers, EDP MOCs, and 20 gigabit per second DP2.0 redrivers are being adopted in the gaming notebooks and the add-in graphic card applications. In the communication market, our USB Type-C audio switches, I.O. expanders, MOSFETs, and hall-effect switches continue to be designed into a series of smartphone devices, while our LED drivers were designed into mobile phone peripheral products, including wireless chargers. Also, our Schottky product was designed into 5G Wi-Fi applications. and we continue to see tractions for our PCI Express clock buffers family in 5G CPU designs and TVS product in networking applications. Lastly, in the consumer market, we saw increased adoption of our 12-bit high-speed mugs in the embedded multimedia card modules, and our current limit power switches continue to see solid demands from USB power applications in gaming consoles, Our 8.1 10 gigabit bidirectional retimers were also adapted in active cable applications. And our TVS protection products, USB switches, SBRC SP products, and USB power delivery decoders were designed into security keys, sports cameras, next-generation televisions, wearables, and portables, as well as wall-mounted USB-C power socket applications. In summary, DIO's achievement of record results in 2022 once again highlighted the ongoing success of our customer expansion initiatives, as well as our focus on product mix improvement towards higher margin products and end markets to drive increased profitability. Our significant expansion and growth in the automotive industrial end market is a direct result of this strategic action. We look forward to further expanding our momentum and continue to progress in the coming year. With that, we now open the floor to questions.
spk07: Operator.
spk02: Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your touch-tone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw from the question queue, please press star then 2.
spk10: At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Today's first question comes from William Stein with Chewist.
spk02: Please go ahead.
spk15: Great. Thank you for taking my question. I'm hoping you can review the channel inventory trends again. I think you mentioned it briefly in the prepared remarks, but I just want to I want to hear the clarification as to what happened in the channel in the quarter and what you expect will happen in the current quarter in distribution. Thank you.
spk05: Hi, Will. This is Emily. Let me answer this question. I did mention the channel inventory was up quarter over quarter. It's a little bit higher than our normal range at this moment. The main reason due to this change is actually a couple of things. We definitely see China's softness during the COVID in the fourth quarter. And then we also have an anticipation of recovery from some of the three Cs that we talked before. They started some of the channel inventory or inventory rebalancing for the last few quarters. So there's anticipation of that recovery, as well as there's labor shortage during the Chinese New Year. So with all this dynamic situation combined, so we actually also strategically increase some of the channel inventory, so that way we can better support the customer's last-minute or demand change.
spk15: Great. Thank you. And can you talk about your outlook by end market for the coming quarter?
spk05: Yeah, sure. I think automotive, we're still seeing a lot, a lot of strength overall. You know, so our pipeline continues to grow. Our engagement continues to enrich. And if I just look at, you know, the whole year or quarter over quarter comparison, automotive is still a record quarter for us by the end of Q4. And if we look at the whole year, year over year growth still 40% plus, right? So that's really, really exciting. And then for industrial, I think it's a little bit mixed. There are certain end applications softer than the others. We're also seeing some inventory rebalancing going on, but when we take everything together, I would say still a really stable end market at this moment. And then computing, we talked about it. Inventory rebalancing probably started beginning of Q3 last year, so we're still seeing softness going on, but we also, like I mentioned, there's anticipation of you know, recovering probably in a quarter or two, right? Consumer, we're still seeing some softness, especially from the China market. And then on the communication side, on the smart smartphone, I think still inventory rebalancing still ongoing. But again, right, so once they get to a certain level, we do expect some recovery.
spk15: It sounds like an ongoing, it sounds like a similar trend in the coming quarter, right? relative to what we've seen over the last quarter or two? Is that correct? We shouldn't interpret any divergent performance or any pivot in Q1 relative to what we've seen in Q4?
spk05: Yeah, so I would say there's no significant change from the end market point of view, but the key thing for us is continue to focus on our product mix improvement, right? Continue to leverage our capacity to lower the support for the slow end market and focus supporting the strong demand in markets like automotive as well as industrial applications, right?
spk14: Great. I'll get back in queue. Thank you.
spk02: The next question comes from Matt Ramsey with Cohen. Please go ahead.
