Plexus Announces Fiscal Q1 Financial Results

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Plexus Corp. announced financial results for our fiscal first quarter ended December 28, 2024, and guidance for our fiscal second quarter ending March 29, 2025.

• Reports fiscal first quarter 2025 revenue of $976 million, GAAP operating margin of 4.8% and GAAP diluted EPS of $1.34.
• Reports fiscal first quarter 2025 non-GAAP operating margin of 6.0% and non-GAAP diluted EPS of $1.73, excluding $0.24 of stock-based compensation expense and $0.15 of restructuring and other charges, net of tax.
• Initiates fiscal second quarter 2025 revenue guidance of $960 million to $1.00 billion with GAAP diluted EPS of $1.22 to $1.37, including $0.24 of stock-based compensation expense. Fiscal second quarter non-GAAP EPS guidance of $1.46 to $1.61 excludes stock-based compensation expense.

Fiscal First Quarter 2025 Information

• Won 30 manufacturing programs during the quarter representing $212 million in annualized revenue when fully ramped into production.
• Generated fiscal first quarter free cash flow of $27 million.
• Purchased $12.8 million of our shares at an average price of $151.19 per share under our 2025 Share Repurchase Program, leaving $37.2 million available under our existing $50.0 million authorization.

Todd Kelsey, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "Our team's agility and responsiveness enabled strong operating performance in the fiscal first quarter, resulting in robust financial results to begin fiscal 2025. We delivered fiscal first quarter revenue of $976 million, in-line with expectations, and non-GAAP operating margin of 6.0%, near the high end of our guidance and consistent with our long-term goal. This contributed to non-GAAP EPS of $1.73, which exceeded guidance. Furthermore, free cash flow generation surpassed expectations, benefiting from the ongoing efforts of our fiscal 2024 initiatives to drive sustained improvement in working capital efficiency."

Patrick Jermain, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, commented, "Aided by a cash cycle of 68 days, 5 days favorable to expectations, we delivered our best fiscal first quarter free cash flow performance in five years, generating $27 million. The ongoing improvements in our cash cycle also continue to benefit return on invested capital, which was 13.8% for the fiscal first quarter, or 490 basis points above our weighted average cost of capital. Although net working capital investments in support of program ramps are anticipated for the fiscal second quarter, our robust fiscal first quarter free cash generation positions us to now deliver up to $100 million of free cash for fiscal 2025. Finally, reinforcing our commitment to create additional shareholder value, we reduced our borrowing by $37 million and repurchased $13 million of our shares during the fiscal first quarter."

Mr. Kelsey continued, "We delivered 30 fiscal first quarter manufacturing wins, representing $212 million in annualized revenue. The wins performance reflects continued strong contribution within our Healthcare/Life Sciences market sector as well as exciting growth opportunities within our Aerospace/Defense and Industrial market sectors. In addition, our engineering solutions team delivered a win total that approached a two-year high, while our funnel of engineering opportunities continues to see increased diversification. We believe both are strong leading indicators of future Plexus revenue growth."

Mr. Kelsey concluded, "Considering current market sector dynamics and typical seasonal cost pressures, we are guiding to fiscal second quarter revenue of $960 million to $1.00 billion, non-GAAP operating margin of 5.3% to 5.7% and non-GAAP EPS of $1.46 to $1.61. Lastly, we remain confident in achieving meaningful EPS growth in fiscal 2025 by leveraging revenue expansion in each of our market sectors, ongoing strong operating margin performance and continued deployment of our free cash flow to create additional shareholder value."

Business Segment and Market Sector Revenue

Plexus measures operational performance and allocates resources on a geographic segment basis. Plexus also reports revenue based on the market sector breakout set forth in the table below, which reflects Plexus’ market sector focused strategy. Top 10 customers comprised 51% of revenue during the first quarter of fiscal 2025. This is down 1 percentage point from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 and up 3 percentage points from the first quarter of fiscal 2024.