NEENAH, WI, Jan. 24, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ: PLXS) today announced financial results for our fiscal first quarter ended December 30, 2023, and guidance for our fiscal second quarter ending March 30, 2024.

• Reports fiscal first quarter 2024 revenue of $983 million, GAAP operating margin of 4.6% and GAAP diluted EPS of $1.04, including $0.19 of stock-based compensation expense
• Initiates fiscal second quarter 2024 revenue guidance of $930 million to $970 million with GAAP diluted EPS of $0.48 to $0.63, including $0.25 stock-based compensation expense and approximately $0.32 of restructuring charges

Fiscal First Quarter 2024 Information

• Won 30 manufacturing programs during the quarter representing $261 million in annualized revenue when fully ramped into production
• Trailing four-quarter manufacturing wins of $1.05 billion in annualized revenue when fully ramped into production
• The Board of Directors approved a new $50.0 million share repurchase program that will commence upon completion of the current share repurchase authorization, which has $5.7 million remaining
  

Todd Kelsey, Chief Executive Officer, commented, “Consistent with revised expectations communicated on January 16, 2024, Plexus delivered fiscal first quarter revenue of $983 million, GAAP operating margin of 4.6% and GAAP EPS of $1.04.”

Mr. Kelsey continued, “Our go-to-market organization is leveraging the current environment to create significant opportunity for future growth, delivering sequential increases in new manufacturing program wins and in our funnel of qualified manufacturing opportunities. For the fiscal first quarter, our team won 30 new manufacturing programs worth $261 million in annualized revenue. Concurrently, we significantly expanded our funnel of qualified manufacturing opportunities by more than $300 million from the prior quarter to $4.0 billion. This funnel continues to include a greater than typical number of large program opportunities.”

Mr. Kelsey further commented, “We are guiding fiscal second quarter revenue of $930 million to $970 million, non-GAAP operating margin of 4.0% to 4.4% and non-GAAP EPS of $0.80 to $0.95. The continued demand softening in the Healthcare/Lifesciences market and certain subsectors of our Industrial sector has created inefficiencies within our engineering and manufacturing teams. In order to generate greater long-term organizational efficiency and structurally reduce our fixed costs and operating expenses, we are implementing a series of actions that we believe will result in fiscal second quarter restructuring charges of approximately $10 million, or $0.32 per share. We expect to complete these actions by our fiscal third quarter, and believe they will result in approximately $20 million of annualized cost savings.”

Patrick Jermain, Chief Financial Officer, commented, “We are guiding slightly higher cash cycle days for our fiscal second quarter related to additional working capital investments in support of new program ramps. With significant management focus and attention on working capital optimization, we expect improvement to our cash cycle as we progress through the second half of fiscal 2024. We anticipate this improvement will help deliver positive free cash flow to support future anticipated growth and our recently announced $50 million share repurchase program.”

Mr. Kelsey concluded, “We currently anticipate the fiscal second quarter to represent a revenue trough, with sequential expansion in revenue and operating margin during the second half of fiscal 2024. We expect to deliver improved profitability resulting from the restructuring actions, increased manufacturing revenue and improved utilization of our engineering team, and remain committed to delivering 5.5% GAAP operating margin in fiscal 2025. In addition, by leveraging our differentiated service offering, we expect Plexus will continue to drive share gain from large and increasing addressable markets. As a result, we remain confident in our ability to sustain industry-leading revenue growth and returns over the long term.”

Business Segment and Market Sector Revenue

Plexus measures operational performance and allocates resources on a geographic segment basis. Plexus also reports revenue based on the market sector breakout set forth in the table below, which reflects Plexus’ market sector focused strategy. Top 10 customers comprised 48% of revenue during both the first quarter of fiscal 2024 and the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023. This is down 5 percentage points from the first quarter of fiscal 2023.

Non-GAAP Supplemental Information

Plexus provides non-GAAP supplemental information, such as ROIC, economic return and free cash flow because such measures are used for internal management goals and decision-making, and because they provide management and investors with additional insight into financial performance. In addition, management uses these and other non-GAAP measures, such as adjusted operating income, adjusted operating margin, adjusted net income and adjusted diluted EPS, to provide a better understanding of core performance for purposes of period-to-period comparisons. Plexus believes that these measures are also useful to investors because they provide further insight by eliminating the effect of non-recurring items that are not reflective of continuing operations. For additional information on non-GAAP measures, please refer to the attached Non-GAAP Supplemental Information tables.

