CDW Corporation (NASDAQ:CDW) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 4 of 4

Operator: Our next question is from Adam Tindle from Raymond James. Your line is now open.

Adam Tindle: Okay. Thanks for squeezing me in. I wanted to ask on 2023 revenue growth guidance of 2% to 3%. I think it’s a lower overall starting point than I can recall in many years. I know your split says the assumption is no market growth, but the largest global distributor just guided to double the growth rate that you’re describing. So for investors that take this to mean that your share gain premium is effectively lowering inherently in this guidance, which is notable as we’re shifting away from PCs. Maybe you could, Chris, opine on that market share premium piece as we move into a different environment from a mix perspective, away from transactional and towards solutions and tie in to your observations that you saw during Q4. Thanks.

Chris Leahy: Thanks, Adam. Let me just — let me start with our guide, when our guide is coming versus when some of the other observations about the outlook for the market came out a month or 1.5 months ago. And the pivot that we’ve talked about in Q4, we started to see more dramatically end of November and into December. So that might be having an impact on how — on the discrepancies that you’re hearing. In terms of the 200 basis points to 300 basis points and the validity of the 200 basis points to 300 basis points, I think that question was the one you were asking, we still view that as our target go get. As we mentioned, Adam, and this might be what you’re getting underneath. But as we mentioned, as we think about 2023 and the dynamics that we’ve seen in the fourth quarter of 2022, continuing into 2023, namely for us, stronger growth in cloud and Software-as-a-Service and security and more muted hardware sales.

That does mean that our customer spend will be more meaningfully greater than the number, I think you gave a 2.5% figure. It will be meaningfully greater than that number. So we would look at that outperformance as 200 basis points to 300 basis points plus, if I could put it that way.

Adam Tindle: Okay. And maybe just a quick follow-up, Al, on the Q1 guidance. In years past, CDW would talk about seasonal being down high-single-digits sequentially, 7%, 8% down. Today you’re guiding flat to low-single-digit growth sequentially. And as I think about the mix of the business, with Sirius being in there, I would think it would be even more seasonal to Q1 given the enterprise focus. So maybe just help me understand the change now to seasonality versus historically. Thank you.

Al Miralles: Sure. Thanks, Adam. Look, the most notable thing I would just say is the Q4 was a very extreme period. And so as we look at Q1, you’re right, seasonally, we would typically say there would be a contraction to Q1. And I guess what you should take from that is, while thematically, we’d still expect this mix into netted-down and lower transactional, maybe not as extreme as what we saw in Q4 and therefore, with some of that balancing out, we’d expect that we’d have modest growth on the top-line in the first quarter. And then again, a little more modest in terms of the gross margin. So just really kind of a bit of a dampening effect of the extremity that we saw in Q4.

Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand you back over to CDW for closing remarks.

Chris Leahy: Thank you, Drew. And let me close by recognizing the incredible dedication and hard work of our 15,100 coworkers around the globe. Your ongoing commitment to serving our customers is what makes us successful. And thank you to our customers for the privilege and opportunity to help you achieve your goals, and thank you to those listening for your time and continued interest in CDW. Al and I look forward to talk to you next quarter.

Operator: Thank you for joining CDW fourth quarter 2022 earnings call. You may disconnect your lines.

Follow Cdw Corp (Old Filings) (NASDAQ:CDW)

Page 4 of 4