spk11: Hi, this is Josh Buckhalter on behalf of Matt. Congrats on the stellar results and thank you for taking my question. I wanted to follow up on Will's question. So if I'm understanding correctly, the channel's running above their typical 11 to 14 week range. And so I know you're taking factory loadings down, but does that mean you're sort of comfortable running above the typical range for a little while in anticipation of the recovery? I just want to make sure I'm understanding correctly. Thank you.
spk05: Yeah, I think, Josh, you know, I did mention a little bit earlier, right, there's still a lot of dynamic situation going on with the labor shortage during the Chinese New Year, you know, the softness due to the COVID, especially in China, as well as anticipation of some recovery probably around the Q2 period. quarter. So with all this combination of the situation, we are actually OK with the channel inventory higher than our defined normal range. The other angle we look at is the quality of the inventory. So it's not only about the number of weeks on the shelf. It's also the quality of the product on the shelf. So we actually feel very confident, stand behind the numbers.
spk11: Okay, understood. Thank you. And I guess for my follow-up, I wanted to ask about gross margins. It's down sort of only marginally despite two straight quarters of mid-single-digit revenue declines, and it sounds like it's lower factory loadings as well. Can you walk through what's driving so much resiliency on your gross margin line? Is it a mixed shift between end markets or products, continued strength in the pricing environment? Any color there would be super helpful. Thank you.
spk05: Yeah, definitely. It's a really good question, right? So if you look at, you know, for the last few years, we really emphasized on two things. One is actually the total solution sales. The second thing is really product mix initiative or improvement overall, right? So we openly talk about automotive industrial is a key focus for us. And if you look at the result, right, I mentioned earlier, just automotive, we achieved 40% year-over-year growth. And then from 2013 to 2022, we combined the annual growth rate more than 30%. So definitely, it's a great success. And the consistency is actually definitely worth mentioning. I think with industrial, again, it's actually a big assessment. By the end of Q4, it's actually 28% of our total end market out of the products. With the auto and industrial combined, based on the Q4 results, it's actually 45% of our total revenue. Even with the whole year, that actually represented 42%. So we openly talk about by the end of 2017, we provided a guidance with this segment. It's actually we want to achieve about 40%. As you can see, we have fourth quarter consistently above this target. So again, this is a really good demonstration of the product makes improvement initiative. The other good example is actually Paracon product family. So we've been talking about the margin overall is really, really attractive. And again, we consistently deliver the growth of this market product segments. So with the combined, you can actually see, even with the revenue guidance slightly down around seasonality for Q1, but our margin guidance, 41%, still significantly higher well, higher than our 2013 model that we established of 40%. So I hope you can actually see this is actually a really strong demonstration of our focus of product mix improvement. Of course, it coupled with our manufacturing efficiency, which is always the strength of the company. So I think with all combined together, we're actually confident that we are on the right track and right path towards our 2025 defined goal, which is $1 billion gross profit and $2.5 billion revenue model.
spk08: Super helpful, and congratulations again on the results.
spk10: As a reminder, if you have a question, please press star, then 1.
spk02: The next question comes from David Williams with Benchmark Company. Please go ahead.
spk09: David, your line is open. Once again, David, your line is open.
spk02: Seeing no further questions in the queue, this concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Dr. Liu for any further closing remarks.
spk16: Thank you for your participation on today's call. Operator, you may now
spk02: Thank you. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation.
spk10: You may now disconnect. you Thank you. Thank you.
spk18: Good afternoon, and welcome to DIODE Incorporated Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. At the conclusion of today's conference call, instructions will be given for the question and answer session. If anyone needs assistance at any time during the conference call, please press the star key followed by the zero on your touchtone phone. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded today, Monday, February 6, 2023. I would now like to turn the call over to Leanne Seavers of Shelton Group Investor Relations. Leanne, please go ahead.
