Allegro MicroSystems Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
May 11, 2023

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Operator

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Allegro Microsystems 4th Quarter Fiscal 2023 Financial Results. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question and answer As a reminder, today's program is being recorded. And now I'd like to introduce your host for today's program, Julian Hoover, Vice President of Investor Relations and Communications. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Jonathan. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Allego's 4th quarter and full fiscal year 2023 results. I'm joined today by Allego's President and Chief Executive Officer, Vineet Nargawala and Allego's Chief Financial Officer, Derek Dantilio. They will provide highlights of our business, review our quarterly and full year financial performance and share our 1st quarter outlook. We will follow our prepared remarks with a Q and A session.

Speaker 1

Our earnings release and the accompanying financial tables are available in the Investor Relations page of our website at www.alegromicro.com. This call is being webcast and a replay will be available in the Events and Presentations section of our IR page shortly. Please note that comments other than statements of historical facts made during this conference call, including forward looking statements for purposes of the Safe Harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward looking statements may include projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and as a result are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from anticipated results or projections. Please refer to the earnings press release we issued yesterday and other documents filed by us with the SEC, including the risk factors discussed and detail on our most recent 10 ks filed on May 18, 2022, as amended on Form 10 ksA filed on August 29, 2022, and updated and supplemented in our subsequent 10 Q filings.

Speaker 1

While we may elect to update forward looking statements at some point in the future, the company assumes no obligation to update any forward information presented even if our estimates or assumptions change. Also, unless otherwise noted during the conference call, All references to income stated related financial measures other than sales will be to financial measures not prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted and accounting principles or GAAP. Please refer to the press release posted to our website for information regarding our non GAAP financial results and a reconciliation of our GAAP to non GAAP financial measures. The non GAAP financial measures that are discussed today are not intended to replace or be a substitute for the presentation of Allego's GAAP financial results and may be calculated differently than similar measures used by other companies. We are providing this information because it may enable investors to make more meaningful comparisons of core operating results and more clearly highlight the results of our core ongoing operations.

Speaker 1

It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Allegro's President and to CEO, Vineeth Nargawala. Vineeth?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Jalene, and good morning and thank you all for joining us for our 4th quarter and fiscal year 2023 conference call. I'm pleased to report that we delivered a strong finish to fiscal year 2023 with record sales in the 4th quarter of $269,000,000 up 35% year over year. We also achieved record non GAAP earnings per share of $0.37 an increase of over 75% year over year. Solid 4th quarter results contributed to record 2023 sales of $974,000,000 up 27% year over year. We continue to see strong momentum in e mobility, clean energy and automation, fueled by secular megatrends that are transforming automotive and industrial markets.

Speaker 2

Sales in these strategic growth areas grew 46% year over year to $477,000,000 or 49 percent of total 2023 sales. Additionally, we saw significantly increased design win momentum in fiscal year 2023 with approximately 2 thirds of our wins coming from strategic growth areas. The results in Q4 and throughout the past year demonstrate that our strategy is sound and it's working. EMobility, which includes the increasing electrification of vehicles and higher adoption of ADAS feature sets, continues to drive Allegro's above market growth. In fact, sales into e mobility applications expanded to 47% of our Q4 automotive sales and to 43% of Allegro's full year automotive sales, up from 36% in 2022.

Speaker 2

Additionally, approximately 2 thirds of our total 2023 automotive design wins were in e mobility. Our solutions based design approach is being well received by our customers. During the Q4, We secured a multi portfolio ADAS design win in North America, validating our strong value proposition. We also won multiple current sensor design wins with a leading European OEM during the quarter. Moving on to the industrial market, Continued growth in clean energy and automation end markets drove 67% year over year sales growth in Q4, resulting in record sales for the quarter and the year.

