Roop Lakkaraju
Analyst · Needham & Company. Please go ahead
Thank you, Jeff and good afternoon. I hope everyone and their families continue to be safe and healthy. Please turn to Slide 7 for our revenue by market sector. Total Benchmark revenue was $521 million in Q4, which was in line with the midpoint of our Q4 guidance and similar to our Q3 revenue of $526 million. As expected, increased revenues from stronger demand and new programs in industrial, defense and semi-cap offset declines in medical. Medical revenues for the fourth quarter were down sequentially from continued lower demand for products involved in COVID-19 therapies, such as ventilators, x-rays and ultrasound devices and overall softer demand related to elective surgeries and trauma devices, which have yet to return to pre-COVID demand levels. Semi-cap revenues were up 2% in the fourth quarter and up 24% year-over-year from continued strength for wafer fab equipment to support growth in DRAM and logic demand across our semi-cap customers. A&D revenues for the fourth quarter increased 6% sequentially due to strong revenue from radar communications and land-based vehicle systems. Conversely, commercial aerospace demand, which was about 25% of 2020 revenues, remained muted and continued to decline on certain platforms during the quarter. Industrial revenues for the fourth quarter were up due to seasonality from infrastructure and transportation markets and an increase in engineering services. Demand from customers exposed to the oil and gas market remains soft. Overall, the higher value markets represented 81% of our fourth quarter revenue. Traditional market revenue comprised of computing and telco was flat quarter-over-quarter. New program ramps in high-performance and secure computing and in broadband network components were offset by lower demand in commercial satellite and data center products. Our traditional markets represented 19% of fourth quarter revenues. Our top 10 customers represented 38% of sales in the fourth quarter. Please turn to Slide 8. Our GAAP earnings per share for the quarter was $0.21. Our GAAP results included restructuring and other onetime costs, totaling $4.4 million related to reduction in force and other restructuring activities around our network of sites. For Q4, our non-GAAP gross margin was 9.6%, a 90 basis point sequential increase. During the quarter, gross margin was positively impacted by overall sector mix, improved absorption and a number of customer recoveries, which represented 30 basis points of the 90 basis point increase. We estimate that we incurred approximately $1.6 million or approximately $0.04 per share of COVID costs in the quarter versus $1.3 million in Q3. Our SG&A was $32.4 million, an increase of $2.7 million sequentially and $8.2 million year-over-year. The sequential increase is primarily due to reinstatement of salaries and benefits and higher variable compensation. The year-over-year increase is related to higher variable compensation, investments in our IT infrastructure and other expenses. Non-GAAP operating margin was 3.4%, an increase from 3% in Q3 due to the increased gross margin. In Q4 2020, our non-GAAP effective tax rate was 17.5%, which was lower as a result of the mix of profits between the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions. Non-GAAP EPS was $0.34 for the quarter, and non-GAAP ROIC was 6.2%. Our non-GAAP EPS improved sequentially, primarily from improved operational performance. Please turn to Slide 9 for our revenues by market sector for the full year 2020 versus 2019. Total Benchmark revenue for 2020 was $2.1 billion, a decrease from $2.3 billion in 2019 from lower demand from pandemic-impacted customers in commercial aerospace, oil and gas and elective medical sub-sectors. For the full year, higher value markets were up 3%, primarily from semi-cap and medical, which increased 33% and 11%, respectively, year-over-year. Semi-cap’s strength was led by increased demand for DRAM and logic tools and increasing market share with existing programs across our customer base. Overall, the A&D sector declined slightly from 2019 revenues due to the deterioration of the commercial aerospace sub-sector. As a reminder, for 2020, the A&D sector was approximately 75% defense and security related and 25% commercial aerospace. Defense demand remained strong throughout the year with increases across a number of new and existing programs. Overall, medical revenues grew 11% from new and existing programs. Industrial revenues were down 18% year-over-year, primarily from softness in the oil and gas industry, with additional impacts from the commercial and building infrastructure markets where investments in many large projects remain delayed. Overall, the higher value markets represented 81% of our 2020 revenue compared to 71% in 2019. Revenues in the traditional markets were down 41% from 2019, primarily from our exit of the legacy computing contract in Q3 2019 and program transitions in telco. Our traditional markets represented 19% of 2020 revenues compared to 29% in 2019. Our top 10 customers represented 41% of sales for the full year 2020. We have one customer, Applied Materials that was greater than 10% of revenue for the full year. If you will, please turn to Slide 10. Our GAAP earnings