ROIC and Economic Return

ROIC for the first quarter of fiscal 2024 was 10.3%. Plexus defines ROIC as tax-effected annualized adjusted operating income divided by average invested capital over a two-quarter period for the first fiscal quarter. Invested capital is defined as equity plus debt and operating lease obligations, less cash and cash equivalents. Plexus' weighted average cost of capital for fiscal 2024 is 8.2%. ROIC for the first quarter of fiscal 2024 less Plexus’ weighted average cost of capital resulted in an economic return of 2.1%.

Free Cash Flow

Plexus defines free cash flow as cash flows provided by operations less capital expenditures. For the three months ended December 30, 2023, cash flows used in operations were $3.0 million and capital expenditures were $28.7 million, which resulted in negative free cash flow of $31.7 million.

Conference Call and Webcast Information

Investor and Media Contact
Shawn Harrison
+1.920.969.6325
shawn.harrison@plexus.com

About Plexus
Since 1979, Plexus has been partnering with companies to create the products that build a better world. We are a team of over 20,000 individuals who are dedicated to providing Design and Development, Supply Chain Solutions, New Product Introduction, Manufacturing and Sustaining Services. Plexus is a global leader that specializes in serving customers in industries with highly complex products and demanding regulatory environments. Plexus delivers customer service excellence to leading companies by providing innovative, comprehensive solutions throughout a product’s lifecycle. For more information about Plexus, visit our website at www.plexus.com.

Safe Harbor and Fair Disclosure Statement
The statements contained in this press release that are guidance or which are not historical facts (such as statements in the future tense and statements including believe, expect, intend, plan, anticipate, goal, target and similar terms and concepts), including all discussions of periods which are not yet completed, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include the effect of inflationary pressures on our costs of production, profitability, and on the economic outlook of our markets; the effects of shortages and delays in obtaining components as a result of economic cycles, natural disasters or otherwise; the risk of customer delays, changes, cancellations or forecast inaccuracies in both ongoing and new programs; the effects of our Xiamen, China subsidiary being placed on the Bureau of Industry and Security's Unverified List; the ability to realize anticipated savings from restructuring or similar actions, as well as the adequacy of related charges as compared to actual expenses; the lack of visibility of future orders, particularly in view of changing economic conditions; the economic performance of the industries, sectors and customers we serve; the outcome of litigation and regulatory investigations and proceedings, including the results of any challenges with regard to such outcomes; the effects of tariffs, trade disputes, trade agreements and other trade protection measures; the effects of the volume of revenue from certain sectors or programs on our margins in particular periods; our ability to secure new customers, maintain our current customer base and deliver product on a timely basis; the risks of concentration of work for certain customers; the particular risks relative to new or recent customers, programs or services, which risks include customer and other delays, start-up costs, potential inability to execute, the establishment of appropriate terms of agreements, and the lack of a track record of order volume and timing; the effects of start-up costs of new programs and facilities or the costs associated with the closure or consolidation of facilities; possible unexpected costs and operating disruption in transitioning programs, including transitions between Company facilities; the risk that new program wins and/or customer demand may not result in the expected revenue or profitability; the fact that customer orders may not lead to long-term relationships; our ability to manage successfully and execute a complex business model characterized by high product mix and demanding quality, regulatory, and other requirements; the risks associated with excess and obsolete inventory, including the risk that inventory purchased on behalf of our customers may not be consumed or otherwise paid for by the customer, resulting in an inventory write-off; risks related to information technology systems and data security; increasing regulatory and compliance requirements; any tax law changes and related foreign jurisdiction tax developments; current or potential future barriers to the repatriation of funds that are currently held outside of the United States as a result of actions taken by other countries or otherwise; the potential effects of jurisdictional results on our taxes, tax rates, and our ability to use deferred tax assets and net operating losses; the weakness of areas of the global economy; the effect of changes in the pricing and margins of products; raw materials and component cost fluctuations; the potential effect of fluctuations in the value of the currencies in which we transact business; the effects of changes in economic conditions, political conditions and tax matters in the United States and in the other countries in which we do business; the potential effect of other world or local events or other events outside our control (such as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, conflict in the Middle East, escalating tensions between China and Taiwan or China and the United States, changes in energy prices, terrorism, global health epidemics and weather events); the impact of increased competition; an inability to successfully manage human capital; changes in financial accounting standards; and other risks detailed herein and in our other Securities and Exchange Commission filings, particularly in Risk Factors contained in our fiscal 2023 Form 10-K.