CTS Corporation (NYSE:CTS) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Kieran O’Sullivan: I think Toyota continues to do well in Europe and North America. Our concern, John, more is in China where the competition and pricing has been a bit more tougher and also the transition to electrification has been a little faster. I know Toyota has come out in recent days and said that, hey, now we’re seeing a softness in demand for EVs and the hybrids are going to benefit. So that’s something we’ll continue to track.

John Franzreb: Okay. But no sense when they’re going to rebuild their inventory here in North America? They’re still at the lowest end of the curve.

Ashish Agrawal: Yeah. John, they obviously are not communicating to us directly in terms of what their intentions are. We do see their orders as they place them a few weeks out. We are monitoring it carefully, but I wouldn’t be calling out any significant uptick or downtick from there.

John Franzreb: Okay. And just again, on the end markets, the commercial vehicle end market, there’s certainly some trepidation about how ’24 will look like versus ’23. Any early thoughts about what you’re budgeting as far as kind of a build rate in ’24 versus ’23 as far as up or down or any kind of relative expectations? Thank you.

Kieran O’Sullivan: No, John, what I would tell you is obviously we’ve got a good line of sight to Q4. That’s why I called out the range of $10 million. That’s our estimate. And into 2024, just given the taper off that’s been there and that catch up in the aftermarket side of it, that softness will continue into the first quarter. What the full year will be like, we’ll give you a better guide in our Q1 earnings call. That’s the best I can tell you at the moment.

John Franzreb: Okay. Thank you, guys. I’ll get back into queue.

Kieran O’Sullivan: Thanks, John.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Justin Long of Stephens. Justin, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Justin Long: Thanks, and good morning.

Kieran O’Sullivan: Good morning, Justin.

Ashish Agrawal: Hi, Justin.

Justin Long: Good morning. I wanted to circle back to the comments that you made about commercial vehicle weakness driving a $10 million headwind. Were you referring to a sequential headwind in revenue relative to the third quarter, or was that a year-over-year comment?

Kieran O’Sullivan: No, sequential, Justin

Justin Long: Okay. So, if I kind of run the math on the implied revenue guidance for the fourth quarter, it seems to suggest at the midpoint about $10 million of sequential pressure, 3Q to 4Q. And based on the UAW strike and commercial vehicle weakness, sounds like all of that is coming from those two items. So, is that the right interpretation? And how are you thinking about non-transportation revenue sequentially in the fourth quarter? Could it look more stable?

Kieran O’Sullivan: Yeah. You’ve characterized it correctly with the CV drop, commercial vehicle drop, and the UAW, and on the other markets, getting more stable and hoping to see some improvement coming in that area.

Justin Long: Okay. Understood. Ashish, you touched on operating costs earlier a bit, but if I look at the SG&A line in particular, it was a pretty significant decrease in the third quarter relative to the second quarter, about $5 million. It sounds like half of that roughly was the incentive adjustment. What drove that other half? And could you just talk about the sustainability of some of the cost cuts it sounds like you’re implementing into next year?