Corsair Gaming Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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Operator

Afternoon, and welcome to Corsair Gaming's First Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded, and your participation implies consent to such recording. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to David Pasquale with Investor Relations. Thank you, sir. Please begin.

David Pasquale
Investor Relations at Global IR Partners

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining Coursera's financial results conference call for the first quarter ended 03/31/2025. On the call today, we have Coursera's CEO, Andy Paul Keith Law, Coursera's President and future Chief Executive Officer of Coursera as of 07/01/2025 and CFO, Michael Potter. Andy will review highlights from the quarter, followed by Tee. Michael will then review the financials. We will then have time for any questions.

David Pasquale
Investor Relations at Global IR Partners

Before we begin, allow me to provide a disclaimer regarding forward looking statements. This call, including the Q and A portion, may include forward looking statements related to the expected future results for our company and are therefore forward looking statements. Our actual results may differ materially from our projections due to a number of risks and uncertainties. The risks and uncertainties that forward looking statements are subject to are described in our earnings release and other SEC filings. Note that until our 10 Q has been filed, these numbers are preliminary.

David Pasquale
Investor Relations at Global IR Partners

Today's remarks will also include references to non GAAP financial measures. Additional information, including reconciliation between non GAAP financial information to the GAAP financial information is provided in the press release we issued after the market closed today. With that, I will now turn the call over to Corusere's CEO, Andy Paul. Please go ahead, sir.

Andy Paul
Andy Paul
Co-Founder & CEO at Corsair Gaming

Thanks, David. Firstly, I'm pleased to report that we bet our revenue and earnings targets for q one with $370,000,000 of revenue, representing an approximate 10% growth over q one of last year. Margins and EBITDA were also on target, which Michael will cover in detail later. Our new Fanatec SIM racing operation helped growth in our gamer and creator peripheral segment and a rebound in our gaming component and systems segment signaled renewed energy in the core of our enthusiast space with new GPU cards shipping from NVIDIA. One of the key milestones this quarter was successful initial integration of Fanatec into Corsair.

Andy Paul
Andy Paul
Co-Founder & CEO at Corsair Gaming

This included seamless alignment across our website, ecommerce systems, ERP, supply chain, and customer support infrastructure. We're already seeing the results. Consumers have responded enthusiastically to improve product availability, faster support, and a more streamlined experience. We're excited to build on this momentum by shortly bringing Fanatec products to some of our specialist retailers, further expanding our presence in the enthusiast gaming space and driving incremental revenue. Clearly, one of the main topics of the day is tariffs and how they affect us.

Andy Paul
Andy Paul
Co-Founder & CEO at Corsair Gaming

And Thiela, who was recently announced as our new CEO, will address what we're doing to mitigate any tariff impacts. But the headline is that we don't source much for The US market from China, and so far, we saw very little effects in terms of our consumer base reducing demand. In q one, we have seen solid demand for our components and memory products as enthusiasts build new gaming PCs based on new high performance GPUs. As we have mentioned before, the new 50 series GPU cards are higher power than before, especially when overclocked. This means higher grade power supplies and cooling devices need to be used, which is where we specialize.

Andy Paul
Andy Paul
Co-Founder & CEO at Corsair Gaming

So we started the year in a good position. Looking forward, there are always multiple variables that can change. And, of course, we don't know what exactly is gonna happen with tariffs given the fluid situation. However, we are encouraged with the more measured approach to tariffs on semiconductors and related products and would expect to end up at a place which would not meaningfully affect the consumer demand for building gaming PCs and buying peripherals. My belief, having watched many economic cycles over the years, is that home entertainment, like gaming or watching content at home, tends to be less affected during a recession than spending outside the home, as restaurants, bars, and other outside entertainment.

Andy Paul
Andy Paul
Co-Founder & CEO at Corsair Gaming

Having said that, any economic slowdown or recession that involves layoffs and prices generally going up will not likely induce any meaningful growth for our markets. The other thing we need to look at is how we fare compared to our competitors. In most of our categories, we are the largest supplier, and so we probably have more flexibility and likely would gain market share if large tariffs go into effect. As I mentioned, Tee will cover this in detail next. Lastly, I wanna touch on the growing impact of artificial intelligence across our business.

