Rogers Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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April 29, 2025
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Operator

Good afternoon. My name is Kevin, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Rogers Corporation First Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. I'll now turn the call over to your host, Mr. Steve Haymore, Senior Director of Investor Relations.

Operator

Mr. Haymore, you may begin.

Steve Haymore
Steve Haymore
Senior Director of Investor Relations & Treasury at Rogers

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Rogers Corporation First Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. The slides for today's call can be found on the Investors section of our website along with the news release that was issued earlier today. Please turn to Slide two. Before we begin, I would like to note that statements in this conference call that are not strictly historical are forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and should be considered as subject to the many uncertainties that exist in Rogers' operations and environment. These uncertainties include economic conditions, market demands and competitive factors.

Steve Haymore
Steve Haymore
Senior Director of Investor Relations & Treasury at Rogers

Such factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in any forward looking statement made today. Please turn to Slide three. The discussion during this conference call will also reference certain financial measures that were not prepared in accordance with U. S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

Steve Haymore
Steve Haymore
Senior Director of Investor Relations & Treasury at Rogers

A reconciliation of those non GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in the slide deck for today's call, which are available on our Investor Relations website. With me today is Colin Govea, President and CEO and Laura Russell, Senior Vice President and CFO. I will now turn the call over to Colin.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

Thanks, Steve. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'll begin on Slide four. Before I discuss the results for the quarter, let me first address how recent changes in global trade policies may affect Rogers in the near term. As I've discussed in the past, our global manufacturing footprint and local for local supply capabilities are important strengths of our business.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

This strategy helps limit our exposure to the impact of U. S. Tariffs on Chinese goods. Where we see greater potential exposure is with shipment of work in process materials from our U. S.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

Factories into China. We have implemented mitigation plans to minimize the impact of these tariffs in Q2. I'll discuss this topic in more detail shortly, but with the flexibility inherent in our global operations and our strong balance sheet, we are in a good position to navigate current market challenges. Turning to our results. The first quarter unfolded much as we expected with sales, gross margin and adjusted earnings all slightly ahead of the midpoint of our guidance.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

Q1 sales of $191,000,000 were slightly lower sequentially, primarily due to the impact of foreign exchange rate changes and normal seasonality in our portable electronics end market. The announcement of new tariffs in recent weeks had minimal impact on Q1. We continue to work closely with our customers on new design in opportunities and during the first quarter we secured new wins in several key areas. Our silicone technology was selected by a leading European OEM to be utilized in inverters for the industrial renewable energy and EVHEV markets. Rogers' reputation for quality and strong technical support capabilities were key factors in this design win.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

In the EVHEV space, our polyurethane and silicone materials were designed into several different battery related applications with major OEMs in The U. S, Europe and Asia. Our ceramic power substrates were selected by a power module customer for their onboard charging solution targeted to multiple Chinese OEMs. We've also seen a meaningful increase with Chinese OEMs in our ceramic opportunity pipeline. We are encouraged by the growth in these new opportunities.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

Our new facility in China scheduled to ramp production in mid-twenty twenty five will support these local ceramic volumes. Although it's difficult to predict market conditions in which our customers participate, which ultimately dictates the contribution these wins will have on our sales, these design wins underscore our technology's competitiveness and our ability to solve the most critical challenges of our customers. We also continue to adjust our cost structure in response to recent demand levels and to further increase our competitiveness. I'll review the actions we have taken later in my remarks. Turning to slide five and our Q1 results by end market compared to Q4.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

I'll begin with the ADAS and industrial markets, which both increased versus the prior quarter. ADAS sales improved at a low teens rate versus Q4 due to stronger demand from both European and Asian customers. As referenced on our Q4 earnings call, a leading Asian automotive radar supplier selected our materials for a new 77 gigahertz application, which led to increased shipments to this customer in Q1. The growth in industrial sales was led by the Elastomeric Materials Solutions or EMS business. In our Advanced Electronic Solutions or AES business, we continue to see softness in the industrial market consistent with what our power module customers are experiencing.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

EVHEV sales declined in both the AES and EMS business units. Ceramic power substrate sales remained soft as power module and other downstream customers continue to manage through the modest end market demand. In the EMS business, demand for our battery solutions was weaker in The U. S. And Europe as some customers adjusted inventories in response to lower sales and tariff uncertainty.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