Speaker 2

Design win activity in the quarter was led by data center applications leveraging our power ICs for motor drivers. We had a large win at a Japanese manufacturer as well as multiple wins with a Chinese manufacturer. We also saw several wins in Asia and Europe for EV charging stations using our Sensor IC technology. The majority of our R and D investment is now focused on our strategic growth areas, which have grown to nearly half our sales, underscoring our core value of innovation with purpose. We take great pride in our leading position at Magnetic Sensors, which represented approximately 60% of 4th quarter sales, and we continue to innovate with industry leading solutions.

Speaker 2

During the Q4, we announced the release of our Automotive Safety Integrity Level or ASIL C rated high precision field current sensor to enable customers to meet more challenging e mobility safety and accuracy standards. We also continue to raise the bar with our power innovations, Identifying and overcoming sources of electromagnetic interference or EMI in e mobility applications is notoriously challenging. It often goes undetected until late in the product design cycle adding to development time and cost. To address this issue and accelerate our customers' time to market, we launched a power DC to DC regulator module that reduces electromagnetic interference inherent in highly electrified industrial and automotive applications such as EVs. Our newest regulator also reduces boat footprint by 70% compared to conventional solutions.

Speaker 2

We wrapped up an outstanding year by hosting our inaugural Analyst Day event where we articulated our strategy and vision and how we are uniquely positioned to benefit from the megatrends of electrification and automation in industrial and automotive markets. We also introduced an updated financial model based on the opportunity we see going forward in our strategic growth areas. As I complete my 1st year as CEO, I'm very proud of what we've achieved in a short period of time and I would like to thank the entire Allegra team for this terrific performance and the dedication in serving our customers. We have sharpened our market focus on e mobility, clean energy and automation that intersects with our technical expertise and our market leading sensor and power product portfolios. We've also aligned our investments in R and D and customer support capabilities to focus on these high growth secular megatrends in automotive and industrial markets.

Speaker 2

I'm confident in our strategy and the ability of our teams to execute it. I believe we're still in the very early innings of our growth journey and I couldn't be more excited for the future. I'll now turn the call over to Derek to review the financial results and provide guidance for our Q1 of 2024. Derek?

Speaker 3

Thank you, Vinit, and good morning, everyone. In Q4, we had record sales of $269,000,000 Gross margins were 57.8 percent, operating expenses were 27.6 percent of sales, Operating income was again 30% and adjusted EBITDA was 35.1% of sales. As a result, Earnings were also a record $0.37 per share, at the high end of our guidance range and more than 75% above Q4 of fiscal 2022. Sales in the 4th quarter were also at the high end of our guidance range and increased by 8% sequentially and 35% compared to Q4 of fiscal 2022. Sales to our auto customers were $182,000,000 were 68% of Q4 sales, an increase of 9% sequentially and 29% year over year.

Speaker 3

Within auto, eMobility sales increased 17% sequentially and more than 60% year over year, representing 47 percent of 4th quarter automotive sales, up from 38% a year ago. Industrial sales were $58,000,000 increasing 15% sequentially and 67% year over year. We saw sequential growth in automation and clean energy end markets, while shipments into data center declined sequentially as expected. Other sales were $29,000,000 declining 4% sequentially and increasing 19% year over year. From a product perspective, magnetic sensor sales were $167,000,000 increasing 8% sequentially and 31% year over year.

Speaker 3

Sales of our power products were $103,000,000 an increase of 9% sequentially and 40% year over year. Sales through distribution represented 43% of total 4th quarter sales and POS sell through remained strong during the quarter and we continue to work with our partners to restock their inventory levels to within target levels. Consistent with prior quarters, no single customer represented more than 10% of Q4 sales and sales by geography were well balanced. Turning to Q4 profitability, Gross margin was 57.8%, slightly above our guidance of approximately 57% as a result of continued favorable product and channel mix. Operating expenses were $74,000,000 were 27.6 percent of sales compared to 27.7% in Q3 and 32% a year ago.

