Ingram Micro Holding Corp Q3 FY2024 Earnings Call

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining Ingram Micro's Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. I'll now turn the call over to Willa McManmon, Head of Investor Relations.

Thank you, operator. I'm here today with Paul Bay, Ingram Micro's CEO; and Michael Zilis, our CFO. Before I turn the call over to Paul, let me remind you that today's discussion contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including predictions, estimates, projections or other statements about future events, statements about our strategy, demand, plans and positioning, growth, cash flow, capital allocation and stockholder return as well as our expectations for future fiscal periods. Actual results may differ materially from those mentioned in these forward-looking statements because of risks and uncertainties discussed in today's earnings release and in our filings with the SEC. We do not intend to update any forward-looking statements. During this call, we will reference certain non-GAAP financial information. Reconciliations of non-GAAP results to GAAP results are included in our earnings press release and the related Form 8-K available on the SEC's website or on our Investor Relations website. With that, I'll turn the call over to Paul.

Thank you, Willa, and thank you everyone for joining our first earnings call after our October IPO. We are excited to be back in the public markets and pleased with our third quarter results. In the quarter, our key metrics of net sales gross profit margin, adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP net income exceeded or landed at the top-end of the ranges in our S-1 filing with the SEC in October. Mike will dig deeper into the numbers. But first, for those of you who are new to the story, I'll briefly discuss what we do and how we evolved since we were last public in 2016. We'd like to say that you've never had a day without Ingram Micro. Put simply, we reached nearly 90% of the world's population with technology solutions. We work with more than 1,500 leading technology vendors to provide end-to-end technology solutions to our more than 161,000 customers globally. And together, we can do business in nearly 200 countries. It's important to note that our combined presence in Asia-Pacific, Latin America and EMEA markets now represents roughly two-thirds of our global net sales. Our customers provide solutions and services to end users ranging from small, medium-sized businesses to Fortune 1000. Our strategy is driven by the massive trends that are changing the technology landscape for our customers, including the migration to cloud and subscription, the need for enhanced security, the exponential increase in connected devices and everything as a service, along with the increasing interest in embedded AI. These trends are behind what IDC defines as an over $3 trillion addressable market. We are addressing this market opportunity by taking the friction out of the IT sales channel and how B2B companies operate. Our aim is to transform our business into a platform company that enables the IT ecosystem to move from transacting to interacting across multiple categories. We put the customer at the center of everything we do to create a better, more intuitive experience. A fundamental part of this transformation is the investment of more than $600 million over the past decade into our cloud business and marketplace. In addition to our organic growth, we have invested in more than 40 acquisitions to acquire high-value technical resources and market expertise as well as to expand across geographies. We have now parlayed that baseline investment into our AI-powered digital experience platform at Ingram Micro, which we call Xvantage. Xvantage is powered by our patent-pending technology in over 100 internally developed AI models. We launched Xvantage in 2022, and it's now live in 14 key countries around the globe. Xvantage provides our customers, vendor partners and team members with a personalized single pane of glass through which we offer a full dashboard of data, analytics and insights. Because of the unique way Xvantage is built using AI-powered modules and independent digital engines, many tasks that previously took hours or even days such as order status updates, price quotes and vendor catalog management activities can now be accomplished by the platform in a matter of minutes or even seconds, driving significant efficiency gains across the value chain. Leveraging our 45 years of investment and IT distribution experience and the insights gained from hundreds of millions of Ingram Micro's transactions over the past decade, Xvantage provides what we believe is the industry's first comprehensive and streamlined distribution experience. Through Xvantage, we can quickly adapt to customer demand in the constantly shifting IT landscape. Today, we believe we can reach nearly 90% of the world's population because of those investments we made to expand into high-growth emerging markets and technologies. Our 24,000 team members put our customers and vendor partners at the center of everything we do, and I'm profoundly grateful to them for their dedication and focus as we revolutionize the market. We believe our strategy of investing ahead of the curve, leveraging our global reach and continually innovating, focusing on the quality of net revenues is why we win. In the coming quarters, we expect to continue to invest in our own digital transformation while maintaining a relentless focus on day-to-day operational excellence to deliver consistent profitable growth. I look forward to sharing our progress, and I thank you for being part of the Ingram Micro journey. I will now turn the call over to Mike to discuss the financials.