Aerospace and Defense declined slightly. Defense sales in the Radio Frequency Solution business or RFS business continued to grow with both U. S. And European customers. Commercial Aerospace sales in the EMS business were lower, primarily a result of order timing.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

Lastly, as mentioned, portable electronic sales declined sequentially due to normal seasonality. Turning to slide six and our assessment of the tariff exposure on our business. As referenced earlier, our global manufacturing footprint has helped Rogers mitigate most of the impact from current tariffs on goods coming from China into The U. S. With our local for local strategy, a large percentage of our products produced in China are sold to customers in region.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

For this reason, we only have a small exposure to the current 145% tariff on goods from China. The flow of U. S. Goods imported into China is where we currently see the most direct exposure to tariff policies. In some instances, our supply chain today ships certain raw materials and work in process inventory from The United States to our facilities in China.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

In addition, we sell some finished goods in China that are only manufactured in The U. S. In response to this tariff exposure, we have implemented mitigation plans, which include managing inventories, sourcing materials from other countries where possible, satisfying customer demand from our non U. S. Manufacturing locations and recovering some of the impact through certain pricing actions.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

We expect these actions will largely offset the impacts of tariffs in the second quarter. For the flow of goods between Europe and The U. S, we expect minimal second quarter direct impact from the current 10% tariff rate. In addition to the direct impacts on tariffs, there are secondary effects that are clouding the outlook for all companies, including Rogers. This includes the uncertain impact that the current trade and tariff environment will have on global economic growth.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

It is unclear what impact these emerging risks will have on our sales in the second half of this year, but we'll continue to pursue appropriate mitigation strategies as conditions warrant. Turning to slide seven, I'll highlight the key actions we are taking to further improve our cost structure and which are helping us better navigate this current environment. We implemented significant cost improvements over the past two years, but I'll focus my remarks on the most recent actions that are reducing 2025 costs compared to the prior year. First, our footprint optimization work is continuing. Plans to consolidate our RFS facilities, which includes the wind down of production in Belgium remain on track for mid-twenty twenty five.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

We're successfully qualifying customers at other locations and with this closure, we expect a $3,000,000 improvement to operating income this year with annualized savings of $6,000,000 Also in our RFS business, we completed the sale of a manufacturing facility in Arizona in late Q1 for $13,000,000 Finally, with the closure of our R and D center in Boston last year, we have not only achieved better alignment of R and D resources with our business units, but we also expect cost savings of approximately $2,000,000 this year. We continue to reduce our operating expenses and manufacturing costs. We took the difficult, but necessary actions to eliminate certain positions in the first quarter following similar actions in Q4 twenty twenty four. These headcount adjustments will result in savings of $10,000,000 in 2025 with full year run rate savings of $12,000,000 Additionally, we continue to drive reductions in discretionary spend such as professional services, travel and other areas. In total, these actions are expected to result in net savings of $25,000,000 in 2025, with run rate savings of $32,000,000 Around 70% of these savings will be in operating expenses and the remainder in manufacturing costs.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

We're focused on driving top line growth. As I discussed at the start of this call, despite the challenging macroeconomic and evolving tariff climate, we continue to aggressively pursue new design wins that underscore our customers' desire for Rogers' latest technologies, while also delivering the products and services they need to succeed today. However, given the current market realities, we're prepared to further flex our cost structure if necessary. I'll now turn it over to Laura to discuss our Q1 financial performance and Q2 twenty twenty five outlook.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

Thank you, Colin. I'll begin on Slide eight with the highlights of our results for Q1. The overall results for the first quarter were in line with our expectations. Sales of $190,500,000 gross margin of 29.9% and adjusted EPS of $0.27 all slightly exceeded the midpoint of our previously announced guidance. Q1 sales decreased approximately 1% from the prior quarter, primarily due to a $3,000,000 impact from changes in foreign currency exchange rates and seasonally lower portable electronic sales.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

Adjusted earnings per share decreased to $0.27 from $0.46 in Q4 due to the effect of lower gross margin, which was in part offset by lower adjusted operating expenses. On slide nine, I'll discuss our first quarter sales by operating segment. AES revenue increased 2% versus the prior quarter to $104,000,000 from higher ADAS and aerospace and defense sales. These increases were partially offset by lower EVHEV revenue. EMS revenue decreased by approximately 4% to 83,000,000 from lower portable electronics, EVHEV and aerospace and defense sales.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

