Sanmina Corporation

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Samina's second quarter fiscal 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time for you to queue up for a question. If anyone has any difficulties hearing the conference, please press star zero for operator assistance at any time. I would now like to turn the conference over to Paige Martin. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Jenny. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Sandmina's second quarter fiscal year 2024 earnings call. A copy of our press release and slides for today's discussion are available on our website at sandmina.com in the investor relations section. Joining me on today's call is Yuri Sola, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Good afternoon.

And John Faust, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Good afternoon.

Before I turn the call over to Yuri, let me remind everyone that today's call is being webcasted and recorded and will be available on our website. You can follow along with our prepared remarks and the slides provided on our website. Please turn to slide three of our presentation and take note of our safe harbor statement. During this conference call, we may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of the company. We caution you that such statements are just projections. The company's actual results could differ materially from those projected in these statements as a result of factors set forth in the safe harbor statement. The company is under no obligation and expressly disclaims any such obligation to update or alter any of the forward-looking statements made in this earnings release, the earnings presentation, the conference call, or the investor relations section of our website. whether a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, unless otherwise required by law. Included in our press release and slides issued today, we have provided you with statements of operations for the second quarter ended March 30th, 2024 on a GAAP basis, as well as certain non-GAAP financial information. A reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP financial information is also provided in the press release and slides posted on our website. In general, our non-GAAP financial information excludes restructuring costs, acquisition and integration costs, non-cash stock-based compensation expense, amortization expense, and other unusual or infrequent items. Any comments we make on this call as it relates to the income statement measures will be directed at our non-GAAP financial results. Accordingly, unless otherwise stated in this conference call, when we refer to gross profit, gross margin, operating income, operating margin, taxes, net income, and earnings per share, we're referring to our non-GAAP information. I would now like to turn the call over to Yuri.

Thanks, Paige. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome, and thank you all for being here with us today. First, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Samina's leadership team, our employees for doing a great job. So to you, Samina's team, thank you for your dedication and delivering excellent service to our customers. And let's keep it up. Now let's go to our agenda for today's call. We have John to review details of our results for you. I will follow up with additional comments about Samina's results and future goals. Then John and I will open for questions and answers. And now I would like to turn this call over to John. John? Great.

