Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Scott Graham: Okay. Thank you for that. The other question is, a little bit maybe more or maybe equally speculative, but I certainly understand the decline, the bookings with the compression and supply chain days and all of that. But you’re also saying that your coding activity is robust. So I’m just wondering. Is this decline in bookings essentially a four quarter event to adjust to the lower days in the chain? Is that kind of what you’re thinking on this?

Tom Deitrich: Well, I think there’s two components and they are a bit convolved with each other. Certainly, our backlog was elevated because of the deferred revenue that we had. So some of the stuff that was held back on component supply was still in backlog as we commented a number of times. We didn’t lose it. It just took a little bit to fulfill. And at this point, we’ve — we burn through maybe a little more than half of that deferred revenue. So some of it is still on the backlog and we’ll move through as we get the components and fulfill that backlog. The second piece of it is the actual bookings piece in terms of new bookings, that is always a little bit lumpy as projects tend to come in big heaps when it comes to large network deployments.

And that can ebb and flow. I think it’s easier to think about it as maybe of a four quarter rolling average of those new bookings. And if you start thinking about the amount that we’re talking about for Q4, that number bounces up to be just a touch above one-to-one from a four quarter rolling kind of up level. So I think there’s two constituent components there that are important to keep separate. We are very pleased with the quoting activity and the discussions we have with our customers, and that we’ll show up in backlog in the months ahead.

Scott Graham: Much appreciated. Thank you.

Tom Deitrich: Thanks, Scott.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question coming from the line of Cole Couzens with Stephens Inc. Your line is open.

Cole Couzens: Hey, guys, thanks for taking my questions. Just a quick question on supply chains. How much improvement are you all baking into 4Q expectations? And maybe can you guys talk through some of the assumptions by segment to help situate us for revenue and margins?

Joan Hooper: Yes, let me give a little bit of color. So from a revenue perspective, we would expect year-over-year growth in Q4 in all three segments. So we’re comfortable with that. In terms of specific supply chain assumptions, I would say similar to what we’ve seen in Q3. So no great big improvement from that, but certainly we’re out of the trouble area, so we’re not expecting any significant issues in Q4. In terms of margins for Q4, currently I would expect them to be a little bit lower than Q3. In Q3 we had again record device margins and very strong network margins all kind of a function of mix. So our expectations for Q4 is those will come down a little bit sequentially but still be up year-over-year.

Cole Couzens: Super helpful. And then as we approach ’24, I know you all are not trying to guide to ’24. I’m not trying to do that either, but it seems like we’re kind of double-digit EBITDA margins. Can you guys refresh us on what you’re thinking in terms of margins longer term and maybe highlights of the initiatives you’ve executed on since COVID to kind of improve productivity? Thanks.

Joan Hooper: Yes, I can start again, way too premature to be talking about ’24, but if you look back at our last Investor Day back about two years ago, we talked about kind of midterm margins getting to the 14% to 16% EBITDA margins, which I think is still the right mid to near term goal. So don’t know exactly the year we’ll get there. We are currently planning on an updated Investor Day, probably at the end of Q1 where we’ll be in a position to update those. But I would say the overall percentage targets we talked about two years ago are still the right targets. The only thing that’s probably materially changed from ’21 is the size of the device business is much smaller. So we sold the piece of that business. We’ve continued to prune the portfolio. And you’ve seen that in terms of the gross margin. Like I said, we hit a record gross margin for devices this quarter. So, but overall that kind of 14% to 16% EBITDA target is still the target that we’re shooting for.

Cole Couzens: Awesome. Thanks. I’ll turn it back.

Tom Deitrich: Maybe I’ll add — no, I add just a couple more comments to what Joan said is what happens from here forward. In the devices business, we do have a factory consolidation underway, which probably takes until the end of 2024. But that is also an important part of where devices goes for networks. We have some of that pre-pandemic pricing to roll through in the next 12 months, as well as the factory consolidation there. And in outcomes, it really is a game of scale. We have the infrastructure in place. We just got to improve the top-line there and margins will ride up. But those are the key actions and things that we have on our minds as we move towards the longer term target that Joan outlined.

Operator: Thank you. And I see no further the questions in the queue at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Tom Dietrich for any closing remarks. Well, we have now queued up.

Tom Deitrich: Thank you.

Operator: Okay, would you like me to take him?

Joan Hooper: I’m sorry, yes, if you’ve got another questions.

Tom Deitrich: Sure, please.

Operator: Apologies, one just queued up. Coming from the line of Noah Kaye. One moment, please.

Noah Kaye: Thanks. Thought we’d raised our hand earlier, but here we are. Appreciate you putting us in. I just wanted to ask about underlying demand. In EMEA, I think you did a good job of talking about networks, but just want to get a better sense of devices. It sounds like supply chain much more in balance here. But are you seeing a set up for underlying demand growth in EMEA and in the devices segment broadly, and you’re just being selective at this point about, which projects you’re serving and bidding on? Because obviously you’ve prioritized margin improvement to improve quality of business, but just want to understand the demand environment as you see it?