spk17: Good afternoon and welcome to DIODE's fourth quarter 2022 financial results conference calls. I'm Leanne Thevers, president of Shelton Group, Diode's investor relations firm. Joining us today from Taiwan are Diode's chairman, president, and CEO, Dr. Kei-Shu Liu, chief financial officer, Brett Whitmire, senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing, Emily Yang, senior vice president of business groups, Gary Yu, and director of investor relations, Ramit Dhaliwal. Before I turn the call over to Dr. Liu, I'd like to remind our listeners that the results announced today are preliminary and as they are subject to the company's finalizing its closing procedures and customary quarterly review by the company's independent registered public accounting firm. As such, these results are unaudited and subject to revision until the company files its Form 10-K for its full fiscal year ending December 31, 2022. In addition, management preparable remarks contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties, and management may make additional forward-looking statements in response to your questions. Therefore, the company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements that is contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ from those discussed today, and therefore we refer you to a more detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties in the company's filings with the Securities Exchange Commission, including Forms 10-K and 10-Q. In addition, any projections of the company's future performance represent management's estimates as of today, February 6, 2023. DODES assumes no obligation to update these projections in the future, as market conditions may or may not change, except to the extent required by applicable law. Additionally, the company's press release and management statements during this conference call will include discussions of certain measures and financial information in GAAP and non-GAAP terms. Included in the company's press release, and reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP items, which provide additional details. Also, throughout the company's press release and management statements during this conference call, We refer to net income attributable to common stockholders as gap net income. For those of you unable to listen to the entire call at this time, a recording will be available via webcast for 90 days in the investor relations section of DIODE's website at www.diodes.com. And now I'll turn the call over to DIODE's chairman, president, and CEO, Dr. K. Hsu Liu. Dr. Liu, please go ahead.
spk16: Thank you, Leanne. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'm pleased to report record performance in 2022, with revenue growth 10.8% over 2021, even when considering the COVID-related shutdown and the power outage throughout the year in China, as well as the global economic slowdown. In fact, The fourth quarter represented our ninth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. Additionally, our earning power and cash generation in 2022 were also significantly highlighted with gross margin expansion 422 basis points to 41.3%. Operating margin expanding 510 basis points to 20.4%. And gap EPS increased 44% to $7.20. And down gap EPS grew 42% to $7.36. We also achieved record cash flow for operating of $393 million, underpinning the company's worth-not-see performance. was continued strong growth in our automotive end market, which increased 40% over 2021 and reached 15% of product revenue for the year. We also continued to drive growth in our industrial end market through our ongoing content expansion efforts. which contributed to our industrial and automotive end market represent 42% of product revenue and exceeding our target model of 40%. The growth in those end markets combined with the ongoing increase of our PELCOM products also contributed to our strong gross margin expansion throughout the year. As part of our product mix improvement efforts, reaching the $2 billion revenue level in 2022 was a significant and meaningful achievement of the entire dial team, with the gross profit growth 23% to $827 million for the year. We have taken another giant step toward the next goal in our 2025 financial targets to achieve $1 billion in annual gross profit. I'm very proud of our accomplishment and our ability to consistently deliver both top-line growth and significantly expanded earnings for our shareholders. With that, let me now turn the call over to Brett to discuss our fourth quarter and full-year financial results. and our first quarter 2023 guidance in more detail.
spk12: Thanks, Dr. Liu, and good afternoon, everyone.
