NASDAQ:INFN Infinera Q1 2023 Earnings Report $6.64 0.00 (0.00%) As of 02/28/2025 Earnings HistoryForecast Infinera EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.02Consensus EPS -$0.02Beat/MissBeat by +$0.04One Year Ago EPS-$0.13Infinera Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$392.08 millionExpected Revenue$381.39 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$10.69 millionYoY Revenue Growth+15.70%Infinera Announcement DetailsQuarterQ1 2023Date5/3/2023TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateWednesday, May 3, 2023Conference Call Time5:00PM ETUpcoming EarningsInfinera's next earnings date is estimated for Tuesday, April 29, 2025, based on past reporting schedules. Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Infinera Q1 2023 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrMay 3, 2023 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 8 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Day. My name is Rob, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Infinera First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer Thank you. Operator00:00:28Amitav Posse, Head of Investor Relations, you may begin your conference. Speaker 100:00:32Thank you, Rob, and good afternoon. Welcome to Infinera's Q1 of fiscal 2023 conference call. A copy of today's earnings and investor slides are available on the Investor Relations section of the website. Additionally, this call is being recorded and will be available for replay from our website. Today's call will include projections and estimates that constitute forward looking statements, Trends, competition and customers, capacity growth, expectations regarding industry wide supply chain challenges and the macroeconomic environment, Market adoption of Coherent Optical Engines, expectations regarding the launch of our subsystems business and its impact on our financial results, Expectations regarding obtaining government funding projected year over year drivers of demand, revenue, gross margin, operating expenses and operating margin expectations regarding our future performance, revenue growth and margin expansion and our financial outlook for the Q2 of 2023. Speaker 100:01:39These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause Infinera's results to differ materially from management's current expectations. Actual results may differ materially as a result of various risk factors, including those set forth in our annual report on Form 10 ks for the year ended on December 31, 2022, as filed with the SEC on February 27, 2023, as well as subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the SEC from time to time. Please be reminded That all statements are made as of today and Infinera undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this call. Today's conference call includes references to non GAAP financial measures, and investor slides for this quarter, each of which is available on the Investor Relations section of our website. And finally, as a reminder, we'll allow for plenty of time for Q and A today, We ask that you limit yourselves to one question and one follow-up, please. Speaker 100:02:58I'll now turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, David Hurd. David? Speaker 200:03:02Thanks, Amitabh. Hey, good afternoon and thanks for joining us today. I'll begin with a review of our results and then I'm going to turn the call over to Nancy to cover the details of our financial performance for the Q1. We had a very solid start to 2023 with Q1 revenue, gross margin, Operating margin and EPS all beating the midpoint of our outlook range. Revenue in the quarter was 392,000,000 and grew 16% year over year and we expanded gross margins by 2 60 basis points and Operating margins by 4.50 basis points compared to the Q1 of 2023. Speaker 200:03:42During the quarter, we continued to make progress and currently are on track to drive ICE6 to greater than 35% of product revenue in 2023. 2nd, our 400 gig ZRZR Plus software defined ICEX pluggables are performing well and are being integrated into our own Metro platforms. We are expanding our Metro footprint with new design wins and expect to see initial margin benefit from the vertical integration of these metro platforms as we exit the year. 3rd, the pipeline For our external pluggables business is expanding quite nicely and we're on track to capture tens of 1,000,000 of dollars of orders during 2023. To date, we've received orders for qualification, sampling and initial deployment from over 10 customers spanning network equipment manufacturers, ICPs and service providers. Speaker 200:04:464th, the development of our next generation embedded engines including i6 and i7 is progressing well And we're focused on delivering to the technology roadmap and timeline that we laid out for you during our Investor Day. 5th, We're continuing to position ourselves for the Chips and Sciences Funding Act to augment our existing business plan. As a U. S.-based optical semiconductor manufacturer, Infinera is well situated at a time with significant government funding is on the table to reshore and secure critical supply chains. And finally, we're driving towards our full year plan for revenue growth and margin expansion. Speaker 200:05:25As you've just heard, Q1 revenue was 16% and above our 8% annual target and we expect the first half of twenty twenty three to be generally in line with our expectations coming into the year. All of these milestones are aligned towards delivering our target business model of at least $1 of EPS in the 20 25, 20 26 time period. From a macro perspective, there's no doubt that the current environment is a little more dynamic With customers taking more time to balance the need to work down their backlog, prioritize projects and establish the right strategic budgets for the year. Within the ICP segment, which represents 25% to 30% of our revenue And less than 15% of the overall optical systems market, we've seen a bifurcation in customer behavior. While some of our ICP customers are digesting inventory and working down backlogs, we're winning and shipping to others who are gearing up for artificial Service Provider or CSP customer segment, we are also seeing a push out of some projects as customers work down inventory and run their networks a bit hotter. Speaker 200:06:40Despite this macroeconomic backdrop, we're continuing to land new design wins with our strong portfolio as customers Look to diversify their vendor base. Furthermore, spending priorities across our customer base remain centered on fiber builds, Higher speeds and feeds, lower cost and power efficiency. These are areas that firmly hit our sweet spot. Our overall sales funnel is solid and RFP activity is quite healthy. As we stated during our Investor Day And like the prior 2 years, we expect to grow ahead of the market in 2023 with bookings weighted towards the second half of the year. Speaker 200:07:21In the meantime, we're staying focused on our growth strategy, prioritizing investments and expanding our market reach and building our pluggables business, while being judicious about all other expenses. At this point, our bottoms up view supports our annual plan for 2023. As you've seen from our press release today at the midpoint of our outlook range for Q2 2023, we would deliver 10% year over year revenue growth In the first half of twenty twenty three, which is above our annual target of 8%, while continuing to expand margins. In closing, while there is some near term uncertainty in the market, it's our expectation that much of what we're seeing today is short term and timing related and not a reflection of any long term underlying demand. We are executing to the 6 strategic milestones we outlined during our Analyst Day and our primary objectives remain unchanged to grow faster than the market, expand our margins, Launch our pluggables business and deliver at least $1 of EPS in that 20 5, 20 26 timeframe. Speaker 200:08:28I'd like to thank the Infinera team for their continued commitment to building a culture centered on caring for our customers and one another and delivering on innovation that matters. I would also like to thank our partners, customers and shareholders for their ongoing support. I will now turn the call over to Nancy to Speaker 300:08:54I will begin by covering our Q1 results and then provide the outlook for the Q2. For your reference, on our Investor Relations website, we have posted slides with financial details, including our GAAP to non GAAP reconciliation to assist