Earnings Labs

Sanmina Corporation (SANM)

Q3 2016 Earnings Call· Mon, Jul 25, 2016

$209.02

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon. My name is Mariama and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Sanmina Corporation's Third Quarter 2016 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Paige Bombino, Vice President of Investor Relations. You may begin your conference.

Paige Bombino - Vice President-Investor Relations

Management

Thank you, Mariama. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Sanmina's Third Quarter Fiscal 2016 Earnings Call. A copy of today's release is available on our website in the Investor Relations section. You can follow along with our prepared remarks and the slides posted on our website. Please turn to page 2, the Safe Harbor statement. During this conference call, we may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding the future events or future financial performance of the company. We caution you that such statements are just projections. The company's actual results of operation may differ significantly as a result of various factors, including adverse changes to the key markets we target, risks arising from our international operations, credit problems experienced by our customers, competition that could cause us to lose sales, consolidation among our customers and suppliers that could adversely affect our business, and other factors set forth in the company's annual and quarterly reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You'll note in our press release and slides issued today that we have provided you with statements of operations for the three months and nine months ending July 2, 2016, on a GAAP basis, as well as certain non-GAAP financial information. A reconciliation between the GAAP and non-GAAP financial information is also provided in the press release and slides posted on our website. In general, our non-GAAP information excludes restructuring costs, acquisition and integration costs, noncash stock-based compensation expense, amortization expense, and certain other infrequent or unusual items to the extent material. 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,…

Operator

Operator

Your first question comes from the line of Herve Francois from B. Riley. Your line is open. Herve Daniel Francois - B. Riley & Co. LLC: Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you. Jure Sola - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Good afternoon. Robert K. Eulau - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Hi, Herve. Herve Daniel Francois - B. Riley & Co. LLC: Good afternoon. How's it going, guys? Nice quarter, by the way. Jure Sola - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you. Robert K. Eulau - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Thanks. Herve Daniel Francois - B. Riley & Co. LLC: You're welcome. You're welcome. Can you talk about when you – given your guidance for your fiscal fourth quarter, it's definitely a nice range – excuse me – on the revenue side that you gave, the $1.675 billion to $1.725 billion. What would allow the revenues for the fiscal fourth quarter to come in at the high end of the range? Would it be particular strength in new programs from an end market or some just existing business that you're doing with some of your existing customers, let's say, particularly in networking and optical that has been strong for you, and it seems like others in the industry? Jure Sola - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Well, Herve, let me answer that. First of all, the guidance that we gave you, based on information that we have today, we have pretty high confidence they will meet and hopefully even do better. But, let me say, as I mentioned earlier, Industrial and Medical segment for our fourth quarter looks pretty good. A lot of their programs are driven by new programs that we have. Our optical continues to be strong. We also won some new programs…

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jim Suva from Citibank. Your line is open. Robert K. Eulau - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Hi, Jim.

James Dickey Suva - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Broker

Thank you, and congratulations to you and your team there at Sanmina. Robert K. Eulau - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Thanks, Jim.

James Dickey Suva - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Broker

I have two questions, and I'll kind of ask them both the same time. Maybe the first one for Jure and the second one for Bob, if it fits well. But the first question, bigger picture. With the European Brexit and what's going on there, as well as some fluctuations in foreign currency globally that have happened, have you seen any order changes amongst your customers as we headed kind of, say, half the quarter closing to July? And then the follow-up question is probably for Bob is, on the gross margin line, it looks like year-over-year, you had been growing pretty materially for the past several quarters and now, that looks not longer to be the case. Can you help us understand about what's going on with gross margins? And are we kind of at a run rate for the gross margins? Are there some headwinds or some one-off issues that could potentially allow gross margins to grow – go further? Thank you. Jure Sola - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Hey, Jim. Jure here. Just to drag onto your first question, it – the European situation is kind of unique. I don't see – we didn't see any impact short term. I'm not smart enough to really answer that question, if there's going to be any impact longer term. I personally don't believe it's going to be major, if any, but it's something that we are monitoring. But I wouldn't worry about it, especially in short term. And to me, the short term, next 12 months. And we'll see what happens after that. Bob? Robert K. Eulau - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. So in terms of gross margin, as I mentioned, we've been in the range of 7.7% to 8.2% for over three years now, so I think we've actually been pretty consistent. In terms of the margins in the two segments, the – in Integrated Manufacturing Solutions, 7.2%, I think, is still very good, and we've got some new programs ramping we think we'll be able to improve in the IMS segment in spite of pretty solid performance already today. And then on the Components, Products & Services, as I mentioned, Products & Services profit was actually up sequentially, and the big challenge is on the Components side. And then the two big issues there are the ones that Jure mentioned. It's the Wireless Communications business and it's the Oil and Gas business. We still believe there's a lot of operating leverage in Components, Products & Services. That area is a challenge because it's high fixed costs, but it's also very high contribution margins. So, I think it just takes a little bit of revenue momentum in that segment and we'll be able to expand margins pretty quickly.

James Dickey Suva - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Broker

Great. Thank you so much for the details, gentlemen, and clarification. Thank you. Jure Sola - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Thanks, Jim. Robert K. Eulau - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Thanks, Jim.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Mitch Steves from RBC. Your line is open.

Mitch Steves - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Management

Hey, guys. Robert K. Eulau - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Hey, Mitch. Jure Sola - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Hello, Mitch.