Thank you, Yuri. And good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us here today. Before we go through the financial results, I want to acknowledge the entire Sandmina team for executing and delivering financial results in line with the company's outlook and continuing to do an excellent job. Now let's talk about the Q2 results. Please turn to slide five. Second quarter revenue was $1.835 billion. at the low end of our $1.825 to $1.925 billion guidance range, which is down approximately 2% sequentially. We believe the business has leveled out from a revenue perspective, and we expect to see improvements in the quarters ahead as customer inventory absorption headwinds dissipate, which Yuri will comment on more in his prepared remarks. Non-GAAP gross margin was 8.9%, which exceeded the high end of our outlook and was up 10 basis points sequentially and 50 basis points compared to the same period last year. We're very pleased with this gross margin result, which is due to a combination of favorable mix, focused execution, and strong operating discipline. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $63.6 million, slightly above our outlook of $60 to $62 million, primarily driven by incremental expense related to our deferred compensation plan which was completely offset by an asset gain in the other income and expense line item. Non-GAAP operating margin was 5.4%, which was at the midpoint of our outlook and down slightly at 10 basis points sequentially and 40 basis points compared to the same period last year. This operating margin result was also impacted by the incremental deferred compensation expense that I noted earlier, but it's still solidly in the short-term range of 5%, 6% that we set earlier this year. Non-GAAP other income and expense was $6.5 million, favorable to our guidance of approximately $12 million, driven by the asset gain that I mentioned previously, as well as higher interest income due to our strong cash generation results, and less interest expense due to lower usage of our revolver. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $1.30 based on approximately 57 million shares outstanding on a fully diluted basis and at the high end of our outlook. Now please turn to slide six to talk about the segment results. IMS revenue came in at $1.46 billion, down approximately 3% sequentially. However, IMS non-GAAP gross margin was up 10 basis points sequentially to 7.7% due to strong operational execution and our continued focus on driving manufacturing efficiencies. CPS revenue came in at $398 million, up slightly at about 1% sequentially, and non-GAAP CPS gross margin was down 10 basis points sequentially to 12.9% due to unfavorable mix. While we're pleased with these results, we continue to see opportunity for margin improvement in both the IMS and CPS segments going forward, further supporting our longer-term margin objectives. Now, please turn to slide seven to talk about the balance sheet. Our balance sheet is a key advantage of the company and a pillar of our value proposition to investors, and the team did a great job managing it again this quarter. Cash and cash equivalents were $651 million. At the end of the quarter, we had no borrowings on our revolver, leaving us with substantial liquidity of over $1.5 billion. We ended the second quarter with inventory of $1.38 billion, down slightly sequentially, and inventory turns were 4.8, up slightly sequentially. We continue to focus on improving our inventory position and increasing turns. Our non-GAAP pre-tax ROIC was 22% for the quarter, well above our weighted average cost of capital. We continue to have one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry with a low leverage ratio of 0.57 times, which allows us to both navigate complex market environments and capitalize on the long-term opportunity in front of us simultaneously. Please turn to slide eight, where I'll talk about cash flow and capital allocation. We did a great job managing cash this quarter, and I'm confident we are putting our cash to use in the right areas. To touch on a few highlights, cash flow from operations was $72 million for the quarter, and approximately $200 million for the first half. Capital expenditures were $30 million for the quarter, as we continue to make investments in the end markets that will support Sandmina's long-term profitable growth. Free cash flow was $43 million for the quarter, and $135 million for the first half. During the quarter, we repurchased 28,000 shares for approximately $1.4 million. And for the first half, we've repurchased 2.2 million shares for approximately $107 million. As of March 30th, we have approximately $172 million left on our board authorized plan and we intend to continue to repurchase shares on an opportunistic basis. Our focus and execution on cash generation provides us with the flexibility to invest in the business. When making those investment decisions, we look for opportunities to drive shareholder value while taking a disciplined ROI-based approach, which is a practice we will continue to follow going forward. To conclude on the Q2 actual results, overall it was a strong quarter as we delivered on what we said we would, and we continue to set up the company for future success. Now please turn to slide nine. I'll now cover our outlook for the third quarter, which is based on what we are seeing in the market and forecasts from our customers. Our outlook is as follows. Revenue between $1.8 to $1.9 billion, up slightly sequentially. Now, in this type of market environment, we believe it's prudent to continue with our practice of only guiding one quarter at a time, but we are seeing signs that demand and revenue are starting to improve, which Yuri will elaborate on shortly. Non-GAAP gross margin of 8.3% to 8.9%, up slightly sequentially and dependent on mix. Operating expenses of $60 to $62 million, in line with normal levels. Non-GAAP operating margin of 5.3% to 5.7% up slightly sequentially. We expect other income and expense to be approximately $12 million in line with normal levels. Tax rate of 17% to 18%. We estimate an approximate $3 to $3.5 million non-cash reduction to our net income to reflect our India JV's partners' equity interest. Non-GAAP EPS in the range of $1.22 to $1.32, based on approximately 57 million fully diluted shares outstanding. Capital expenditures to be around $40 million to support new programs and future opportunities as we continue to invest where needed to support our long-term strategy. And finally, depreciation of approximately $30 million. Overall, I'm very pleased with our performance this quarter as we delivered on what we said we would. With that, let me turn the call over to Yuri to talk more about the business.