with my commentary. As you heard from David, the Q1 was a solid quarter for us in which we delivered double digit year over year revenue growth with key financial metrics, revenue, margins and EPS all coming in above the midpoint of our outlook range. Revenue in the quarter was $392,000,000 up 16% on a year over year basis with Product revenue up 18% year over year. This performance was driven primarily by strength in the Americas and with ICP customers and was across both our GX portfolio and line systems. Speaker 300:09:41Geographically, we derived 60% of our Q1 revenue from domestic customers, a level consistent with Q4 as we saw continued strength across our customer base in the U. S. Q1 gross margin of 38.8% was above the midpoint of our outlook range and increased 260 basis points year over year. Compared to the year ago quarter, gross margin benefited from higher ICE revenue and some relief in supply costs, partially offset by higher line systems revenue and services mix as we continue to work through our lower margin professional services backlog. As we have discussed in prior calls, Line Systems revenue comes at a lower gross margin, But the expanded customer footprint bodes well for the future attachment of higher margin transponder sales. Speaker 300:10:29Operating profit in the quarter was $13,600,000 with an operating margin of 3.5% compared to an operating loss of $3,500,000 in Q1 of 2022. On a year over year basis, we expanded our operating margin by 4.50 basis points, benefiting from higher revenue, higher gross margin and improved operating leverage. Operating expenses of $138,600,000 in Q1 were slightly below our outlook range of $139,000,000 to $143,000,000 as we tightly managed quarterly spending. The resulting diluted EPS was $0.02 per share at the high end of our outlook range, which compared to a loss of $0.07 in the year ago quarter. Moving on to the balance sheet and cash flow items. Speaker 300:11:15We ended the quarter with $170,000,000 in and restricted cash with no amount drawn on our ABL. The primary use of cash in the quarter was working capital as we continue to strategically build inventory while reducing our payables. Consequently, cash flow from operations reflected a modest use of $1,800,000 in cash in the quarter and $18,600,000 in outflow and free cash flow. Let me turn now to the outlook for the Q2 of 2023. While we remain encouraged by the long term drivers of our business, our design wins, our above industry growth and healthy backlog, We are cognizant of the environment we are operating in as our customers take a little bit more time to determine their spending priorities for the year. Speaker 300:11:59However, we don't expect this transitory effect to reflect a material shift in the longer term drivers of our business. Based on our current visibility, we expect Q2 revenue to be in the range of $375,000,000 plus or minus $20,000,000 representing 5% growth on a year over year basis at the midpoint of the range and implying 10% growth in the first half of twenty twenty three over the first half of twenty twenty two. Partially impacting our Q2 outlook is the push out of an approximately $20,000,000 government project that we now expect to materialize in the second half of the year. Overall, we believe our revenue trajectory in 2023 will mirror the trend of the last 2 years with sequential growth in both Q3 and Q4 and a stronger second half compared to the first half. We expect Q2 margins to be in the range of 38.5 percent plus or minus 150 basis points, up 2 40 basis points year over year at the midpoint of the range. Speaker 300:13:02The primary driver of the year over year increase in gross margin Is the projected greater contribution of ICE6 in our revenue mix and the continued abatement of supply costs, partially offset by a more acute impact from lower margin line systems and metro products that are currently non vertically integrated. We are forecasting Q2 expenses to be in the range of $140,000,000 to $144,000,000 modestly up sequentially as we continue to prioritize investments and Global Sales and Business Development to take advantage of the growing market opportunity and as we continue to invest in our product roadmap. The resulting operating margin in Q2 is expected to be approximately 0.6 percent, plus or minus 300 basis points, up 20 basis points on a year over year basis at the midpoint. Below the operating income line, we assume $7,000,000 for net interest expense and $4,000,000 Finally, we anticipate a loss of $0.03 per share, plus or minus $0.05 assuming a basic share count of approximately 226,000,000 shares and a fully diluted share count of approximately 267,000,000 shares. The midpoint of this Q2 outlook range As we look ahead, at this point, we are leaving our full year 2023 outlook unchanged. Speaker 300:14:29Consistent with the messaging during our Investor Day in March, We expect our revenue growth to be approximately 8% for the year and our annual EPS to be above $0.20 for 2023. As I wrap up today, I want to thank those of you who attended our Investor Day in March, and I enjoyed seeing you in person. We had record attendance at our OFC booth. Our portfolio and technology road map are clearly resonating with our customers, and we believe the investment thesis is compelling. We are focused on executing our strategy, delivering on the 6 milestones and driving at least $1 of EPS by $0.25 to $0.26 I would like to thank the Infinera team for their continued commitment to innovation and execution excellence and our partners, customers and shareholders for their continued cooperation and support. Speaker 300:15:19Operator, I'd like to open it now for questions. Operator00:15:29And your first question comes from the line of Mike Genovese from Rosenblatt Securities. Your line is open. Speaker 200:15:36Hey, Mike. Speaker 400:15:37Great. Hi, David. Thanks for the question. I guess, David, when you're talking about cloud or ICP versus Service provider, I didn't get a clear message, but I guess that's kind of what you were saying is that some of the cloud guys are speeding up, some are slowing down. But if you could just compare cloud to service provider in terms of your whether you think the markets Which one feels relatively strong or relatively weaker in the second quarter? Speaker 400:16:08And do you think that that same kind of trend will continue in the second half or do you have different expectations? Speaker 200:16:14No, it's good question. What I was actually saying is exactly what you repeated back, which is bifurcated. There are some and they Growth rates, I mean, some above 40%, right? There's still some high double digit growth rate. So I think we've all expected them to digest some inventory and burn down some And so I think that's a couple of quarter issue. Speaker 200:16:43Well, there's a second set of them when you look at their CapEx, I think there were 3 or 4 And that are driving these machine learning and AI workloads, which are everybody told us We're going to be 10 times and you don't believe it until you see it in the forecast and then ultimately in the order book. So, I think as I said at Analyst Today they're going to continue to be lumpy, but I think the demand will be there. I think even the ones that have slowed down to burn off the backlog, workloads So when they're growing double digit, you still need to build out data center and server infrastructure and connected via optics. On the service provider front, I think what we're seeing is honestly a huge number of RFPs out globally Going on right now, but what happens in times like this when you hear the R word recession, a lot of them are sweating their assets And running a little hotter and burning down backlog. That being said, service providers typically when they cut their budgets, Some of them that are spending $18,000,000,000 they don't cut them to $9,000,000 right. Speaker 200:17:50They cut them by a couple of $1,000,000,000 and it's really the priority of the spend. So I think that's what they're going through is their priority is spend and where orders are going to be. I think the good news for the long term And the medium term is actually that fiber is a big priority. We've got some design wins in many of those big CSPs. I'll remind you, I would like more customer concentration in those Tier 1 top 50 CSPs. Speaker 200:18:19The slowdown in terms of their order deployment versus their backlog drawdown It isn't quite as painful when you're not as concentrated, but we are going to continue to drive