Thanks, Paul, and thank you everyone for joining us today. As Paul said, we are pleased to again be a public company and look forward to working with you as we build upon our track record of profitable growth with a focus on quality of revenue. The third quarter was solid with the results exceeding or hitting the top end of our expectations previewed in our S-1 filing on October 15. In the quarter, we reported net sales of $11.76 billion, down 1.4% year-over-year, driven primarily by lower net sales in our North America and Latin America regions, partially offset by net sales growth in our Asia-Pacific region. Our focus on quality of revenues drove a two basis point improvement on our gross margins year-over-year despite a continued competitive market and headwinds in our higher gross margin networking category of products. We are diverse geographically with more than one-third of our business coming from higher growth parts of the world such as Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East and Africa. We also bring product, service and solutions breadth with offerings in four categories, which we deliver across our geographic segments. First, client and endpoint solutions, which includes higher volume products such as PCs and smartphones. Second, Advanced Solutions, where we offer enterprise-grade hardware and software and related services, which generally yield higher gross margins. Third, cloud, which encompasses over 200 third-party cloud services or subscription offerings, and has now grown to a double-digit share of our gross profit globally. Finally, our other offerings, which include fee-for-service IT asset disposition and reverse logistics and repair services. During the quarter, we saw a mixed performance across these categories. Both client and endpoint solutions and advanced solutions were impacted by macro headwinds, including delayed PC and networking refresh cycles. While we saw double-digit top-line growth in our cloud and other categories. Long-term, we expect a shift in our product mix towards higher-margin advanced solutions and cloud products as the technology landscape shifts to increasingly complex solutions with more products being consumed on an as-a-service basis. However, we also stand ready with our breadth of vendor relationships and product line card to capture our more robust PC notebook refresh cycle as it begins to ramp up more significantly. Shifting now to our regional segments. I'll start with North America, where our net sales were $4.3 billion compared to $4.6 billion in the prior year. The year-over-year decrease in North American net sales was primarily driven by a decline in net sales of client and endpoint solutions across multiple subcategories in the United States. EMEA net sales totaled $3.5 billion, a slight decrease of 0.1% compared to the year-ago quarter. This was a result of a softer net sales of reverse logistics and repair business in the region, while each of the other categories grew modestly year-over-year. Asia Pacific net sales of $3.2 billion were up compared to $2.9 billion in the prior fiscal third quarter. The solid growth of 8.8% year-over-year was driven by strong growth in net sales of client and endpoint solutions, led particularly by growth in mobility distribution and in smartphones and consumer electronics. Finally, Latin America net sales totaled $0.9 billion compared to $1.0 billion in the prior year. This was primarily driven by softness in net sales of client and endpoint solutions attributed to declines in mobility distribution, notebooks and consumer electronics. Third quarter gross profit came in at $845.5 million or 7.19% of net sales, up 2 basis points from 7.17% of net sales in the same period last year. The year-over-year increase in gross margin was driven by a shift in sales mix towards our higher-margin cloud-based solutions and other services, particularly in North America. Operating expenses totaled $627.3 million for the third quarter or 5.33% of net sales compared to 5.39% in the same period last year. The prior year included $19.1 million or 16 basis points of net sales associated with restructuring charges for our cost reduction efforts completed in the prior year. We intend to continue investing in innovation while continuing to improve our OpEx leverage as we also benefit from the increased efficiency Xvantage provides. Since the beginning of 2023, we have taken $140 million of OpEx out of the business because Xvantage allows for higher automation and more value-added deployment of our resources. This provides a compelling profit story as we leverage this increased productivity going forward. It's important to note that operating expenses this quarter also included $8.8 million or 7 basis points of net sales related to costs incurred in connection with the refinancing of our credit facilities in September of 2024. This refinancing not only extended our Term Loan B maturity to 2031 but also reduced the interest rate spread over SOFR by 25 basis points. At the same time, we also extended our asset-backed lending facility out to 2029. These refinancings leave us well capitalized to fund our business needs and related investments going forward. Adjusted income from operations totaled $253.9 million in Q3 and adjusted income from operations margin came in at 2.16% compared to 2.23% in the same period last year. However, the current year