In contrast, industrial sales increased sequentially. Turning to slide 10, Q1 gross margin was 29.9%, a decrease of two twenty basis points from the fourth quarter. Reduction in gross margin was equally attributed to utilization headwinds and unfavorable product mix which impacted both margin contribution and their manufacturing effectiveness. As shared last quarter, we intentionally carried excess costs in Q1. This decision was to ensure the ability to respond to an expected improvement in customer demand in the second half of the year.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

The extent of that improvement is no less certain given the current tariff situation. Resultantly, we are carefully evaluating these costs and will further adjust as needed. Adjusted EBITDA of $19,500,000 or 10.2% of sales decreased by $3,800,000 sequentially. This was primarily due to the lower gross margin and unfavorable currency translation, which was partially offset by lower adjusted operating expenses. Adjusted operating expenses decreased by almost £4,000,000 from the prior quarter reflecting the ongoing cost reduction efforts that Colin highlighted.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

Continuing to slide 11, I'll next discuss Q1 cash utilization. Cash at the end of the first quarter was $176,000,000 an increase of $16,000,000 from the end of the fourth quarter. In addition to cash generated from operations, we also received net proceeds of $13,000,000 related to the sale of our Price Road manufacturing facility in Arizona. The primary uses of cash in Q1 included capital expenditures of $10,000,000 and cash taxes paid of 8,000,000 allocation priorities and the current operating environment. Our overall goal is to maintain a strong balance sheet during this period of increased uncertainty while allocating excess cash to its best use.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

Over the past two to three years the focus was in allocating capital to fund organic growth initiatives. With those investments now largely complete, we are focused on decreasing the CapEx intensity of the business. As it pertains to our 2025 CapEx plans, we have identified further reduction opportunities and now expect to spend between 30,000,000 to $40,000,000 for the full year, a decrease of 10,000,000 Next, returning capital to shareholders has increased in priority given our growing cash position and the lower share price. Consistent with our opportunistic share buyback strategy, we will continue to monitor market dynamics and our share price and will leverage our existing repurchase program approvals. For reference, we have $104,000,000 remaining on our existing share repurchase program.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

Third, synergistic bolt on M and A remains a key part of our strategy. We continue to target opportunities with the right product and regional fit that are EPS accretive and with ROIs that exceed our return threshold. Through evaluation, we are continuing to make progress with multiple opportunities that fit these criteria. Lastly, we intend to prudently manage leverage for any potential M and A transaction. In light of the current environment, we would not expect any use of debt to exceed 1.5 times EBITDA and only for the clearly synergistic opportunity.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

Next on slide 13, I will discuss our guidance for the second quarter. Beginning with the top line, we expect Q2 sales to be between 190,000,000 and $2.00 5,000,000 The midpoint of this range represents a 4% increase in sales versus the first quarter. The EVHEV, ADAS, industrial and portable electronics end markets are all expected to increase. In recent weeks, have seen a small amount of customers delaying orders because of the tariff uncertainty. These order delays have been largely isolated, but the low end of our range contemplates the potential for similar trends

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

We are guiding gross margin to be in the range of 31% to 33% for Q2 with the increase a result of both improved volume and favorable product mix. As indicated, we are working to mitigate the direct impact of higher tariff costs. In recognition of the uncertainty this causes, we have widened the GM range by 100 basis points. We expect adjusted operating expenses to increase slightly in Q2 from the first quarter. Similar to prior years, this is related to the timing of when some share based compensation expenses are incurred.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

EPS is expected to range from breakeven to 0.4 of earnings. The adjusted EPS range is $0.30 to $0.70 of earnings. Lastly, based on current visibility, we project our full year tax rate to be approximately 27%. I will now turn the call back over to Colin.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

Thanks, Laura. Let me conclude on slide 14 with important priorities for Rogers, not just in Q1, but for the remainder of the year. We are sharply focused on executing our commercial and operational objectives, securing important new design wins with major OEMs, strengthening our sales funnel across both our AES and EMS businesses and continuing to aggressively pursue our operational efficiency and business transformation initiatives, which includes more efficient internal processes and improved customer experience and overall a more flexible and scalable enterprise. We are implementing robust action plans to address and wherever possible mitigate the impact of tariffs. Our local for local strategy is an important element of our mitigation plans and we'll pursue other steps as necessary.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

We have taken prudent actions over the last year, which we continue to implement in Q1 to improve our cost structure and operating efficiency. These actions have delivered material savings across the company. If conditions warrant, we will pursue additional cost saving measures. And lastly, we are highly focused on maintaining a strong balance sheet that provides Rogers with flexibility and capital deployment optionality. Thank you for your time today.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

I will now turn the call back to the operator for questions.

