Benchmark Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:BHE) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jeffrey Benck: What I would say is, sequentially, I think, on that chart 18 we kind of said it’s kind of flattish at that level we’ve been at which is clearly off — up off the bottom that we saw a year ago in the first quarter. But we’re just not seeing dramatic recovery in some of the segments that were legacy that we’ve been really strong and not — and certainly not tools that were near end of life. So the wafer fab equipment, I think capital spending is still being managed pretty close, and we just aren’t seeing that broad semi recovery. I think we’re — we’ve outperformed what’s helped us is we’ve won incremental new tools, we have a ton of NPI activity going on, where we’re building new tools, and that’s helping us certainly outperform.

And I look to get more constructive here. I won’t say that we’re being conservative, because we literally have heard a lot of the major OEMs where we play and most of those, if not all of those, at some level, they’ve all kind of said, yes, it’s kind of flatter now. I think we have the potential, I don’t know why we wouldn’t continue to do better than the market. It’s just that with the China restrictions, and some of the — even some of the CHIPS Act, we’re really not going to see the benefit of that till ’25. There’s just moving parts that has a sort of looking at it saying, what do we see in front of us for first half? And it’s, it’s kind of continuing at the level we’ve been.

Steven Fox: That’s really helpful. And then just broadly on the other end markets where you’re seeing pressure, where do you have sort of the most confidence level or evidence that things could be bottoming out cyclically in like medical industrials comes. I know, advanced computing sort of episodic, but like in the other three, where you have strong signs of that, or upcoming signs? Just any …

Jeffrey Benck: I mean, we’re trying to — I guess, we’ve gotten some indication on medical that there may be some — again, it’s early, but say, hey, there may be return to normal pace with inventory, looking at second half, like we might see some reflection there were maybe there’s like — we saw it in semi where the first quarter was like, we’re taking it down, and you have that big reaction. So maybe we start seeing that in fourth quarter with medical. Industrial, I still think it’s so broad, so many different companies. It’s a little harder to look at where the bottom is. And then A&D has been strong and continued strong and I guess we said that in the thing I need to ask about that. But certainly that’s been a bright spot and expect that to continue. Do you want to add anything?

Roop Lakkaraju: Yes. Hey, Steve, this is Roop. I will just add one thing. I think, maybe building off of Jeff’s comments, if you think about industrial next gen comps, that’s CapEx related. And CapEx considerations, I think are weighing on customers minds and just market in general. I think medical has an opportunity to that point for that reason to come back a little bit faster, just as Jeff indicated, which is another point to just keep in mind.

Jeffrey Benck: Yes, and one thing with medical, just maybe the example, we built defibrillators, right, and components and subsystem for defibrillator. And you think about like during the pandemic, no one is going to stadiums, airports and that’s where we saw a huge surge back, right. When things opened up, you start seeing demand there and then people got on the runway and they said, wow, this is great and this is the new normal. And I just think you’ve seen that modulate a little bit as you kind of caught up with that and people saying, okay, still care for it, it’s still important, not going to go away. But just not maybe is, as crazy upside as there had been.

Steven Fox: That’s helpful. And then just if I could squeeze one last one and one of your peers seems to be walking towards providing EPS, excluding SPC. And so I mean, you guys may get lonely with your own EPS approach. I was curious if any chance of you guys changing how you report your EPS going forward?

Jeffrey Benck: Yes, we did notice that the only peer that was kind of aligned with us on including stock based comp in their non-GAAP results sort of indicated there was a shift there. So, to that end, we got to assess our current approach and we’ll provide an update when we conclude that and we look to get back on that. But obviously, peer comparisons are important to us, but we’ve got to decide what’s right for us. And we did pick up on that. So thanks for bringing that up.

Steven Fox: Great. Well keep doing the math. Thanks.

Operator: The next question comes from Jaeson Schmidt of Lake Street. Please go ahead.

Jaeson Schmidt: Hey, guys, thanks for taking my questions. I know it’s going to vary by segment, but just curious at a high-level, if more of the issue is demand for current programs that you’ve already won, you noted for customers not wanting to hold a lot of inventory anymore? Or is the bigger issue new programs that you thought would currently be ramping just getting pushed to the right.