spk13: Revenue for the fourth quarter 2022 was $496.2 million, increasing 3.3% from $480.2 million in the fourth quarter 2021. and down 4.8% from the $521.3 million in the third quarter 2022. Full-year 2022 revenue grew to a record $2 billion, an increase of 10.8% over the $1.8 billion in 2021. Gross profit for the fourth quarter was $206.2 million, or 41.6% of revenue, increasing from $190.7 million, or 39.7% of revenue, in the prior year quarter, and down from $217.8 million, or 41.8% of revenue, in the prior quarter. For the full year, GAAP gross profit was a record $827.2 million, a 23.4% increase over 2021, and GAAP gross margin improved 420 basis points to a record 41.3%. GAAP operating expenses for the fourth quarter were $109.7 million, or 22.1% of revenue, and on a non-GAAP basis were $105.9 million, or 21.3% of revenue. which excludes $3.8 million of amortization of acquisition-related intangible asset expenses. This compares to GAAP operating expenses in the fourth quarter, 2021, of $104.7 million, or 21.8% of revenue, and in the third quarter, 2022, of $105.4 million, or 20.2% of revenue. Non-GAAP operating expenses in the prior quarter were $101.3 million, or 19.4% of revenue. Total other expense amounted to approximately $1.7 million for the quarter, consisting of $490,000 of other income, $2.9 million in interest expense, a $400,000 foreign currency loss, and $1.1 million of interest income. Income before taxes and non-controlling interest in the fourth quarter 2022 was $94.8 million compared to $108.8 million in the prior year quarter and $109.1 million in the previous quarter. Turning to income taxes, our effective income tax rate for the fourth quarter was approximately 1.5%, which includes taxes related to non-GAAP items. On a non-GAAP basis, the tax rate for the fourth quarter was approximately 18.7%. And for the full year, 2022, the non-GAAP tax rate was approximately 18.5%. GAAP net income for the fourth quarter, 2022, was $92.1 million, or $2 per diluted share, compared to $65.5 million, or $1.43 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter, 2021, and $86.4 million, or $1.88 per diluted share, in the third quarter, 2022. For the full year, 2022, GAAPNet income was a record $331.3 million, or a record $7.20 per diluted share, which was approximately 45% increase from the $228.8 million or $5 per diluted share in 2021. The share count used to compute GAAP diluted EPS for the fourth quarter 2022 was 46.1 million shares and 46 million shares for the full year. Non-GAAP adjusted net income in the fourth quarter was $79.6 million or $1.73 per diluted share, which excluded net of tax $3.1 million of acquisition-related intangible asset costs. This compares to $73.3 million, or $1.60 per diluted share in the fourth quarter 2021, and $92.2 million, or $2 per diluted share in the prior quarter. For the full year, Non-GAAP adjusted income was a record $339 million, or a record $7.36 per diluted share, an increase of approximately 43% from the $237.2 million, or $5.18 per diluted share, in 2021. Excluding non-cash share-based compensation expense of $7. net of tax for the fourth quarter and $28.7 million for the full year, both GAAP earnings per share and non-GAAP adjusted EPS would have increased by $0.16 and $0.62 per diluted share respectively. EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $129.6 million, or 26.1% of revenue. compared to $139 million or 28.9% of revenue in the fourth quarter 2021 and $141.9 million or 27.2% of revenue in the prior quarter. We had a gain on investment in the fourth quarter of 2021 that benefited EBITDA in that quarter. For the full year, EBITDA improved 19.7% to a record 520.4 million dollars or 26 percent of revenue compared to 434.6 million dollars or 24.1 percent of revenue in 2021. We have included in our earnings release a reconciliation of GAAP net income to non-GAAP adjusted net income and GAAP net income to EBITDA which provides additional details. Cash flow generated from operations was $102.9 million for the fourth quarter, and a record $392.5 million for 2022. Free cash flow was $39.1 million, which included $63.8 million for capital expenditures, and for the full year, free cash flow was $180.8 million, including $211 million Net cash flow was a negative $44.7 million, including the pay down of $114.1 million of total debt. And for the full year, net cash flow was a negative $25.7 million, which includes the net pay down of $112.3 million of total debt. Turning to the balance sheet, at the end of the fourth quarter, cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash plus short-term investments totaled approximately $348 million. Working capital was $729 million, and total debt, including long-term and short-term, was $186 million. In terms of inventory, at the end of the fourth quarter, Total inventory days were approximately 117 as compared to 113 last quarter. Finished goods inventory days were 33 compared to 32 last quarter. Total inventory dollars decreased $14.5 million from the prior quarter to approximately $360.3 million. Total inventory in the quarter consisted of a $12.1 million decrease in finished goods, a $3.2 million decrease in raw materials, and a $0.7 million increase in work in process. Capital expenditures on a cash basis were $63.8 million for the fourth quarter, and for the full year, approximately $211.7 million, or 10.6% of revenue. full-year capex was higher than our target model due to targeted expansion of our JK wafer fab in Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan. Without this investment, we would have been within our target model of 5% to 9%, and we expect to remain in this range this year. Now turning to our outlook, for the first quarter of 2023, we expect revenue to be approximately $467 million. plus or minus 3%. Gap gross margin is expected to be 41.0%, plus or minus 1%. Even with the revenue and loading decrease in the first quarter, we expect to maintain our gross margin effectively comparable to the last quarter and above our target model of 40%. Non-GAAP operating expenses, which are GAAP operating expenses adjusted for amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets, are expected to be approximately 22.2% of revenue, plus or minus 1%. We expect net interest expense to be approximately $2.5 million. Our income tax rate is expected to be 19%, plus or minus 3%, and shares used to calculate EPS for the first quarter are anticipated to be approximately $46.5 million. Not included in these non-GAAP estimates is amortization of $3.1 million after tax for previous acquisitions. With that said, I will now turn the call over to Emily Yang.