per share for fiscal year 2020 was $0.38. Our GAAP results included restructuring and other onetime costs totaling approximately $19 million. These costs included $13 million of costs related to site consolidation efforts, reduction in workforce activities and other restructuring-type activity around our network, approximately $7 million in asset impairment, offset by $1 million in net insurance proceeds. Our 2020 non-GAAP gross margin was 8.4%, a 20 basis point sequential increase. We achieved this increase even with the operational disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We estimate that we incurred approximately $7 million of net COVID costs in 2020. Our non-GAAP SG&A for 2020 was $122 million, an increase of $3.8 million from 2019. The increase is primarily due to higher variable compensation and IT infrastructure investments. Non-GAAP operating margin for the year was 2.5%, a decrease from 3% in 2019, due primarily to the effects of the pandemic on our operational efficiencies and the incurrence of COVID-specific costs. In 2020, our non-GAAP effective tax rate was 19.4%. Non-GAAP EPS in 2020 was $0.95, and non-GAAP ROIC was 6.2%. Please turn to Slide 11 to review our cash conversion cycle performance. Our cash conversion cycle days were 71 in the fourth quarter, an improvement of 10 days from the third quarter. Throughout fiscal year 2020, and in general, we continue to be focused on effective working capital management. This has resulted in inventory and contract assets improving by 6 days and advanced payments from customers improving 5 days in Q4. Turning to Slide 12 for an update on cash flow and a summary of our cash and debt balance sheet items, our cash balance was $396 million at December 31 with $189 million available in the U.S. We continue to have a strong capital structure, and our liquidity position provides flexibility to manage our business, invest for the future and return capital to shareholders. At December 31, 2020, we had $137 million outstanding on our term loan with no borrowings outstanding on our available revolver. Slide 13 shows our cash generation. We generated $95 million in cash flow from operations in Q4 and generated $120 million for the full year 2020. Our free cash flow was $84 million in Q4 and $81 million for the full year 2020. Slide 14 shows our capital allocation activity. In Q4, we paid cash dividends of $5.8 million and repurchased shares of $5.9 million. In fiscal year 2020, we repurchased $25.2 million, which represented approximately 1 million shares. As of December 31, 2020, we had approximately $204 million remaining on our share repurchase authorization. At a minimum, we will continue to repurchase shares to offset our annual equity dilution. Beyond that, we will evaluate share repurchases opportunistically while considering market conditions. From 2018 to 2020, we executed $359 million in share repurchases and paid $67 million in dividends to our shareholders. Turning to Slide 15 for a review of our first quarter 2021 guidance, we expect revenue to range from $480 million to $520 million, which reflects normal seasonality for some sectors. We have had a number of inquiries regarding the supply chain environment. We can confirm that lead times are extending for some components in the supply chain, including semiconductors and certain passes. We aren’t experiencing any near-term impacts beyond our normal expectations, but we will continue to work proactively with our suppliers and customers to secure supply to fulfill future demand. We expect that our gross margins will be 8.1% to 8.3% for Q1 and SG&A will range between $29 million and $31 million. The sequential drop in gross margins is expected due to lower revenues and the ramp of new programs. We do expect that as we continue throughout fiscal year 2021, gross margins will increase, and we expect gross margins for the full year to be at least 9%. Implied in our guidance is 2.2% to 2.4% non-GAAP operating margin range for modeling purposes. The guidance provided does exclude the impact of amortization of intangible assets and estimated restructuring and other costs. We expect to incur restructuring and other nonrecurring costs in Q1 of approximately $1 million to $2 million. Our non-GAAP diluted earnings per share is expected to be in the range of $0.18 to $0.22 or a midpoint of $0.20. We estimate that we will generate approximately $60 million to $80 million of cash flow from operations for fiscal year 2021 and CapEx for the year will be approximately $45 million to $50 million as we prioritize investments to support new customers and expand our production capacity through revenue growth. Other expenses, net, is expected to be $2.5 million, which is primarily interest expense related to our outstanding debt. We expect that for Q1, our non-GAAP effective tax rate will be between 19% and 21% because of the distribution of income around our global network. The expected weighted average shares for Q1 2021 are $36.3 million. This guidance takes into consideration all known constraints for the quarter and assumes no further significant interruptions to our supply base, operations or customers. Guidance also assumes no material changes to end market conditions due to COVID-19. And with that, back to you, Jeff.