Belden Inc Q3 2024 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 question. Congrats on the good results and outlook guys. I'd like to first ask about Precision Optical. Can you remind us, did that close at the end of last -- the prior quarter or at the very start of this quarter? And if you could disclose to us the revenue generated in the quarter from that company relative to your expectations? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. OCTOBER 31, 2024 / 12:30PM, BDC.N - Q3 2024 Belden Inc Earnings Call

Question: William Stein - Truist Securities - Analyst : Great. And then similarly with this, the [Vuliyatech], I think it's called the quite a small one. Maybe a little bit surprised you're highlighting it given, I think you said $6 million purchase price. Maybe you can shed some light as to why that's even being highlighted? Is it more strategic than some of the other acquisitions have been or is it -- does the strategic importance outweigh that $6 million price tag? And can you disclose the annualized revenue expectation there? Thank you.

Question: William Stein - Truist Securities - Analyst : I think I get it. If I could squeeze one more in. Your revenue performance in these industrial end markets seems to be -- the downturn seem to be much less severe than, for example, for component -- most component and semiconductor companies selling into those end markets. And as you now transition into growth, should we expect the rebound to be powerful or should we be more muted in our expectations because you've outperformed in this weaker period? Thank you.

Question: Rob Jamieson - Vertical Research Partners - Analyst : Hey, good morning. Congrats on the quarter. So I guess my first question, I just wanted to focus and see if you could speak a little bit about margin as we look forward with the volume recovery that we probably will see in -- or that's continuing, I should say, within the smart infrastructure business. I mean, how should we think about gross margin that [light] just given there's likely a probably higher percentage of passive component sales. How should we think about this dynamic as growth returns?

Question: Rob Jamieson - Vertical Research Partners - Analyst : Okay. Yeah, that's helpful. Thank you. And then just focusing on growth. On the smart infrastructure side, a bit better organic performance than I expected. Is this just easier comps versus last year when the acceleration there was a little bit more pronounced than in the end on the industrial side of the business. And then I guess also on industrial solutions, can you just walk through discrete process energy just how the underlying markets performed a little bit?

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

Question: Mark Delaney - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Yes. Good morning. Thanks very much for taking my questions. I believe you said you're still seeing the stocking occurring throughout the channel even as revenues picking up sequentially. So hoping to better understand more specifically where you see inventory levels and distribution and any views around where inventory may be as the company access this year.

Question: Mark Delaney - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Thanks for that, Jeremy. My next question was about the $8 earnings target the companies had for 2025. I realized that was initially provided in a different macroeconomic backdrop, but maybe you can share your views around the potential to get to $8 of earnings in '25. And if so maybe talk about the path to get there, it looks like you're run rating about $6.80 of annualized earnings in the back half of this year. So what would be the bridge from those levels to that $8 number, if that's still achievable?

Question: Mark Delaney - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Thanks for that, Jimmy. I just -- one last one, if I could squeeze it in. I believe you characterized APAC as tempered in the prepared remarks. Given the potential for stimulus in China, I realize it's a smaller region for you but any prospects for APAC to get better. And are you hearing any indications of that from your customers or distribution partners? Thank you.

Question: Mark Delaney - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Thank you.

Question: David Williams - Benchmark - Analyst : Hey, good morning. And thanks for taking my question and congrats on the continued progress here. I guess maybe I guess maybe first, how are the conversations with your customers going in terms of planning, and maybe just talk about how they're thinking about investment deployment? I just have to think that we've had this period of slower growth and so there has to be a lot of planning, at least as we think about this next upturn and just curious what you're hearing from customers on their investment plans and how you think that might translate into to growth as we look out over the next 12 to maybe 18 months?

Question: David Williams - Benchmark - Analyst : Great. Thanks so much for that color. And speaking to that from your acquisition you made this quarter, and then just thinking about the software side of things and the benefit that could bring, how do you see the landscape, I guess for acquisitions and are you focused more on software today or how do you think maybe about the balance of acquisitions hardware versus software, longer term? Thank you.

Question: David Williams - Benchmark - Analyst : No, thank you. That's it for me.

Question: Chris Dankert - Loop Capital Markets - Analyst : Hey, morning guys. Thanks for taking the questions. I guess sticking with the acquisition topic, maybe conceptually, can you talk us through what the difference between Vuliatech and the old tripwire business -- is from maybe an application and technology perspective. We've been in this space before, maybe just compare and contrast quick?

Question: Chris Dankert - Loop Capital Markets - Analyst : That's extremely helpful color. Thank you so much for walking us through that. I guess as a follow up here again, enterprise or sale -- the infrastructure sales in the quarter, really strong. You called up some wins there. If you had to put it in different buckets, how much of the improvement is driven by just how the market is starting to see this gradual rebound versus say, the flywheel getting momentum in terms of solution sales moving into that segment?

Question: Chris Dankert - Loop Capital Markets - Analyst : Got it. That's great color. Thanks for walking us through that. And best of luck as you close the year here.