HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

But what’s most important is we continue to drive significant sequential improvement in the business, with PS revenue up 5% quarter-over-quarter. Our disciplined execution delivered strong PS operating margin of 6.7%. We once again gained share in Commercial and Consumer year-over-year. We saw a continued recovery in Consumer and Gaming, both of which grew double-digits sequentially. And through our stepped-up focus on Workforce Solutions, we grew our PS Service TCV double-digits, including new wins with several large global customers spanning multiple industries. Hybrid systems grew sequentially, largely driven by seasonality in consumer peripherals. This market is currently impacted by enterprise spending, but we remain bullish on the long-term growth opportunity and the breadth of our offering across hardware peripherals and services is a huge advantage.

Turning to Print. Net revenue was $4.4 billion, that’s down 3% year-over-year or 2% in constant currency. Print revenue grew 4% sequentially, while units were flat. Supplies revenue was up in constant currency in Q4 on an easier compare and finished the year down 1% in constant currency, in-line with our long-term outlook. We drove strong Print operating margins of 18.9%, reflecting disciplined execution and cost management. HP+ enabled and big tank printers, once again comprise approximately 60% of our shipments. Instant Ink delivered another quarter of revenue and subscriber growth year-over-year, and we drove strong momentum in Workforce Solutions with double-digit TCV growth and significant new MPS wins. We remain focused on regaining profitable Print share and improving our performance in office, and we are starting to see the impact of our efforts, with solid share recovery in Americas, parts of Europe and China quarter-over-quarter, as well as strong share gains in A3.

Our industrial graphics business returned to growth year-over-year and was up double digits sequentially, including continued recovery in labels and packaging. And while 3D is impacted by the current environment, we continue to build momentum in the market. At Formnext earlier this month, we showcased our work with partners and customers like BMW, Decathlon and Siemens, to scale our 3D solution. Overall, Q4 was a solid quarter. We are showing the resilience, agility and operational rigor, needed to win in the market, while advancing our long-term growth priorities. And we feel good about the outlook we shared with you in October. We also remain committed to returning at least 100% of free cash flow, over time, unless opportunities with a higher return on investment arise, and as long as our gross leverage ratio remains under 2x EBITDA.

We expect to resume share repurchases in Q1. Let me close by reiterating something I said at our Securities Analyst Meeting. HP is a compelling investment. We have market-leading portfolios in the PC and print categories, and we are well positioned to drive profitable growth in our core markets going forward. We have significant opportunities to accelerate in our key growth areas. We have world-class operational capabilities to deliver on our targets and reduce our structural costs. And we have a shareholder-friendly capital return strategy. These are core strengths of HP. Our Q4 and fiscal year ’23 results reflect the consistent progress we are making. And we are confident in our plan to deliver sustained revenue, non-GAAP operating profit, non-GAAP EPS and free cash flow growth.

Let me now turn the call over to Marie for a deeper dive into the numbers.

Marie Myers: Thanks, Enrique, and good afternoon, everyone. It’s a pleasure to be here with you all today. We delivered another strong quarter financially, due to outstanding operational execution and good progress in our Future Ready transformation. We generated solid results across revenue, non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP EPS and free cash flow, building on our proven track record of meeting or exceeding our goals. Our team is executing well despite the challenging macro environment, delivering Q4 sequential growth in revenue and non-GAAP operating profit dollars in both Personal Systems and Print. Margins were at or above the high-end of our ranges, resulting in a return to year-over-year growth in non-GAAP EPS, while free cash flow more than doubled sequentially, consistent with our outlook.

We exceeded our Future Ready transformation cost savings target for fiscal ’23 and are on track in ’24 to continue reducing our structural costs while investing in our key growth areas. While we continue to monitor economic indicators and geopolitical risks, we’re pleased with the momentum and health of our business. We will continue our efforts to drive fundamental improvements to our cost structure longer term, while prudently and aggressively managing near-term expenses. With the savings we generate, we’ll continue to focus on prioritizing our investments, so that we are well positioned to deliver on the longer-term financial outlook, we outlined at our Securities Analyst Meeting last month. Now, let me begin by providing some additional color on our results.

Starting with the full year, we stayed focused on what we could control, disciplined execution and cost management, and we delivered solid performance despite the macroeconomic and competitive dynamics we faced. Revenue was $53.7 billion, down 15% nominally and down 12% in constant currency. Revenue in our key growth areas grew mid-single digits, constituting approximately 20% of total revenue. Non-GAAP operating profit was $4.6 billion, down 14% or 8.5% of total revenue, flat year-over-year. Non-GAAP net earnings per share was down 18% to $3.28. We generated $3.1 billion of free cash flow, consistent with our full-year guidance. And we returned $1.1 billion to shareholders and raised our dividend by 5%. Now, let’s take a closer look at the details of Q4.