Speaker 3

We continued to invest in research and development as well as in local sales and technical resources close to our customers, particularly in our strategic growth areas. 4th quarter R and D expenses were 14% of sales and SG and A was 13% of sales. Operating margin was 30% of sales compared to 30% in Q3 and 23% a year ago. Operating margin dollars increased by 75% year over year on a comparable sales increase of 35%, demonstrating the leverage in our operating model. The effective tax rate for the quarter was 11.6 percent.

Speaker 3

In the 4th quarter, diluted share count was 195,000,000 shares and net income was $72,000,000 or $0.37 per diluted share, an increase of 3% sequentially and 76% year over year. Turning to full year 2023 results, Fiscal 2023 sales were a record $974,000,000 an increase of 27% year over year. Gross margin was 56.8 percent, operating margin was 28.6 percent, Adjusted EBITDA was 33.7 percent of sales and EPS was $1.28 per share, an increase of 63% year over year. Sales to auto customers increased by 24% year over year to $658,000,000 and represented 68% of full year sales. Within auto, e mobility Sales increased by 45%.

Speaker 3

Industrial sales increased by 48% year over year to $197,000,000 driven by significant growth in clean energy and automation. And other sales increased by 15% to $119,000,000 Moving on to product sales, magnetic sensor sales increased by 20% year over year to $599,000,000 and sales of our power products increased by 40% year over year to $375,000,000 Full year sales by geography were well balanced with 26% of sales in China, 24% of sales in the rest of Asia, 17% in both Japan and Europe, and 16% in the Americas. Moving to the balance sheet and cash flows. We ended Q4 with cash of $352,000,000 Cash flow from operations in the 4th quarter was $48,000,000 capital expenditures primarily for probe and test Equipment was $30,000,000 and free cash flow was $17,000,000 For the full year, Cash flow from operations was $193,000,000 CapEx was $80,000,000 and free cash flow was $113,000,000 4th quarter DSO was 46 days compared to 47 days in Q3 and days of inventory were 127 days compared to 103 days in Q3. As discussed on our Q3 call, we continued to rebuild Wafer and Die Bank and expect this to continue through the first part of FY 'twenty four.

Speaker 3

Now before I turn to Q1 guidance, I'll provide some color on what we are seeing in the business environment. From a market perspective, industry analysts are projecting auto production growth of 4% and EV growth of approximately 30% over the time period equivalent to our fiscal 2024. Our auto and industrial orders and shipments have been resilient, and we expect to see Continued strength in these markets in Q1 with shipments to data center and consumer markets remaining muted. Operationally, we continue to improve our lead times and reduce our delinquent backlog. And finally, from a supply perspective, We have worked to largely overcome wafer capacity constraints and continue to align our back end capacity with projected demand.

Speaker 3

Now with that backdrop, I'll turn to our Q1 outlook. First, as a reminder, following a 14 week 4th quarter, we are returning to a standard 13 week quarter in Q1, which ends on June 30. We expect Q1 sales to be in the range of $270,000,000 to $280,000,000 and based on the midpoint of this range, we are projecting growth of 26% compared to Q1 of fiscal 'twenty 3. We expect Q1 gross margins to be approximately 56%, reflecting the anticipated normalization of product and channel mix and a relatively weaker U. S.

Speaker 3

Dollar. We expect operating expenses to be between 26% 27% of sales. We expect our non GAAP tax rate to be approximately 11% and our diluted share count to be approximately 195.5 And based upon these assumptions, we anticipate non GAAP earnings per share to be in the range of to $0.39 per share. Now, I'll turn the call back to Jalene for questions. Jalene?

Speaker 1

Thank you, Derek. This concludes management's prepared remarks. Before we open the call for your questions, I'd like to share our 1st fiscal quarter conference line up with you. We are attending Mizuho's 5th Annual Autumn Technology Conference on May 30 at their New York City office TD Cowen's Technology, Media and Telecom Conference on May 31 at the Lotte New York Palace Hotel and Nasdaq's London Conference on June 13 14 at Jefferies London office, who is partnering in the event. We will now open the call for your questions.