to be more concentrated on the CSPs. Mike, did I answer your question? Speaker 400:18:37Yes, that was great. Thanks. I guess just looking at last year, there was a pretty Steve Grant in the second half of the year compared to the first half of the year. And by saying 8% is achievable this year, It seems like it could be even slightly steeper this year. Is that where does that confidence come from In the second half, where are you getting that? Speaker 200:19:05So a couple of things. I think you're right. Actually for the last couple of years, We've had a much more dramatic back half than front half slower start. I think what you saw is our Q1 performance was quite a bit stronger than our last two years. And that front half being 10% and being above the 8%, we came at Analyst Day in March and talked about that, Right. Speaker 200:19:28Meaning we said we thought that the back half certainly would be in magnitude stronger, But that certainly overall, we believe we'd be at that 8% market rate, which is again below the 10% in the front half. We'd be crazy in this market, Mike, to get more frothy than that, we think we're being really mindful and we're managing with the micro. We're looking at our sales funnel. We're looking at our deployments. We're looking at having conversations with the people making these deployments. Speaker 200:20:01And Could it get hotter? Hey, look, I think that would be speculation. We're kind of at this point, we stick with what we said in March And continue to use our micro tools quarter to quarter like we did through the supply chain mess, like we did through the pandemic. We're keeping our same forecast methodology and our same executional focus. Speaker 500:20:25All right, great. Thanks a lot for the questions. Speaker 100:20:28Thanks, Mike. Operator00:20:30Your next question comes from the line of Alex Henderson from Needham and Company. Your line is open. Speaker 500:20:36Great. Thanks so much. I think the Street believes that you guys have a pretty good sized backlog A product that you'll be shipping in 2023 and that should give you some pretty good visibility as supply chain improves. The bait on a lot of these companies that are in the systems market with large backlog seems to be focused More on what happens after the backlog comes down. And I was hoping you could talk a little bit about the mix of the backlog and what it might imply. Speaker 500:21:15Specifically, it's my understanding in talking to Ciena and I think You guys have a similar situation that the optical line systems are a pretty significant piece of your backlog. But it's also my understanding that the transceivers needed to light those optical line systems are not. And so I guess the question is, if it's 40% of the backlog is OLS and you ship that out, How long before the orders come in to light those line systems up? And Is that a second round of orders that should give visibility to a longer term trajectory of growth? Speaker 300:22:04Yes. I'll start and David, you can jump in. Sure. But the backlog, we're not going to get into the specifics of what's in our backlog. But one of the comments that I did make is we are seeing, I'll say, some of the supply loosen up and you're seeing more line systems getting deployed. Speaker 300:22:20One of the statements that I made about the Q2 margin and keeping that range where we did, it really depends on the customer and the deployment. Certain customers are going to buy lines going to buy the transponders at the same time they're deploying the line systems and fill at different rates. Others, it will be a more staged and take multiple quarters, but it really is going to depend on the customer, The deployment and the timing of what they need in order to get their network up and running. Speaker 200:22:50But to your point, Alex, think there's a good portion of Align Systems in our backlog. And that there is still that's the one area that there's still a Fair bit of supply constraint in the industry. As those come out, let's say you have a Five times opportunity in terms of fill on value to go from the first order to completely filling. Like typically, unless it's a True Subsea where they're going to fill the whole spectrum right away. You're absolutely right. Speaker 200:23:25Typically people aren't going to buy line systems and then not fill them, right, and deploy them. And we certainly don't want that to happen. So we kind of track where we've got line systems out and where that gives us forward visibility in our funnel that loads our sales force funnel, which is what we Managing this in these micros and yes, when we're selling those transponders, they tend to be at higher margins than that nasty line system. Speaker 500:23:53Just to be clear, the line system orders generally do not Include at the same time the order was put in the transceivers to meaningfully light them up. So there is a lag From the LLS going out to when the transceiver order comes in and therefore that does Suggest another round of ordering front. That thesis is correct, yes? Speaker 200:24:25Partially, there are people that when they're doing their initial order might order the line systems and a portion of the initial deployment. But a majority of the dollar value of that potential deal is future versus current. Speaker 500:24:40Great. And Just to be clear, have you did you work down your backlog during the period or is it I mean normally this is seasonally weak quarter for orders. We did. Speaker 200:24:49We assume that that's Speaker 100:24:50the case. Speaker 200:24:51Yes. We had mentioned that in the Analyst Day. We thought that in the first half that would definitely be the case. Speaker 300:24:56Yes. RPOs went from 983 to 903. Speaker 500:25:02Thank you so much. Speaker 100:25:03Thanks, Alex. Operator00:25:05Your next question comes from the line of Simon Leopold from Raymond James. Your line is open. Speaker 400:25:12Thanks for taking the question. In the prepared remarks, David, you mentioned this comment about inventory absorption. And I want to make sure I understand because I guess I'm a little bit confused in that I imagine that the your customers had inventory of your gear. Now, I didn't know whether you were sort of referring to the broad Sense of things like 5 gs radios being absorbed or you're specifically talking about your own products. And if it's your own products, I'm puzzled how they got that inventory. Speaker 200:25:48Hey, Simon, I would like to make a very clear statement here. So thank for the clarifying question. Yes, in the prepared comments, it was industry wide and not just specific to optical And not our gear, right. I think that during the supply chain a lot of CSPs and customers loaded up And in many cases loaded up to be given where the lead times are. As those are coming down, they have the ability to burn down and Economic pressures, necessity drives that innovative spirit to drive what's in the warehouse and try to get that out and was deployed. Speaker 200:26:32So what I meant is they're burning down backlog and they're burning down the inventory that they have Rather than ordering lots of new gear in the front half of the year. And we mentioned that in the Analyst Day that we thought that that would happen. And then people would kind of reload and recharge as we go out throughout the year. Speaker 400:26:51And then as a follow-up, just What are you thinking in terms of the ebbs and flows in your customer mix in that second quarter guidance? So it implies that at least one of your verticals is not following seasonality and your comments on the call make me think it's the ITPs and not the traditional telcos, but I just want to make sure that I'm thinking about this correctly. Speaker 200:27:19Yes. I'd say 2 things. 