Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript May 3, 2024

Flex Ltd. isn’t one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).

David Rubin: Good morning, and welcome to our Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2024 Earnings Call, along with our Virtual Investor Day. I'm David Rubin, Vice President of Investor Relations. Running through this morning's agenda, first, I'll take you through our Q4 and fiscal 2024 results. Then our CEO, Revathi Advaithi, will provide an update on our strategy, our progress and our plans for the next several years. She'll be joined by Michael Hartung, President of our Agility segment; and Becky Sidelinger, President of our Reliability segment, who will take you through some interesting examples showcasing our differentiation in our cloud and automotive businesses. Next, our CFO, Paul Lundstrom, will present on our financial framework and our outlook.

Lastly, we'll have some time for Q&A. Please note, all questions need to be submitted through the Q&A chat function at the bottom of the event platform on your screen. You can submit questions any time during the event, and we will answer as many as we can as time allows. Before we start, I need to briefly run through a few housekeeping items. Slides for today's call as well as a copy of the earnings press release and summary financials are available on the Investor Relations section at flex.com. This call is being recorded and will be available for replay on the corporate website. Today's call contains forward-looking statements, which are based on our current expectations and assumptions. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially.

For a full discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please see the cautionary statements in our presentation, press release or in the Risk Factors section in our most recent filings with the SEC. Note this information is subject to change, and we undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. And please note, unless otherwise stated, all results provided will be non-GAAP measures, and all growth metrics will be on a year-over-year basis. The full non-GAAP to GAAP reconciliations can be found in the appendix slides of today's presentation as well as in the summary of financials posted on our Investor Relations website. Lastly, as stated in our earnings press release, NEXTracker was reclassified to discontinued ops. So it is now excluded from our results, including the full fiscal year 2024 results we show today and therefore, not comparable to previous read estimates.

Additionally, we recast our prior results through fiscal 2022 to reflect discontinued ops and provide enhanced historical transparency into Flex performance. With that, I'll jump into our Q4 results. We had a solid Q4 as we continue to execute well in a dynamic environment. Fourth quarter total revenue was $6.2 billion, down 12%. However, gross profit improved to $532 million with the gross margin coming in at 8.6%, an increase of 160 basis points from the prior year. And operating margin was a record 5.4%, up 120 basis points from the prior year and up 50 basis points from Q3 on favorable mix cost action initiatives. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.57 for the quarter, increasing 30%. GAAP earnings per share came in at $0.93, the larger than usual difference to non-GAAP EPS is primarily due to a onetime non-cash tax benefit related to the recording of tax loss carried forward, which we now believe will be utilized in the future.

Additionally, there was a onetime non-cash accrual related to the future tax consequences of distributing earnings from our Chinese subsidiaries up to our parent entity for the use within the organization. Turning to our quarterly segment results. Reliability revenue was $2.9 billion, with very strong demand in cloud power solutions and solid demand in auto and medical devices. Operating income came in at $171 million and operating margin improved again, both sequentially and year-over-year to 5.8%. In Agility, revenue came in at $3.2 billion as we delivered on very strong AI-driven cloud demand and operating income increased 6% to $181 million, and the team delivered another segment record with a strong 5.6% operating margin. Looking at our full-year results now.

See also

10 Most Tax-Friendly States for Retirees: Some with No Property Tax and

20 Best Korean Skincare Products of 2024.

To continue reading the Q&A session, please click here.