Speaker 1

Jonathan, please review Q and A instructions.

Operator

We'd like to ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. You may get back in the queue as time allows. Our first question comes from the line of Blayne Curtis from Barclays. Your question please.

Speaker 4

Hey, good morning guys. Thanks for letting me ask a question and great results. I have two questions. Maybe the first, I just wanted to talk about The step up in eMobility, if you can just wrap a little color, it's a huge step up. Obviously, you've been getting a lot of design wins.

Speaker 4

I'm kind of curious, is it Have you got any color between EV and ADAS? And any color as to what drove the big step up?

Speaker 2

Blayne, this is Vinit. Thanks for the question. So as we've articulated at Analyst Day and in Various discussions and earnings calls before, eMobility is a really strong focus for us. We don't really break out the detail between EV and ADAS and increasingly there's a high degree of convergence in the ship rate Of our products related to that. I will tell you that we're really pleased with the momentum we're gaining in e mobility.

Speaker 2

It's not just in the shipment rate, Also in our design wins and it's clear that our customers are pivoting their entire investment and capital focus to Electrifying their fleets, making them more autonomous, adding more safety features, and we believe we have the right portfolio to support them in this transition.

Speaker 4

Thanks. And then a question for Derek. You talked about bringing lead times and delinquent backlog down. I was wondering if you could wrap some numbers around that. I'm just trying to get a perspective as to how far you've caught up on that delinquent backlog?

Speaker 3

Yes, Blayne, good question. Thank you. Over the last several quarters, As we all know, there's been an anomaly in the backlogs of companies where when there was a way for constraint environment, we had to Try and ship product and we all had delinquent backlog and we peaked out at about 30% of delinquent backlog a few quarters ago. We've got that number down, that delinquent backlog number down pretty significantly. We still have some delinquent backlog.

Speaker 3

We still have a significant amount of backlog to ship over the next several quarters. And we don't provide a backlog number, but we We continue to work with our customers on both scheduling the backlog and cancellations and reschedules and those sort of things. So we continue to have strong Backlog maintenance with our customers, it's really a focus on reducing those lead times and we're making progress on reducing lead times, particularly on the high run of products and

Operator

And our next question comes from the line of Gary Mobley from Wells Fargo. Your question please.

Speaker 5

Hey, guys. Congratulations on a strong finish to the fiscal year. I wanted to probe a little bit deeper into, I guess the divergent commentary with respect to your revenue guidance for the Q1 and then delinquent backlog coming down. Because if I adjust for the extra week in the 4th quarter, for all intents and purposes, you're guiding for 10% sequential revenue growth, I think, Ed, your delinquent backlog is coming down. So I'm just wanting to get some additional color behind that large sequential comp.

Speaker 5

Is it distribution inventory replenishment related? And then as well, maybe if you can provide some preliminary view on fiscal year 'twenty four revenue growth?

Speaker 3

Yes, Gary, this is Derek. So when I look at Q1, as I talked about in the prepared remarks, really the sequential increase, you're right, it's 10% if you put it on a comparable 13 week basis and that's really driven by the continued strength in automotive And as I talked about, we expect data center to remain pretty muted. We expect the consumer or the other market to remain fairly muted. In the last few quarters, we have continued to rebuild the distributor inventories and that's getting within target levels. So I don't expect that to be the driver in Q1.

Speaker 3

It's really the automotive and the industrial and the strength there. From a full year perspective, we're not going to provide full year guidance. But at our Analyst Day, 2 months ago, we laid out our CAGRs and our views of how we expect to grow at the low double digit ranges, taking auto production growth and growing that at 7 10% on top of that, taking industrial and growing that at 5% to 10%. And then looking at the consumer market and what that will do from year to year, that's still a good way to view our growth for the year.

Speaker 5

Thanks, Derek. As a follow-up, I just want to ask about your China related business. Correct me if I'm wrong, But your automotive business may have a little bit of outsized exposure to China. And I'm just wondering how you guys are seeing trends there?

