Microchip Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCHP) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Harlan Sur: Hi, Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. You know, the team had a target to get average lead times down to 26 weeks in the second half. I mean you’re there now given the scheduling activity and the near-term demand weakness, improving boundary capacity, right? I think normal average, historical lead times for you guys have been in that eight to 12-week range. Is this that kind of a range that you expect as you move to the second half of the year now? And just a quick follow-up, do you guys expect to see your channel distribution inventories continue to rise from the 29-day level in this weak environment?

A – Ganesh Moorthy: So first, to take the lead times. You know, we are continuing to drive lead times down. As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we believe that short lead times is what makes us all effective and agile in an unpredictable business environment that we’re in. And we’re, on average, at just under 26 weeks right now. I think we will end the year at well under 13 weeks. It could be under 10 weeks by that time, but we’ll know how we progress in that time. Four to eight weeks is where our lead times are for 90% or so of our line items as a historical benchmark for where we were. With respect to distribution inventory, as I mentioned a little earlier on, it has many functions. It’s a function of what kind of sell-through are they seeing?

What kind of inventory do they want to carry? What are we able to supply, that maybe they’ve been asking for some time to be able to do it? So, I don’t have any color on what distribution inventory is likely to be doing, you know outside of what we’ve provided so far for June.

Harlan Sur: Okay. Thanks, Ganesh.

A – Ganesh Moorthy: Welcome. Thanks Harlan. Chris, are you back?

Operator: Yes. Chris Caso, your line is open again.

Chris Caso : Yes. Not sure what happened, but thank you. So, the question was on the terms environment. Yes, obviously you haven’t seen turns in several quarters given the high backlog. Is that something you contemplate either for the September quarter and December quarter? And can you tell us how you’re thinking about that returns business under the context of shortening lead time?

A – Ganesh Moorthy: Yes, we certainly expect that turns will be a requirement as we go into the December quarter. And then also, the normal part of the business that we have done right, and so most things are starting to normalize again with respect to lead times, what kind of backlog coverage we’ll have and turns is just something else we’ll have to manage as we normally do, starting from the December quarter onwards.

Chris Caso : Okay. But it starts in December, not in September?

A – Ganesh Moorthy: There may have been small parts in the September quarter. I mean we’re one-third of the way in through the September quarter.

Chris Caso : Right, right, that’s helpful. As a follow-up, I wonder if you could expand on some of the comments about Europe. And we heard from various others in the industry, you know obviously we can say about China, you know there’s been a bit here and there about industrial and auto, but really not any comments about Europe, that’s something new, and if you could expand upon what you’re seeing there.

A – Ganesh Moorthy: Yes, as I mentioned, I think Europe is more – as I look forward, there are more headwinds that European economies are facing. I believe technically Germany is now in a recession. It’s had two consecutive quarters of negative GDP and interest rates are still high, inflation is still high. There’s energy inflation, which is larger than in the U.S. and some of the large European economies rely on export, China being one. To the extent China is weak, we’re going to see some of that weakness in China, but we’ll also see some of the weakness in Europe, when their exports are not quite realized. That’s the addition of all of what we see as we look into where are things going, and the impact from Europe.