安富利 (AVT) 2025 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to the Avnet second-quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings call.

歡迎參加安富利 2025 財年第二季財報電話會議。

I would now like to turn the floor over to Joe Burke, Vice President, Treasury, and Investor Relations for Avnet.

現在，我想把發言權交給安富利公司財務和投資者關係副總裁喬·伯克 (Joe Burke)。

Thank you, operator.

謝謝您，接線生。

I'd like to welcome everyone to the Avnet second-quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings conference call.

歡迎大家參加安富利 2025 財年第二季財報電話會議。

This morning, Avnet released financial results for the second quarter fiscal year 2025. And the release is available on the Investor Relations section of Avnet's website along with a slide presentation which you may access at your convenience.

今天上午，安富利發布了2025財年第二季財務業績。新聞稿可在安富利網站的投資者關係欄位中查閱，同時還可提供幻燈片演示，供您隨時查閱。

As a reminder, some of the information contained in the news release and on this conference call contain forward-looking statements that involve risk, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Such forward-looking statements are not the guarantee of performance and the company's actual results could differ materially from those contained in such statements. Several factors that could cause or contribute to such differences are described in detail in Avnet's most recent Form 10-Q and 10-K and subsequent filings with the SEC.

提醒一下，新聞稿和本次電話會議中包含的一些資訊包含前瞻性陳述，涉及風險、不確定性和難以預測的假設。此類前瞻性陳述並非對業績的保證，本公司的實際結果可能與此類陳述中的結果有重大差異。安富利最新的 10-Q 表和 10-K 表以及隨後向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中詳細描述了可能導致或造成此類差異的幾個因素。

These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this presentation and the company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements or supply new information regarding the circumstances after the date of this presentation. Please note unless otherwise stated, all results provided will be non-GAAP measures. The full non-GAAP and GAAP reconciliation can be found in the press release issued today as well as in the appendix slides of today's presentation and posted on the Investor Relations website.

這些前瞻性陳述僅代表本報告發布之日的觀點，本公司不承擔公開更新任何前瞻性陳述或提供有關本報告發布之日後情況的新資訊的義務。請注意，除非另有說明，否則提供的所有結果均為非 GAAP 指標。完整的非 GAAP 和 GAAP 對帳表可在今天發布的新聞稿以及今天簡報的附錄幻燈片中找到，並發佈在投資者關係網站上。

Today's call will be led by Phil Gallagher, Avnet's CEO; and Ken Jacobson, Avnet's CFO.

今天的電話會議將由安富利執行長 Phil Gallagher 主持；以及安富利財務長 Ken Jacobson。

With that, let me turn the call over to Phil Gallagher. Phil?

說完這些，讓我把電話轉給菲爾·加拉格爾。菲爾？

Thank you, Joe, and thank you, everyone, for joining us on our second-quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings call, our first earnings call in the new calendar year.

謝謝喬，也謝謝大家參加我們的 2025 財年第二季財報電話會議，這是我們新曆年的第一次財報電話會議。

Before we begin, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the unimaginable devastation in Los Angeles County and ongoing challenges in North Carolina. Our hearts go out to all those affected by these catastrophes including our employees, customers, and suppliers, and we are committed to providing support to the communities affected through our Avnet Cares program.

在我們開始之前，我想花點時間來了解洛杉磯縣遭受的難以想像的破壞以及北卡羅來納州持續面臨的挑戰。我們向所有受這些災難影響的人們表示慰問，包括我們的員工、客戶和供應商，並致力於透過 Avnet Cares 計劃為受影響的社區提供支援。

As of now, all of our employees in these locations are safe, and to date, there has been no impact to our operations from these tragedies.

截至目前，這些地點的所有員工都很安全，到目前為止，這些悲劇尚未對我們的營運產生影響。

With that said, let me turn to the second-quarter results. In the quarter, we achieved sales of $5.7 billion and adjusted EPS of $0.87, both above the midpoint of our guidance. Similar to last quarter, our results were primarily driven by stronger-than-expected performance in Asia, offset by weakness in the West with Europe presenting the most challenging market conditions. Our team continues to compete well and manage the factors within our control.