Andy Paul
Andy Paul
Co-Founder & CEO at Corsair Gaming

This is an exciting development with massive implications to our business and to gameplay. We're already seeing early benefits. For example, Elgato is shipping AI enhanced tools like the AI prompter, and we integrated AI into Wavelink with AI acoustic. Our support teams are also using AI driven knowledge systems to deliver faster, more accurate service. This ultimately creates a better customer relationship, reduces sport costs, and builds brand strength.

Andy Paul
Andy Paul
Co-Founder & CEO at Corsair Gaming

We believe AI will become a meaningful growth driver as it shapes the entire ecosystem from game creation to gameplay. In summary, q one was a solid start to the year. With the successful Fanatec integration, strong product demands, an adaptable supply chain, and early wins in AI, Corseille is well positioned for continued growth and innovation in the coming years. We're excited to what lies ahead. Let me now turn the call over to Tee La before Michael reviews our financials. Tee, please go ahead.

THI LA
THI LA
President and COO at Corsair Gaming

Thank you, Andy. Corseille has a long history of navigating global trade dynamics with agility and efficiency. We've spent years building a flexible, multi location manufacturing strategy that allows us to quickly adapt to changes in the market and policy environment. Today, our products are manufactured in several countries, including The United States through a combination of our own factories and a network of trusted assembly subcontractors tailored to our diverse product lines. Thanks to our operational expertise and deep supplier relationships, we've consistently demonstrated the ability to ship production locations within just two to four quarters, an advantage that gives us tremendous resilience.

THI LA
THI LA
President and COO at Corsair Gaming

While The US represents roughly 45% of our total sales in q one twenty twenty five, only 19% of the products sold into that market are sourced from China, and this number is expected to drop during this year. This means that we are well positioned to continue serving US consumers cost effectively due to our fluid operation. Our experience and scale allow us to move faster than many smaller competitors, and we believe this environment creates a meaningful opportunity for us to capture share. We're also encouraged by recent NPD Group data, which shows strong year over year growth in the components markets. These are areas where Corseo maintains a leadership position, and we're confident in our ability to meet growing demand with minimal disruption.

THI LA
THI LA
President and COO at Corsair Gaming

Let me now turn the call over to Michael for a review. Michael?

Michael Potter
Michael Potter
CFO at Corsair Gaming

Thank you, Andy and Tee. We're very pleased with our first quarter performance, which highlights the continued progress we're making across the business. One of the highlights this quarter was the expansion in margins. The increase in revenue from higher performance gear resulting from the high end GPU releases was coupled with our continued disciplined execution and focus on operational efficiency. This performance reflects the strength of our underlying business and our team's ability to execute on a long term business model.

Michael Potter
Michael Potter
CFO at Corsair Gaming

On the financial side, we made significant progress in further strengthening our balance sheet. We continue to actively reduce debt and improve our overall liquidity position. Taken together, these actions further enhance our financial flexibility and resilience, which takes on added importance in the current dynamic market environment. In terms of the specifics, Q1 twenty twenty five net revenue was $369,800,000 compared to $337,300,000 in Q1 twenty twenty four. European markets contributed 37.2% of our Q1 twenty twenty five revenues compared to 38% in Q4 twenty twenty four, while the APAC region was 11.3% of our Q1 twenty twenty five revenues compared to 9.1% in Q4 twenty twenty four.

Michael Potter
Michael Potter
CFO at Corsair Gaming

Turning now to our segments. The Gamer and Creator Peripheral segment contributed $112,000,000 of net revenue during the first quarter compared to $107,000,000 in Q1 twenty twenty four. The Gaming Components and Systems segment contributed $257,800,000 of net revenue during the first quarter compared to $230,300,000 in Q1 twenty twenty four. Memory products contributed $141,100,000 in Q1 twenty twenty five compared to $124,900,000 in Q1 twenty twenty four. Overall gross profit in the first quarter was $102,400,000 compared to $86,600,000 in Q1 twenty twenty four, reflecting the continued growth in our Gaming and Creator Peripheral segment and some benefit from the initial integration of Fanatec.