Thank you, John. Ladies and gentlemen, let me add a few more comments about our second quarter. And I'll review our end markets and outlook for the third quarter and the rest of the fiscal year 2024. Please turn to slide 11. As you heard from John, for the second quarter, we delivered good results. Overall, we met our outlook. We are seeing stabilization in some of our end markets and incremental improvements in demand. Recovery is slightly slower than expected beginning of the year, but we are working very closely with our customers as they are burning through their inventory. I can tell you that macroeconomic uncertainty remains. But Samina's team continues to demonstrate resilience and deliver good financial results in this environment. So what is Samina's advantage in the economic market? I can tell you that we are well diversified in growth markets. Samina has strong customer base of market leaders to help us to get through this environment. We are working very closely with our key customers with existing and new projects to drive growth as market improves. Our business is well aligned to adapt to present market dynamics. We have strong cost management in place. We have aligned our costs to present business demand. And as John mentioned, Sanmina Industries The leading balance sheet gives us a lot of flexibility to maximize the shareholder value. So please turn to slide 12. Now let me talk to you about revenue by end markets. Revenue for second quarter was $1.835 billion, roughly slightly down approximately 2% quarter over quarter within our guidance. I can say the forecasts were more predictable this quarter. Industrial and medical, defense, aerospace, and automotive was 67% of our revenue, slightly down 2.5% quarter over quarter. For defense, aerospace, and automotive, we saw good demand during this quarter. For communication networks, cloud infrastructure, that was 33% of our revenue, slightly down 1.5% quarter over quarter. Also, I can tell you that we had a higher demand for new projects in communication networks and cloud segment, but we could not ship it because of material shortages and some testing capacity issues. These issues will be resolved in our third quarter. For second quarter, top 10 customers represented 48.5% of our revenue. We are a well-diversified company, and we have no customers over 10% plus. I can also tell you that the bookings for second quarter improved nicely. Book-to-bill was 1.1 plus to 1. Newer products are driving demand. Please turn to slide 13. Samina is continuing to invest in a faster growing and higher margin and markets, such as cloud infrastructure, defense and aerospace, medical, automotive, renewable energy, industrial, and optical advanced packaging. So let me make a few comments on each of them. For cloud infrastructure, AI and ML is driving new opportunities for us. It's mainly been driven by upgrades in our cloud networks to meet AI traffic needs. Sanmina is well-positioned to benefit from growth in AI. We're benefiting some right now and the rest of the 24, but we're expecting to see more benefits and bigger opportunities in calendar year 2025. For defense and aerospace, we continue to see solid demand. New program wins are driving a long-term growth. For medical, our focus is on digital health and medical devices, such as disposable, consumables, drug delivery, surgical, diagnostic imaging, and lab diagnostic systems. We have strong base of customers and we are well positioned here. We see positive trends long term. For our motive, we mainly focus on electrical vehicle and electrical charges. Short term demand is softer, but our new opportunities will drive the growth We see a better forecast for September and December quarter, and we expect to see improvements in demand longer term as we enter fiscal year, calendar year 25 and beyond. For renewable energy, we continue to build new projects. We've been focusing around generation and storage of power, power controls, and management. Here, same thing, new opportunities are driving the growth for us. For industrial, we have solid customer base. We see stable demand. We've been focusing on factory automation, test and measurement, and inspection equipment. For semiconductor, part of the industrial, we focused on lithography. That business for us has been stable, but we should see more improvements in the second half of 24. Overall, we have solid new projects in the pipeline that will drive the growth longer term. For optical advance and packaging, we're expanding optical business for AI applications, mainly around 800 gig modules, and we're starting to do the R&D and new product introduction of 1.6 terabytes. Again, good opportunities here. Growth in cloud and data center will drive the growth for this segment for longer term. Please turn to slide 14. I just wanted to show you a few pictures in this slide to see where Samina participates in AI and ML today. As you can see, for AI and ML, for infrastructure such as communication, cloud infrastructure across multiple product lines such as servers, IC hardware, software development, semiconductor capital, optical components such as optical modules, power controls, power management, networking equipment, and service and storage. Our consumption of AI and ML is going across all our markets, such as automotive, transportation, safety, security, healthcare, defense, and aerospace. And then, of course, what we're doing internally utilizing IAM and ML by automating our factories and machine learnings and backups. So as you can see, We are heavily involved in AI, and I believe this will drive a better future for us. Please turn to slide 15. In summary, for second quarter, we have solid execution. Revenue of $1.83 billion in line with our outlook. Non-GAAP operating margin 5.4%. Non-GAAP diluted EPS of $1.30%. high end of outlook. So overall, respectable quarter. For third quarter, our end markets outlook, as John mentioned, is what we're seeing from our customer today. The third quarter will have a guidance of $1.8 to $1.9 billion. Non-GAAP EPS will be at $1.22 to $1.32. On positive side, our visibility is getting better. and we're starting to see more, or I should say, some normalization of supply chain. For fourth quarter, we remain optimistic that we will see sequential improvements as we move into second half of the year. And we are starting to see stronger forecasts for our September quarter as we are getting our forecasts in. I can tell you that I'm personally excited about long-term growth for Samina. As I said before, physical year 2024 is a transition year for us. We are navigating these market dynamics pretty well. Short term, our operating margins are holding and they're stable in the region 5% to 6%. At the same time, longer term, we are positioning the company by making changes and improvements to drive operating margin to 6% plus percent. We expect that the fiscal year 25 will be a growth year for our end markets, and our focus is to drive the growth in a heavy regulated market. We believe that's where we have competitive advantage, and we've got position there. So in summary, for short-term and long-term, Sanmina is well positioned to manage through this dynamic market. Ladies and gentlemen, now I would like to thank you all for your time and your support. Operator we're now ready to open the lines for question and answers.

