Gentex Q3 2024 Earnings Results & Report

Gentex EPS Results

• Actual EPS: N/A
• Consensus EPS: $0.50
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A
• EPS Beat Rate: 4 of last 8 quarters

Gentex Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: N/A
• Expected Revenue: $611.33 million
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Gentex (NASDAQ:GNTX) develops, manufactures and supplies technology products for the automotive, aerospace and fire-protection industries. The company is best known for its automatic-dimming rearview mirrors, which use electrochromic technology to reduce glare, as well as related interior and exterior vehicle electronics.

Gentex’s automotive portfolio also includes camera-based driver-assistance systems, connected-car technologies, vehicle lighting and sensing products, biometric and occupant-monitoring systems, and integrated electronic features designed to improve vehicle safety, comfort and convenience. Its aerospace products include electronically dimmable aircraft windows, while its fire-protection offerings include smoke detectors and signaling devices.

Founded in 1974 and headquartered in Zeeland, Michigan, Gentex serves vehicle manufacturers and other customers internationally through operations and sales activities across multiple global markets. Steve Downing serves as the company’s president and chief executive officer.

Gentex Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Q3 revenue and earnings grew despite weak industry production. Net sales rose to $608.5 million, EPS increased 18% to $0.53, and the company said it outperformed its primary markets by 12% even as light vehicle production fell.
• Neutral Sentiment: Gross margin improved, but the full recovery is slipping into 2025. Q3 gross margin was 33.5%, helped by higher sales and cost reductions, though management said product mix, overhead inefficiencies, and weaker-than-expected production kept results below plan.
• Negative Sentiment: Gentex cut its 2024 outlook on softer vehicle production assumptions. Full-year revenue guidance is now $2.35 billion to $2.4 billion, and the company expects the margin recovery target of 35% to 36% to be reached in 2025 rather than 2024.
• Positive Sentiment: Full Display Mirror remained a major growth engine. The product added 9 new nameplates in the quarter and is now on more than 124 nameplates globally, with Gentex still targeting an incremental 500,000 units in 2024 versus 2023.
• Neutral Sentiment: R&D and launch spending stayed elevated, but management expects moderation next year. OpEx rose 13% year over year, driven largely by product development and upcoming launches, while the company expects spending growth to normalize in 2025 as programs move into production.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Gentex Corporation third quarter 2024 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Josh Oborski, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

[Josh O'Berski, Director of Investor Relations at Gentex Corporation]

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to the Gentex Corporation third quarter 2024 earnings release conference call. I'm Josh Oborski, Gentex, Director of Investor Relations, and I'm joined by Steve Downing, President and CEO, Neil Boehm, CTO, and Kevin Nash, Vice President of Finance and CFO. All contents of this conference call are the property of Gentex Corporation and may not be copied, published, reproduced, rebroadcast, retransmitted, transcribed, or otherwise redistributed. Gentex Corporation will hold responsible and liable any party for any damages incurred by Gentex Corporation with respect to any unauthorized use of the contents of this conference call. This conference call contains forward-looking information within the meaning of the Gentex safe harbor statement included in the Gentex reports' third quarter 2024 financial results press release from earlier this morning and is always shown on the Gentex website. Your participation in this conference call implies consent to these terms.

[Josh O'Berski, Director of Investor Relations at Gentex Corporation]

I'll now hand the call over to Steve Downing for our prepared remarks. Steve?

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Thanks, Josh. For the third quarter of 2024, the company reported net sales of $608.5 million, compared to net sales of $575.8 million in the third quarter of last year. For the third quarter of 2024, global light vehicle production declined by 5% versus last year, as light vehicle production weakened across all major regions, but especially in our primary markets. When compared to the third quarter of last year, light vehicle production declined by 6% in our primary markets of North America, Europe, Japan, and Korea. This decline was significantly worse than the 3% quarter-over-quarter decline forecasted at the beginning of the quarter. The light vehicle production declines resulted in a sales shortfall of approximately $25-$30 million for the quarter.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