spk03: Thank you, Brad, and good afternoon.
spk04: As Dr. Liu and Brad mentioned, 2022 was a record year for DIOS. across all financial matrix. Fourth quarter revenue was down 4.8% sequentially, which is above our midpoint of our guidance and slightly better than our typical systemality. Looking more closely at the fourth quarter revenue, POS was record in Europe. Distributor inventory in terms of weeks increased quarter over quarter, which is higher than our normal range of 11 to 14 weeks. This increase is due mainly to demand softness in China related to COVID and our anticipation of COVID recovering in Q2, as well as our anticipation of labor shortage around Chinese New Year. We position more product to minimize the potential impact and quick response once the market recovers. Overall, demand and backlog remain stable across all regions, especially for automotive, industrial, and markets. Looking at the global sales in the fourth quarter, Asia represented 73% of revenue, Europe 15%, and North America 12%. In terms of our end market, industrial represented 28% of DIOS product revenue, computing 23%, consumer 18%, communication 14%, and our automotive end market reached a record 17% of the product revenue. Our automotive and industrial end market combined totaled 45% of product revenue for the quarter, which is 5 percentage points above our 2025 target and about 40% for the fourth consecutive quarter. This further demonstrates Dio's ability to quickly adjust our capacity allocation from low-end PC, consumer, and smartphone segments to high-demand end markets like automotive and industrial. Now let me review the end markets in greater detail. Our automotive market continues to be a highlight for both the quarter and the full year, setting revenue records for 10 consecutive quarters and growing 40% in 2022. Our consistent strong growth in this market can be contributed to our ongoing demand creation efforts as well as market share gain across new and existing customers. Our design momentum continues in our three application-focused areas of connected driving, comfort style and safety, and electrification. In connected driving, we continue to see increased interest for our USB Type-C re-drivers, analog switches, dial controllers, LDOs, DC-DC buck converters, Zener diodes and TVS in the real estate entertainment, ADAPT, infotainment, smart carpet, telematics, and instrument cluster applications. We also saw increased design-in for our video switches used in MIPI DisplayPort and USB switches in telematic communication system by multiple customers. In comfort, style, and safety, our linear LED drivers and DC-DC buck converters were designed into next-generation LED lighting applications. Our sensors business grows significantly, driven by applications including electronic steering, control lock refilling covers, window lifters, and water pumps. High voltage switching diodes and zener diodes also grew in the quarter, primarily in the air quality sensors and HVAC applications. Several of our SBR automotive products were designed into battery-powered electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles for automotive safety applications. We also secured a number of new design wings for ESD charging controllers, for in-vehicle USB charging devices. Lastly, in the electrification, our 32-bit I.O. expansors were designed into EV vehicles control units, and our TVS product designed into a high-speed data line for in-vehicle display in electric vehicles. Our production products also have strong growth in applications, including VN battery control onboard diagnosis systems. Additionally, we ramp up our MOSFET product in multiple new applications across several different customers while releasing a number of low-voltage MOSFET products for the battery-managed system and Wi-Fi application. In our industrial market, revenue also set on the record, representing the sixth consecutive quarter of growth. Our PCI Express 3.0 packet switch continued to gain traction in industrial automation applications as they enable enhanced performance by connecting SoCs and CPUs to the endpoint. Additionally, our high-voltage but industrial IoT devices experience very strong demand for the smart electric meters. Similarly, our LED controllers ramp up in the LED power supply for power industrial commercial LED lighting. and our industrial sensor business continue to gain traction in power tools, air condition, DC motors, and the washing machine applications. Additionally, we continue to secure design wins for our CIS products in AOI applications like battery film, PCB, wafer inspection, and check scanners. Also, our switching diodes, Zener diodes, fast-recovering rectifier, and LED drivers has been helping to support smart, efficient, green factory automation applications, including utility metering, industrial sensors, cameras, scanners, elevators, and image processing equipment. BIOS SBR products are also being widely used in power over Ethernet, while