1/27/2025

speaker
Operator
Operator

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the St. Minas First Quarter Fiscal 2025 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press TAR 0 for the operator. This call is being recorded on Monday, January 27, 2025. I would now like to turn the conference over to Paige Melching, Senior Vice President of Investor Communications. Ma'am, please go ahead.

speaker
Paige Melching
Senior Vice President of Investor Communications

Thank you, Constantine. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Sandmina's first quarter fiscal 2025 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.

speaker
Yuri Sola
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Good afternoon.

speaker
Paige Melching
Senior Vice President of Investor Communications

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

speaker
John Faust
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Good afternoon.

speaker
Paige Melching
Senior Vice President of Investor Communications

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 with 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 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 our State Farber statement. The company is under no obligation to 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 as 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 operation for the first quarter ended December 28, 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, on our non-GAAP 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 they relate 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 are referring to our non-GAAP information. I'd now like to turn the call over to Yuri.

speaker
Yuri Sola
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

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 Sanmina's leadership team and our employees for doing a great job. So to you, Sanmina's team, thank you for your dedication and delivering excellent service to our customers. For the first quarter, fiscal year 2025, we delivered solid revenue of 2.01 billion and non-GAAP EPS of $1.44 per share. Again, to Sanmina's employees, thank you. And let's keep it up. Now let's go to our agenda for today's call. We have John, our CFO, to review details of our results for you. I will follow up with additional comments about Sanmina results and future goals. And John and I will open questions and answers. And now I would like to turn this call over to John. John?