But despite that weakness in our end markets, we were able to outperform our primary markets by 12%. For the third quarter of twenty twenty-four, the gross margin was 33.5%, compared to a gross margin of 33.2% for the third quarter of last year. The gross margin improved as a result of the higher revenue levels and purchasing cost reductions, which were partially offset by unfavorable product mix related to OEM mix, geographical mix, and IEC versus OEC mix. Sequentially, the gross margin improved by 60 basis points as a result of the higher sales levels versus the second quarter and lower pricing reserves in the third quarter versus the first half of this year.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Overall, we are pleased with the sequential improvement in gross margin, but the third quarter was still behind our margin forecast due to lower-than-expected sales driven by light vehicle production shortfalls, product mix issues, and overhead inefficiencies. We remain committed to our gross margin recovery plan that we laid out over the last eighteen months, but given the shifts in the market and light vehicle production mix, we expect that the company's margin recovery target won't be fully achieved until twenty twenty-five. Operating expenses during the third quarter of twenty twenty-four increased by 13% to $78.3 million, compared to operating expenses of $69 million in the third quarter of last year.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Operating expenses increased quarter over quarter, primarily due to staffing and engineering-related professional fees that are in line with our budget for the year and are primarily dedicated to R&D and launches of new programs and products. We expect that operating expenses will continue at the current pace for the rest of this year, despite the lower-than-forecasted light vehicle production and sales levels we have experienced over the last two quarters. Due to the unexpected reduction in light vehicle production this year, our R&D spend has outpaced sales growth on a percentage basis, which has negatively impacted on operating margin. But as we head into twenty twenty-five, our operating expense growth should moderate and move back to a normalized growth rate that is more directly correlated to sales growth.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

The growth in operating expense is being driven by several new launches that are currently in development and expected to launch over the next two years and will provide growth opportunities for the company over the next several years, as well as research projects in support of new technologies that we have showcased at CES the last few years. Income from operations for the third quarter of 2024 was $125.7 million, compared to income from operations of $122.4 million for the third quarter of last year. Other income was $19.7 million during the third quarter of 2024, compared to other income of $2.1 million in the third quarter of last year.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

The change was primarily driven by non-cash gains of $14.5 million, resulting from mark-to-market adjustments and other market adjustments of certain holdings within the company's tech investment portfolio, as well as interest income from the company's investment portfolio. During the third quarter of 2024, the company had an effective tax rate of 15.7%, which was primarily driven by the benefit of the foreign-derived intangible income deduction. Net income for the third quarter of 2024 was $122.5 million, a 17% increase compared to net income of $104.7 million for the third quarter of last year. The increase in net income for the third quarter was driven by the increased net sales, income from operations, and other income compared to the third quarter of last year....

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Earnings per diluted share for the third quarter of 2024 were $0.53, an 18% increase compared to earnings per diluted share of $0.45 for the third quarter of last year. Earnings per diluted share for the third quarter of twenty twenty-four were positively impacted by the increased net sales and operating income, as well as the increases in other income for the quarter. Thank you, and I'll now hand the call over to Kevin for some further financial details.

[Kevin Nash, VP of Finance and CFO at Gentex Corporation]

Thanks, Steve. Automotive net sales in the third quarter of 2024 were $596.5 million, compared to $564.5 million in the third quarter of 2023. Auto dimming mirror unit shipments decreased by 3% during the third quarter of 2024 compared to the third quarter of 2023. Other net sales in the third quarter of 2024, which includes dimmable aircraft windows and fire protection products, were $12 million, compared to other net sales of $11.3 million in the third quarter of 2023. Fire protection sales increased by $1.8 million for the third quarter of 2024 compared to the third quarter of last year, and dimmable aircraft window sales decreased by $1.9 million for the third quarter of 2024 compared to the third quarter of 2023.

[Kevin Nash, VP of Finance and CFO at Gentex Corporation]

Additionally, in the third quarter of 2024, the company recorded its first official sales of medical devices of $0.8 million from shipments of the previously acquired eSight Go product line and business. Share repurchases. During the third quarter of 2024, the company repurchased 3.2 million shares of its common stock at an average price of $30.16 per share. As of September thirtieth of 2024, the company has approximately 10.1 million shares remaining available for repurchase pursuant to its previously announced share repurchase plan. The company intends to continue to repurchase additional shares of its common stock in the future in support of the previously disclosed capital allocation strategy, but share repurchases will vary from time to time and will take into account macroeconomic issues, market trends, and other factors the company deems appropriate.

