FORM - FormFactor Inc. (FORM) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

2024-02-07 23:29:10 ET

FormFactor, Inc. (FORM)

Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call

February 07, 2024, 04:20 PM ET

Company Participants

Stan Finkelstein - VP, Investor Relations

Mike Slessor - Chief Executive Officer

Shai Shahar - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Brian Chin - Stifel

David Duley - Steelhead

Krish Sankar - TD Cowen

Tom Diffely - D.A. Davidson

Christian Schwab - Craig-Hallum Capital

Craig Ellis - B. Riley Securities

David Silver - CL King & Associates.

Presentation

Operator

Thank you. And welcome everyone to FormFactor’s Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. On today’s call are Chief Executive Officer, Mike Slessor; and Chief Financial Officer, Shai Shahar. Before we begin, Stan Finkelstein, the company’s VP of Investor Relations, will remind you of some important information.

Stan Finkelstein

Thank you. Today, the company will be discussing GAAP P&L results and some important non-GAAP results intended to supplement your understanding of the company’s financials. Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP measures and other financial information are available in the press release issued today by the company and on the Investor Relations section of our website.

Today’s discussion contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal Securities Laws. Examples of such forward-looking statements include those with respect to projections of financial and business performance, future macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions; the benefits of acquisitions and investments in capacity and in new technologies; the impact of global, regional, and national health crisis including the COVID-19 pandemic; anticipated industry trends; potential disruptions in our supply chain; the impact of regulatory changes including the recent US-China trade restrictions; the anticipated demand for products; our ability to develop, produce, and sell products and the assumptions upon which such statements are based. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed during this call. Information on risk factors and uncertainties is contained in our most recent filing on Form 10-K with the SEC for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 and in our other SEC filings, which are available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov and in our press release issued today. Forward-looking statements are made as of today February 7, 2024, and we assume no obligations to update them.

With that, we will now turn the call over to FormFactor’s CEO, Mike Slessor.

Mike Slessor

Thanks everyone for joining us for FormFactor's fourth quarter earnings call. FormFactor's fourth quarter results were in line with the outlook we provided last November. Compared to that outlook, moderately higher revenue and gross margins were offset by a higher tax rate, producing non-GAAP EPS at the midpoint of the range.

As we enter 2024, we continue to operate in an overall demand environment that remains similar to the levels we experienced during the past year, and we expect first quarter results to be similar to those achieved in recent quarters.

The relatively stable aggregate demand across our combined served markets is a benefit of FormFactor's diversification strategy and sets us apart from our direct competitors. FormFactor has a broad lab-to-fab product portfolio across foundry and logic, DRAM and Flash probe cards, together with our system segment products. This unique portfolio enables us to compete for business across diverse demand pools at all major customers, producing relatively consistent top line results as we've demonstrated for the past four quarters and which we expect again in the current quarter.

Customer investments in growing area is driven by generative AI, like high-bandwidth memory and co-packaged silicon photonics is helping offset the impact of areas that are presently at cyclically low levels, like mobile handsets and PCs and those entering cyclical downturns like automotive and industrial....

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