1, we did have a government deal of a reasonable size that Nancy mentioned, a $20,000,000 deal that was supposed to be in the first half. And in these times and governments typically run at their own productivity timelines, that's going to move from the first half into the Second half of the year and you've seen that happen before with other big projects with us. This one is a government project. Speaker 200:27:47As I mentioned in the Analyst Day, I think you're going to continue to see the ICP is lumpy in terms of shipments to revenue From us, I think you're continuing to see we had a very strong Americas for the quarter. Europe Continued to be a little bit weaker. I think that's overall a more of a cautious environment, although we see a Very large number of RFPs out there. That one's just going to be timing. So I think it is A little bit of ICP lumpiness, a government project that has spit out and then just the ramp rate CSPs that are traditionally pretty darn strong in Q2 that are just taking a lot longer again as they try to burn down their backlog. Speaker 400:28:37Appreciate the clarification. And just as a quick verification, I'm assuming the government shows up with your other service provider segment? Speaker 100:28:46That's correct, Simon. Speaker 400:28:47Great. Thank you very much. Thanks, Simon. Operator00:28:52Your next question comes from the line of Meta Marshall from Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Speaker 600:28:58Great. Thanks. Maybe on your commentary about kind of the 10 customers, Kind of looking at the external pluggables, just wanted to get a sense of kind of what early feedback you're getting, What kind of scale of projects these could be as we head to 2024 and 2025? And then maybe a second comment or second question is Just on lab trials that you were seeing in general, are you seeing any kind of slowdown in their activity and evaluations? Or is this really just kind of slowdown of orders? Speaker 600:29:36Thanks. Speaker 200:29:37Yes. Thanks, Matt, good question. I do want to clarify this one as well to be very specific. Yes, the 10 aren't looking. What I mentioned is their ordering. Speaker 200:29:47So we actually have firm hard orders in for either qualification, initial deployment or sampling. So that's really good news. I'm encouraged by that. I think for those of you who were at OFC, you did see a large degree of interest As 400 gig goes into the metro for CSPs as well as Our 400 gig ZR Plus and ZR module, a couple of things are happening. The performance of it has been quite strong. Speaker 200:30:20And as people go look to deploy the 400 gig ZR spec, in some cases, they would like a little bit more reach. And our 400 gigs, our ISX pluggable is filling that need. So we're our sales funnel is building with lots of nice There, but look, we won't we'll count those when big orders are able to come in house. We've got some work to do. The second thing is the software definition on them, meaning the fact that these are manageable via software has been a big hit. Speaker 200:30:55Networks are complicated even in ICP networks, people looking to segment alarm Track and be secure. And I'd say the third point is, let's not forget our pluggables are manufactured in the United States With our own fab here in Sunnyvale, California and our advanced semiconductor packaging facility in Pennsylvania. And so that value proposition of performance software and made in the USA, especially given The performance and reach that they're looking for and the economics have been a hit. And just yes, go ahead. Speaker 400:31:32I was Speaker 100:31:32going to Speaker 300:31:32say just to add on that and don't forget, Right. But these pluggables are what's going to allow us as we exit this year and go into 2024 to vertically integrate our own metro platform And that's the margin expansion that we shared with you at Investor Day that really starts to kick in, in 2024. Speaker 200:31:48Now that's a new business, Meta, and that's 10 orders for again sampling initially and some initial deployments that takes a while to scale. And that's why at Analyst Day, we talked about our goal being tens of millions of orders by the time we exit the year and then the scale happening there. But I'm quite encouraged by So far what we see, we need to translate that to the almighty income statement and balance sheet. Speaker 600:32:16Great. Thanks so much. Operator00:32:20And your next question comes from the line of George Notter from Jefferies. Your line is open. Speaker 700:32:27Hi, guys. Thanks very much. I've got a few questions here. I guess, maybe To start, I thought I'd ask about pricing. I know you guys raised price about 5% back in May of last year. Speaker 700:32:39I'm Kind of guessing that that would start flowing through the model here in Q1. Can you give us a sense of how much of the growth you're getting is coming from pricing or Maybe that benefit is still in front of us. I'd love to get a sense for that. And then secondly, I'm just curious about the mix of ICE6 and mix of vertically integrated products in the quarter. I'm kind of wondering what the update is on that mix of product sales? Speaker 700:33:02Thanks. Speaker 200:33:04Yes. Amitabh, why don't you hit the ICE6 and vertical integration and then Nancy can hit the other piece. Speaker 100:33:11Yes. So George, I think we said well, we can say it's just north of 30% in the quarter of product revenue and VI was north of 50%, five-zero. Speaker 300:33:20Yes. And I think we, 1st of all, never announced a price increase. So we have, as we've said, look at our pricing, look at our customer mix, look at look at the products that they're buying and make assessments on a quarter by quarter basis. But the mix of The margin that you're seeing now, as we go above the 38.5% and continue on our track to get to 40% for the year is going to be made up of A compilation of a number of things, right? But primarily, the mix of ICE6 helps us as we grow our margin there. Speaker 300:33:55And we're going to continue to look at our own pricing relative to the market, relative to Where we see opportunity and also where we want to grow, right, and where we want to expand the market in front of us. So, I won't Comment further about any other increases or any decreases. Speaker 700:34:15Got it. Okay. Thanks very much guys. Appreciate it. Speaker 400:34:17Thanks, George. Operator00:34:21And there are no further questions at this time. Mr. David Hurd, I turn the call back over to you for some final closing remarks. Speaker 200:34:28I appreciate it. Like Nancy said, it was great to see everybody at Investor Day. So I know we're short today because Hopefully, we reviewed kind of the plans of where we go. As we mentioned, there, we have those 6 Speaker 400:34:42milestones that we went through that Speaker 200:34:43we laid out at that we went through that we laid out at Investor Day. I think the good news is in times like this concentrating on ensuring, Speaker 500:34:51We Speaker 200:34:51are closing off on those with credible measures, I think happened in Q1. We had a quite a strong Q1 and I'm proud of what the team did. 16% year over year growth, 2 60 points of gross margin and 450 of operating margin expansion. Nice job to the team. Our Q2 guidance implies 10% revenue growth for the first half, which is again ahead of what we see. Speaker 200:35:18We're certainly mindful of the macro. We read the news. We listen to other earnings calls. We understand what's going on. However, we're operating our business The micro tools and processes in close discussions with our clients that have proved to be effective as we manage through a pandemic, Supply chain crisis, wars, you name it. Speaker 200:35:37So that's what we're going to continue to do. Our job with you is to always give you A great view of what we see. We are encouraged by what we see in the subsystems business. That's quite exciting. We know it takes time. Speaker 200:35:51But again, those 6 key milestones are what we are focused on. So we really appreciate everybody's continued interest, the thoughtful questions today, And we look forward to speaking to you at our next earnings call, if not sooner. Everybody have a great day. Speaker 300:36:08Thank you. Operator00:36:08This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may nowRead moreRemove AdsPowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallInfinera Q1 202300:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xRemove Ads Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) Infinera Earnings HeadlinesInfinera Co. 