ratio is inclusive of 7 basis points of net sales impact from our debt refinancing charge mentioned earlier. We are quite proud of the fact that we have maintained this level of profitability in what has remained a softer environment in several areas as we have not only managed the business well to drive gross margin accretion, but we have also managed costs well despite a continuing inflationary environment across much of our ongoing cost base while also making targeted investments towards our long-term strategic growth. Our non-GAAP net income for the quarter was $159.2 million compared to $148.6 million in the comparable period last year. Q3 non-GAAP diluted EPS was $0.72. Q3 adjusted EBITDA totaled $331.6 million, compared to $314.0 million in the comparable period last year. Turning to our balance sheet. At the end of Q3, net working capital was $4.3 billion, compared to $4.4 billion to close the same period last year. We continue to manage our collection cycles well even with some pressure from more business concentration in Asia-Pacific markets where collection times tend to be a bit more prolonged. We also manage our payables to our vendors to maximize our net working capital. We continue to be thoughtful in our approach to inventory management, increasing inventory by 6% year-over-year as we see a more normal supply chain environment this year, but also a tuck environment that is expected to return more holistically to growth. Adjusted free cash flow was a negative $254.6 million for the quarter as we typically invest in inventory during our Q3 to serve the higher seasonal sales in our Q4. Our year-to-date adjusted free cash flow is a positive $106.1 million as we continue to manage our balance sheet with an eye towards return on investment and continuing to drive profitable growth and quality of revenues over time. As noted in our S-1, subject to the discretion of our Board of Directors, we anticipate paying a quarterly cash dividend beginning in the first quarter of 2025. As I touched on earlier, regarding our refinancing of some of our key debt facilities in September, we paid down our Term Loan B by an incremental $100 million in September. Including the $233.1 million paid down with the primary portion of the IPO proceeds in October, we've now paid down nearly $500 million of our term loan balance this year. And we've repaid more than $1.55 billion on term loans since April of 2022. As a result of these debt reductions, our interest expense was lower by $12.1 million year-over-year. The benefit of the further paydown with IPO proceeds as well as the interest rate spread reduction on our Term Loan B refinancing will drive further reductions in interest expense starting in Q4 and beyond. As we look to 2025, we believe the headwinds I mentioned above will become tailwinds with PC and networking spend rebounding. Together with the megatrends that Paul discussed, we believe the IT market is stabilizing, such that even if Q4 is a bit more gradual in the trajectory of the improvement in the demand environment, we remain very positive on the medium to long-term growth prospects for the business. For the fourth quarter, we forecast net sales in the range of $13.0 billion to $13.5 billion, representing year-over-year growth of roughly 2% at the midpoint. As I mentioned, we are very focused on quality of revenue and expect gross margin to expand over time as our mix shifts towards higher-margin advanced solutions and cloud. For the fourth quarter of 2024, we expect gross profit to be in the range of $935 million to $985 million and non-GAAP diluted EPS is expected to be in the range of $0.85 per diluted share to $0.98 per diluted share, which is based on weighted average shares outstanding of approximately $231.8 million. Our Q4 GAAP tax rate is expected to be approximately 43% and our non-GAAP tax rate is expected to be approximately 34%. Our GAAP tax rate is heavily impacted by the limited deductibility of a one-time charge of $32.4 million associated with the conversion of our participation plan to a share-based program post-IPO. However, our non-GAAP tax rate in Q4 will also be negatively impacted partly by the anticipated level and mix of profits in the quarter, but also by one-time executive compensation impacts that are limited as to deductibility under Section 162m. These items inflate our non-GAAP tax rate by approximately three percentage points, which, in turn, negatively impacts our non-GAAP net income per share in Q4 by approximately $0.04. These tax rate impacts are largely unique to the fourth quarter due to the deductibility limitations I just noted. Thus, we expect our tax rate to return to more normal levels in 2025 and beyond. Before I turn the call over for questions, I'd like to thank all of our team members and the many partners and customers who helped us in our return to the public markets. We believe we are well-positioned for growth with our global presence, diversified net sales, improving efficiency and profitability, and significant opportunity for adjusted free cash flow generation. Our shift to becoming a platform company, which is well underway with our investments in Xvantage, is a huge differentiator, and we are genuinely optimistic about Ingram Micro's place in the center of the ever-evolving multitrillion-dollar IT ecosystem. With that, we are now ready to begin the Q&A portion of the call.