at most fast attractions in new power applications. In the computing market, despite the softness in low-end PC applications, Our momentum for SBR, TVS, MOSFET, and current monitoring product continue in the notebook and tablet designs. We secure numerous design wings for I3C switches, SNBUS level shifters, analog switching, IO expanders, and TVS in the cloud server protection applications. Additionally, our EDP redrivers, EDP MOCs, and 20 gigabit per second DP2.0 redrivers are being adopted in the gaming notebooks and the add-in graphic card applications. In the communication market, our USB Type-C audio switches, I.O. expanders, MOSFETs, and hall-effect switches continue to be designed into a series of smartphone devices, while our LED drivers were designed into mobile phone peripheral products, including wireless chargers. Also, our Schottky product was designed into 5G Wi-Fi applications. and we continue to see tractions for our PCI Express clock buffers family in 5G CPU designs and TVS product in networking applications. Lastly, in the consumer market, we saw increased adoption of our 12-bit high-speed mugs in the embedded multimedia card modules, and our current limit power switches continue to see solid demands from USB power applications in gaming consoles, Our 8.1 10 gigabit bidirectional retimers were also adopted in active cable applications. And our TVS protection products, USB switches, SBRC SP products, and USB power delivery decoders were designed into security keys, sports cameras, next-generation televisions, wearables, and portables, as well as wall-mounted USB-C power socket applications. In summary, DIO's achievement of record results in 2022 once again highlighted the ongoing success of our customer expansion initiatives, as well as our focus on product mix improvement towards higher margin products and end markets to drive increased profitability. Our significant expansion and growth in the automotive industrial end market is a direct result of this strategic action. We look forward to further expanding our momentum and continue to progress in the coming year. With that, we now open the floor to questions.
spk07: Operator.
spk02: Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your touch-tone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw from the question queue, please press star then 2.
spk10: At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Today's first question comes from William Stein with Chewist.
spk02: Please go ahead.
spk15: Great. Thank you for taking my question. I'm hoping you can review the channel inventory trends again. I think you mentioned it briefly in the prepared remarks, but I just want to I want to hear the clarification as to what happened in the channel in the quarter and what you expect will happen in the current quarter in distribution. Thank you.
spk05: Hi, Will. This is Emily. Let me answer this question. I did mention the channel inventory was up quarter over quarter. It's a little bit higher than our normal range at this moment. The main reason due to this change is actually a couple of things. We definitely see China's softness during the COVID in the fourth quarter. And then we also have anticipation of recovery from some of the three Cs that we talked before. They started some of the channel inventory or inventory rebalancing for the last few quarters. So there's anticipation of that recovery, as well as there's labor shortage during the Chinese New Year. So with all this dynamic situation combined, so we actually also strategically increase some of the channel inventory so that way we can better support the customer's last minute or demand change.
spk15: Great. Thank you. And can you talk about your outlook by end market for the coming quarter?
spk05: Yeah, sure. I think automotive, we're still seeing a lot, a lot of strength overall. You know, so our pipeline continues to grow. Our engagement continues to enrich. And if I just look at, you know, the whole year or quarter over quarter comparison, automotive is still a record quarter for us by the end of Q4. And if we look at the whole year, year over year growth still 40% plus, right? So that's really, really exciting. And then for industrial, I think it's a little bit mixed. There are certain end applications softer than the others. We're also seeing some inventory rebalancing going on, but when we take everything together, I would say still a really stable end market at this moment. And then computing, we talked about it. Inventory rebalancing probably started beginning of Q3 last year, so we're still seeing softness going on, but we also, like I mentioned, there's anticipation of you know, recovering probably in a quarter or two, right? Consumer, we're still seeing some softness, especially from the China market. And then on the communication side, on the smart smartphone, I think still inventory rebalancing still ongoing. But again, right, so once they get to a certain level, we do expect some recovery.