speaker
John Faust
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Great. Thank you, Yuri. And good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. and thank you for joining us here today. Before I review our results for the first quarter, I want to acknowledge the entire Samena team for their focused execution and thank them for delivering a solid start to the new fiscal year. Now please turn to slide five, where I'll speak to the financial highlights. We're very pleased with our first quarter results, which as you can see, either met or exceeded all of our outlook commitments. Our revenue of $2.01 billion and our non-GAAP operating margin of 5.6% each came in towards the high end of our outlook. Also, our non-GAAP gross margin of 9.0% and our non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $1.44 each exceeded our outlook. These results, combined with how we exited the last fiscal year, puts us on a good trajectory for the new fiscal year and sets us on the right path towards achieving our long-term financial goals of driving growth and expanding margins. Now, please turn to slide six, where I'll speak to the P&L performance. As I just mentioned, we delivered revenue of $2.01 billion, which was up 7.0% compared to the same period a year ago. This was primarily driven by growth in the communications networks and cloud infrastructure and markets. which Yuri will speak to in more detail as a part of his prepared remarks. Non-GAAP gross profit was $180.1 million, or 9.0% of revenue, up 20 basis points compared to the same period a year ago. This was driven by favorable mix as well as operational efficiencies. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $67.4 million, slightly above our outlook as we continued to make targeted investments to drive future growth. Non-GAAP operating profit was $112.7 million, or 5.6% of revenue, up 10 basis points compared to the same period a year ago, driven by mix, focused execution, and effective cost management. It's important to note that our non-GAAP operating margin continues to be in line with the 5% to 6% short-term target range that we have previously communicated. Non-GAAP other income and expense was $2.3 million of net expense favorable to our guidance driven by our strong cash flow results. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share came in at $1.44 based on approximately 56 million shares outstanding up 10.8% compared to the same period a year ago, or up 16.2% if you normalize for the tax rate change. As we mentioned on our prior call, we expect fiscal 2025 to be a growth year, and our results for the first quarter represent a solid start towards achieving that objective. Now, please turn to slide seven, where I'll speak to the segment results. IMS revenue came in at $1.62 billion, up 7.8% compared to the same period a year ago, driven by growth in the majority of our end markets, but primarily in the communications networks and cloud infrastructure end markets. IMS non-gap gross margin was 7.9%, up about 30 basis points compared to the same period a year ago, due primarily to favorable mix and operational efficiencies. DPS revenue came in at $416 million, up 5.4% compared to the same period a year ago, driven by higher demand in most of our end markets. DPS non-GAAP gross margin was 12.5%, down about 40 basis points compared to the same period a year ago, driven by unfavorable mix. While we're pleased with the performance of the IMS and CPS businesses this quarter, there is still room to improve, both in terms of revenue growth and margin expansion. And as such, we will continue to focus on doing those going forward. Now please turn to slide eight, where I'll speak to the balance sheet highlights. As with the P&L results, we maintained a very strong balance sheet in the first quarter. Cash and cash equivalents were $642 million. At the end of the quarter, we had no outstanding borrowings on our $800 million revolver, leaving us with substantial liquidity of approximately $1.5 billion. We ended the quarter with inventory, net of customer advances of $1.3 billion, which was down approximately 5% versus the same period a year ago. When you look at our inventory reduction from either an inventory returns or days of inventory perspective, it represents a notable improvement from a year ago. While we're pleased with these results, there is still more work to be done when you look at where we've been historically, so inventory will continue to be an area of focus for us going forward. Our non-GAAP pre-tax ROIC was 23.5% for the quarter, well above our weighted average cost of capital, and an improvement from the 22.7% from the same period a year ago. As I've mentioned many times before, we have one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry, with no net debt and a low gross leverage ratio of 0.49 times, which puts us in a great position to execute on our long-term financial goals to drive growth and expand margins. Now, please turn to slide 9, where I'll speak to the cash flow highlights. As a result of the team's disciplined working capital management, our first quarter cash flow from operations came in at a solid $64 million. Capital expenditures were $17 million for the quarter, below our outlook, largely due to timing. We continue to expect capital expenditures to be between 1% to 2% of revenue on a full year basis, consistent with historical practice. Also, as I've mentioned before, We will continue to make strategic investments in the technology and capabilities needed to strengthen our position in the market and support our long-term financial goals. Free cash flow was $47 million. During the quarter, we repurchased 206,000 shares for approximately $16 million. As of December 28th, 2024, we had $37 million remaining on our current share repurchase program. We're pleased with our strong cash flow performance as it gives us the flexibility to continue to invest in the business and return capital to our shareholders all through a disciplined and balanced capital allocation approach. Now please turn to slide 10 where I'll speak to our capital allocation priorities. When it comes to capital allocation, it's incredibly important to have a clear strategy and a well-defined set of priorities when making decisions. Each quarter, we evaluate our capital allocation options and look for opportunities to maximize shareholder value, all while taking a disciplined ROI-based approach. As I've mentioned before, our long-term financial goals are to drive growth and expand margins, and as such, Two key capital allocation priorities are number one, funding investments in organic growth, and number two, investing in strategic M&A and partnerships. It's also important to manage our leverage ratio, so we closely monitor our debt level and take the appropriate actions. And lastly, another key capital allocation option that can help us drive shareholder value is share repurchases. We believe that our stock is undervalued in the market, and as such, share repurchases remain an attractive capital allocation option. To that end, earlier today, we announced that our Board of Directors authorized an additional $300 million of share repurchases, which is incremental to the amount remaining on our prior program. This authorization has no expiration date, as we intend to continue to repurchase shares opportunistically and in the context of the capital allocation strategy I just outlined. Now please turn to slide 11, where I'll provide our outlook for the second quarter, which is based on what we have seen in the market, the forecast from our customers, and takes into consideration our typical seasonality. Our second quarter outlook is as follows. We expect revenue between $1.9 billion to $2.0 billion, which at the midpoint of $1.95 billion puts us up 6.3% compared to the same period a year ago. Non-GAAP gross margin of 8.4% to 8.8% dependent on mix. Operating expenses of $60 million to $64 million. Non-GAAP operating margin of 5.3% to 5.7%. We expect other income and expense to be a net expense of approximately $5 million. A tax rate of 20% to 22%. This is in line with our prior tax rate outlook, which as a reminder, is up from the prior year due to the final utilization of our US federal net operating losses the impact of the Pillar 2 global minimum tax, mix of jurisdictional earnings, and other tax credits and incentives. We estimate an approximate $3.0 million to $3.5 million non-cash reduction to our net income to reflect our India-JV partners' equity interest. Non-GAAP EPS in the range of $1.30 to $1.40 based on approximately 56 million fully diluted shares outstanding. At the midpoint of $1.35, that would put us up 3.5% compared to the same period a year ago, or up 9.5% if you normalize for the tax rate change. Capital expenditures to be around $30 million, and finally, depreciation of approximately $30 million. In summary, based on the demand signals from our customers and our second quarter outlook, continue to expect FY25 to be a growth year. We believe we have the right set of customers and capabilities to be successful and are well positioned to take advantage of the opportunities ahead. And with that, let me turn the call over to Yuri.