[Kevin Nash, VP of Finance and CFO at Gentex Corporation]

Looking at the balance sheet, the balance sheet comparisons mentioned today are as of September 30, 2024 and compared to December 31, 2023. Cash and cash equivalents were $179.6 million, compared to $226.4 million. Short and long-term investments combined were $346.1 million, up from $299.1 million, which includes fixed income investments as well as the company's equity and cost method investments. Accounts receivable was $356.3 million, up from $321.8 million due to the timing of sales during the third quarter.

[Kevin Nash, VP of Finance and CFO at Gentex Corporation]

Inventories were $449.3 million, up from $402.5 million, and accounts payable decreased to $182.6 million from $184.4 million. Looking at the preliminary cash flow items for the quarter, third quarter 2024 cash flow from operations was $84.7 million, compared to $125.9 million in the third quarter of last year, and year-to-date cash flow from operations was $343.8 million, compared to $367.7 million for calendar year 2023.

[Kevin Nash, VP of Finance and CFO at Gentex Corporation]

Capital expenditures for the third quarter were $39.3 million, compared to $31.1 million for the third quarter of last year, and year-to-date capital expenditures were $103 million, compared to $121.4 million for calendar year 2023. And depreciation and amortization for the third quarter was $22.9 million, compared with $22.2 million for the third quarter of 2023, and year-to-date depreciation and amortization was $70.9 million, compared with $71 million for year-to-date 2023. I'll now hand the call over to Neil for a product update.

[Neil Boehm, CTO at Gentex Corporation]

Thank you, Kevin. The third quarter of 2024 was again a busy launch quarter. In the quarter, we had 25 net new nameplate launches of our interior and exterior auto-dimming mirrors and electronic features. The first three quarters of 2024 have been extremely busy, as we've launched more projects than ever before. We're excited about the continued growth we're seeing with our technologies and appreciate all the hard work and dedication that the team at Gentex is putting in to ensure we execute flawlessly. The Full Display Mirror product had another great quarter, with 9 additional nameplates launching in the quarter. We are now shipping Full Display Mirror on over 124 nameplates globally, and it continues to have great momentum on the full range of platforms, from luxury to volume brands.

[Neil Boehm, CTO at Gentex Corporation]

Even with all the changes in light vehicle production, we are still on track in 2024 to achieve our goal of an incremental 500,000 units of Full Display Mirror over the 2023 unit shipments. Also, while we're launching a lot of products and technologies, we are continuing to evaluate opportunities to reduce the bill of material of existing programs, as well as execute on the VAVE launches we currently have in process. This focus and effort will increase significantly as we move through the last part of 2024 and into early 2025, as we know that these improvements in our bill of materials and increases in efficiencies across the organization are key to our ability to achieve our gross margin objectives as a company. I'll now hand the call back over to Steve for guidance and closing remarks.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Thanks, Neil. The company's current forecast for light vehicle production for the fourth quarter of 2024 and full years 2024 and 2025 are based on the mid-October 2024 S&P Global Mobility Forecast for light vehicle production in North America, Europe, Japan, Korea, and China. Light vehicle production in these markets is expected to decrease by approximately 4% for the fourth quarter of 2024 versus the same quarter last year. While light vehicle production in our primary markets of North America, Europe, Japan, and Korea is expected to be down 6% in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to last year. For calendar year 2024, light vehicle production in North America, Europe, Japan, Korea, and China is now forecasted to decline approximately 2% compared to light vehicle production last year.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Light vehicle production for calendar year 2025 is forecasted to increase by 1% compared to calendar year 2024. Fourth quarter 2024 and calendar years 2024 and 2025 forecasted vehicle production volumes from S&P Global Mobility are included in our press release from this morning. Based on this light vehicle production forecast and actual results for the first nine months of 2024, we are making certain changes to our previously provided guidance for calendar year 2024 as follows: Revenue for the year is now expected to be between $2.35 and $2.4 billion. Gross margins for the year are now expected to be between 33.5% and 34%. Operating expenses are still expected to be between $295 and $305 million.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Our estimated annual tax rate is now forecasted to be between 15% and 15.5%. Capital expenditures are now expected to be between $150 million and $175 million. Depreciation and amortization is now forecasted to be between $90 million and $95 million. The company continues to be on pace for record revenue in 2024 and 2025, despite significant changes in the light vehicle production environment, vehicle mix, and regional mix that have impacted the production landscape. Obviously, the actual and forecasted light vehicle production deterioration has impacted our total revenue estimates for 2024 and 2025, but our 12% outperformance versus the underlying vehicle production numbers in our primary markets during the third quarter gives us renewed confidence in our ability to continue to outperform the market.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

