Vishay Precision Group, Inc.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the VPG's third quarter of the school 2024 earnings school. My name is Ezra and I will be your coordinator today. I would like if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. Now, if you change your mind, please press star followed by two. I will now hand you over to your host, Steve Cantor, senior director of investor relations to begin. Steve, please go ahead.

Thank you, Ezra, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our third quarter 2024 earnings call. Our Q3 release and slides have been posted on our website at vpgsensors.com. An audio recording of today's call will be available on the internet for a limited time and can also be accessed on our website. Today's remarks are governed by the safe harbor provisions of the 1995 Private Security Litigation Reform Act. Our actual results may vary from forward-looking statements. For discussion of the risks associated with BPG's operations, we encourage you to refer to our SEC filings, especially the Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, and our other recent SEC filings. On the call today, are Ziv Shoshani, CEO and President, and Bill Clancy, CFO. I'll now turn the call to Ziv for some prepared remarks. Ziv.

Thank you, Steve. I will begin with some commentary on our results and trends for the third quarter. Bill will provide financial details about the quarter and our outlook for the fourth quarter of 2024. Moving to slide three, Overall, third quarter was as follows. Total sales were mostly stable sequentially. The business environment continues to be mixed, as higher demand in some markets was offset by weakness in others. We continue to focus on broadening our funnel of new business opportunities. We are streamlining operations, mainly in the sensors and weighing solution segments. The recent acquisition of NOCRA expand our product offering in the steel market. Moving to slide four, looking at the third quarter results in details. We reported sales of 75.7 million, which was above the mid range of our guidance. Orders of 68.6 million declined from 73.5 million in the second quarter. resulting in a book-to-bill ratio of 0.91. Trends continue to be mixed in our markets as orders generally represented customers' ongoing replenishment of inventories. The majority of bookings declined related to certain cyclical markets, including steel and consumer. This contrasted with higher orders in the test and measurement and AMS which remains well below peak levels. Operationally, we reduced our manufacturing operations to align with near-term revenue trends. These steps resulted in temporary labor inefficiencies, primarily in our sensor segment. Combined with the impact of sequentially lower revenues, these inefficiencies contributed to a gross margin of 40% in the third quarter. We do not expect these labor inefficiencies to continue in the fourth quarter. As we continue our growth-focused investments in business development, marketing, and R&D, we are streamlining our operating costs and implementing our long-term cost reduction plans. Over the past few years, these programs have improved our gross margin and going forward will position us to realize potential operating leverage as our revenue recovers. I will now review our business segment performance for the third quarter. Moving to slide five, beginning with our sensor segment, third quarter revenue was $28.2 million, down 13.3% from a year ago and 2.3% sequentially. Compared to the second quarter, sales of precision resistors, primarily in the test and measurement and AMS, were higher, but were offset by lower sales of advanced sensors, mainly for consumer applications. Book-to-bill for sensors was .89, as the third quarter orders for sensors of 25.1 million softened sequentially primarily due to lower bookings for consumer-related applications. This offset higher orders in the test and measurement and AMS, while semiconductor equipment manufacturers' customers have placed semi-annual orders to replenish their inventories. The semiconductor market remains cyclically soft. Regarding business development activities, we continued our focus on expanding our precision resistors in fiber optics equipment. During the third quarter, we achieved design qualification for our resistor products in telecommunications market, as well as recording an order from a supplier of source laser used in fiber optics equipment. For advanced sensors, we continued our progress with a project with a leading developer of humanoid robots and are now in discussion with the second maker of such robots. In consumer, we received initial orders from a large global bicycle accessory company, and in medical, we achieved a key design win with a maker of infusion pumps. Moving to slide six, in the weighing solution segment, Third quarter sales were 25.2 million, a decline of 13.1% from a year ago, and 8.3% from the second quarter. Sequentially, the decline was mainly due to lower sales in the industrial weighing, transportation, and in other markets. Book-to-bill for weighing solutions was 1.0%, orders of 25.2 million were essentially even with the second quarter as lower orders in the transportation market offset higher bookings in the industrial weighing and other markets. Overall, slowing industrial production and capital spending around the world continues to be a headwind. In our other markets, we have seen modest improvement in precision ag while construction and medical remain slow. As a key area of business development focus for weighing solutions continues to be on expanding our content with OEM customers in precision agriculture, construction equipment, and medical equipment. Moving to slide seven, turning to our measurement system segment, third quarter revenue was $22.4 million, down 8.2% year over year, but up 6.2% sequentially. The sequential growth was mainly due to higher sales of DTS products in the AMS and transportation markets, which offset declines in our other markets and in steel. Book-to-bill ratio for measurement systems was 0.82, reflecting orders of 18.2 million. This was a decline of 16.9% from the second quarter, primarily due to lower bookings in steel and transportation. While the steel market in China remains soft, we are expanding our business in India which is one of the fastest-growing markets globally for steel production. In transportation, orders soften for our DTS crash test data recorders due primarily to project timing. Moving to slide 8, we were pleased to announce the acquisition of Nokra, a German niche supplier for laser-based measurement systems. which strategically expand our product offering to the steel and metal processing market. NOCRA precision laser-based systems provide an effective alternative for measuring the thickness and flatness of metal sheets during production. In 2025, we expect to grow NOCRA revenues as we leverage KELC strong brand sales channels and existing customer base. We finance the transaction with cash and expect it to be immediately accretive. Given our strong balance sheet, our capital allocation strategy, prioritize internal investments, and funding additional M&A opportunities that add high-quality businesses to the VPG platform. Moving to slide nine, before turning the call to Bill, I want to highlight the release of our initial sustainability report. This report marks a significant milestone in VPG's sustainability journey. We take great pride on how VPG contributes to a more sustainable world by helping to make our customers, products, and processes safer, smarter, and more productive to deliver long-term value creation globally. We look forward to sharing more milestones in the future. I will now turn it over to Bill Clancy for additional financial details. Bill?

