Semtech Corporation (NASDAQ:SMTC) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Mohan Maheswaran: Well, automotive is one of the stronger segments today for sure and we expect it to continue to be I would say, the other industrial markets in North America and Europe are holding up relatively well. It’s all relative consumers. It’s been extremely weak, particularly Asian consumer business, I guess, it’s well documented that China consumer and Samsung as an example have been very weak. And I would say that broader consumer market and computing market, PCs, laptops, tablets is also very weak. And then China itself is definitely going through some challenges economically and through €“ still through COVID issues. And so demand is weak. I don’t anticipate those will remain, but for sure, at the moment, North America and Europe are stronger regions.

Trevor Janoskie: Alright. Thank you.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Craig Ellis with B. Riley Securities. Please proceed with your question.

Craig Ellis: Yes. Thanks for taking the question and appreciate all the transparency on what you’re seeing in the markets and with the different products group guys. Mohan, I wanted to start just digging a bit deeper into China to understand what you’re seeing there. You were early in flagging the weakness that started in China back in August and in interpreting your comments, I’m trying to discern if the signs of stability that you may be seeing in consumer really related to Lunar New Year builds and therefore more of something that might be near term oriented versus something that might be related to product cycles that would be up beyond that? So, can you just go a little bit deeper into what’s actually happening in China and the confidence that you have in consumer and elsewhere that we’re near a bottom there?

Mohan Maheswaran: Yes, I think, I would say the key thing to remember, Craig, is that it’s come down significantly, right. So, consumer and China across the board has come down quite significantly in Q3, comes down again in Q4, so we guide down in Q4. And so, the indications are that Q1 will start to stabilize and we’re seeing demand stabilization. So, demand has started to level off. We’re also seeing POS starting to improve and also bookings. So, I would say it’s fairly broad. I wouldn’t say it’s one specific thing, but just remember that it’s off a very low base rate. So, the hope is now we’ll start to see, I think inventory consumed, I think that’s the key. So, POS increasing and some of the €“ even our customers’ inventory is starting to flow through over the next two quarters and then we’ll start to see, kind of more of a real demand supply environment I think in the Q2, Q3 timeframe hopefully.

Craig Ellis: That’s helpful. And then the second question is more of an intermediate term question. As you look out over the course of calendar 2023, really fiscal 2024 for the company, what businesses in the portfolio, do you have confidence that can grow year-on-year? We clearly have a challenging start given where we exit fiscal 2023. But as you look ahead, it seems like Laura would be set up for good growth. You talked about some real momentum in TriEdge. What are the business that you think are going to be year-on-year growers next year?

Mohan Maheswaran: Yes. So, I do think for us the data center business is a good chance of being a very strong grower next year, obviously second half driven, but we mentioned the significant wins actually we have in both TriEdge and FiberEdge in my script. And if you look at that, that second half can certainly drive growth in data center. On the wireless side, it’s been fairly muted. So, I think the question there is really more of a macro, kind of comment on 5G base station deployments and some of the 4G stuff coming back. Again, China a key player in that. But that could certainly grow. Again, it’s been very weak this fiscal year. So, next year could be a . PON has had €“ we’ll have a record year in FY 2023 for us. So, I’m not sure we’ll see same level of growth.

So, it will grow, but probably it will be a smaller, a lower growth rate versus the other segments. And then the consumer is the big question because I think it’s had such a poor fiscal year 2023 that one has to believe that that has a good chance to come back in FY 2024 and that includes our protection business and our proximity sensing business in Asia, particularly in Korea. And then of course, , as I mentioned, if you take out the Helium challenge that we have, the business should grow.