While the teams have done a phenomenal job creating and executing our margin recovery plan, industry conditions have created a slower growth environment that we intend to address with increased cost focus, expense control, and lower capital expenditures that more closely align with our updated revenue expectations. As we have indicated, the timeline to achieve our targeted gross margin of 35%-36% will likely push into the 2025 calendar year, but we remain confident in our ability to accomplish our stated goal despite the industry headwinds. That completes our prepared comments for today, and we can now proceed to questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Luke Junk with Baird. Your line is now open.

[Luke Junk, Analyst at Baird]

Great. Thanks for taking the questions, and good morning, everyone.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Good morning.

[Luke Junk, Analyst at Baird]

To start with, hoping you could just walk us through the key outgrowth drivers this quarter. You know, just a few points of growth and underlying your shipments in terms of outgrowth. Seems like FDM was a big contributor. Maybe if you could expand on FDM puts and takes, and also just the factors supporting your unchanged full year expectation, and with, obviously, a pretty dynamic market. And beyond FDM, anything else that you'd call out that had an outsized impact this quarter? Thank you.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Yeah, if you look at-- Thanks, Luke. If you look at the actual quarter, like we referenced in the table, IEC and OEC volumes were actually down on a year-over-year basis, but FDM helped pick up the rest of that difference. There was also some other advanced features that did well in the quarter. But if you actually look at the bulk of that growth came from FDM growth.

[Luke Junk, Analyst at Baird]

Got it.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Luke, I think you also might have mentioned a question about, like, OEM side. So I mean, obviously, there were some ups and downs in the quarter based on different OEMs and how they performed. GM was quite strong, especially on the FDM side for us in the quarter. There was a couple others that obviously struggled, not only with overall production volumes, but also some feature and content that caused some headwinds in the quarter.

[Luke Junk, Analyst at Baird]

Understood. And then for my follow-up, Steve, just a bigger picture question in OpEx. You know, macro has become an increasingly challenging backdrop, as you alluded to in your comments. You know, OpEx growth this year still looks a lot like it did in 2022 and 2023, when production was growing high single digits and overall pushing, you know, around 13%, 13% of sales this year. Just as, you know, you now contemplate the lower industry growth next year as well, plus, you know, the gross margin improvement just being pushed out a little bit, can you just double-click on the opportunities to, to rationalize spending? Realize there's, you know, still a lot of balls in the air from an engineering standpoint right now, as you drive towards those launches the next couple of years.

[Luke Junk, Analyst at Baird]

But can you just help us understand the path to slowing the growth rate in OpEx next year and just, you know, as a percentage of sales more broadly, you know, where you think that ought to be on a, you know, more strategic standpoint as well? Thank you.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Yeah, it's a great question. If you look at our strategy as it relates to, especially the R&D spend, if you look at OpEx, the SG&A side has actually been, you know, much more muted. Most of that money has been dedicated towards R&D expenses. And, really, it's been driven by commitments that we've already made to customers, you know, committed timelines on launches of a lot of the new features. We've got several launches right now of our DMS and CMS cabin management solution. Those are obviously very in-depth launches, continued launches on the FDM front.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