speaker
Yuri Sola
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, John. Ladies and gentlemen, let me add a few more comments about our results for the first quarter and the rest of the fiscal year. 2025, and beyond. As you heard from John, our team delivers solid execution and excellent service to our customers. Revenue, gross margin, operating margin, and non-GAAP earnings per share were either met or exceeded our outlook. So overall, a good quarter. I can also tell you that our customers' inventories continue to come down. We're also starting to see new programs ramp up, as we planned beginning of the year, and we see more positive trends from our customers. To talk more about it, please turn to slide 14. Let's look at the outlook at the revenue by end markets for the first quarter. Industrial and energy, medical, defense, aerospace, and automotive was 63% of our revenue. came at $1,269,000,000. It grew slightly of 1% year-over-year. Communication networks and cloud infrastructure was 37% of our revenue, $737,000,000 growth of 19% year-over-year. For the first quarter, total revenue of $2,000,000,000-plus is a solid start to a new year, a year-over-year growth of 7%. As you can see, top 10 customers for a quarter was 50.1% of our revenue. Bookings were solid, book to build came one to one. Please turn to slide 15. We continue to invest in key markets to drive the future growth. Industrial and energy, we have strong customer base and we see new project in the pipeline to drive the growth. Medical, as always, we have solid customer base, well-diversified within the market, and we see positive trends for a long-term growth. Defense and aerospace, we continue to see strong market opportunities, and we expect new programs to drive the growth. Automotive and transportation, we continue to see solid demand. We see positive trends and opportunities for a long-term growth. High density, high performance networks. AI is driving these opportunities around these high performance networks and optical business. For cloud infrastructure, we see exciting opportunities. For cloud infrastructure, we're expanding our capabilities to meet present and future demand. Sanmina provides industry-leading capabilities, end-to-end solution from design to systems. For this segment, we provide high technology printed circuit boards, which we fabricate here in the United States and Singapore. We assemble this product. We also fabricate and manufacture the rock enclosure and open rocks, how do I say, and liquid cooling systems. We provide design and server for storage systems. We provide optical modules. End of the day, we put all these things together and we deliver fully integrated systems to our customers. Please turn to slide 16. Let me add a few more comments about fiscal year 25 outlook. For fiscal year 25, we're forecasting revenue growth in a high single digits. We expect growth to come from new and existing programs. We are also adding new customers with higher margin opportunities. We are focused on margin expansion and earnings growth. Earning per share should grow at faster rate than revenue in fiscal year 25. Short term, as John mentioned, our operating margin will be stable at that 5% to 6%. But as you see, for the first quarter, we delivered operating margin of 5.6% compared to the last quarter of 5.3%. Very nice improvement, quarter over quarter. Long-term, for our business model, we expect to deliver operating margin of 6 plus percent. Again, for the fiscal year 25, we expect to continue to generate strong cash flow and will continue to maximize shareholders' value short-term and long-term. Please turn to slide 17. In summary, we're focused on going diversification in the key markets to drive profitable growth. Our manufacturing footprint is well aligned with the customer needs for the future. Sanmina will deliver consistent cash generation to fund the business with disciplined approach. We remain focused on fundamentals and future financial performance. Sanmina continues to be a partner of our choice with our customers. the market leaders. We continue to execute on our strategy, and we are positioning Sanmina to be a bigger company in the future. Again, we are confident we will grow revenue, expand margin, grow earnings per share, and generate cash in fiscal year 25 and beyond. We're excited about Sanmina's future. So ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank you all for your time and support. Operator, we're now ready to open the lines for questions and answers. Thank you all again. Operator.

speaker
Operator
Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press star followed by the number one on your touchstone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star followed by the number two. If you are using a speakerphone, please make sure to lift your handset before pressing any keys. Your first question comes from the line of Rupul Bhattacharya from Bank of America. Your line is now open.

