HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Erik Woodring: Hey guys, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. Marie, maybe this one is for you. You obviously just guided the PC market a little weaker than you communicated three months ago. I think of that as a headwind to cash just given the strong negative cash conversion cycle. At the same time, as you just alluded to, your inventory is still at relatively elevated levels and 1Q free cash flow was negative with a tailwind from factoring. And so I guess my question is really just what gives you confidence in maintaining the full-year free cash flow guide? What is it you see in the data? What are some of the specific factors that you think ultimately get you back or get you into that range for the full-year? And then I have a follow-up. Thanks.

Marie Myers: Good afternoon, Erik. So in terms of how we look at cash for the year, I’d say, first out, our free cash flow for Q1 was absolutely in line with what we expected. And plus, if you look at the earnings outlook that I gave in the guide for the rest of the year. It’s absolutely in line with what we guided last quarter. So really, it is the combination of both that give me confidence in our guide of 3% to 3.5% for the year. A couple of other points of note, to pivot off what Enrique said early about seasonality. Now we do expect cash flow to sort of lineup with the seasonality comments that Enrique made earlier. So we expect it to be better and materially stronger in the second half of the year. With that said, we do expect cash flow in Q2, therefore, to be roughly in line with Q1.

And just remember, in the second half of the year, PS revenue will grow on the topline. And as you know, that PS contributes cash when it grows sequentially because of its negative cash conversion cycle. Another source of cash just to hit on it. I know Shannon brought up that point a moment ago, another sort is obviously continued inventory reductions. And actually this quarter, we did reduce inventory. So both of those, I think, are just really good examples of how we think about cash flow for the year.

Erik Woodring: Okay. That’s really helpful. Thank you. And then maybe my second question is just on print operating margins. Another really strong quarter that’s five consecutive quarters above your 16% to 18% target range. You expect to be above that range for the full-year. So are we entering a new paradigm maybe where print operating margins are going to be above that long-term range? Or are there other factors that you expected to become offset such that longer term, we should think about print operating margins more within that 16% range? Thanks.

Marie Myers: Yes. Erik, maybe I’ll take a shot at that one. So as we’ve guided, we do expect print margins to be above the high end of the range going forward, at least for 2023. And really, it’s a tale of what you saw in Q1. The Print margins are really driven by, I think, our strategy working. And you see that, I think, in a couple of dimensions, both in terms of rebalancing the profitability between hardware supplies, also just shifting the business into HP+, Big Tanks. In fact, if you look at the last quarter, more than 50%, 56% of the units shipped were in that HP+ and Big Tank. The other point to note is just execution. I think if you look at what we did in this last quarter, it’s a really good example of where you’re seeing the actions both around Future Ready cost cutting, expense management are all showing up, combined with resilient pricing.

All those factors are contributing to the robust margins. So what we saw in Q1, Erik, is really what we expect to see for the rest of the year in Print.