Operator

Thank you. We'll now be conducting a question and answer session. You. Our first question today is coming from Dan Moore from CJS Securities. Your line is now live.

Daniel Moore
Director of Research at CJS Securities

Thank you. Good afternoon, Colin. Good afternoon, Laura. Thanks for taking the questions.

Daniel Moore
Director of Research at CJS Securities

I'll start with the

Daniel Moore
Director of Research at CJS Securities

cost savings. Just how much of the $25,000,000 cost savings that you expect to achieve in 2025 is in the Q2 guidance kind of on a run rate basis? And then regarding the $32,000,000 annualized, is that all earmarked for margin improvement and bottom line improvement? Or might some portion of that be reinvested in the business?

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

Hi, Dan, it's Laura. I'll start there and Colin can augment with anything that happened to miss. So in terms of the second quarter, largely most of the savings that we're going to see there associated to the reduction force that we mentioned with regards to rebalancing our OpEx investment associated to the current top line environment. A lot of the manufacturing savings that were reported there are really predicated on our rundown of our AFS manufacturing from our Belgian facility. And consistent with what we communicated previously, we're still on track to exit that manufacturing manufacturing late Q2, early Q3.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

So we will see benefits of that in the second half, around $3,000,000 but most of the second quarter is more so on the RIF impact. In terms of the quarterly amount there, I think it's about $3,000,000

Daniel Moore
Director of Research at CJS Securities

For Q2?

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

Yes.

Daniel Moore
Director of Research at CJS Securities

Okay. And then just looking at obviously given all of moving parts visibility is extremely challenged. Just seasonally last year Q3 was your strongest quarter seasonally aided by portable electronics. Do you still expect that to be the case once again this year at least for the bottom line given particularly given the benefit from incremental cost reduction actions? Any thoughts there would be helpful.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

Just thoughts on the second half of the year, probably center around some of the key assumptions around what happens for us in terms of portable electronics ramping. We also have still the assumption that we see some of the inventory issues related to the power module market finally abating and that will all contribute to what we think is improvement going forward. But that's I guess there's a caveat in there Dan around, it's still too difficult to predict might happen with the geopolitical situation regarding tariffs or other areas.

Daniel Moore
Director of Research at CJS Securities

Understood. I'll jump back with any follow ups. Thanks.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Next question today is coming from Craig Ellis from B. Riley Securities. Your line is now live.

Craig Ellis
Director of Research at B Riley Financial

Yes. Thanks for taking the questions and appreciate all the transparency in the presentation, especially on cost reduction. I wanted to start just by following up on one of the points that Laura mentioned, and it's a question both for Laura and you, Colin. So she talked about some customers making very modest adjustments on orders, but the question is more about just the tone of customer conversations that you've had since tariffs or the tariff issue really started to ramp up in late March and early April. What are you hearing from customers?

Craig Ellis
Director of Research at B Riley Financial

Are you hearing that while they haven't done anything yet, they could do things that might have a more impact on business? Just help us understand what's going on out there as you interact with your key customer constituents? Thank you.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

I can start with that as I've spent a lot of time with customers and talking to customers as have our commercial teams and technical teams for that matter. So I would say our customers are feeling very resilient as we are. They understand it's unpredictable, but they've been great to work with. And when we talk about how can we potentially mitigate potential more tariffs, it's working with them in terms of if we source from other areas, could they move qualification in a faster pace, they're willing to do that. I would say the dialogues have been constructive, open.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

We feel like we're in this together. And I see a lot of cooperation coming from our customers and we're cooperating with them. So it's unclear, it's uncertain. We have been through a lot together going back to even before COVID. And so we feel like this is one more hurdle that we'll work together to overcome.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

But there's not a lot of despair. It's mostly around, hey, this is in front of us. Let's figure out how to mitigate this and move forward. And we'll be fine. We're just really trying to take one step forward every day with our customer base.

