Bel Fuse Inc. (NASDAQ:BELFB) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Dan Bernstein: Maybe I can take this one. Sorry to jump in. I think post COVID, I don’t know if there’s normal any ever again from us. So before COVID, we used to get quarterly quotes. We have to bid our products every quarter. And the average purchasing person would give us 4 different purchase orders for a part number. Since COVID, that stretch to, we were getting very old every 24 months. So that’s coming back a little bit. So we don’t know where it’s going to end up. But if I’m a head of a purchasing department, why do I want to want to order 4 times a year, when I can order once a year, I can cancel a product down the road. So I think that’s still filtering out where it’s going to be, but I don’t think we’re going to get back to $150 million level, which was our pre-COVID level.

Farouq Tuweiq: Correct. I mean — and maybe I think about to kind of Dan’s point is historically, it’s been roughly that quarter. And during the extended times, it was roughly, call it, four-ish quarters, a little bit less. So if the bookings is 1 and 4, right, do we go all the way back to 1? We don’t think so. We think there’s some new order behaviour and new ways of doing things. And also people obviously are coming through some rough times with some scarring tissue here. But to Dan’s point is, we don’t know where it kind of settles down. So that’s why we continue to say for right now, it’s elevated. And also, when you got kind of really kind of peel it back a little bit, we’d probably look at magnetics as probably normalized. And then we’d probably see power is a little bit elevated and connectivity is maybe somewhere in the middle to elevated.

Hendi Susanto: Okay. Yes. And then any insight into pricing environment in 2024?

Dan Bernstein: Historically, again, going back historically, as lead times come down, we do see more price pressure. But at this point in time, we haven’t faced an abundance of price pressure. And again, I don’t know if it’s a price pressure. And again, if things are going to change or not, but historically, as lead times do come down, we do face a little bit more price pressure. But we have not seen that yet to date.

Farouq Tuweiq: And the flip side of that equation, correct me if I’m wrong here, Dan, is when lead taps come down, it means we’re back into the regularly normal ordering pattern. So therefore, volumes normalize, right? So the idea here is generally is there’s usually kind of a concession to a little bit of price to get a little more volume type thing, right? So I think when that normal cycle, we have not — we’re not there yet, I would say.

Hendi Susanto: I see. And then last question. Do you have updates on Bel Fuse investment in electric in terms of what activities in 2024, whether there are some milestones in 2024?

Dan Bernstein: I think, again, we took a minority position in it. We’re running, I think, at this point a year late.

Farouq Tuweiq: I’d say we had — I think our bullish case was maybe we see something transacted end of 2024. But now we’re thinking probably more on our base case, which is a 2025 event. There’s a lot of development going on, on the, call it, second generation products and also in their kind of first-generation products, some of the, I’d say, some of the customer challenges that we talked about on our eMobility business, they’re seeing a little bit of that. So, when we kind of put the second-generation products with some of the challenges they’re having in the first generation in terms of their customers’ challenges, we don’t foresee any kind of milestones in terms of any kind of triggers on calls or anything like that in 2024. And we think 2025 is probably kind of our base case at some point.

Dan Bernstein: But we are working with them very closely. Our sales team, our purchasing team, how we manufacture. So we are truly aligned that if they hit the target or small they hit when we do merge, that we’re very — 2 organizations that are very working close together. So I’m pleased by the relationship we have today.

Hendi Susanto: Thank you, Dan, Farouq, and Liam.

Operator: Our next question is a follow-up from Jim Ricchiuti with Needham and Company. Please proceed.

James Ricchiuti: Thanks. Going back over the past year and continuing now, you guys have done quite a bit of work in terms of restructuring, and it’s been evident in the gross margins. So I’m wondering, just given the kind of guidance we’re looking at for Q1, how should we be thinking about gross margins in terms of the puts and takes for with that? And these are obviously lower levels of revenue, but you’ve also been restructuring the business.

Lynn Hutkin: So Jim, I think for Q1, what we had mentioned in the earnings release was that from a margin perspective, we expect to hold with the full year ’23 margins. So it is a step down from Q4 margin levels. And a lot of that has to do with the lower sales volume that we’re seeing in addition to just Chinese New Year, it’s typically a lower margin quarter for us. Looking beyond Q1, we would expect those margins to normalize a bit back to where the 2023 later quarters had been running, but we do see a step down there in Q1.

James Ricchiuti: Great. And that’s helpful, Lynn, because that’s also where I was going with that as we start potentially seeing some improvement in Q2 and hopefully in the back half of the year, you’re actually starting off with a higher level of margins than we’ve seen historically with these kind of revenue levels. Okay. Thank you.

Lynn Hutkin: You’re welcome.

Operator: We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Dan Bernstein for closing remarks.

Dan Bernstein: Once again, we appreciate everybody joining the call and say thank you very much. And looking forward to improved results as we move along in the year. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. This will conclude today’s conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.

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