Speaker 2

Hey, Gary, this is Vinita. I'll take that one. So China is a really important region for us. It is one of our fastest growing regions And it's no surprise considering the already strong EV presence that continues to grow. We are watching the China market very carefully.

Speaker 2

I will tell you that we're seeing really consistent ordering patterns as well as design win performance in our China market. So we don't really see any major signs of slowdown in China, But obviously the macro continues to be a topic that everybody is focused on.

Speaker 6

Thanks, Vinit.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Vijay Rakesh from Mizuho. Your question please.

Speaker 6

Yes. Hi, Vinit and Derek, Solid guide here. Just a quick couple of questions on the EV side. It looks like you're talking about fiscal 2024 EVs continue to grow 30% year on year. Wondering with your market share and design pipeline, how you see that the Magnetic Sensors and the whole automotive group growing next fiscal 2024?

Speaker 2

Yes, Vijay, you were cutting out a little bit, but I think I got the gist of your questions. So we have said in the past that We are now really pivoting our R and D investment towards eMobility, Clean Energy and Automation. And More than 2 thirds of our investment is now focused there and that mirrors what we're seeing in our design performance. So, we haven't really provided market share figures by automotive and so on. I think In our Analyst Day, we provided what we thought our magnetic sensor IC share was.

Speaker 2

And we believe that our exposure to EVs, to autonomous safety related feature sets continues to be really strong, continues to grow and we're really pleased with our design pipeline and the design win performance we've seen in fiscal 2023 where more than 2 thirds of our pipeline is now in the e mobility space, especially for automotive. So we expect that to continue to grow Consistent with where we see our customers investing.

Speaker 6

Got it. And then as you look at fiscal 2024, Obviously, off to a great start with the June quarter guide here. Just wondering, I know Director talked about the long term CAGR, But you guys have been growing well north of that. So wondering if you could share a stab at what fiscal 2024 top line should look like Yes, year on year. Thanks.

Speaker 6

That's it.

Speaker 3

Yes, Vijay, as I just answered for Gary, the same question basically. We are not going to give full year guidance, But I think when we put out that long term CAGR just 2 months ago, that long term CAGR is something we really believe in. We look at the auto production growth and it's based upon market growth for those years and outperformance compared to that market growth. So for example, in 2024 right now, we're expecting that the auto production will grow 4%, EV 30%, and that's how we get that 7% to 10% above that auto production. Industrial markets, we expect to grow well above the industrial markets.

Speaker 3

And then the consumer markets, that will grow at GDP or how that consumer market will grow. So that's something you may know better than us. So that's kind of how to view our 24, and I would say that's pretty in line with that long term CAGR.

Speaker 6

Got it. Thanks.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Joshua Baccolter from TD Cowen.

Speaker 7

I wanted to kind of follow-up on Gary's question regarding China. I mean, there's been some well documented slowdowns there, but it seems like from your vantage, it's consistent. Is that a function of your customers doing better within that market because they're just the backlog and unit situation doesn't matter because it's so extended the amount of backlog you have. I'm just trying to get comfort with the volatility that we've seen in that market specifically. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Yes, Josh, this is Vinit. I'll take that. So when we look at the China market, roughly about 26,000,000 units of production and that is expected to stay flat year over year going into calendar 2023. But when you look at specifically the EV production, That is predicted to grow about 18%. So I think if you parse the China automotive environment, There is still continued growth and strength in EV production and EVs have continued to gain share.

Speaker 2

Within that And it's hard for us to comment on other people's situation. For us, we have really strong relationships, not just With the global OEMs, but also the local OEMs in China, as well as the major tiers. And so we feel really good about our design win Pipeline, our design win performance and at a resulting orders rate.

Speaker 7

Got it. Thank you. And then I I wanted to ask about, I guess, the capacity situation. It sounds like the constraints that we've had the last couple of years are sort of in the rear view. And I guess With that in mind, your on books inventories is a bit higher than it has been the last several quarters.