說了這麼多，讓我來談談第二季的業績。本季度，我們實現銷售額 57 億美元，調整後每股收益 0.87 美元，均高於我們預期的中位數。與上一季類似，我們的業績主要得益於亞洲市場表現強於預期，但被西方市場的疲軟所抵消，其中歐洲市場呈現了最具挑戰性的市場條件。我們的團隊繼續保持良好的競爭力並管理好我們可控制的因素。

We are making good progress on optimizing inventory and managing costs while at the same time making investments in our business and operational capabilities. These efforts by our team helped us to generate over $300 million of cash flow from operations in the quarter. I want to thank our team for their perseverance during the prolonged and challenging cycle. Their efforts position us well for when the market recovers.

我們在優化庫存和管理成本方面取得了良好進展，同時對我們的業務和營運能力進行了投資。我們團隊的這些努力幫助我們在本季創造了超過 3 億美元的營運現金流。我要感謝我們團隊在漫長而充滿挑戰的周期中所展現的堅持。他們的努力為我們在市場復甦時做好了準備。

Taking a look at the market today and with the exception of a slight uptick in the memory space, semiconductor lead times continue to be stable across technologies. Pricing is mixed with some decreases in commoditized products and increases from certain suppliers providing more complex technologies who are looking to pass along higher input costs. On the IP&E side, lead times and pricing continue to be stable.

縱觀當今市場，除了記憶體領域略有上漲外，各種技術的半導體交貨時間繼續保持穩定。定價有差異，部分商品化產品價格下降，而某些提供更複雜技術的供應商價格上漲，這些供應商希望轉嫁更高的投入成本。在IP＆E方面，交貨時間和價格繼續保持穩定。

Our global book-to-bill ratio remains below parity with our Asia region showing the strongest and Europe having the weakest book-to-bill ratio. Our backlog continues to be under pressure due to a combination of shorter lead times, the current demand environment, and customers still being in that destocking mode. However, cancellations have remained at normal levels.

我們的全球訂單出貨比仍低於平價，其中亞洲地區的訂單出貨比最高，而歐洲地區的訂單出貨比最低。由於交貨時間較短、當前的需求環境以及客戶仍處於去庫存模式等因素，我們的積壓訂單繼續面臨壓力。不過，取消人數仍維持在正常水準。

From a demand perspective, sales increased sequentially in the aerospace and defense vertical led by the Americas and the comms and transportation verticals led by Asia. Industrial, compute, and consumer verticals were lower on a sequential and year-over-year basis. Even with the muted demand, as customers continue to work through their elevated inventory levels, I'm pleased we made the expected progress on reducing inventory.

從需求角度來看，以美洲為首的航空航太和國防垂直領域以及以亞洲為首的通訊和運輸垂直領域的銷售額均連續成長。工業、計算和消費者垂直領域的銷售額環比和年比均有所下降。即使需求低迷，但由於客戶繼續減少高庫存水平，我很高興我們在減少庫存方面取得了預期的進展。

Our team will continue their efforts to optimize the composition and quality of our inventory over the coming quarters. We expect to continue to reduce core inventory levels where needed in the coming quarters, but we'll balance the reductions with inventory investment opportunities we're seeing in the market.

我們的團隊將在未來幾季繼續努力優化庫存的組成和品質。我們預計未來幾季將繼續根據需要降低核心庫存水平，但我們將透過市場上的庫存投資機會來平衡庫存削減。

Now turning our attention to electronic components results. At the top line, our electronic component sales increased slightly on a sequential basis and declined on a year-on-year basis. Asia continues to be the bright spot for our EC business with sales increasing both sequentially and year on year. We saw sequential and year-on-year growth in the industrial, communication, and transportation end markets. We saw a slight benefit in Asia from customers ordering due to the uncertainty of potential regulatory changes in the United States.