Mitch Steves - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Management

Hey. Thanks for taking my question. So, I guess, my first question on the Communication Network piece. Just given that demand for optical seems to be positive across the board, is there a reason why the operating margin leverage is not being seen there? I would think that the optical side is probably higher margin business for you guys. Or am I thinking about that incorrectly? Jure Sola - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Well, yeah. Let me make – clarify that. First of all, optical business is still strong, and you're right, the margin of that business is great – good. We're really talking more about the wireless base station type of business that affected really our Components side of the business, both the mechanical and the circuit board side. And that's really to – basically, about the load. It had nothing to do with the profitability of the project itself. Robert K. Eulau - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. I probably – and I don't want to dwell on wireless too much. I mean, that's really our challenge. From an optical standpoint, our business is really very strong. And we have a very broad set of offerings in optical, all the way from active and passive components, up to final system test and assembly. So we think we've got a fantastic optical footprint. And we think we're really well positioned there for at least the next couple years.

Mitch Steves - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Management

Got it. And then secondly on the Set-Top Box side kind of on the Embedded Computing piece, was that a shift in types of products being created or just overall, just generally, just demand was weaker in the quarter? Jure Sola - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. We've been diversifying from that business now for the last two years, three years. Four years, five years ago, that was about 15% – five years ago, that was 15% of our revenue. Now, it's down to 2%. So that was down based on our plans. We'll still have probably some of that business. We have a – so it's really more per plan. And, of course, technology itself is changing in that segment.

Mitch Steves - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Management

Got it. Thank you. Robert K. Eulau - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Steven Fox from Cross Research. Your line is open.

Steven Fox - Cross Research LLC

Management

Thanks. Good afternoon. Robert K. Eulau - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Hi, Steve.

Steven Fox - Cross Research LLC

Management

Hi. Robert K. Eulau - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Hi, Steve.

Steven Fox - Cross Research LLC

Management

Hi. Two questions from me. First of all, I was wondering if we can get an update on the MSI relationship, how far along you are in terms of ramping to sort of full run rates. And then secondly, I'm just – I'm still a little confused on the CPS margins considering the revenues were kind of flat. Can you just talk a little bit about mix there, like whether there was one or two components that drove the margins down more than the others? And were you surprised during the quarter by oil and gas? Is that part of why the margins came back down to where they were two quarters ago? Thanks. Jure Sola - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Right. Well, Steve, first of all, on MSI, we're on a full production. We transitioned everything, no impact to our customer. We're building a future. It's very exciting. A lot of work to do, but things are moving up in a very strong direction. And so that was the most important, when you get into a relationship is, are you executing well, and sometimes you have to overdo it to do it right. I can report that it's doing great. So really, that is behind us now. It's all about continue to service our customers. I'll make a comment on CPS, then maybe Bob could talk a little bit more. I would say the biggest issue there is mix, and as we talked about earlier. So, Bob? Robert K. Eulau - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. No, it's definitely revenue and mix as there were some very high contribution margin areas where the revenue is extremely low. And those fixed costs don't go away. So what happened really hurts us from a gross margin standpoint.

Steven Fox - Cross Research LLC

Management

And that was mechanicals and circuit boards mostly? Robert K. Eulau - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Right. And again, within those areas, I would say it was probably four factories in total; three on the mechanical side and one on the printed circuit board side. It wasn't that we had every factory in trouble, it was some real focused areas.

Steven Fox - Cross Research LLC

Management

And then just did the Oil and Gas business come in, in terms of revenues as you expected when the quarter started or was that disappointing relative to your original expectations? Robert K. Eulau - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Yeah. We've been seeing a decline for quite a while. I think it's probably been at least a year and a half, if my memory serves me correctly. And I would say it wasn't significantly different than what we expected, just a challenging environment.

Steven Fox - Cross Research LLC

Management

Great. That's very helpful. Thank you. Jure Sola - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Thanks, Steve. Hey, operator, we have time for one more question?

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Christian Schwab from Craig-Hallum Capital. Your line is open. Jure Sola - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Hey, Christian. Robert K. Eulau - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Hey, Christian.

Christian David Schwab - Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC

Management

Hey, guys. Jure Sola - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: We always save the best, last.

Christian David Schwab - Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC

Management

Thanks, Jure. So, I just have – I just was wondering if you could give us an update on optical as a percentage of total revenue, where we are roughly today. Jure Sola - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: I can answer that question. We usually don't give you that, but at New York, we talked about it. That optical business is well over $1 billion and growing. So I would like to leave it at that. But if you really look at it in a whole communications side of the business, that's what we've been investing a lot in the last five years, six years, all the way from a component level to the full system level. So company is well positioned. I believe in our industry, there's only one company out there, a smaller company. I won't mention their name for – I don't want to give them too much credit, but they're a good company. They really can compete with us. But we are continuing to invest, and most importantly, I think we – our name is well recognized on that side of the business. So we expect to continue to grow on that side.

Christian David Schwab - Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC

Management

Great. Just wanted confirmation of that number. That's it. Thanks, guys. Jure Sola - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Well, thank you. Robert K. Eulau - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: Thanks a lot, Christian. Jure Sola - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Well, ladies and gentlemen, that's all we have today. Hopefully, we answered most of your questions. But if we did not, please give us a call, and we're here to communicate whatever you have. So with that, looking forward talking to you next 90 days. Robert K. Eulau - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President: All right. Thanks, everyone. Jure Sola - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Bye-bye.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.