Speaker 7

Should we I guess, could you talk to your comfort with current levels? Should we expect that to trend up as it sounds like you want to keep working on getting lead times down? Or Is this a level that you feel comfortable with on books versus in the channel? Thank you.

Speaker 3

Yes, Josh, I'll take that. We've built our inventory days from it's 127 days exiting Q4, it was 103 days exiting Q3 and it kind of troughed out below 80 a couple of quarters ago. And at that point, we had stock outs and we had delinquency problems. So we continue to rebuild that wafer bank. It's all wafer and die bank on books.

Speaker 3

But now we're working to align the back end capacity, the probe and the test capacity with that for the projected demand. So we're pretty comfortable with that on books inventory because it's all in wafer and die bank. And as I said, that will continue to trend up a bit here in the 1st part of 2024 And we remain in wafer and die bank, strategic wafer and die bank. So we're comfortable with our on books inventory.

Speaker 6

Understood. Thank you. Thank

Operator

you. And our next question comes from the line of Quinn Bolton from Needham. Your question please.

Speaker 8

Hey, Vinit and Derek. This is Trevor on for Quinn. Thanks for letting me ask a few questions here. So to begin, I wanted to get some clarity on this. So could the inventory previously sold to Sanken and your old distribution agreement be a headwind to new sales from Allegro in the Japanese market over the next 2 years?

Speaker 8

And if a Japanese customer buys from Sanken instead of directly from Allegro during these next two years, I assume that Allegro cannot rev rec this sale. Any color there would be helpful.

Speaker 3

Yes, Trevor, this is Derek. So actually the way we transition that is effective April 1, all new sales from Allegro, in fact April 1 this year, are all going to distributors in Japan. And we are working with Sanken. During the Q4, we worked with Sanken to help reduce their inventory levels. So our sales into Japan actually declined in the Q4 of this year.

Speaker 3

So that's behind us now. We expect sales in Japan to actually start to increase now again in Q1 and handing off into 2024. We do have a 2 year nonexclusive tail on the distribution rights with Sanken in Japan to liquidate a very small amount of inventory, But we'll help direct where that inventory goes.

Speaker 8

Awesome. Very helpful. And When you're looking at demand in general, not just China, have there been any indications that order patterns are beginning to change at all? And related to this, what do you make of TSMC's comments about auto demand potentially slowing in the second half?

Speaker 2

Yes. Hey, Trevor, this is Vineeth. I'll take that question. So, I think to your earlier question, As we come out of the supply shortages, obviously, we will expect to see a normalization of order patterns. Having said that, we're actually not seeing any abatement of the high demand that we had seen for our products and solutions.

Speaker 2

I can't really speak to what TSMC is seeing. They potentially have a much broader exposure across Multiple product lines within the automotive space. I think from where we sit and our auto patterns, our design win pipeline, It continues to be really strong. And as we've said before, we are focused on long term growth here. Quarter to quarter that we might A few ups and downs, but that we're not really concerned with that.

Speaker 2

We're really focused on making sure that we're serving our customers in this transition to eMobility and to clean energy over the next decade.

Speaker 8

Awesome. So is it fair to assume that there were no auto related cancellations within the quarter?

Speaker 2

Yes. So, Trevor, I didn't say that. So, cancellations, pull ins, push outs are a normal part of order management. So, if I said there were no cancellations, that wouldn't be a true statement. Of course, there were cancellations.

Speaker 2

But when we look at the order coverage versus our forecast. When we look at the health of the order book, it continues to be very strong.

Speaker 8

Awesome. Thanks guys.

Operator

Thank you.

Speaker 3

Thank you.

Operator

This does conclude the question and answer session of today's program. I'd like to hand the program back to Ms. Hoover for any further remarks.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Jonathan, and thank you all for joining us this morning. This concludes this morning's call.

Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.

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Allegro MicroSystems Q4 2023
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