And then on more on the R side, you have a lot of the stuff that we've showed at CES that continues to consume resources, that we continue to make great progress in the development of those technologies and are very optimistic about their ability to get to market over the next several years. So that's kind of the current commitments that are driving the rate to stay where it was and not trying to cut that because of the opportunities we see for growth from those developments, but then also the already customer-committed developments that we have in place. Some of them are also the Place product that we talked about.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

If you look at the eSight launch, our first med tech launch, and then also our Place product, the detector product for a consumer, we've continued to work on those and are approaching launches on many of those. That's part of the reason why we see the ability to control that spend, or at least the growth rate of that spend, as we head into 2025. We know that a lot of the programs that we've been in heavy development on will be launching, and so we'll be able to redeploy some of those resources to new programs. But also, we've had to add a lot of contractors to help get us over this hurdle rate.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

And so as we move through those launches and as they move into production, we'll be able to readdress what does that staffing level look like, what are the appropriate spends, and what is a more of a maintenance level of R&D that we need, based off the future direction of the company?

[Luke Junk, Analyst at Baird]

Got it. Appreciate that, and I'll leave it there. Thank you.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Thanks, Luke.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of James Picariello with BNP Paribas. Your line is now open.

[James Picariello, Analyst at BNP Paribas]

Hi, everybody.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Good morning.

[James Picariello, Analyst at BNP Paribas]

My first question is on the implied growth over market for next year. Right, so this year's guidance now calls for five points, and then for next year, you were targeting growth over market of six points. Now that looks, you know, that now that's trending towards four, so just what's informing your update here on the growth over market?

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Really, it's. Yeah, I think you're probably onto it. You just didn't wanna say it yourself. But really, it's, we're a little more pessimistic on what those published vehicle production volumes are. And so we would-

[James Picariello, Analyst at BNP Paribas]

Yeah, uh-

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

You know, we would target that our outperformance is still in line with what you're seeing. We're just manually adjusting that I mean, the S&P numbers, more than what they've published.

[James Picariello, Analyst at BNP Paribas]

Yep. Okay. No, that's a fair comment. My follow-up, just on gross margin, so 35%-36% achieved next year. Is that framed similarly to how it was for this year, where it's achieved by a certain quarter next year? And then my very quick follow-on to that is the investment income. You know, within the ETS bridge here, it's been extremely choppy last quarter and this quarter. Is there stability from here on? Yeah, that's it for me. Thanks.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Yeah, I think on that one, real quick, I would say that we would expect more stability in other income as we move forward. There was two specific incidences that happened last quarter and this quarter, both of which were the execs involved the same underlying security, and that's what drove both those changes. So if you average those two out, it is-

[James Picariello, Analyst at BNP Paribas]

It's-

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Fairly, fairly flat.

[James Picariello, Analyst at BNP Paribas]

Yeah.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

And so if you take that out, we wouldn't expect that to happen again as we move forward. And then the other half of your question was?

[James Picariello, Analyst at BNP Paribas]

The margin profile.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Oh, the margin profile. Yeah. As we head into 2025, I mean, despite all the industry, you know, production choppiness, we would expect the margin profile to really perform like it does in a normal year. So you'd see a little bit of a downturn in Q1, and then Q2, Q3, Q4, we continue to build, assuming those, that our sales levels hit what we're expecting them to. And so, usually by mid-second quarter, we're fully operational on PPV that we get from our supply base. You know, we're through most of the pain from the customer pricing side, and then we're starting to get into operational efficiencies of the new launches that are happening in the year for the year.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

So, you know, probably on a put a thumb in the air, I would say probably the ability to hit that would be towards the back half of the year. It's not out of the question that it could happen sooner than that, but I would say that's historically when we've had our best performances in the second half of the year.

[James Picariello, Analyst at BNP Paribas]

Appreciate it. Thanks, guys.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Thanks, James.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ryan Brinkman with J.P. Morgan. Your line is now open.