Bill Clancy Thanks, Steve. Referring to slide 10 and the reconciliation tables of the slide deck, our third quarter revenues were $75.7 million. gross margin in the third quarter was 40% as compared to 41.9% in the second quarter. By segment, gross margin for the sensor segment of 31% declined sequentially, primarily due to lower revenue and temporary operational and labor inefficiencies. The weighing solutions gross margin of 35.1% was lower than in the second quarter, primarily due to lower volume and unfavorable product mix. Measurement system gross margin of 56.8% improved sequentially, reflecting higher volume and favorable product mix. Total selling, general, and administrative expenses for the third quarter of 26.3 million, or 34.8% of revenues, declined slightly from 26.5 million 34.3 percent in the second quarter. Operational margin was 5.1 percent as compared to 7.6 percent for the second quarter, primarily reflecting the lower revenue. On a GAAP basis, we recorded a loss per diluted share of 10 cents. This includes the impact of unrealized foreign exchange loss of 2.9 million dollars a restructuring charge of $82,000, and discrete tax items of $839,000. Excluding those items, adjusted net earnings per diluted share for the third quarter was 19 cents, which compared to 31 cents in the second quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was $8.1 million, or 10.7% of revenue, as compared to $10.2 million, or 13.2% in the second quarter. Purchase CapEx in the third quarter was $1.8 million. For the full fiscal year of 2024, we expect the purchase CapEx to be in the range of $10 to $12 million, which is significantly lower than the levels we have spent in the past few years. Adjusted free cash flow was a negative $2.3 million, which compared to $4.9 million for the second quarter. The third quarter cash flow included $3 million of one-time tax payments and $1.4 million related to global insurance renewals. We defined adjusted free cash flow as cash from operating activities of a negative $831,000, less capex of $1.8 million, plus proceeds from the sale of assets of $300,000. During the quarter, we repurchased $1.9 million of stock. The third quarter operational tax rate was 30%, reflecting the income earned in higher tax rate jurisdictions. We are assuming an operational tax rate of 30% for the full year of 2024. Moving to slide 11. We ended the third quarter with $81.1 million of cash and cash equivalents and total debt of $31.6 million. During the third quarter, we amended and restated our $75 million credit facility that will mature in August of 2029. This provides us with ample liquidity for our operational needs as well as to support our capital allocation strategy. Regarding the outlook, for the fourth fiscal quarter, given the current market conditions and our backlog, we expect net revenues to be in the range of $70 million to $78 million at content third fiscal quarter 2024 exchange rates. In summary, The business environment remains challenging as our cyclical markets are soft. We remain focused on our business development initiatives, and we believe we are positioned to realize significant incremental operating leverage as revenues improve. With that, let's open the lines for questions. Thank you.