I'd like to say thank you again Operator Denny are you there?

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one on your touchstone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Questions will be taken in the order received. If you wish to cancel your request, please press the star followed by the two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment, please, for your first question. Your first question is from from Bank of America. Please ask your question.

Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. The communications and cloud segment was down 36% year-on-year. Can you help us parse that? How much was communications down and how much did cloud grow? And can you give us some more details in that segment? I mean, how are you seeing inventory correction in that segment, and how did optical versus networking versus wireless, how did the different end markets within communications, how did they pan out this quarter, and how do you see it trending over the next couple of quarters?

Well, Rupu, thanks for the question. First of all, there's no surprise that the communication market has been down now, in my opinion, for the last three quarters, mainly driven by... inventory adjustments and some softer demand in certain segments. But you asked the question, when is it going to end? I believe we're coming to the bottom of it. As I said, we're starting to see some normalization when it comes to supply chain, and we're starting to see some more predictable forecasts. And most importantly, as I said, I think as we I think our visibility is better and so on and so on. I think back to, I think, Anouk, the cloud itself is doing better for us. That's about, today, if you look at it, 33% of the revenue, about half of that is cloud and half of it is communication networks. A lot of the business that we do is around the networks and optical networks. But the whole communication demand has got affected, especially around 5G and so on and so on. But on the positive side, we're starting to see the light end of the tunnel, and it's not a train anymore.

Got it. That's helpful. Maybe as a follow-up, Yuri, I can ask you, on slide 13, you talk about Sanmina's expertise in optical packaging, and you've talked about 800 gig and 1.6 terabytes. Can you give us a little bit more detail on what type of stuff, what are the projects that you're working on? And when do you think these technologies will become mainstream? Are you shipping 800 now, or is that in testing phase? So any timeline for these technologies to become more adopted?

Yeah, we've been in the optical business for a long time, especially optical networks. That business for us is pretty strong overall. We have a strong customer base. We started getting involved in optical modules, I would say, last five, six years. We've been investing fair amount in last couple years into optical advanced packaging. You know, we've been doing, you know, 400 gig type of product. We're starting to do 800 gig and making some shipments across our optical product line on 1.6 terabyte. That's in development with a couple partners of ours. and myths of designs and NPI process.

Okay. Okay. Maybe I'll ask one question to John. So inventory was down sequentially a little bit this quarter. Can you give us your thoughts on the overall cash conversion cycle and how you see free cash flow trending? And just remind us on your uses of cash. How should we think about how you prioritize uses of cash in this environment?

Yeah, sure, Rupaloo. Thanks for the question. So, you know, in terms of the cash conversion cycle, we're in the mid-70s right now. But if you look back at the history of Sanmino, we're closer into the 50s. And so that's certainly what we're going to be striving towards, right? And if you break that down between DOI, DSO, DPO, I think we've got a little bit of room to improve across the board. Inventory itself is quite a bit elevated, you know, several days beyond what our, you know, historical levels have been. You know, DPO is not quite as high. So, you know, we're definitely going to be focused on working capital initiatives to bring that back down into line, which should help us generate more cash. And in terms of our priorities for capital allocation, you know, those haven't changed, right? And we've got four of them just to reiterate for you and everybody else on the call. So number one is in organic growth in the business. Two, strategic transactions or inorganic growth. Three, paying down our debt, which is at pretty low levels already. And then number four, share repurchases, which, as I mentioned, we'll continue to do opportunistically.