現在我們將注意力轉向電子元件的結果。從營收來看，我們的電子元件銷售額環比略有成長，但較去年同期有所下降。亞洲繼續成為我們電子商務業務的亮點，銷售額環比和同比增長。我們看到工業、通訊和運輸終端市場實現了連續和同比增長。由於美國潛在監管變化的不確定性，我們看到亞洲客戶的訂購量略有成長。

In EMEA, we continue to experience weak demand across the region due to the economic backdrop and certain geopolitical factors which are all having a dampening effect on the business and consumer confidence. In the region, the aerospace and defense end market showed moderate growth on a sequential and year-on-year basis. In the Americas, we saw sequential growth in the aerospace and defense end markets and in select industrial end market applications.

在歐洲、中東和非洲地區，由於經濟背景和某些地緣政治因素，我們繼續經歷整個地區的需求疲軟，這些因素都對企業和消費者信心產生了抑製作用。在該地區，航空航太和國防終端市場環比和年比均呈現溫和成長。在美洲，我們看到航空航太和國防終端市場以及部分工業終端市場應用的連續成長。

We did not see any meaningful increases in orders this quarter in advance of the recent tariff increases. Demand creation revenues increased sequentially by 5% as our field application engineers continue to drive the funnel for converting design wins into revenues. Our design registrations and wins also increased sequentially which is a positive indicator for future demand creation revenues.

在最近關稅上調之前，本季我們沒有看到訂單有任何顯著成長。由於我們的現場應用工程師繼續推動將設計勝利轉化為收入，需求創造收入環比增長了 5%。我們的設計註冊和得標數量也連續增加，這對未來的需求創造收入來說是一個正面的指標。

Now turning to Farnell. Sales were flat sequentially and down year on year. Farnell sales continue to be challenged given the weak macro environment in Europe where they have the highest percentage of sales. Farnell is also facing some competitive pricing pressures for on-the-board components. I'm confident that we will see slow and steady improvements at Farnell as we execute against our cost reduction initiatives and focus on those growth opportunities we have control over including leveraging existing Avnet customer relationships.

現在轉向 Farnell。銷售額與上一季持平，但年減。由於歐洲（Farnell 銷售額佔比最高）的宏觀環境疲軟，該公司的銷售持續面臨挑戰。Farnell 也面臨著板載元件方面的一些競爭價格壓力。我相信，隨著我們實施成本削減計劃並專注於我們能夠掌控的成長機會（包括利用現有的安富利客戶關係），Farnell 將取得緩慢而穩定的改善。

To conclude, the current market correction has been one of the most prolonged and uncertain in recent memory and I want to thank our team for their dedication and competitive spirit. While it's difficult to gauge how long the market correction will continue, there are many reasons why I'm optimistic about the future of Avnet. We have a great supplier line card and a diverse customer base. We have a seasoned and stable leadership team, and we have a solid balance sheet, giving us the capacity to weather these challenging market conditions and emerge even stronger.

總而言之，目前的市場調整是近年來持續時間最長、最不確定的市場調整之一，我要感謝我們團隊的奉獻精神和競爭精神。雖然很難判斷市場調整將持續多久，但我對安富利的未來充滿樂觀的理由有很多。我們擁有優秀的供應商產品線和多樣化的客戶群。我們擁有經驗豐富、穩定的領導團隊，並擁有穩健的資產負債表，這使我們能夠抵禦這些充滿挑戰的市場條件，並變得更加強大。

We also see opportunities with supplier partners to grow our share by continuing to demonstrate the value of distribution including tapping into our supply chain services and digital capabilities. Additionally, our continued focus on higher margin offerings such as embedded solutions, demand creation, and IP&E products will yield future growth and gross margin benefits.

我們也看到了與供應商合作夥伴一起擴大我們份額的機會，透過繼續展示分銷的價值，包括利用我們的供應鏈服務和數位能力。此外，我們將繼續專注於嵌入式解決方案、需求創造和 IP&E 產品等利潤更高的產品，這將帶來未來的成長和毛利率效益。

With that, I'll turn it over to Ken to dive deeper into our second-quarter results.

接下來，我將把話題交給肯，讓他深入探討我們的第二季業績。

Thank you, Phil, and good morning, everyone.