[Ryan Brinkman, Analyst at J.P. Morgan]

Hi. Great. Thanks for taking my question. Just wanted to check in with you on, you know, what the impact might have been on your operations during the quarter from sudden or unexpected customer downtime, whether due to part shortages or their need to manage inventory levels, and how that compares to what your experience was in Q2 and what you might be expecting in Q4. I recall you calling out Stellantis inventory adjustments in June as having impacted Q2. That company's made some additional announcements, and you know, you've seen some announcements from BMW and VW and Mercedes. Just curious what your experience has been there.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

The good news is, you're exactly right. There are definitely some margin headwinds and inefficiencies driven by last-minute customer changes. The good news is, given our inventory levels and where we're at with the supply base, it really wasn't an incoming raw material problem. It's really about scheduling and trying to make sure you balance operations efficiently. And really, what the impact there is, is the last-minute changes drive overtime more than anything else. It grows inventory more than it would necessarily need to be if we had better line of sight, and it also drives more overtime and inefficiencies in the operation side. Always what comes with that then is scrap and yield loss issues as well. So, you've kind of hit on a couple of the key players there.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Stellantis obviously has been. It's very turbulent, and they've been, you know, have their own struggles that we've been trying to make sure we're supporting them through, but it definitely doesn't allow for the cleanest operating environment. So I would say probably, if you look at between our overhead and scrap and yield increases, I would say probably 30-50 basis points of headwind was in the quarter from volatility.

[Ryan Brinkman, Analyst at J.P. Morgan]

Okay, that's super helpful. Thanks. And then I just wanted to check in on the, you know, some more questions around the other income. You know, super impressive. At the same time, you know, are you able to say whether this was a mark-to-market on a public security or on a private security? And if private, was that, you know, a mark that was established by an external party, or did you sort of perceive the need to make a change? I'm not sure how that accounting works. And then more broadly, you know, what is your well, firstly, is it, you know, related to automotive technology, and so you need to make those investments?

[Ryan Brinkman, Analyst at J.P. Morgan]

Or is it just, you know, you're invested in the QQQ or so, and what's your general approach? I know you've returned a lot of capital to shareholders relative to your predecessors, but to your general approach toward managing long-term investments on the balance sheet versus giving that capital to the investors to invest at their discretion.

[Kevin Nash, VP of Finance and CFO at Gentex Corporation]

Yeah, so we talked a little bit about it last quarter. I mean, we're in one public security, and it's publicly filed out there that we made an offer for VOXX back in May. And, subsequent to that, prior to that, actually, they had a discount. Their stock price traded down significantly, and so we actually made a, we bought more shares in a private transaction, and since then, the stock price has gone up, and they've since also entered into a deal to market the company. And so we're currently participating in that process. But you saw the mark-to-market adjustments from the Q2 on the downward side, and then in Q3, a rebound. And so, you know, it is a publicly traded stock, so it's a mark-to-market adjustment.

[Kevin Nash, VP of Finance and CFO at Gentex Corporation]

The rest of the other income, our long-term strategy really there is we do invest in fixed income investments, high yield fixed income with typically three years or less horizon. So we stay in the medium term on the yield curve, not to create duration risk and be able to liquidate if we need to. We've been doing that for several years. This one on the public stock side is strategic in nature. Just to further clarify, they do have some technology we're interested in on the biometric side. They do have some automotive business with some stuff that does have some technology as well as some other technologies that they have under their portfolio.

[Ryan Brinkman, Analyst at J.P. Morgan]

And what is their general relationship with you, too? Do, are they a distributor of your products? Do they manage the sales to some of your customers as you would incorporate them then? Would there be some sort of margin enhancement from vertical integration, but not as much sales impact? How would that work?

[Kevin Nash, VP of Finance and CFO at Gentex Corporation]

Yep. So, for a long time, we have been a, they have been a distributor of ours for our products into the aftermarket, so FDM, HomeLink, some of our other featured mirrors. They've been a... They have a great distribution network, and so we've been take- we've taken advantage of that for a long time. But they also own biometric asset, formerly known as EyeLock, in the aerospace. And so you've seen us demonstrate that technology for a long time. Today, we do it with licensing and technology agreements, but, w- we have an interest in taking that further, over time. So that's a big part of it, is, con- potential for more access to the, to the technology assets.

[Ryan Brinkman, Analyst at J.P. Morgan]

Okay. Well, very, very well. Thank you. Thank you so much.

[Kevin Nash, VP of Finance and CFO at Gentex Corporation]

Yep.