Just to add to that, cash flow was pretty strong for six months, about $200 million. And we expect to continue to generate strong cash flow the rest of the year. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

And do you expect strong free cash flow to continue for the rest of calendar 24?

Yeah, and as you know, you know, Rupali, we guide one quarter at a time, but we are guiding cash flow to be positive in Q3. And as Jerry mentioned, very pleased with the performance that we saw, you know, here in the first half, in the first two quarters, you know, and then we expect to generate cash going into Q3 as well.

All right. Thank you for all the details. Appreciate it.

Thanks, Rupali. Operator, our next question, please.

Yes, your next question is from Steven Fox from Fox Advisors. Please ask your question.

Hi, good afternoon. Hey Steven, how are you? I'm good. Good to talk to you guys. Couple questions if I could. No problem. In terms of just you mentioned some test capacity issues and some supply chain constraints during the quarter. Can you expand on that and make sure – I just want to make sure what sort of markets we're talking about and how you're solving that problem.

Yeah, Steve, that came from communication cloud customer base. We want a pretty good size of a project that should go on for the next, you know, three, four, five years. And this mainly is driven around a customer design – and also customer design of a test fixturing and some of the modification. As we got involved in production, we realized some modification needed to be made. We had some shortages of materials. At the same time, we're changing. On the positive side, these things will be resolved sometime this quarter, and then we should continue to make shipments. Hopefully, sometime at the end of this quarter and the next quarter, it should be a pretty good program for us going forward.

Got it. That's helpful. And then, as you mentioned, your gross margins were a little bit better than expected, and you still see room for gross margin improvement from here. Can you just walk through, you know, what you see as the gross margin opportunity, say, over the next, I don't know, two to four quarters? Yeah.

Well, Steve, I think we are working to improve the mix of our business driven by some of the technologies that we're offering to our customers and creating a lot more value, especially in the new market with some of the leading technologies that are coming out. So Samina's goal is not to sell just the price but to sell the value that we provide to our customers. And I believe that what we're providing all the way from our high-technology premium circuit boards, if you look at AI market here, And ML, it requires some more advanced printed circuit boards. It requires, you know, mechanical rocks, cooling, and so on that goes around it, integration of service storage. So that's the area that we move into, an area, you know, I mentioned earlier, talking about optical, expanding our optical business. We always were very strong in optical networks, optical systems, but now we're starting to, we've been investing into optical components. and optical modules to basically, there's a huge demand going to be going on in the next few years, and I believe that we'll be able to participate in that and drive the margin up. We also focus on expanding our defense and aerospace business. Demand for that business continues to be strong, and we want to, you know, expand that all the way from high technology printed circuit boards to the board assembly to the system assembly and so on. Renewable energy, that's another area that fits our model, providing end-to-end from mechanical, electronics, heavy power, and so on. Because especially around AI, as they upgrade the cloud, it requires a lot of the technology and capabilities that we deliver. Industrial business for us has been solid. I think we are investing the right things there too. So overall, I would say the margin will be driven by the capabilities that we're providing to our customer, number one, and providing more end-to-end solution for our customers in the markets that we have competitive advantage that I said more mission-critical type of a product. And then tuning things internally. As we went through this 24, as I call it, transition year, You know, we invested a lot in 23 for a growth, and we positioned the company for a growth. Unfortunately, 24 demand went down because of inventory correction. Well, we went because of COVID and then slower demand. Combination of those two things is a transition here. Well, what do you do in this type of environment? You basically look at your company and try to tune things up so that allows us to do a better job as the market comes back. And also, most importantly, is to take care of our customers better and deliver better results for our shareholders. So combining all of that. You know, John, I don't know if you have anything else to add.