speaker
Rupul Bhattacharya
Analyst at Bank of America

Hi, thank you for taking my questions. Hi, Yuri. I wanted to ask you about the guidance for Fiscal 25, so your guiding for high single-digit growth in revenues. One aspect of that is the cloud infrastructure business. Can you remind us how much of this growth, high single digits, do you think comes from this cloud infrastructure segment? And you talked about adding new capabilities. So what is it that you're doing today? What is the capability that you're adding? And how many customers do you have? Do you have one customer in cloud infrastructure? And how do you see that business growing?

speaker
Yuri Sola
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Well, first of all, Ruplu, excellent question. Number one, Samina is well diversified across the key markets that I just talked about. You know, industrial and energy is our largest single market. Then it's communication networks. Then medical. and defense and aerospace, and then cloud infrastructure. So as you can see, we're well diversified. We have an industry-leading customer base that's been with Samina for a long time. A specific question regarding cloud infrastructure, I think what we bring to this segment is an end-to-end solution. We continue to invest. It's the market that we see more upside for a growth based on what we offer to this market. We provide services here that are end-to-end from design to full system. We provide high technology boards that we fabricated here in North America or Singapore for North American European markets. We ship into this segment today rock enclosures out of our California operations and out of Mexico, including liquid cooling. We design through our Viking Enterprise storage group. We design storage product and servers. We've been in that business for a long time. We are establishing that business to grow. The key for us here at Ruplo is not just to do integration. but to offer some critical components that go inside of the rock and then fully integrate that and test and deliver that product fully assembled to the customer side. That's the model. So we are supplying not every hyperscaler or data center we supply everything, but we're starting to expand into this market. But at the same time, we've been supporting this market through our components for a long time. So it's an opportunity for us to grow. We've been investing fairly, especially in the last 12 months, and we'll continue because we have some great customer opportunity that I believe will allow us to grow. But we're not just dependent on this segment. We are well diversified, and we have no customer today over 10%. So well diversified. And the most important, we got some new, exciting customers that are top customers today.

speaker
John Faust
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

And I think just to add to that, if I can, this is John. So just a couple other things to note. If you look at the Q1 performance specifically, the communication networks and cloud infrastructure and markets, they grew 19% year over year. Now, the other category, industrial, energy, medical, defense, and aerospace, and automotive was more flat. But in my prepared remarks, I mentioned how the majority of our end markets grew. So there was one that's still under pressure. But all in all, we expect that growth, back to your first question, to come from all. And then on the capabilities point, I'll just add to Yuri's comments. We are making targeted investments in R&D, certain programs to build out those capabilities. You know that we've got some of our own IP, Viking Enterprise Solutions, for example. So looking at programs like that that can help us drive that future growth that I mentioned.

speaker
Rupul Bhattacharya
Analyst at Bank of America

Got it. Can I ask on the communication segment, I think, Yuri, you made a statement that the inventory at customers is going down. You know, this segment has been going through an inventory correction for the last year plus. Do you think that that inventory correction is over, and how do you see your communication segment revenues growing this year?

speaker
Yuri Sola
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

First of all, I would say, as I said in my prepared statement, Rupu, the inventory continues to come down. I still believe there's a little bit left, but let's use the word. I think we're in the last inning. Let's say if there's a ninth inning in this game, I think we're in an eighth or ninth inning. It depends on our customers. So definitely... There's a lot more excitement in communication and networking side of the business, especially in high-end networks that we participate in and high-end optical modules and so on. But how do I see this business? We expect this business definitely to grow a fair amount this year, at least what we've seen today and what we've seen from our key customers.

speaker
Rupul Bhattacharya
Analyst at Bank of America

Okay. Maybe I'll ask a question to John. You announced that the board had authorized a new $300 million buyback. You also laid out your priorities for cash. Given that, do you see more opportunity to have M&A in organic growth? And how should we think about the pace of the buybacks?

speaker
John Faust
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, so, you know, as I was mentioning in my comments, Rupalu, like when we think about capital allocation, we're all about driving growth. That's why the first two that I mentioned was, you know, investing in organic growth and then looking for opportunities and strategic M&A and partnerships, right? So we kind of lean more towards that because we really want to drive growth. But if we don't see immediate opportunities... Like that's when we can go towards share repurchases. And I think everybody's seen, you've seen our debt levels. We don't have a lot of long-term debt. So we service that, but it's at attractive rates. And that's why if you look at like last year, for example, we returned almost 100% of free cash flow to shareholders because that was an attractive option to share repurchases. And we felt that our stock was undervalued. And like I was saying earlier, we still believe that we're undervalued today. So it remains to be an attractive option. But as opportunities come up quarter to quarter, Yuri and I will look at those and we'll make decisions, you know, on an ROI basis to say, hey, what's the best place to use or the best way to use our cash?