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Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Infinera and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About InfineraInfinera (NASDAQ:INFN) provides optical transport networking equipment, software, and services worldwide. The company's product portfolio includes Infinera Groove series for modular and sled-based platforms to support a various transport network applications; Infinera 7300 series, an SDN-ready coherent optical transport system; Infinera FlexILS open optical line system that connects various Infinera and third-party terminal equipment platforms over long-distance fiber optic cable providing switching, multiplexing, amplification, and management channels; and Infinera 7090 and 7100 series for transport platforms. It also offers Infinera XTM series, a packet-optical transport platform that enables metro connectivity solutions; Infinera XTC series, a multi-terabit packet optical transport platforms that integrates digital OTN switching and optical DWDM transmission; Infinera mTera series, a network transport solution; and Infinera XT series, a platform that is designed to power cloud scale network services over metro, DCI, long-haul, and subsea networks. In addition, the company provides Infinera Cloud Xpress Family that is designed to meet the needs of internet content providers (ICPs), communication service providers, internet exchange service providers, enterprises, and other large-scale data center operators; and ICE-X Coherent Pluggable Optics. It also offers Infinera Transcend software suite; and system software and customer support services. The company serves telecommunications service providers, ICPs, cable providers, wholesale carriers, research and education institutions, large enterprises, and government entities. It markets and sells its products and related support services primarily through its direct sales force. The company was formerly known as Zepton Networks. Infinera Corporation was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.View Infinera ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Why Analysts Boosted United Airlines Stock Ahead of EarningsLamb Weston Stock Rises, Earnings Provide Calm Amidst ChaosIntuitive Machines Gains After Earnings Beat, NASA Missions AheadCintas Delivers Earnings Beat, Signals More Growth AheadNike Stock Dips on Earnings: Analysts Weigh in on What’s NextAfter Massive Post Earnings Fall, Does Hope Remain for MongoDB?Semtech Rallies on Earnings Beat—Is There More Upside? 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There are 8 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Day. My name is Rob, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Infinera First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer Thank you. Operator00:00:28Amitav Posse, Head of Investor Relations, you may begin your conference. Speaker 100:00:32Thank you, Rob, and good afternoon. Welcome to Infinera's Q1 of fiscal 2023 conference call. A copy of today's earnings and investor slides are available on the Investor Relations section of the website. Additionally, this call is being recorded and will be available for replay from our website. Today's call will include projections and estimates that constitute forward looking statements, Trends, competition and customers, capacity growth, expectations regarding industry wide supply chain challenges and the macroeconomic environment, Market adoption of Coherent Optical Engines, expectations regarding the launch of our subsystems business and its impact on our financial results, Expectations regarding obtaining government funding projected year over year drivers of demand, revenue, gross margin, operating expenses and operating margin expectations regarding our future performance, revenue growth and margin expansion and our financial outlook for the Q2 of 2023. Speaker 100:01:39These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause Infinera's results to differ materially from management's current expectations. Actual results may differ materially as a result of various risk factors, including those set forth in our annual report on Form 10 ks for the year ended on December 31, 2022, as filed with the SEC on February 27, 2023, as well as subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the SEC from time to time. Please be reminded That all statements are made as of today and Infinera undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this call. Today's conference call includes references to non GAAP financial measures, and investor slides for this quarter, each of which is available on the Investor Relations section of our website. And finally, as a reminder, we'll allow for plenty of time for Q and A today, We ask that you limit yourselves to one question and one follow-up, please. Speaker 100:02:58I'll now turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, David Hurd. David? Speaker 200:03:02Thanks, Amitabh. Hey, good afternoon and thanks for joining us today. I'll begin with a review of our results and then I'm going to turn the call over to Nancy to cover the details of our financial performance for the Q1. We had a very solid start to 2023 with Q1 revenue, gross margin, Operating margin and EPS all beating the midpoint of our outlook range. Revenue in the quarter was 392,000,000 and grew 16% year over year and we expanded gross margins by 2 60 basis points and Operating margins by 4.50 basis points compared to the Q1 of 2023. Speaker 200:03:42During the quarter, we continued to make progress and currently are on track to drive ICE6 to greater than 35% of product revenue in 2023. 2nd, our 400 gig ZRZR Plus software defined ICEX pluggables are performing well and are being integrated into our own Metro platforms. We are expanding our Metro footprint with new design wins and expect to see initial margin benefit from the vertical integration of these metro platforms as we exit the year. 3rd, the pipeline For our external pluggables business is expanding quite nicely and we're on track to capture tens of 1,000,000 of dollars of orders during 2023. To date, we've received orders for qualification, sampling and initial deployment from over 10 customers spanning network equipment manufacturers, ICPs and service providers. Speaker 200:04:464th, the development of our next generation embedded engines including i6 and i7 is progressing well And we're focused on delivering to the technology roadmap and timeline that we laid out for you during our Investor Day. 5th, We're continuing to position ourselves for the Chips and Sciences Funding Act to augment our existing business plan. As a U. S.-based optical semiconductor manufacturer, Infinera is well situated at a time with significant government funding is on the table to reshore and secure critical supply chains. And finally, we're driving towards our full year plan for revenue growth and margin expansion. Speaker 200:05:25As you've just heard, Q1 revenue was 16% and above our 8% annual target and we expect the first half of twenty twenty three to be generally in line with our expectations coming into the year. All of these milestones are aligned towards delivering our target business model of at least $1 of EPS in the 20 25, 20 26 time period. From a macro perspective, there's no doubt that the current environment is a little more dynamic With customers taking more time to balance the need to work down their backlog, prioritize projects and establish the right strategic budgets for the year. Within the ICP segment, which represents 25% to 30% of our revenue And less than 15% of the overall optical systems market, we've seen a bifurcation in customer behavior. While some of our ICP customers are digesting inventory and working down backlogs, we're winning and shipping to others who are gearing up for artificial Service Provider or CSP customer segment, we are also seeing a push out of some projects as customers work down inventory and run their networks a bit hotter. Speaker 200:06:40Despite this macroeconomic backdrop, we're continuing to land new design wins with our strong portfolio as customers Look to diversify their vendor base. Furthermore, spending priorities across our customer base remain centered on fiber builds, Higher speeds and feeds, lower cost and power efficiency. These are areas that firmly hit our sweet spot. Our overall sales funnel is solid and RFP activity is quite healthy. As we stated during our Investor Day And like the prior 2 years, we expect to grow ahead of the market in 2023 with bookings weighted towards the second half of the year. Speaker 200:07:21In the meantime, we're staying focused on our growth strategy, prioritizing investments and expanding our market reach and building our pluggables business, while being judicious about all other expenses. At this point, our bottoms up view supports our annual plan for 2023. As you've seen from our press release today at the midpoint of our outlook range for Q2 2023, we would deliver 10% year over year revenue growth In the first half of twenty twenty three, which is above our annual target of 8%, while continuing to expand margins. In closing, while there is some near term uncertainty in the market, it's our expectation that much of what we're