spk15: It sounds like an ongoing, it sounds like a similar trend in the coming quarter, right? relative to what we've seen over the last quarter or two? Is that correct? We shouldn't interpret any divergent performance or any pivot in Q1 relative to what we've seen in Q4?
spk05: Yeah, so I would say there's no significant change from the end market point of view, but the key thing for us is continue to focus on our product mix improvement, right? Continue to leverage our capacity to lower the support for the slow end market and focus supporting the strong demand in markets like automotive as well as industrial applications, right?
spk14: Great. I'll get back in queue. Thank you.
spk02: The next question comes from Matt Ramsey with Cohen. Please go ahead.
spk11: Hi, this is Josh Buckhalter on behalf of Matt. Congrats on the stellar results and thank you for taking my question. I wanted to follow up on Will's question. So if I'm understanding correctly, the channel's running above their typical 11 to 14 week range. And so I know you're taking factory loadings down, but does that mean you're sort of comfortable running above the typical range for a little while in anticipation of the recovery? I just want to make sure I'm understanding correctly. Thank you.
spk05: Yeah, I think, Josh, you know, I did mention a little bit earlier, right, there's still a lot of dynamic situation going on with the labor shortage during the Chinese New Year. You know, the softness due to the COVID, especially in China, as well as anticipation of some recovery probably around the Q2 period. quarter. So with all this combination of the situation, we are actually OK with the channel inventory higher than our defined normal range. The other angle we look at is the quality of the inventory. So it's not only about the number of weeks on the shelf. It's also the quality of the product on the shelf. So we actually feel very confident, stand behind the numbers.
spk11: Okay, understood. Thank you. And I guess for my follow-up, I wanted to ask about gross margins. It's down sort of only marginally despite two straight quarters of mid-single-digit revenue declines, and it sounds like lower factory loadings as well. Can you walk through what's driving so much resiliency on your gross margin line? Is it a mixed shift between end markets or products, continued strength in the pricing environment? Any color there would be super helpful. Thank you.
spk05: Yeah, definitely. It's a really good question, right? So if you look at, you know, for the last few years, we really emphasized on two things. One is actually the total solution sales. The second thing is really product mix initiative or improvement overall, right? So we openly talk about automotive industrial is a key focus for us. And if you look at the result, right, I mentioned earlier, just automotive, we achieved 40% year-over-year growth. And then from 2013 to 2022, we combined the annual growth rate more than 30%. So definitely, it's a great success. And the consistency is actually definitely worth mentioning. I think with industrial, again, it's actually a big assessment. By the end of Q4, it's actually 28% of our total end market out of the products. With the auto and industrial combined, based on the Q4 results, it's actually 45% of our total revenue. Even with the whole year, that actually represented a 42%. So we openly talk about by the end of 2017, we provided a guidance with this segment. It's actually we want to achieve about 40%. As you can see, we have fourth quarter consistently above this target. So again, this is a really good demonstration of the product makes improvement initiative. The other good example is actually Paracon product family. So we've been talking about it. The margin overall is really, really attractive. And again, we consistently deliver the growth of this market product segments. So with the combined, you can actually see, even with the revenue guidance slightly down around seasonality for Q1, but our margin guidance, 41%, still significantly higher well, higher than our 2013 model that we established of 40%. So I hope you can actually see this is actually a really strong demonstration of our focus of product mix improvement. Of course, it coupled with our manufacturing efficiency, which is always the strength of the company. So I think with all combined together, we're actually confident that we are on the right track and right path towards our 2025, you know, defined goal, which is $1 billion gross profit and $2.5 billion revenue model, right? So... Nope.
spk08: Super helpful, and congratulations again on the results.
spk10: As a reminder, if you have a question, please press star, then one. The next question comes from David Williams with Benchmark Company. Please go ahead.
spk09: David, your line is open. Once again, David, your line is open.
spk02: Seeing no further questions in the queue, this concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Dr. Liu for any further closing remarks.
spk16: Thank you for your participation on today's call. Operator, you may now
spk02: Thank you. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
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