Thank you very much. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. Please ensure your device is unmuted locally. And if you change your mind, please press star followed by two. Our first question comes from Griffin Boss with B Reilly Securities. Griffin, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. The first, I just want to be clear, the labor inefficiencies that you discussed in the censors segment, so those were completely behind you when you entered the fourth quarter? Did I hear that correctly?

Yes, already in the beginning of the fourth quarter, we have seen a significant improvement regarding the inefficiencies that we have booked in the third quarter. So that is correct, Griffin.

Okay, great. And then just when I'm looking at the free cash flow for the quarter, it looks like DSOs stepped up to a relative high, you know, slightly higher than what they've been historically, at least over the past three years. Is there anything to read into there as it relates to certain customers, or is that just kind of a one-time step up this quarter?

No, Griffin, I would say it's probably a one-time. We had, you know, I would say some sales that happened in the last week of the third quarter. We truly believe this is one-time. And as I mentioned, you know, on the call, speaking about cash flows, we did have over like, you know, $3 million one-time tax payments and $1.4 million related to our insurance program renewals. So our anticipation would be back in the fourth quarter to be a positive free cash flow.

Okay, great. Thanks, Bill. And then just switching to new projects, you mentioned humanoid robots. You got the second customer there. Can we think about that as a similar size to the first customer? I think you mentioned on the last call maybe a few hundred thousand dollars for the prototype stage. Just, yeah, curious the size of that second customer.

Sure. As I've indicated in earlier calls, we have been working very diligently with the sizeable humanoid robots. We already are expecting to book significant revenues for this year. At this point in time, given the discussion and the forward-looking projection from this customer, we are expecting revenues to double. for 2025, and this is still not the full production. This is still on a pre-production level. Regarding the second humanoid customer, we are still in early stages of design. We believe that the potential size of the customer could be very similar to the initial one, but we are very early in the design stage, but we are already working with them. also a very, I would say, sizable potential upside once it comes to a full-blown production.

Excellent. Got it. Thank you, Steve. And just maybe last one for me. It's nice to see the M&A, Naukra. You mentioned you expect to grow revenues in 2025, and I understand it's a relatively small business, but how much of that growth would you expect is organic versus coming from being integrated into the broader Calc business with those distribution channels?

The Nokra product line, with Nokra, we purchased the technology for an adjacent product portfolio which would broaden our Calc. We believe that leveraging on Calc sales channels and existing customers, we can increase Nokra revenue I would say significantly in 2025. We have not provided the run rate, but I could say that we are looking at roundabout, I would say, mid-single-digit revenues for NOCRA, which would be almost doubling their revenue in respect to... to 2024. All in all, we have seen some headwinds, as I've indicated earlier, in the steel business, mainly due to the China soft business and soft construction business. But for us, the main driver at this point in time is the India investments. India is the second largest steel manufacturer, and they are investing I would say, quite significantly in their infrastructure. So all in all, between the NOCRA acquisition and the India, I would say, investments, we believe that, you know, going forward, we would be more optimistic regarding steel.

Okay, great, Keller. Thanks for taking my questions. Appreciate it. Thanks Griffin.

Our next question is from John Franz Red with Doty John. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Good morning everyone and thanks for taking the questions. I guess I'd like to consider the end market mix and how you view it today versus how you viewed it three months ago. Ziv, are you seeing any notable changes that weren't maybe something you were expecting when you reported the second quarter results?

