Extreme Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXTR) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Ed Meyercord: Yeah. Well we — yeah, at a high level, we have — obviously the older inventory shipping out, newer inventory coming in, which is going to come in at the higher COGS and we are building up supply. And the inventory is correlated to getting more supply and we’re anticipating getting more supply. So I think, there is a correlation there, and maybe I’ll ask Cristina to comment overall inventory.

Cristina Tate: Yeah. So at the inventory, I see is another sign of the improvement in the supply chain. So we were able to get more parts in and we’re able to have more finished goods. So I think it will definitely lead to being able to ship more of the backlog. And that’s a good sign from the supply chain.

Alex Henderson: Yeah. The question really is on the cost of goods sold, relative to the inventory that was maybe inflated part costs to it. Is that in inventory and therefore has to be worked through before you get the benefit of falling parts costs as a result of improved supply chain?

Cristina Tate: So the benefit that we’ll see in our supply chain cost is really related to those incremental expedite fees and higher logistics costs that we’ve experienced through this challenging supply chain environment. The component costs themselves, we have seen inflation of that and we’re not seeing that yet come back down.

Alex Henderson: I see.

Ed Meyercord: Yeah. And Alex, I think another consideration is that, there are two other key things that happened. So as a percentage of mix, Wireless was up in the quarter. And so, as the Wireless mix goes up, that tends to have a little bit of a drag on gross margin, as you know, campus switching is slightly higher margin in terms of mix. And I think underlying your question is also timing of when we sell out some of the aged inventory that we took orders before some of the price increases, and so that will help us as we move forward. I think that’s what you were underlying your question there. As we move forward with newer orders that we have taken from customers, they will reflect more of the price increase and that will create a tailwind for gross margin going forward.

Alex Henderson: I see. So what are you assuming parts costs are exiting the year above normal? Thanks.

Cristina Tate: So parts costs are roughly, I would say 2 percentage points to 3 percentage points above the normal percentage of revenue, as part of the standard COGS. And right now, we’re not seeing — we’re basically expecting that trend to stay flat and then come down progressively through the next, I would say, three to four quarters.

Alex Henderson: Thank you very much.

Ed Meyercord: Thanks, Alex.

Operator: Thank you, one moment. We have a question from Eric Martinuzzi with Lake Street Capital. Your line is open.

Eric Martinuzzi: Yeah. Congrats on the strong quarter. My question has to do with the FY €˜24 language. I want to make sure, I’m understanding this. I think last quarter you talked about FY €˜24 growth in the range of 15% to 17% and this quarter at least in the press release the languages accelerated growth, so wanted to know if that 15% to 17% is still what you’re talking about when you say accelerated growth or if it’s something different?

Ed Meyercord: Yeah, Eric. I think at this stage of the game, we’ll hang on to the long-term CAGR that we put out there as far as 14% to 17%. And so, it’s that sort of mid to high teens number and we’re very confident of that number going into ’24. And the call here given the acceleration of supply and what we’ve seen here, so the combination of strength of demand that we’re forecasting as far as bookings, as well as the supply release we’re calling the high end of that 10% to 15% range for the second half of the year, but we do expect it to go up in fiscal ’24.