speaker
Rupul Bhattacharya
Analyst at Bank of America

Thank you for all the details. Appreciate it.

speaker
Yuri Sola
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks.

speaker
Operator
Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Stephen Fox from Fox Advisors. Please go ahead.

speaker
Stephen Fox
Analyst at Fox Advisors

Hi, good afternoon.

speaker
Operator
Operator

Hey, Steven. How are you?

speaker
Stephen Fox
Analyst at Fox Advisors

Hi. I'm very good. Thank you. I guess, first off, you mentioned mix a bunch of times in terms of influencing, I think, generally positively the margins for the quarter and looking forward. Can you just be more specific on what the positive mix drivers were and maybe any negative mix drivers in the quarter that were partial offsets? And then I had a follow-up.

speaker
John Faust
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Sure. Yeah. So let me speak to it from a segment perspective, Steve, right? So on the IMS side, you look at our gross margin profile, and we did pretty well year over year and sequentially, right? And we've talked long term, what's the expectations for IMS margins and CPS? And so IMS is more trending to the high end, and it's really the mix of the programs, right? Yuri talked about the customers that we have We think we've got good diversification in customers, and we're always targeting high-end programs, and every year we look to add more and more of those. So this past quarter, IMS did well, had a good mix of programs, and then we're always focused, the culture of San Minas, around operational efficiencies. So a lot of the capital investments that we made last year, for example, were about driving those efficiencies. If you go all the way back to 23, we were putting incremental capacity in place, and we still do that, But I would say last year it was more – trended more towards the efficiency side, so good outcome for IMS. On the CPS side, you know, we were pleased with the gross margin performance there, too, at about 12.5%. But that was down year over year from about 13. So I mentioned the 40 basis points. So we had a couple programs there that were on the lower end, but still pleased with where CPS is at. You know, if you look at the last year, we were hovering between the 12%, 13% of gross margin there. And that was in a down year. So we were pleased with that performance. And Q1 is a solid start. But as Yuri and I have talked about before, we think that there's more upside in that gross margin profile for CPS. So that's a big area where we're making investments, too, because we think longer term we should be able to do a couple points better there.

speaker
Stephen Fox
Analyst at Fox Advisors

That's helpful. But I'm just curious, is there any specific certain markets that were most responsible? Or, John, are you saying that it was mainly because you're the mix of new programs is more attractive. I just want to make sure I understand the drivers, and then I had a follow-up.

speaker
John Faust
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I would say on the IMS side, you know, we were pretty balanced between the end markets. I wouldn't say, Steve, that there was one or another, you know, that drove it to be much different. CPS side, you know, that business is a little bit different, the components, products, and services, right? And so that's really just a mix between the divisions from time to time, but not much of a difference there in terms of end markets either.

speaker
Yuri Sola
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Steve, just to add to that, if you look at our markets, we came basically plus or minus 1% compared to the last quarter from the mix.

speaker
Stephen Fox
Analyst at Fox Advisors

Right, right, right. That's helpful. And then I guess obviously there's been a lot of talk today about the future of cloud computing architectures, and you just obviously had a great quarter there. Can you just maybe give us a little more insight into what your customer needs are over state administration?

speaker
Yuri Sola
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, so first of all, let me qualify that I'm not 100% export. My job is to service our customers. There's a lot of positive trends out there with the key customers. And, Stephen, as you know, we provide wide services from fabricating high-technology, high-speed printer circuit boards for designing custom storage product. We're also expanding into servers. You know, fabricating rocks, we've been fabricating rocks for hyperscalers for the last 10 years. We're now expanding into more liquid cooling. We're working with our customers by providing more value to those rocks. We custom designed some of these. So we're well diversified, but we are really also pushing more and more to provide a fully integrated rocks at the high level. So we still believe there's opportunities, and we're just starting to really expand that business. You know, it's not a major impact or growth for us today or the last 12 months, but we believe it's going to be more positive in 2025. But as we look at the, you know, longer term, we think there's more opportunity just the way Samina is set up.