seeing today is short term and timing related and not a reflection of any long term underlying demand. We are executing to the 6 strategic milestones we outlined during our Analyst Day and our primary objectives remain unchanged to grow faster than the market, expand our margins, Launch our pluggables business and deliver at least $1 of EPS in that 20 5, 20 26 timeframe. Speaker 200:08:28I'd like to thank the Infinera team for their continued commitment to building a culture centered on caring for our customers and one another and delivering on innovation that matters. I would also like to thank our partners, customers and shareholders for their ongoing support. I will now turn the call over to Nancy to Speaker 300:08:54I will begin by covering our Q1 results and then provide the outlook for the Q2. For your reference, on our Investor Relations website, we have posted slides with financial details, including our GAAP to non GAAP reconciliation to assist with my commentary. As you heard from David, the Q1 was a solid quarter for us in which we delivered double digit year over year revenue growth with key financial metrics, revenue, margins and EPS all coming in above the midpoint of our outlook range. Revenue in the quarter was $392,000,000 up 16% on a year over year basis with Product revenue up 18% year over year. This performance was driven primarily by strength in the Americas and with ICP customers and was across both our GX portfolio and line systems. Speaker 300:09:41Geographically, we derived 60% of our Q1 revenue from domestic customers, a level consistent with Q4 as we saw continued strength across our customer base in the U. S. Q1 gross margin of 38.8% was above the midpoint of our outlook range and increased 260 basis points year over year. Compared to the year ago quarter, gross margin benefited from higher ICE revenue and some relief in supply costs, partially offset by higher line systems revenue and services mix as we continue to work through our lower margin professional services backlog. As we have discussed in prior calls, Line Systems revenue comes at a lower gross margin, But the expanded customer footprint bodes well for the future attachment of higher margin transponder sales. Speaker 300:10:29Operating profit in the quarter was $13,600,000 with an operating margin of 3.5% compared to an operating loss of $3,500,000 in Q1 of 2022. On a year over year basis, we expanded our operating margin by 4.50 basis points, benefiting from higher revenue, higher gross margin and improved operating leverage. Operating expenses of $138,600,000 in Q1 were slightly below our outlook range of $139,000,000 to $143,000,000 as we tightly managed quarterly spending. The resulting diluted EPS was $0.02 per share at the high end of our outlook range, which compared to a loss of $0.07 in the year ago quarter. Moving on to the balance sheet and cash flow items. Speaker 300:11:15We ended the quarter with $170,000,000 in and restricted cash with no amount drawn on our ABL. The primary use of cash in the quarter was working capital as we continue to strategically build inventory while reducing our payables. Consequently, cash flow from operations reflected a modest use of $1,800,000 in cash in the quarter and $18,600,000 in outflow and free cash flow. Let me turn now to the outlook for the Q2 of 2023. While we remain encouraged by the long term drivers of our business, our design wins, our above industry growth and healthy backlog, We are cognizant of the environment we are operating in as our customers take a little bit more time to determine their spending priorities for the year. Speaker 300:11:59However, we don't expect this transitory effect to reflect a material shift in the longer term drivers of our business. Based on our current visibility, we expect Q2 revenue to be in the range of $375,000,000 plus or minus $20,000,000 representing 5% growth on a year over year basis at the midpoint of the range and implying 10% growth in the first half of twenty twenty three over the first half of twenty twenty two. Partially impacting our Q2 outlook is the push out of an approximately $20,000,000 government project that we now expect to materialize in the second half of the year. Overall, we believe our revenue trajectory in 2023 will mirror the trend of the last 2 years with sequential growth in both Q3 and Q4 and a stronger second half compared to the first half. We expect Q2 margins to be in the range of 38.5 percent plus or minus 150 basis points, up 2 40 basis points year over year at the midpoint of the range. Speaker 300:13:02The primary driver of the year over year increase in gross margin Is the projected greater contribution of ICE6 in our revenue mix and the continued abatement of supply costs, partially offset by a more acute impact from lower margin line systems and metro products that are currently non vertically integrated. We are forecasting Q2 expenses to be in the range of $140,000,000 to $144,000,000 modestly up sequentially as we continue to prioritize investments and Global Sales and Business Development to take advantage of the growing market opportunity and as we continue to invest in our product roadmap. The resulting operating margin in Q2 is expected to be approximately 0.6 percent, plus or minus 300 basis points, up 20 basis points on a year over year basis at the midpoint. Below the operating income line, we assume $7,000,000 for net interest expense and $4,000,000 Finally, we anticipate a loss of $0.03 per share, plus or minus $0.05 assuming a basic share count of approximately 226,000,000 shares and a fully diluted share count of approximately 267,000,000 shares. The midpoint of this Q2 outlook range As we look ahead, at this point, we are leaving our full year 2023 outlook unchanged. Speaker 300:14:29Consistent with the messaging during our Investor Day in March, We expect our revenue growth to be approximately 8% for the year and our annual EPS to be above $0.20 for 2023. As I wrap up today, I want to thank those of you who attended our Investor Day in March, and I enjoyed seeing you in person. We had record attendance at our OFC booth. Our portfolio and technology road map are clearly resonating with our customers, and we believe the investment thesis is compelling. We are focused on executing our strategy, delivering on the 6 milestones and driving at least $1 of EPS by $0.25 to $0.26 I would like to thank the Infinera team for their continued commitment to innovation and execution excellence and our partners, customers and shareholders for their continued cooperation and support. Speaker 300:15:19Operator, I'd like to open it now for questions. Operator00:15:29And your first question comes from the line of Mike Genovese from Rosenblatt Securities. Your line is open. Speaker 200:15:36Hey, Mike. Speaker 400:15:37Great. Hi, David. Thanks for the question. I guess, David, when you're talking about cloud or ICP versus Service provider, I didn't get a clear message, but I guess that's kind of what you were saying is that some of the cloud guys are speeding up, some are slowing down. But if you could just compare cloud to service provider in terms of your whether you think the markets Which one feels relatively strong or relatively weaker in the second quarter? Speaker 400:16:08And do you think that that same kind of trend will continue in the second half or do you have different expectations? Speaker 200:16:14No, it's good question. What I was actually saying is exactly what you repeated back, which is bifurcated. There are some and they Growth rates, I mean, some above 40%, right? There's still some high double digit growth rate. So I think we've all expected them to digest some inventory and burn down some And so I think that's a couple of quarter issue. Speaker 200:16:43Well, there's a second set of them when you look at their CapEx, I think there were 3 or 4 And that are driving these machine learning and AI workloads, which are everybody told us We're going to be 10 times and you don't believe it until you see it in the forecast and then ultimately in the order book. So, I think as I said at Analyst Today they're going to continue to be lumpy, but I think the demand will be there. I think even the ones that have slowed down to burn off the backlog, workloads So when they're growing double digit, you still need to build out data center and server infrastructure and connected via optics. On the service provider front, I think what we're seeing is honestly a huge number of RFPs out globally Going on right now, but