Craig Ellis
Director of Research at B Riley Financial

Yes, that's real reassuring. Thank you, Colin. And then the second question, I'll direct to you. It relates to one of the points that you made on the Chromac opportunity pipeline in China. Great to hear there's good expansion going on.

Craig Ellis
Director of Research at B Riley Financial

Can you just help reconcile what you're seeing with that opportunity pipeline? Maybe provide a little bit more color on how it's developed and could further develop through the year? And then more broadly, the global market is pretty soft. And what do you see happening regionally versus globally? And how does that all play out in the strength of the business this year?

Craig Ellis
Director of Research at B Riley Financial

Thank you.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

Okay. Well, I'll start by saying that we continue to make good progress on standing up our Kramer facility. The prototyping continues and we still anticipate being able to supply customer orders by sometime in the middle of this year. And I would also say that our customer base in China remains excited related to the fact that we'll be able to produce in China for China. We have a team that's been I think aggressively pursuing design in wins both with Western OEMs based in China and Chinese OEMs.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

We have several in the pipeline both one and some we think will be closing soon. So we actually feel good about that. I would say that from the macro perspective, it's still quite sluggish in the power module space and we're anticipating improvement in the second half of the year that will relate to how tariffs unfold most probably and what happens to inventory levels and of course consumer demand for EVHEV. We also still see from a ceramic and power module perspective, the industrial segment still quite sluggish, again probably related to interest rates and other things related to tariffs as well. But from a longer term perspective, we still feel very comfortable that we're in the right space.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

We do believe EVHEV will sort out and settle out into that 15% CAGR at some point. And from a Karemic perspective, we feel really good about our technology differentiation and especially our tech service and applications expertise. That's helping drive our design wins. And then as we ramp China, we'll be very prudent and figure out how to balance supply and demand and we handle that on a monthly basis as we adjust in that area. So I would say we still feel optimistic, but still unclear on when the macro will finally get back to where we want it to be.

Craig Ellis
Director of Research at B Riley Financial

That's real helpful. And if I could sneak one in for Laura. Laura, impressive gross margin expansion in the second quarter. And I think you indicated that mix was a significant contributor there. Can you provide more color on the mix dynamics at play?

Craig Ellis
Director of Research at B Riley Financial

And then because there is so much cost reduction going on, is there some cost reduction that's also helping, albeit a minority rather than a majority of the increase? Thank you.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

Yes, sure. So what I would say is with regards to cost reduction, Craig, that's consistently part of our DNA. We focus on cost management in manufacturing locations and through our procurement and supply chain on a day to day, week to week basis. So there will be elements of cost reduction that will favorably impact the margin on a quarter to quarter transition. But in addition to that, mix has a significant impact to us as a business with the diversity that we have in the segments, the products and the regions that we're serving.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

And the mix that we had in the first quarter was a little challenged on a quarter to quarter basis. With what we expect to be sailing into the second quarter, that will favorably assist us. And in addition to that, that mix isn't just a product, it's all the way down to the base level and how we manufacture that through the manufacturing facilities. So we do see improved optimization on that mix into the second quarter, which helps on some of that margin expansion that we have in the gate there. And then finally, you hear me probably repeatedly talk about the benefit utilization has for us.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

So with that expansionary $7,000,000 in the top line into second quarter, we'll see the feasible benefit on the utilization as well.

Craig Ellis
Director of Research at B Riley Financial

That's very helpful. Thanks, Flora. Thanks, Colin.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

You're welcome.

Operator

Thank you. Next question is coming from David Silver from CLK and Associates. Your line is now live.

David Silver
Senior MD & Director - Equity Research at C.L. King & Associates

Yes. Hi. Thank you very much. Firstly, I'd just like to mention, I did appreciate the slide deck, in particular Slide six and the walkthrough of your different tariff exposures and impacts by different exposure. Very helpful.