謝謝你，菲爾，大家早安。

We appreciate your interest in Avnet and for joining our second-quarter earnings call.

感謝您對安富利的關注並參加我們第二季的財報電話會議。

Our sales for the second quarter were approximately $5.7 billion, near the high end of our guidance range and down 9% year over year. On a sequential basis, sales were higher by 1%. Regionally, on a year-over-year basis, sales increased 8% in Asia but declined 25% in EMEA and 14% in the Americas. From an operating group perspective, electronic component sales declined 9% year over year but increased 1% sequentially. Farnell sales declined 12% year over year and less than 1% sequentially.

我們第二季的銷售額約為 57 億美元，接近我們預期範圍的高位，年減 9%。與上一季相比，銷售額成長了 1%。從地區來看，與去年同期相比，亞洲銷售額成長了 8%，但歐洲、中東和非洲地區銷售額下降了 25%，美洲地區銷售額下降了 14%。從營運集團角度來看，電子元件銷售額年減 9%，但較上季成長 1%。Farnell 銷售額較去年同期下降 12%，季減不到 1%。

For the second quarter, gross margin of 10.5% was 86 basis points lower year over year and 32 basis points lower sequentially. A significant portion of the year-over-year and sequential declines were the result of a sales mix shift to Asia. The same mix shift to Asia also impacted EC gross margin which was down both year over year and sequentially. Gross margins for each EC region remain relatively consistent on a sequential basis.

第二季度，毛利率為 10.5%，年減 86 個基點，較上季下降 32 個基點。年比和環比下降的很大一部分原因是銷售結構向亞洲轉移。同樣的向亞洲的產品組合轉移也影響了電子商務毛利率，其年比和環比均有所下降。各歐盟地區的毛利率以連續基礎保持相對一致。

Farnell gross margin was also down sequentially and year over year largely due to an unfavorable product mix and from competitive pricing pressures for on-the-board components.

由於產品組合不利以及板載元件的競爭價格壓力，Farnell 的毛利率也比上個季度和去年同期有所下降。

Turning to operating expenses. SG&A expenses were $437 million in the quarter, down $28 million or 6% year over year and down $2 million sequentially. As a percentage of gross profit dollars, SG&A expenses were slightly higher sequentially at 73%. Foreign currency positively impacted operating expenses by approximately $4 million sequentially and had relatively no impact year over year. For the second quarter, we reported adjusted operating income of $159 million and our adjusted operating margin was 2.8%.

談到營運費用。本季銷售、一般及行政開支為 4.37 億美元，年減 2,800 萬美元（即 6%），季減 200 萬美元。作為毛利的百分比，銷售、一般及行政開支較上月略高，為 73%。外幣對營業費用產生了約 400 萬美元的正面影響，而與去年同期相比幾乎沒有影響。第二季度，我們報告調整後的營業收入為 1.59 億美元，調整後的營業利潤率為 2.8%。

By operating group, electronic components operating income was $182 million, and EC operating margin was 3.4%. The sequential and year-over-year decline in EC operating margin was primarily due to the sales mix shift to Asia. Farnell operating margin was 1%, up 47 basis points quarter over quarter, reflecting improved expense control. Farnell operating expenses were down $10 million year over year and down $4 million sequentially.

依營運集團劃分，電子元件營運收入為1.82億美元，電子元件營運利潤率為3.4%。電子商務營業利潤率的環比和同比下降主要由於銷售結構轉移到亞洲。Farnell 營業利益率為 1%，較上一季上漲 47 個基點，反映出費用控制有所改善。Farnell 的營運費用較去年同期下降 1,000 萬美元，較上季下降 400 萬美元。

Farnell operating expense reductions continue to progress as planned and we remain focused on all the areas we can control.

Farnell 的營運費用削減繼續按計劃進行，我們仍將重點關注所有我們能夠控制的領域。

Turning to expenses below operating income. Second-quarter interest expense of $62 million decreased by $12 million year over year and decreased $2 million sequentially due to lower average borrowings. This lower interest expense positively impacted adjusted diluted earnings per share by $0.11 year over year and $0.02 sequentially. Our adjusted effective income tax rate was 23% in the quarter as expected. Adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.87 exceeded the midpoint of our guidance for the quarter.