Our first question is from Erik Woodring with Morgan Stanley.

This is Mae on for Erik. You talked a little bit about expectations for a rebound in PC spend and networking in 2025. And I realize you don't break down on a quarterly basis at the product level, but what are you seeing within other areas of advanced solutions like servers and storage? What are your thoughts as you look into next quarter in 2025?

Yes. Thank you for the question. This is Paul. As we look at the Advanced Solutions, one of the bigger areas where we have had headwinds this year is networking, coming off of the comps that we had last year. We are starting to see some line of sight to that improving as we go into Q4. So we think that we can expect it to get better. The notebook and desktop refresh has been improving every quarter throughout the year. So Q1 year-over-year, Q2 year-over-year, Q3 year-over-year. Therefore, we believe that will continue, although perhaps not at the pace that some industry analysts thought it would look like. But we're seeing momentum in that area starting to happen right now.

Our next question is from Samik Chatterjee with JPMorgan.

I guess maybe, Paul, if I can sort of follow up on that question and ask for your thoughts related to, as you start to see some of this rebound, how you're thinking about the mix, particularly if I think about Q4, where I would expect it's a bit more sort of endpoint client device driven. As you look ahead to next year, how are you thinking about the mix playing out between the higher margin solutions and endpoints?

Yes. I won't discuss 2025 specifically, but in terms of Q3 this year, Advanced Solutions definitely experienced some challenges, as Mike mentioned. However, we anticipate a return to growth. Networking is improving, server storage is expected to perform well in Q4, and cybersecurity remains robust. Additionally, cloud services have shown solid growth throughout the year. As a result, our investments in advanced solutions, specialty, and cloud are yielding positive results. Furthermore, client and endpoint solutions are primarily being driven by the PC refresh and the recovery expected in Q4 and beyond.

Our next question is from an analyst with Jefferies.

You talked a little bit about the Xvantage journey that you've been on, and then you've also mentioned your own digital transformation journey. As we look ahead, where are we in the cycle for the efficiency of your internal operation initiatives at this point? How much more can we expect?

So this is Paul. As we look out, we have 14 countries active with Xvantage. We've built on top of the foundation involving our $600 million investment in our cloud platform, which underpins what we're building with Xvantage. Additionally, we've written nearly 30 million lines of new code and have almost two dozen patent-pending technologies along with over 100 AI models driving our simplification efforts. This is about focusing on the customer and the vendor, making the process as seamless as possible. Looking ahead, we're excited to continue this journey of modernization and efficiency as we transition more from our legacy ERPs.

Our next question is from Maggie Nolan with William Blair.

Can you give a little update on the geographic expansion that occurred since you were a private company and your expectations for how that will develop from here?

Yes, Maggie. I can start. One of our key initiatives and strategies is extending our geographic reach to capitalize on the scale that we've achieved. Since becoming a private company, we have focused on acquisitions and organic growth around cloud, cybersecurity, advanced solutions, and specialty. We have considerable geographic reach with nearly 40% in North America, around 30% in the EMEA region, just under 25% in Asia Pacific, and nearly 10% in Latin America. We feel good about our geographic reach, aiming to extend and capitalize on the scale we already have through these competencies.

Yes, Maggie. This is Mike. Just one thing I would add to that is, as I mentioned in my remarks, we have one-third of our business in growth and emerging markets like APAC and Latin America and the Middle East and Africa, where the value proposition of distribution is consistently higher. That's the reason we've doubled down to grow our emerging market presence to over one-third of our business as we speak today.

Our next question is from Mark Cash with Raymond James.

This is Mark on for Adam. I guess for Paul or Mike. I appreciate you're not guiding 2025 yet. But it would be helpful to understand how you're thinking about operating margin as we go from Q4 into Q1. I asked because there was a 90 basis point decrease in Q1 of this year as OpEx increased quarter-over-quarter, so should we expect a similar dynamic? Or could you walk through what's changed to consider a less pronounced operating margin decrease sequentially going into 2025?

Yes. So I'll make a couple of comments. Paul might add on this. So Mark, I think we should look at this in terms of a couple of factors; we talked about the cost reductions we've made, totaling $140 million in early 2023 along with Q1 of this year. We're going to continue to look for opportunities to optimize as we move forward. We now have the full run rate effect in Q3 from the actions we took early this year. Some of that is being offset with investments to grow, but we expect to continue investing above market in Advanced Solutions and Cloud. These efforts should positively impact our operating margins over time as we drive more efficiency through Xvantage.

Our next question is from Chan Park with Stifel.

This is Shannon on for Amit. Paul, you mentioned continuing to operate in a competitive market during the quarter. I listened to some of your reseller peers, and they also talked about increasing competitive pricing around deals. Can you clarify where you're seeing this pricing dynamic play out? Is it broad-based or specific to certain sectors, regions, or products?

Yes, no problem. We are accustomed to competing in a highly competitive market. Are we observing pockets of pricing pressure? It's not impacting us globally; generally speaking, as we sit here today. There are pockets of it, but nothing that seems way out of the ordinary at this point on a global scale.

Our next question is from Ananda Baruah with Loop Capital Markets.

I guess, Paul, may I have some context around your cloud services? What excites you about it big picture?

All right. You were breaking up a little. I believe you want to discuss cloud and cloud services. If I take a step back on the investment we've made in cloud and our success, we currently manage over 52 million seats on our cloud platform. This was fueled by that $600 million investment in Xvantage, which is crucial. We're excited about our ability to provide a single pane of glass where one can transact cloud alongside hardware and software. Additionally, we announced working with hyperscalers like AWS. Our average deployment involves six different vendors, focusing on delivering business outcomes. We're excited about our role as AI enables more opportunities for our customers and the importance of cloud in this capacity is significant. Thank you, and thank you to our over 24,000 team members globally for their dedication and commitment to our customers and our vendors. Thank you to our customers for the opportunity to earn your business each and every day, and thank all of you today for taking the time out of your busy schedules to join us. Mike and I look forward to talking with you next quarter. Have a great rest of the week.

This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.