what happens in times like this when you hear the R word recession, a lot of them are sweating their assets And running a little hotter and burning down backlog. That being said, service providers typically when they cut their budgets, Some of them that are spending $18,000,000,000 they don't cut them to $9,000,000 right. Speaker 200:17:50They cut them by a couple of $1,000,000,000 and it's really the priority of the spend. So I think that's what they're going through is their priority is spend and where orders are going to be. I think the good news for the long term And the medium term is actually that fiber is a big priority. We've got some design wins in many of those big CSPs. I'll remind you, I would like more customer concentration in those Tier 1 top 50 CSPs. Speaker 200:18:19The slowdown in terms of their order deployment versus their backlog drawdown It isn't quite as painful when you're not as concentrated, but we are going to continue to drive to be more concentrated on the CSPs. Mike, did I answer your question? Speaker 400:18:37Yes, that was great. Thanks. I guess just looking at last year, there was a pretty Steve Grant in the second half of the year compared to the first half of the year. And by saying 8% is achievable this year, It seems like it could be even slightly steeper this year. Is that where does that confidence come from In the second half, where are you getting that? Speaker 200:19:05So a couple of things. I think you're right. Actually for the last couple of years, We've had a much more dramatic back half than front half slower start. I think what you saw is our Q1 performance was quite a bit stronger than our last two years. And that front half being 10% and being above the 8%, we came at Analyst Day in March and talked about that, Right. Speaker 200:19:28Meaning we said we thought that the back half certainly would be in magnitude stronger, But that certainly overall, we believe we'd be at that 8% market rate, which is again below the 10% in the front half. We'd be crazy in this market, Mike, to get more frothy than that, we think we're being really mindful and we're managing with the micro. We're looking at our sales funnel. We're looking at our deployments. We're looking at having conversations with the people making these deployments. Speaker 200:20:01And Could it get hotter? Hey, look, I think that would be speculation. We're kind of at this point, we stick with what we said in March And continue to use our micro tools quarter to quarter like we did through the supply chain mess, like we did through the pandemic. We're keeping our same forecast methodology and our same executional focus. Speaker 500:20:25All right, great. Thanks a lot for the questions. Speaker 100:20:28Thanks, Mike. Operator00:20:30Your next question comes from the line of Alex Henderson from Needham and Company. Your line is open. Speaker 500:20:36Great. Thanks so much. I think the Street believes that you guys have a pretty good sized backlog A product that you'll be shipping in 2023 and that should give you some pretty good visibility as supply chain improves. The bait on a lot of these companies that are in the systems market with large backlog seems to be focused More on what happens after the backlog comes down. And I was hoping you could talk a little bit about the mix of the backlog and what it might imply. Speaker 500:21:15Specifically, it's my understanding in talking to Ciena and I think You guys have a similar situation that the optical line systems are a pretty significant piece of your backlog. But it's also my understanding that the transceivers needed to light those optical line systems are not. And so I guess the question is, if it's 40% of the backlog is OLS and you ship that out, How long before the orders come in to light those line systems up? And Is that a second round of orders that should give visibility to a longer term trajectory of growth? Speaker 300:22:04Yes. I'll start and David, you can jump in. Sure. But the backlog, we're not going to get into the specifics of what's in our backlog. But one of the comments that I did make is we are seeing, I'll say, some of the supply loosen up and you're seeing more line systems getting deployed. Speaker 300:22:20One of the statements that I made about the Q2 margin and keeping that range where we did, it really depends on the customer and the deployment. Certain customers are going to buy lines going to buy the transponders at the same time they're deploying the line systems and fill at different rates. Others, it will be a more staged and take multiple quarters, but it really is going to depend on the customer, The deployment and the timing of what they need in order to get their network up and running. Speaker 200:22:50But to your point, Alex, think there's a good portion of Align Systems in our backlog. And that there is still that's the one area that there's still a Fair bit of supply constraint in the industry. As those come out, let's say you have a Five times opportunity in terms of fill on value to go from the first order to completely filling. Like typically, unless it's a True Subsea where they're going to fill the whole spectrum right away. You're absolutely right. Speaker 200:23:25Typically people aren't going to buy line systems and then not fill them, right, and deploy them. And we certainly don't want that to happen. So we kind of track where we've got line systems out and where that gives us forward visibility in our funnel that loads our sales force funnel, which is what we Managing this in these micros and yes, when we're selling those transponders, they tend to be at higher margins than that nasty line system. Speaker 500:23:53Just to be clear, the line system orders generally do not Include at the same time the order was put in the transceivers to meaningfully light them up. So there is a lag From the LLS going out to when the transceiver order comes in and therefore that does Suggest another round of ordering front. That thesis is correct, yes? Speaker 200:24:25Partially, there are people that when they're doing their initial order might order the line systems and a portion of the initial deployment. But a majority of the dollar value of that potential deal is future versus current. Speaker 500:24:40Great. And Just to be clear, have you did you work down your backlog during the period or is it I mean normally this is seasonally weak quarter for orders. We did. Speaker 200:24:49We assume that that's Speaker 100:24:50the case. Speaker 200:24:51Yes. We had mentioned that in the Analyst Day. We thought that in the first half that would definitely be the case. Speaker 300:24:56Yes. RPOs went from 983 to 903. Speaker 500:25:02Thank you so much. Speaker 100:25:03Thanks, Alex. Operator00:25:05Your next question comes from the line of Simon Leopold from Raymond James. Your line is open. Speaker 400:25:12Thanks for taking the question. In the prepared remarks, David, you mentioned this comment about inventory absorption. And I want to make sure I understand because I guess I'm a little bit confused in that I imagine that the your customers had inventory of your gear. Now, I didn't know whether you were sort of referring to the broad Sense of things like 5 gs radios being absorbed or you're specifically talking about your own products. And if it's your own products, I'm puzzled how they got that inventory. Speaker 200:25:48Hey, Simon, I would like to make a very clear statement here. So thank for the clarifying question. Yes, in the prepared comments, it was industry wide and not just specific to optical And not our gear, right. I think that during the supply chain a lot of CSPs and customers loaded up And in many cases loaded up to be given where the lead times are. As those are coming down, they have the ability to burn down and Economic pressures, necessity drives that innovative spirit to drive what's in the warehouse and try to get that out and was deployed. Speaker 200:26:32So what I meant is they're burning down backlog and they're burning down the inventory that they have Rather than ordering lots of new gear in the front half of the year. And we mentioned that in the Analyst Day that we thought that that would happen. And then people would kind of reload and recharge as we go out throughout the year. Speaker 400:26:51And then as a follow-up, just What are you thinking in terms of the ebbs and flows in your customer mix in that second quarter guidance? So it implies that at least one of your verticals is not following seasonality and your comments on the call make me think it's the ITPs and not the traditional telcos, but I just want to make sure that I'm thinking about this correctly. Speaker 200:27:19Yes. I'd say 2 things. 