You know, I think you said it very well here. I think the only thing I would add on top, Steve, to that, to what Yuri said, which is all about driving value for our customers within the businesses and driving better segment or mixed results. But as we return to growth, we should get some natural operating leverage as well, right? So if you add that on top of everything that Yuri was saying, that's why we still believe that there's, you know, margin upside in both segments and for the company overall.

That's an awesome explanation. I appreciate the color. I'll take my other questions offline. Thanks.

Thanks, Steve.

Operator, our next question, please.

Thank you. Yes, thank you. Your next question is from . Please ask your question.

Hi, and thank you for taking my question. So I'm just curious, you came in on the lower end of the guidance range for revenue this quarter, and you expect sequential improvement. Next quarter, what gives you confidence in that? Is that due to those shipments that were pushed out in communications, or are there other things driving that growth as well?

Well, first of all, Anja, thanks for the question. Yeah, we had a little bit extra we could have shipped. Our revenue would have looked a little bit better than what we delivered. Yeah, but confidence is really what we are seeing from our customers, what they're telling us right now based on today's information. As we said, we will take one quarter of time in this environment. You know, I believe that what we're seeing through forecast is ability is getting better. I think in the burn down with a lot of our key customers, a lot of us, a lot of our customers are telling us the second half of the calendar year will get better. And the forecasts are looking better. So combination of all of those things and some of the new programs that we have coming up should allow us to move in the right direction. John, anything else?

Yeah, I would just add, Yuri, or, you know, Anya, to Yuri's point that, you know, the market's still pretty dynamic, you know, with customers and end markets, to his point, turning the corner on demand and inventory absorption. But if you look at our guide for Q3 in the midpoint, we are expecting to see some modest sequential improvement. So we're staying close with our customers on that and looking on delivering as much as we can.

Okay, thank you. And the joint venture in India, how is that trending? It seems like you had a lower payment for that this quarter.

Yeah. Let me just give you from the business point of view, and John, you can make a comment on that. First of all, India joint venture is going well. You know, we're running the same way as we run every before. We have a lot of interest from our customers, and we expect a lot of growth in India. So from that point of view, I'm very happy where we are and more happy about the future. John, any comments?

Yeah, I think it's executing well to Yuri's point. And if you look at what we guided on there, right, we said about $3 million, you know, in the distribution. And we did just shy of that. So pretty much right on target, right where we want it to be. Yeah.

A lot of upside potential, especially if you look at the next 12, 18 months.

Okay. Thank you. That was all for me.

Operator, we have time for one more question.

Yes, thank you. Your last question is from Christian Schwab from Craig Holland Capital Group. Please ask your question.

Hey, Yuri, I just have one quick question that hasn't been asked. On the AI machine learning products that you laid out, what percentage of total revenue is all of that?

Well, in a cloud, you know, we did in communication, cloud is about 33% last quarter. About half of that comes from cloud. We don't break it down at that, but definitely it's more this quarter than the last quarter. It will be more next quarter than what we did last quarter. So definitely it's going in the right direction, and it's really driven with a lot of our customers' new products that are required for upgrades of – of the data centers.

Okay. I guess we have other things in there that I thought you were including in your AI machine learning, but that's okay. So, I guess just to follow up, you know, on that, you kind of said that you kind of thought that the optical business would follow the cloud and hyperscale approach. from spending, I guess just to follow up to an earlier question, when would you expect, you know, optical spending to show, you know, meaningful improvement from current levels?

Well, I would say, let me kind of make a comment on a whole communication sector. I personally believe that we come in end of that bad cycle, if I can put it that way. I would expect to see some nice improvement in our fourth quarter. We're going to see some this quarter, but really a lot more in our fourth quarter. And, you know, like I said, September and December quarter of this year, we definitely forecast are looking up in that segment. And then help from a cloud will help move that in the right direction. Okay, great.

Thanks for all the questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Christian. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to, again, thank you for your time and your support. If you have any more questions, please get back to us. Otherwise, I appreciate everything, and we'll see you or talk to you 90 days from now. Bye-bye. Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now ended. Thank you all for joining UMI All Disconnects.