[Josh O'Berski, Director of Investor Relations at Gentex Corporation]

Thanks, Ryan.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ron Jewsikow with Guggenheim Securities. Your line is now open.

[Ron Jewsikow, Analyst at Guggenheim Securities]

Yeah. Good morning, and, thanks for taking my questions.

[Kevin Nash, VP of Finance and CFO at Gentex Corporation]

Good morning.

[Ron Jewsikow, Analyst at Guggenheim Securities]

Yeah, maybe just following up on Luke's question on FDM, the kind of upside this quarter. Was that more of a function of second quarter destocking and just kind of returning to trend this quarter, or are there some upcoming launches we should be excited about?

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

You probably have that list of launches, right in front of you, would be my guess. But yeah, like Neil mentioned, there were actually nine launches, nine new nameplates launched in the quarter.

[Ron Jewsikow, Analyst at Guggenheim Securities]

Right.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

And so, yeah, some of those we are pretty excited about. Like I did mention earlier in that question, too, GM FDM volume was quite strong in the quarter. It was. We did have some headwinds from some other OEs who had some issues. But all in all, if you look at the growth both with existing customers, especially GM, that happened in the quarter, and then also followed on with the launches that Neil referenced, it was a very strong FDM quarter.

[Ron Jewsikow, Analyst at Guggenheim Securities]

Mm-hmm. Okay. And then, just as we go into the fourth quarter, one of your supplier peers yesterday sounded quite pessimistic on kind of the European production environment, and I do think there was a bit of a luxury bend to that softness. I guess, is that something you're seeing, and is there conservatism embedded in your fourth quarter guide to kind of reflect this, just given you do ship obviously more outside mirrors, particularly to luxury customers?

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Yeah, I would say, yeah, we're definitely a little more on the pessimistic side as it relates to that market right now. I don't know that I would go quite as far as the quotes that you referenced. At least that our impact to us isn't that severe. But yeah, there's definitely some risk factors there. The good news is, if you look at our exposure into the European market, it's pretty well diversified. So we're not overweight, really, any one OEM.

[Ron Jewsikow, Analyst at Guggenheim Securities]

Mm-hmm.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

You know, as long as there's good geographical mix and as long as the market itself isn't down huge, we should be able to weather that storm fairly well.

[Ron Jewsikow, Analyst at Guggenheim Securities]

All right. Perfect. Thanks for taking my questions.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Thanks, Ron.

[Kevin Nash, VP of Finance and CFO at Gentex Corporation]

Thanks, Ron.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Josh Nichols with B. Riley. Your line is now open.

[Josh Nichols, Analyst at B. Riley]

Yeah, thanks for taking my question. Just to touch on some of the R&D initiatives. I know driver monitoring and cabin monitoring are big focal points you guys talked about earlier. On the company's Investor Day, you were talking about having at least one commercial launch ready. I'm just curious, like, the expectations in terms of timing and revenue generation, whether I presume starting with driver monitoring and then maybe moving to cabin monitoring for next year. I would assume that could be somewhere in, like, the tens of millions of dollars, and is that really built into the model today, or is that just kind of an upside optionality at this point?

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

... Yeah, so if you look, I would say in terms of magnitude, you're right in the, for 2025, that's about the right dollar amount to be thinking about for 2025. Remember, though, at the end of 2025 will really be our kind of second launch. End of 2025, beginning of 2026. And then throughout 2026 and beyond, we expect to have at least one more OEM launch. And so, you know, we're probably talking late 2026, early 2027 before it's a material amount of revenue.

[Josh Nichols, Analyst at B. Riley]

Right.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

but the work is right now.

[Josh Nichols, Analyst at B. Riley]

Yep.

[Josh Nichols, Analyst at B. Riley]

And then just based on your comments earlier, right? I mean, you're building in a little bit of additional, sounds like buffer for conservatism, in regards to the forecast for next year, but that just kind of implies, well, you've had some really phenomenal FDM outperformance this year that's kind of been driving most of the light vehicle production upside outperformance you guys have achieved. Do you expect that to be effectively continue at the same type of pace that you're seeing this year? Is that really just driven by an increasing adoption rate across these higher volume production vehicles that you're starting to see, more than whenever this offering first came out some years ago?