David Silver
Senior MD & Director - Equity Research at C.L. King & Associates

I did have a question, I guess, a little different angle, I guess, on the tariffs, but more so than maybe the immediate tactical moves that you've highlighted. I was thinking about maybe a longer term perspective, but with your R and D and your technical work with your customers, in particular, where the collaboration is highest, Have you noticed or would you note any change in the behavior or attitude to the customers towards working with Rogers or working with a U. S.-based company? I mean, in other words, have projects that maybe have a commercialization date maybe next year over the next year or two, has the current environment led to any significant pauses or rethinking on the parts of your key customers? Thank you.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

Hi, David. Colin here. I'll take that. I would say that it certainly has been a very dramatic last several months and there's been a lot of discussion with our customers about what the future looks like. And there have been opinions all over the map from customers all over the world for those I've spoken to in Europe and in Asia and in The U.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

S. What I feel though is that at the end of the day, we feel like and our customers feel like that if we continue to work together as we have for years and Rogers has been a long time supplier to a lot of our customers, we'll be able to navigate these waters together and we'll be able to go forward. I can't say I've seen any, to specifically answer your question, anti American company rhetoric. I mean there are some people who have opinions on what's going on with the tariffs, but nothing specific against Rogers and most people, if not all the folks I talked to feel like the global economy has proven to be a successful engine for growth for the entire world and things will work through whatever we're in at the moment and normalize and we'll be back to where we want to be to a more stable macro. And so I'm paying attention every day to these changes, keep in close contact with the customers as is the Rogers team and we don't feel what brought up is going to be a big impediment to our growth going forward.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

But thank you for asking that one.

David Silver
Senior MD & Director - Equity Research at C.L. King & Associates

Yes. I probably worded it not as diplomatically as I intended, but it was more just from customers considering elevated uncertainty as opposed to anti American sentiment per se. But thank you for walking through that. I appreciate it. I would like to maybe just touch base on your commercial update and in particular, the China opportunity funnel that you talked about.

David Silver
Senior MD & Director - Equity Research at C.L. King & Associates

I've noted you've made new investments in products for both AES and EMS. From the increased opportunities that you would cite in China, is or I'll just say that the region, but is there a balance of increase on both the AES side and EMS side? Or is it tilted more towards Poron than ceramic type products? Or would it be more solutions oriented where there's elements of both of your segments? Just a comment on the development of your opportunity funnel in China.

David Silver
Senior MD & Director - Equity Research at C.L. King & Associates

Thank you.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

Yes. Thanks, David. I'll take that one as well. I would say that our opportunity funnel in terms of how it's balanced, it's fairly well balanced between EMS and AES. So from the EMS perspective, PORON is lead technology for us, but we also have our BISCO foam.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

We have two polyurethane manufacturing lines in South Korea, Eutis that makes different type of polyurethane foam that goes quite well in a lot of end market segments. And from an EMS perspective, we're seeing growth and targeted program wins in portable electronic areas, industrial EVHEV. Those might be the three largest ones although not completely the final end applications we sell to. And then from the AES perspective, it's mostly I would say EVHEV. So it's ADAS radar, it's power modules that go into EVHEV or industrial and a good portion of renewable energy.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

And that's also a key end market segment for our Rowling's laminated bus bars. So, I would say that a good proxy would be, yes, we see a general, I would say balanced funnel between the businesses and it's also quite diverse in terms of products we sell going into multiple different end applications. So we're not just focusing, I would say with one product into one end market in China. I think it's quite the opposite.

David Silver
Senior MD & Director - Equity Research at C.L. King & Associates

Great. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

Thank you, David.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is a follow-up from Dan Moore from CJS Securities. Your line is now live.

Daniel Moore
Director of Research at CJS Securities

Thank you again. And I appreciate the color on both capital allocation priorities as well as the CapEx update. Given that, what are your expectations for free cash flow this year? And if not a range, maybe just kind of discuss some of the other components, what are your expectations for working capital, etcetera?

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

Hey, Dan. So I'll start here. So as you saw, we expanded our cash balance in Q1, so we're up at $176,000,000 and so growth of $16,000,000 quarter on quarter. If you consider that in relation to our top line and our profitability in the first quarter. Even with that lower level of activity, we expanded absent the sale of Precipitate three million dollars inclusive of capital investment of 10,000,000 So we don't guide for the full year, but what I think that tells you is something about the resiliency in our liquidity and the position that we're on from a balance sheet perspective.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

And that's what framed the capital allocation considerations and the update that we shared in today's review.