Michael Potter
Michael Potter
CFO at Corsair Gaming

Gross margin increased to 27.7% compared to 25.7% in Q1 twenty twenty four. While gross margin can fluctuate in any given quarter, we are pleased with the improvement in Q1, and this remains a focus for us longer term. Gross profit in the Gamer and Creator Peripheral segment was $46,400,000 compared to $43,600,000 in Q1 twenty twenty four. Gross margin improved to 41.5% compared to 40.8% in Q1 twenty twenty four. The Gaming Components and Systems segment gross profit was $55,900,000 compared to $43,000,000 in q one two thousand twenty four.

Michael Potter
Michael Potter
CFO at Corsair Gaming

Gross margin was 21.7% compared to 18.7% in Q1 twenty twenty four. Our memory products gross margins in this segment were 16.9% for the first quarter compared to 14.5% in Q1 twenty twenty four. First quarter SG and A expenses decreased slightly as a percentage of total revenue to 23.5% or $87,000,000 compared to twenty three point eight percent or $80,200,000 in Q1 twenty twenty four. First quarter R and D expenses also decreased slightly as a percentage of total revenue to 4.8% or $17,600,000 compared to 4.9% or 16,600,000 in Q1 twenty twenty four. We continue to target investments in higher ROI innovations, including both hardware and software to enhance the customer experience and to create revenue opportunities for us.

Michael Potter
Michael Potter
CFO at Corsair Gaming

GAAP operating loss in the first quarter of twenty twenty five was $2,300,000 compared to $10,200,000 in Q1 twenty twenty four. First quarter adjusted operating income was $20,600,000 compared to adjusted operating income of $15,400,000 in Q1 twenty twenty four. First quarter net loss attributable to common shareholders was $10,100,000 or $0.10 per diluted share as compared to net loss of $12,500,000 or $0.12 per diluted share in Q1 twenty twenty four. On an adjusted basis, first quarter net income was $12,300,000 or $0.11 per diluted share compared to an adjusted net income of $9,500,000 or $09 per share in Q1 twenty twenty four. Finally, our first quarter adjusted EBITDA was $22,600,000 compared to $18,000,000 for Q1 twenty twenty four.

Michael Potter
Michael Potter
CFO at Corsair Gaming

We are pleased to start the year on a strong note and remain focused on further improvements longer term. Shortly after the end of the quarter, we finished the last and largest effort to move Fanatec fully into our base systems. That was successful and should help us better manage in the future. Although there are still some supply chain changes that are being made, we do expect integration expenses to be mostly behind us now. Turning now to our balance sheet.

Michael Potter
Michael Potter
CFO at Corsair Gaming

We ended Q1 with a cash balance including restricted cash of $102,500,000 We invested in inventory in some categories we thought might help with any needed transitions, with inventory ending Q1 at $276,800,000 up $16,900,000 from the prior quarter. We ended Q1 with $149,000,000 of debt at face value, down $25,000,000 from the prior quarter, and our $100,000,000 working capital revolver remains undrawn and fully available. Overall, our liquidity remains excellent and allows us to pursue different strategies to support growth opportunities, including building inventory in strategic categories as I mentioned earlier. Finally, with regard to our outlook, as noted in our Q1 earnings release, given current uncertainty resulting from new tariffs and the possibility of additional tariffs and retaliatory actions taken in response to such tariffs, we are not reaffirming full year 2025 financial guidance, but intend to provide an update later in the year as visibility improves. With that, we're now happy to open the call for questions.

Michael Potter
Michael Potter
CFO at Corsair Gaming

Operator, will you please open up the call for q and a?

Operator

Absolutely. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then 2. Again, that is star and then 1 to ask a question.

Operator

At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. And your first question today will come from Aaron Lee with Macquarie. Please go ahead.

Aaron Lee
Aaron Lee
Senior Research Analyst at Macquarie Group

Hey. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. Appreciate all the color. Obviously, a lot going on in the world right now, inflation, tariffs, macro.

Aaron Lee
Aaron Lee
Senior Research Analyst at Macquarie Group

It sounds like everything is on track, but has anything changed in terms of your confidence in the hardware refresh cycle around the new NVIDIA GPUs? And can you talk a bit more about how Corsair has performed in past recessions and maybe any lessons you can apply going forward? Thanks.