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Yeah, if you look at those first really three to four years of FDM production, it was really overweight luxury vehicles, and full-size SUVs. Now, as we move into more pickup trucks and also higher volume vehicles, really, what's great about the FDM story is it's a little more transcendent of a product than what we've had in the past. Really, if you look at our company's entire history, most of our products, it takes, you know, seven to ten years to matriculate out of just luxury and into volume brands. This technology is a little different. I mean, it fits so many use cases and the desire from consumers. And so it's been a definitely a faster growth rate than we would have anticipated.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

If you go back seven, eight years ago, I don't think we probably could have optimistically thought of something like this, but I don't think we probably could have capacitized around that optimism. OEM interest is definitely there, and so we continue to just be really grateful for the success that product has had in the market.

[Josh Nichols, Analyst at B. Riley]

Appreciate it. Thanks.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question at this time, please press star one one on your touchtone telephone. Our next question comes from the line of Joseph Spak with UBS. Your line is now open.

[Joseph Spak, Analyst at UBS]

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I just want to sort of go back to you know that you mentioned the conservatism baked into 2025, and it sounds like you're baking in something similar for the fourth quarter. Is I just wanna make sure I understand that. So it's not necessarily like the IHS or S&P numbers you sort of put in the press release here. You've made some adjustments to the fourth quarter as well?

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Yeah, that's correct. If you look at... really, we kind of see Q4 looking a lot more like Q3. And so we're basically taking what happened in Q3, plus that forecast in Q4 and saying, okay, somewhere between these two sets of numbers, and then a little bit of an adjustment, manual adjustment to those, because we do think there's a little more risk, especially in the second half of Q4.

[Joseph Spak, Analyst at UBS]

Yeah

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

... versus what the data would show.

[Joseph Spak, Analyst at UBS]

Okay. So that sort of leads me to the second question, which is, you know, you're just doing the math. I mean, your guidance does sort of imply, right, fourth quarter sales, you know, flattish or maybe down a little bit at the midpoint, versus third quarter. But it seems like the gross margin is 80 basis points higher. And I'm just. I know, I think you typically do have some sort of seasonal uplift, but like you mentioned in your prepared remarks, some of the mix headwinds, you know, that you've seen this quarter. So is there anything else sort of really driving that margin higher quarter over quarter that we should call out? Like, any help in understanding some of the puts and takes would be appreciated.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

I think we definitely had some mix issues in Q3 beyond just overall volumes, and so we think some of those mix issues will probably lighten up in Q4 versus Q3, which would help us get a little bit of a tailwind. If you're comparing to Q4 last year margin, however, I would say it's not gonna get there. Last year was helped. We had a lot of pricing and one-time recoveries and other things happening last year, calendar year, that we're not having the same benefit from this year, so if you look at a recurring, a maintenance margin level, in essence, I would say, you know, a little bit fairly similar to what we just posted in Q3 or slightly better, would probably be like our optimistic version of what margin profile will look like in Q4.

[Joseph Spak, Analyst at UBS]

Okay. That's very helpful. I appreciate it.

[Steven Downing, President and CEO at Gentex Corporation]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. I'd now like to hand the conference back over to Josh O'Berski for closing remarks.

[Josh O'Berski, Director of Investor Relations at Gentex Corporation]

Thank you. As a reminder, we will be attending SEMA in November and CES in January, and we welcome investors in our booth. If you're interested in joining us at either of these events, please reach out to me. With that, this concludes our call. Thank you, everyone, and have a great weekend.

[Operator]

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Josh O'Berski, Director of Investor Relations
• Steven Downing, President and CEO
• Kevin Nash, VP of Finance and CFO
• Neil Boehm, CTO

Analysts

• Luke Junk, Analyst at Baird
• James Picariello, Analyst at BNP Paribas
• Ryan Brinkman, Analyst at J.P. Morgan
• Ron Jewsikow, Analyst at Guggenheim Securities
• Josh Nichols, Analyst at B. Riley
• Joseph Spak, Analyst at UBS