Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Joan Hooper: Yes. I mean, I would say for the full year, we would look at margins being pretty similar to what they what they were in full year ’22. So certainly, as we get more supply, you get the benefit of more factory even out the production and therefore, less absorption synergies but we’re also fortunate would create things to that level. So for the full year, I would say, 22 levels are pretty consistent. Those will start out slower in the first quarter and then grow through the year. So for the first quarter, I would say the gross margin to be similar to Q1 of last year.

Chip Moore: That’s super helpful. And just more housekeeping, Joan, on the restructuring, can you just remind us where we are on the prior programs just to keep us abreast with the new program?

Joan Hooper: Yes. The 2020 program is basically complete. And so we still are working on our 2021 program which should be complete mostly maybe early next year and those are all on track. If anything, the payback has gotten a little bit higher because we just had a little bit less severance than we expected when we first initially booked the plan. So those are going according to plan. And again, this one will be — the savings should be complete by early ’22, the cash out is really $24 million to $26 million. So really no impact on cash for ’23.

Chip Moore: Got it. Okay. And sorry, one last one. It looked like there was an impairment charge on a software project. Any more there?

Joan Hooper: Yes. We had a software project cloud-based project going out for really the last couple of years and we continue to struggle with the vendor in terms of being able to deliver software that was born the functionality that we were expecting. So we made a determination in Q4 to basically exit that project and what we ended up having to write off was capitalize both external costs as well as income costs for a total of about $8.7 million.

Operator: And our next question coming from the line of Kashy Harrison with Piper Sandler.

Kashy Harrison: So you’ve previously indicated 2024 OpEx target of, I think, 22% to 23% of sales. 2022 came in at 26% which is slightly up from ’21. And so I’m just curious how you’re thinking about the progression of OpEx for ’23 and then where your confidence level is on the 2024 target.

Joan Hooper: Yes. So we did the 2024 targets in the fall of ’21. And at that point, we did not expect the kind of supply in strength that we saw in ’22 and continue to see in ’23. So I would say while those are still our longer-term targets. I don’t believe those targets will be met in 2024. That said, the OpEx target of 22% to 23% is the longer-term target. It’s just I think that’s going to be pushed out a year or so as we work through the backlog. I think it has been delayed because of the supply component. So rate long-term targets do not expect it to be 2024.

Kashy Harrison: Helpful. And then as for my follow-up, I just wanted to touch just to — just to ask a question on free cash flow. I think you generated just under $5 million in 2022. How are you thinking about free cash flow during 2023? And then to the extent that we do get some sort of recovery in the supply chain environment and you unlock that $100 million per quarter Network Solutions revenue. What is — how do you think about use of potential free cash flow?