Belden Inc Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: William Stein - Truist Securities - Analyst : Great, thanks for taking my questions. First, Ashish, when I think about the changes that I think this administration wants to enable, namely more manufacturing in the US, it seems like Belden is very well positioned for that. And I wonder if you could comment as to whether you've seen incremental interest in maybe reshoring, not just friendshoring or near shoring but reshoring to the US among manufacturers or perhaps the current environment's had the opposite effect and your customers and potential customers feel, I don't know, a bit trapped or unsure as to what to do given the changing policies. Any sort of comment clarifying this would be helpful.

Question: William Stein - Truist Securities - Analyst : Okay. As a follow-up, I'd like to ask about the book to bill in Smart Infrastructure, which was a little bit below parity. Can you maybe dig one level deeper? Was this in, I forget if you still call it, the smart buildings versus broadband? Between those two, are you seeing noticeable strength or weakness in one or the other?

Question: David Williams - The Benchmark Company LLC - Analyst : Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my question and congratulations on the really solid execution here. I guess maybe kind of stepping back to Will's question just now, but on the reindustrialization that clearly is a positive and you talked a little bit about that. But is there a way maybe to quantify the level for a number of discussions and kind of the activity? I guess, just trying to size how much is being delayed and how much is actively ongoing in terms of maybe that potential to move back to the US?

Question: David Williams - The Benchmark Company LLC - Analyst : Great, thanks so much for the color there. And then maybe secondly, just on the demand pull forward. Do you feel like you're seeing significant demand pull forward or is there any way to kind of think about what you're seeing there and maybe even into the second quarter or anything specific?

Question: David Williams - The Benchmark Company LLC - Analyst : Great. Thanks so much.

Question: Aman Gupta - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : You have Aman Gupta on for Mark Delaney. Thank you for taking the questions, and appreciate the color you gave on being in region for region and the tariff exposure. But could you maybe give a little more detail around what exposure you do have if there is anything that's being done outside the US that's coming into the US? And how much of that have you been able to offset today and how much longer would it take to offset the rest?

Question: Aman Gupta - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Appreciate that color. And as a follow-up, I know longer term you're still targeting that 10% to 12% EPS CAGR, but you had spoken previously to a goal of $8 in 2025. Any thoughts on where that stands? I know margins came in pretty strong in 1Q, but it sounds like some of that was maybe a bit of help from mix. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 01, 2025 / 12:30PM, BDC.N - Q1 2025 Belden Inc Earnings Call

Question: Rob Jamieson - Vertical Research Partners - Analyst : Hey, good morning, guys. Congrats on the quarter. Just a couple of questions on margin. I wonder if you can talk a little bit more about performance in the quarter between both segments. I mean, very strong from Industrial Solutions but a little bit of a sequential step down in Smart Infrastructure. Just curious if there's anything outside of normal seasonality there or anything else that you can kind of provide some light on because that was a solid performance overall?

Question: Rob Jamieson - Vertical Research Partners - Analyst : That's helpful. And actually, just on the point on the combined sales force and what you're doing there, it sounds like the customer when they highlighted, Ashish, was reflective of that decision that you made last year to combine the solution sales forces from both segments. Can you maybe expand on some of the learnings that the teams had so far and how this might -- may have already started to help the opportunity funnel for solutions as we look ahead?

Question: Rob Jamieson - Vertical Research Partners - Analyst : Great, thank you. And then just one last one on free cash flow, Jeremy. Another solid quarter, you've made a lot of progress here last couple of years. Just curious anything that you're working on in terms of managing working capital and just kind of some puts and takes on just driving better conversion as we look ahead?

Question: Rob Jamieson - Vertical Research Partners - Analyst : That's great. Thank you, guys.

Question: Steven Fox - Fox Advisors LLC - Analyst : Hi, good morning, guys. Off of some of the stuff that you already talked about with the potential to benefit on US reshoring, I was wondering as we think about how that plays out in the future, which I think it's going to happen with or without tariffs anyway. But like what's the low hanging fruit look like? I mean, Ashish, you talked about sort of what seemed like a multi-year process to sort of improving on your content at one customer. But what would be like sort of an initial reaction from customers and how would it drive specific product sales for you guys? And I have a follow-up. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 01, 2025 / 12:30PM, BDC.N - Q1 2025 Belden Inc Earnings Call

Question: Steven Fox - Fox Advisors LLC - Analyst : Great, that's very helpful. And then for a follow-up, I was just curious, I saw -- I understand the numbers now on broadband, but any other color you can add on just how the broadband markets are tracking to date and your expectations for spending for the rest of the year? Thanks.

Question: Steven Fox - Fox Advisors LLC - Analyst : Great, that's all very helpful. Thank you.