Daniel Moore
Director of Research at CJS Securities

That's helpful, Laura. And just thinking longer term beyond this year, are you pointing to lower CapEx or is that more of a temporary pullback and still thinking something along the maybe 7% of revenue range? Thanks again.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

Of course. No, I would suggest historically we've been investing as we expanded our global footprint in satisfying the local for local strategy. We're largely complete with those capacity investments, which means our organic investment should decelerate. If you look at this year as a proxy, it will be sub-five percent is what our latest indication is. So I would expect the intensity to decrease.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

The one thing that I would mention though is consistent with what we should do in seeking optimization opportunities. We'll review investment opportunities that our businesses and the R and D teams identify on an ongoing basis and make decisions based on opportunity to deliver significant return that complies with their investment thesis. So I would anticipate a reduced intensity going forward, but I just would like to caveat that with we have to evaluate opportunities as it presents themselves.

Daniel Moore
Director of Research at CJS Securities

Makes perfect sense. Thank you.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

You're welcome.

Operator

Thank you. Next question is a follow-up from Craig Ellis from B. Riley Securities. Your line is now live.

Craig Ellis
Director of Research at B Riley Financial

Yes. Thanks for taking the follow-up. Dan really just hit on it with the inquiry on the level of CapEx intensity going forward, but I'll use it as an opportunity to dig a little bit deeper. Laura, as we look at the business and its capital intensity, as we switch more from just building out our local for local capability and really optimizing the footprint that's in place. Can you characterize the relative capital intensity of the two main segments?

Craig Ellis
Director of Research at B Riley Financial

Are there parts of those businesses that would have relatively higher CapEx requirements to sustain them? Or are there other factors that we could be aware of that would help us understand in a 4% to 6% range where we might be allocating that capital? Thank you.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

So what I would tell you is with the structure of our factories, I would suggest that if I look at the investments we've made over the last few years, there have been somewhat balance between both of our segments associated to capital and capacity expansion. But also within that CapEx investment, Craig, is what we need to invest in to maintain our existing fleet. When I think about that as it relates to our global manufacturing footprint, I would view it quite equivalent in terms of visibility that we have. Naturally, there may be some individual one off things that we need to undertake to maintain a facility or upgrade something that's unforeseen that may be a little more intense. But I think if you look at that over a period of time, it's going to balance itself and I would kind of hazard a suggestion that it's probably somewhat balanced.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

And even if you consider the investments that we have been making in recent years, we always are inclusive of investments not just in our capital expansion, but also our facility maintenance and in addition to that investments in R and D for optimization in our technology capabilities. And then finally on systems and ERP, so that we can make our organization more effective to seek optimization in the future.

Craig Ellis
Director of Research at B Riley Financial

Very helpful. Thank you, Laura.

Laura Russell
Laura Russell
CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer at Rogers

You're welcome.

Operator

Thank you. We've reached the end of our question and answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over for any further or closing comments.

Colin Gouveia
Colin Gouveia
President and CEO at Rogers

I would just like to say that thank you for joining our conference call, and we look forward to following up with many of you over the next several weeks. Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.

Executives
    • Steve Haymore
      Steve Haymore
      Senior Director of Investor Relations & Treasury
    • Colin Gouveia
      Colin Gouveia
      President and CEO
    • Laura Russell
      Laura Russell
      CFO, Senior VP & Treasurer
Analysts
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Key Takeaways

  • Q1 sales of $190.5 million, gross margin of 29.9% and adjusted EPS of $0.27 all slightly exceeded the midpoint of prior guidance despite foreign-exchange headwinds and seasonal portable-electronics softness.
  • New design wins include silicone inverters for a leading European OEM, polyurethane and silicone battery materials for EV/HEV applications with major global OEMs, and ceramic power substrates for Chinese onboard chargers—backed by a China facility ramping mid-2025.
  • A local-for-local manufacturing strategy has minimized tariff exposure and, through inventory management, alternate sourcing and selective pricing, management expects to largely offset the impact of US-to-China tariffs in Q2.
  • Footprint consolidation, facility sales and headcount reductions are projected to yield $25 million in 2025 savings (rising to a $32 million annual run rate), with additional cost-flex options available if needed.
  • For Q2, the company forecasts 4% sequential sales growth to $190 million–$205 million, a gross margin of 31%–33% and adjusted EPS of $0.30–$0.70, while recognizing ongoing order uncertainty from the tariff environment.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Rogers Q1 2025
00:00 / 00:00

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