speaker
Stephen Fox
Analyst at Fox Advisors

Great. That's super helpful, Yuri. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star, followed by the number one on your touchtone phone. If you'd like to decline from the polling process, please press star, then the number two. If you're using a speakerphone, please make sure you lift your handset before pressing any keys. Again, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star, followed by the number one. Your next question comes from the line of Anya Shutterstorm from Sidoni. Please go ahead. Hello, Anja.

speaker
Anya Shutterstorm
Analyst at Sidoni

Hi, thank you for taking my questions here. I'm just wondering, for the revenue target for fiscal 2025, is there a specific end market you think is going to be a main driver for that, or is it going to be more broad-based?

speaker
Yuri Sola
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

I think for us, Anja, right now, what we're seeing today is more broad-based. Industrial energy is still a very strong market for us. That's percentage-wise our largest segment. We've got a lot of great customers there and some good new opportunities in pipeline. Medical for us is stable. It's a solid base. Maybe short term it's a slower growth, but the long term we've got a customer base that I believe will be able to expand longer term. area that we are counting on more on, and we're investing a lot in defense and aerospace. We see a lot of strong market opportunities. We added additional management in that segment, and we'll continue to invest in that segment going forward. So in the next couple of years, we see a lot of opportunities there. For automotive and transportation, as I said earlier, We have a very strong customer base there with a lot of growth. We continue to see some, you know, solid, stable demand, and we expect to have an overall good year. Back to that, you know, cloud communication networks and what we call high-performance networks and cloud infrastructure, I think we always were well-positioned there, both on the enterprise side, private data centers, and we're starting to expand into hyperscaler. I think there's some good opportunities. So I'm more thinking, you know, 25 will be a growth year for us, as we said in our prepared statements, but we're really positioned company to be a lot bigger company than what we are today, and we're a lot more excited what we see in the future. Hopefully we are right that we'll exit a strong 25, and there should be a lot more in 26 and beyond.

speaker
Anya Shutterstorm
Analyst at Sidoni

Okay, and when you talk about the long-term operating margin target of 6% plus, what kind of timeframe are you talking about there? What kind of revenue level do you need to achieve this?

speaker
Yuri Sola
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Well, we like to get there right away. I think that we believe that our business model allowed us to get there, especially if we've been expanding our component businesses. We will continue to invest in that side of the business because that delivers, as you can see, better margin. Yeah, we like to see our revenue run rate around another 10%. I think once we get a run rate about $9 billion plus, I think we should be at that 6% plus and go from there.

speaker
John Faust
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I think to add to that, Ania, this is John. If you go back in time, it was back in Q1 of 23 when we did about $2.35 billion of revenue that we had posted an operating margin of 6%, but Even this quarter here in Q1, our gross margin was about nine, just shy of 9%. Now, Yuri and I made some targeted investments in our OPEX profile, right? So operating margin was at 5.6%. And we did that because Yuri mentioned we're trying to drive the company to become much bigger, right? So we need to make those types of investments. So, you know, we're in that ballpark, like Yuri said, but, you know, we're always focused on the long term, you know, and when we see those good investments to make, We'll do those because we're really focused on the long-term success.

speaker
Anya Shutterstorm
Analyst at Sidoni

Okay. And have you seen any changes to the competitive landscape at all?

speaker
Yuri Sola
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

You never underestimate your competitors. I think there's more discipline in industry. I think industry itself understands we add a lot of value to our customers. This is not a simple business when it comes to global supply chain and managing material and technology. You know, to be good in this business, you have to invest strategically. So our customers understand that. You know, it's more we're building strong partnership, and I personally believe that industry has a better future than what we saw, let's say, in the last three years.

speaker
Anya Shutterstorm
Analyst at Sidoni

Okay, thank you. That was all from me.

speaker
Yuri Sola
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks a lot. Thank you for your support, Tanya.

speaker
Operator
Operator

There are no further questions at this time, so I'd like to turn the call over back to Yuri for any further comments. Sir, please go ahead.

speaker
Yuri Sola
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Well, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, thank you for your time. We appreciate your support. And if we didn't answer all your questions, please get back to us. Otherwise, looking forward to talking to you 90 days from now. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Bye-bye.

speaker
Operator
Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you very much for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Disclaimer

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