Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Norman Schwartz: Yeah, so we’re kind of encouraged by what we see for 2023, if you think about that rising interest rates, if I think slowed other people down a little bit. We certainly see opportunities out there, whether they would be more tuck-in or more transformational. I think that’s certainly, I mean, we’ll see what we managed to find, you know, we would hope to do something a little larger. We’ve done a number of these smaller tuck-ins, especially these kinds of technology, additions to the portfolio. I think, we’re looking now for something with a top-line and a bottom-line.

Ilan Daskal: And, Jack, with it in terms of the mix between equity and debt. Our preference is again to try and maximize the debt capacity. And maybe even you can call it a little bit stretching it, if historically were discussing around 3x of gross leverage, we’ll try to be even above that so long that we maintain our investment grade level. And that can provide us kind of a nice size opportunity €“ to target a nice size opportunity.

Jack Meehan: Right. And then just wanted to ask you a little bit more about potential for backlog flush in 2023. So you talked about $50 million of elevated backlog, and I think I heard you say you think you can capture $30 million of that, just smaller than I would have expected, when I look at the inventory balance at year end up about $150 million year-over-year. So I was just curious like your line of sight into that and any color on, is it mostly Life Sciences?

Ilan Daskal: Yes. So, Jeff, maybe one comment from my side, maybe that is also related to the fact that it will take us about 8 quarters and 4 quarters to normalize that inventory level, since we did procure on purpose in certain components longer-term kind of capacity. And probably that explains the reason for the higher elevated and the kind of normalization and capturing kind of the order backlog, or elevated order backlog during 2023.

Jack Meehan: And then, final one for you Ilan and maybe also for Andy. The margin target of 19.5%, so off the new accounting in 2022. I think that’s 80 bps of expansion year-over-year. If I look over multiple years in the past, you’ve done over 100 a year, maybe even better than that. I know, there’s some dynamics with COVID and supply chain, but is there anything notable you would call out for why kind of the trend lines a little below the historical levels?

Ilan Daskal: It’s a good question, Jack. I mean, some of the challenges, obviously, from 2022, we’ll continue in part of 2023. So that is still a headwind, when you think about the higher cost of materials that we have to flush through the inventory cycle. And that has an impact on gross margin, obviously, and it’s a fall through to the operating margin. I think that’s kind of the main item that we have to kind of work through during 2023. And that’s again the reason that we do believe that it’s still transitory and that’s exactly the basis for our thinking in terms of still confirming the 2025 target model, because by that time, we believe that those issues will no longer be there.

Jack Meehan: Sounds good. Thank you.

Ilan Daskal: Thank you, Jack.

Operator: Thank you. There are no additional questions at this time. I will now hand it back to the management team for closing remarks.

Edward Chung: Thank you for joining today’s call. We will be at the Citi Conference in early March and hope to see some of you there. And as always, we appreciate your interest, and we look forward to connecting soon.

Operator: That concludes today’s conference call. Thank you. You may now disconnect your line.

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