Sure, absolutely. So first, I think, John, it would be important to state that the biggest drop in Q in the third quarter in order intake was in the measurement systems. We had some few large projects that have been pushed out. They're working from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. So if we speak about the business environment, we are expecting in Q4 to be back to the mid-$70 million range in terms of bookings. Now, going to the different end markets and the dynamics, I would say that initially when we had discussions with partners with some large customers, for example, in the semiconductor market or in the general industrial market, there was more a little bit optimism regarding a potential upside. On the other hand, at the test and some other test and measurement, customers, we have seen that their stock levels, have gone down and they started to place order in order to replenish their stock level, which means we have not seen or we do not expect to see yet a larger potential upside coming from an additional demand, but at this point it's coming from the stock replenishment order pattern. On the other hand, Europe and especially UK, given the economy, is still fairly soft. And at the end of the day, I would like also to say that on precision agriculture, we have seen more optimism as they have increased their order intake in Q3. So all in all, it's a mixed environment. We have a certain confidence level, talking to our customers based on their projection. But I would say that a little bit on the longer term, the initial interest rates cuts and the expectation for more cuts gives us a much, I would say, stronger feel to be optimistic regarding a real recovery in the next few quarters. given the fact that many of our customers are in the capital spending related business.

Okay. Against that backdrop, can you kind of update us on potential levers you could pull to reduce operating costs that are under consideration? Or do you think that given the current environment, that you're happy with the manufacturing footprint and the operational expense footprint as currently constituted?

So regarding operational cost reduction beyond the continuous investment, capital investments in automation and in process improvements, we continue to streamline our operations. The expectation is, I mean, we are already in a further relocation of products from high-labor countries to our India facility from various locations in North America, in Europe, and in other places. Naturally, I cannot share detailed information given HR-related issues, but the expectation is that once those projects are, that those projects are expected to realize multi-million dollar savings as we continue to consolidate operations into our large India-based operation. And they are not only necessarily regarding the initial load cells base. We have decided also to streamline more activities on the operational side and also in other staff-based functions.

Understood. And then I guess lastly, regarding M&A, was NOCRA a customer of yours? Can you talk a little bit about the development of that purchase. And in addition, when you think about other near-term M&A targets, is it more the smaller, highly profitable ones that you're looking at, or are you looking at larger revenue contributions?

NOCRA was not a customer. We knew NOCRA given the fact that when we had discussions with customers, our current customer base, they wanted us to provide them with a wider and a larger product portfolio, which we couldn't offer. We have identified NOCRA as a small technology company that could provide or that could fit within the Calc portfolio. And given the fact that we have the sales channel, we believe that it would be fairly easy to realize those business synergies and to leverage and to grow NOCRA revenues in a fairly quick way. Regarding other M&A, in fact, we are looking at similar businesses like Nokra, but also we are looking at other businesses that could realize operational synergies if those businesses are within our own current portfolio or could add an adjacent sensing technology servicing our customer base. But it would vary from a smaller potential customers to a much larger potential customers.

Understood. Thanks. You can take my questions. I'll get back into queue.

Thank you. Just as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad now. And please ensure your device is unmuted locally. If you change your mind or if your question has been answered, please press star two. Our next question is from Jeffrey Cohen with Mulholland Capital Management. Jeffrey, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Yeah, good morning. I apologize. I got onto the call late, but I'm just wondering, it looks like you repurchased some stock this last quarter. Is that right?

Yes, we did, Jeffrey. We repurchased $1.9 million of stock during the third quarter.

Okay. And I'm just kind of curious how you think about, you know, in terms of M&A relative to where your own stock is selling at this point. How do you think about that?

From a cap? Sorry, go ahead. From a capital allocation standpoint, we believe that our balance sheet could provide us supporting stock buyback, acquiring companies, and also continue to invest to support organic growth. Therefore, we do have all the means to support all three capital allocation strategies, and this is how we operate. Naturally, first is investing in the company to enhance organic growth, but M&A and stock buyback are also important. are also considered, and this is why we have been doing that.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you very much. That ends our Q&A session. I will now hand back over to Steve for any closing remarks.