Andy Paul
Andy Paul
Co-Founder & CEO at Corsair Gaming

Well, yeah, it's a complicated question. So I think the one thing we're mindful about is the two thirds of our revenue comes from people building gaming PCs, And the determining factor on whether they're gonna build or not is gonna come down to the cost of the GPU and the CPU. And that's why so much depends on the tariff level of semiconductors and what ends up being exempt. So you can imagine that if there was a 50% tariff on GPUs, that would be that would almost certainly impact demand. Now our current expectation or maybe it's a hope is that some igniters are not gonna get heavily tariffed because we think that there's a lot of people lobbying against this.

Andy Paul
Andy Paul
Co-Founder & CEO at Corsair Gaming

And I think there's gonna be an understanding that it does take a long time to rebuild up a semiconductor base in The US. So early early signs though is that people are clearly building with 50 series cards from NVIDIA. That's already started. Remember, they didn't really start shipping until March. So we've only had a a small amount of activity.

Andy Paul
Andy Paul
Co-Founder & CEO at Corsair Gaming

But certainly, all the way through March, '50 '90 cards, are the high end cards, were essentially on allocation for the whole balance of q one.

THI LA
THI LA
President and COO at Corsair Gaming

Yeah.

Andy Paul
Andy Paul
Co-Founder & CEO at Corsair Gaming

We couldn't get enough cards to make our high end systems. So, yeah, the refresh cycle is certainly starting, but there's a lot of there's a lot of factors that could could change how big it is.

Executive

Recession.

Andy Paul
Andy Paul
Co-Founder & CEO at Corsair Gaming

You asked about recession. And, you know, we don't we don't have a huge amount of historical data on that.

Andy Paul
Andy Paul
Co-Founder & CEO at Corsair Gaming

What I will say is that what what we have seen in general is that people tend to stay home in a recession and, you know, history shows that people resort to alcohol and watching TV and historically in recessions. And I think now it's more playing video games and and watching Netflix. So so I think that, you know, we'd be in reasonable situation if people started tightening their pocketbooks.

Aaron Lee
Aaron Lee
Senior Research Analyst at Macquarie Group

Gotcha. Thank you. That's helpful. I wanted to dig into the segments as well. Growth in peripherals, 5% in the quarter.

Aaron Lee
Aaron Lee
Senior Research Analyst at Macquarie Group

Any drivers of that in particular you would call out? And conversely, strong growth in the component segment. Do you think any of that will pull forward demand from people buying ahead of tariffs? Or do you think momentum can continue to build from here? Thank you.

Andy Paul
Andy Paul
Co-Founder & CEO at Corsair Gaming

Yeah. So I think in the in the components area, no. I don't think we saw that because the market was actually completely limited by the availability of cards. And really, the tariffs didn't start kicking in till right at the end of the quarter. So in fact, early April.

Andy Paul
Andy Paul
Co-Founder & CEO at Corsair Gaming

So in terms of peripherals, main driver for the growth was clearly the Fanatec acquisition that went pretty much as planned. We're pretty pretty happy with the way that's going. Yeah. So those are the two segments.

Aaron Lee
Aaron Lee
Senior Research Analyst at Macquarie Group

Okay. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Operator

Again, if you have a question, please press star and then 1. Please stand by as we poll for questions. Seeing no further questions, this will conclude our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Corsair's CEO, Andy Paul, for any closing remarks.

Andy Paul
Andy Paul
Co-Founder & CEO at Corsair Gaming

Okay. Thank you, everyone, for joining us on the call today and for your continued support. If you have any follow-up questions, please contact our Investor Relations department, and we look forward to updating you next quarter. Thank you, and have a good evening.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Executives
Analysts
    • David Pasquale
      Investor Relations at Global IR Partners
    • Aaron Lee
      Senior Research Analyst at Macquarie Group
    • Executive

Key Takeaways

  • Corsair beat Q1 targets with $369.8 million in revenue (10% y/y growth) and delivered strong margins and EBITDA.
  • Successful initial integration of Fanatec into Corsair’s systems improved product availability, support response, and streamlined e-commerce.
  • With only 19% of US-market products sourced from China and a multi-location manufacturing strategy, Corsair expects minimal tariff impact and potential market-share gains.
  • Renewed energy in the enthusiast PC space driven by NVIDIA’s 50-series GPU launch boosted demand for high-grade power supplies and cooling solutions.
  • Early AI integrations in Elgato tools (e.g., AI prompter, WaveLink acoustic) and support systems aim to enhance customer experience, reduce costs, and drive growth.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Corsair Gaming Q1 2025
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