1, we did have a government deal of a reasonable size that Nancy mentioned, a $20,000,000 deal that was supposed to be in the first half. And in these times and governments typically run at their own productivity timelines, that's going to move from the first half into the Second half of the year and you've seen that happen before with other big projects with us. This one is a government project. Speaker 200:27:47As I mentioned in the Analyst Day, I think you're going to continue to see the ICP is lumpy in terms of shipments to revenue From us, I think you're continuing to see we had a very strong Americas for the quarter. Europe Continued to be a little bit weaker. I think that's overall a more of a cautious environment, although we see a Very large number of RFPs out there. That one's just going to be timing. So I think it is A little bit of ICP lumpiness, a government project that has spit out and then just the ramp rate CSPs that are traditionally pretty darn strong in Q2 that are just taking a lot longer again as they try to burn down their backlog. Speaker 400:28:37Appreciate the clarification. And just as a quick verification, I'm assuming the government shows up with your other service provider segment? Speaker 100:28:46That's correct, Simon. Speaker 400:28:47Great. Thank you very much. Thanks, Simon. Operator00:28:52Your next question comes from the line of Meta Marshall from Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Speaker 600:28:58Great. Thanks. Maybe on your commentary about kind of the 10 customers, Kind of looking at the external pluggables, just wanted to get a sense of kind of what early feedback you're getting, What kind of scale of projects these could be as we head to 2024 and 2025? And then maybe a second comment or second question is Just on lab trials that you were seeing in general, are you seeing any kind of slowdown in their activity and evaluations? Or is this really just kind of slowdown of orders? Speaker 600:29:36Thanks. Speaker 200:29:37Yes. Thanks, Matt, good question. I do want to clarify this one as well to be very specific. Yes, the 10 aren't looking. What I mentioned is their ordering. Speaker 200:29:47So we actually have firm hard orders in for either qualification, initial deployment or sampling. So that's really good news. I'm encouraged by that. I think for those of you who were at OFC, you did see a large degree of interest As 400 gig goes into the metro for CSPs as well as Our 400 gig ZR Plus and ZR module, a couple of things are happening. The performance of it has been quite strong. Speaker 200:30:20And as people go look to deploy the 400 gig ZR spec, in some cases, they would like a little bit more reach. And our 400 gigs, our ISX pluggable is filling that need. So we're our sales funnel is building with lots of nice There, but look, we won't we'll count those when big orders are able to come in house. We've got some work to do. The second thing is the software definition on them, meaning the fact that these are manageable via software has been a big hit. Speaker 200:30:55Networks are complicated even in ICP networks, people looking to segment alarm Track and be secure. And I'd say the third point is, let's not forget our pluggables are manufactured in the United States With our own fab here in Sunnyvale, California and our advanced semiconductor packaging facility in Pennsylvania. And so that value proposition of performance software and made in the USA, especially given The performance and reach that they're looking for and the economics have been a hit. And just yes, go ahead. Speaker 400:31:32I was Speaker 100:31:32going to Speaker 300:31:32say just to add on that and don't forget, Right. But these pluggables are what's going to allow us as we exit this year and go into 2024 to vertically integrate our own metro platform And that's the margin expansion that we shared with you at Investor Day that really starts to kick in, in 2024. Speaker 200:31:48Now that's a new business, Meta, and that's 10 orders for again sampling initially and some initial deployments that takes a while to scale. And that's why at Analyst Day, we talked about our goal being tens of millions of orders by the time we exit the year and then the scale happening there. But I'm quite encouraged by So far what we see, we need to translate that to the almighty income statement and balance sheet. Speaker 600:32:16Great. Thanks so much. Operator00:32:20And your next question comes from the line of George Notter from Jefferies. Your line is open. Speaker 700:32:27Hi, guys. Thanks very much. I've got a few questions here. I guess, maybe To start, I thought I'd ask about pricing. I know you guys raised price about 5% back in May of last year. Speaker 700:32:39I'm Kind of guessing that that would start flowing through the model here in Q1. Can you give us a sense of how much of the growth you're getting is coming from pricing or Maybe that benefit is still in front of us. I'd love to get a sense for that. And then secondly, I'm just curious about the mix of ICE6 and mix of vertically integrated products in the quarter. I'm kind of wondering what the update is on that mix of product sales? Speaker 700:33:02Thanks. Speaker 200:33:04Yes. Amitabh, why don't you hit the ICE6 and vertical integration and then Nancy can hit the other piece. Speaker 100:33:11Yes. So George, I think we said well, we can say it's just north of 30% in the quarter of product revenue and VI was north of 50%, five-zero. Speaker 300:33:20Yes. And I think we, 1st of all, never announced a price increase. So we have, as we've said, look at our pricing, look at our customer mix, look at look at the products that they're buying and make assessments on a quarter by quarter basis. But the mix of The margin that you're seeing now, as we go above the 38.5% and continue on our track to get to 40% for the year is going to be made up of A compilation of a number of things, right? But primarily, the mix of ICE6 helps us as we grow our margin there. Speaker 300:33:55And we're going to continue to look at our own pricing relative to the market, relative to Where we see opportunity and also where we want to grow, right, and where we want to expand the market in front of us. So, I won't Comment further about any other increases or any decreases. Speaker 700:34:15Got it. Okay. Thanks very much guys. Appreciate it. Speaker 400:34:17Thanks, George. Operator00:34:21And there are no further questions at this time. Mr. David Hurd, I turn the call back over to you for some final closing remarks. Speaker 200:34:28I appreciate it. Like Nancy said, it was great to see everybody at Investor Day. So I know we're short today because Hopefully, we reviewed kind of the plans of where we go. As we mentioned, there, we have those 6 Speaker 400:34:42milestones that we went through that Speaker 200:34:43we laid out at that we went through that we laid out at Investor Day. I think the good news is in times like this concentrating on ensuring, Speaker 500:34:51We Speaker 200:34:51are closing off on those with credible measures, I think happened in Q1. We had a quite a strong Q1 and I'm proud of what the team did. 16% year over year growth, 2 60 points of gross margin and 450 of operating margin expansion. Nice job to the team. Our Q2 guidance implies 10% revenue growth for the first half, which is again ahead of what we see. Speaker 200:35:18We're certainly mindful of the macro. We read the news. We listen to other earnings calls. We understand what's going on. However, we're operating our business The micro tools and processes in close discussions with our clients that have proved to be effective as we manage through a pandemic, Supply chain crisis, wars, you name it. Speaker 200:35:37So that's what we're going to continue to do. Our job with you is to always give you A great view of what we see. We are encouraged by what we see in the subsystems business. That's quite exciting. We know it takes time. Speaker 200:35:51But again, those 6 key milestones are what we are focused on. So we really appreciate everybody's continued interest, the thoughtful questions today, And we look forward to speaking to you at our next earnings call, if not sooner. Everybody have a great day. Speaker 300:36:08Thank you. Operator00:36:08This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may nowRead moreRemove AdsPowered by