轉向營業收入以下的費用。第二季利息支出為 6,200 萬美元，年減 1,200 萬美元，較上季減少 200 萬美元，原因是平均借款額減少。較低的利息支出對調整後每股攤薄收益產生了積極影響，比去年同期增加 0.11 美元，環比增加 0.02 美元。我們本季的調整後有效所得稅率為 23%，符合預期。調整後每股攤薄收益為 0.87 美元，超過了我們本季預期的中位數。

Turning to the balance sheet and liquidity. During the quarter, working capital decreased by $554 million sequentially including a decrease in reported inventories of $362 million, $154 million decrease in receivables, and a $38 million increase in payables. Sequential changes in foreign currency exchange rates contributed to $211 million of the working capital reduction and $160 million of the inventory reduction.

轉向資產負債表和流動性。本季度，營運資本季減 5.54 億美元，包括報告庫存減少 3.62 億美元、應收帳款減少 1.54 億美元、應付帳款增加 3,800 萬美元。外匯匯率的連續變動導致營運資本減少2.11億美元，庫存減少1.6億美元。

As a result of this working capital decrease, working capital days decreased 5 days quarter over quarter to 102 days. Our return on working capital decreased from last quarter due to lower operating income partially offset by the reduction in average working capital. Although there is more work we have ahead of us to optimize inventories, the reduction this quarter demonstrates additional progress to our near-term reduction goals.

由於營運資本減少，營運資本天數較上季減少 5 天至 102 天。我們的營運資本報酬率較上一季下降，原因是營業收入下降，但平均營運資本的減少部分抵銷了這一影響。儘管我們在優化庫存方面還有更多工作要做，但本季的減量顯示我們近期的減量目標取得了進一步進展。

Our inventory days improved 3 days sequentially to 98 days. As Phil outlined, our priority remains ensuring we have the right inventory to support our customer needs and to position Avnet for growth opportunities. We continue to work down areas of age or excess inventories while we invest in the inventories we need to achieve our growth objectives. We generated $338 million of cash from operations in the quarter.

我們的庫存天數連續改善了3天，達到98天。正如 Phil 所概述的，我們的首要任務仍然是確保我們有足夠的庫存來滿足客戶需求，並為安富利提供成長機會。我們在投資實現成長目標所需的庫存的同時，繼續減少庫存老化或過剩的庫存。本季度，我們經營活動產生了 3.38 億美元的現金。

The cash flow generated from our working capital management allowed us to decrease debt by $385 million this quarter. We ended the quarter with a gross leverage of 2.9 times and we had approximately $1.1 billion of available committed borrowing capacity. Over the past several weeks, we extended the maturities of our two primary credit facilities which provide for $2 billion of borrowing capacity over the coming years to support any future liquidity needs.

我們的營運資本管理產生的現金流使我們本季減少了 3.85 億美元的債務。截至本季末，我們的總槓桿率為 2.9 倍，並且擁有約 11 億美元的承諾借款能力。過去幾週，我們延長了兩項主要信貸安排的期限，這將為未來幾年提供 20 億美元的借貸能力，以滿足未來的任何流動性需求。

Cash used for capital expenditures was $29 million, within our expected quarterly levels of approximately $25 million to $35 million per quarter. We remain committed to our road map of delivering a reliable and increasing dividend and making share repurchases to increase shareholder value as we believe our shares continue to be undervalued by the market and are still trading below book value. In the second quarter, we paid our quarterly dividend of $0.33 per share or $29 million. We also repurchased approximately $51 million worth of shares and have $515 million left on our current share repurchase authorization.

用於資本支出的現金為 2,900 萬美元，符合我們預期的每季約 2,500 萬美元至 3,500 萬美元的季度水準。我們仍然致力於提供可靠且不斷增加的股息以及回購股票以增加股東價值的路線圖，因為我們相信我們的股票繼續被市場低估並且仍然低於帳面價值。第二季度，我們支付了每股 0.33 美元即 2,900 萬美元的季度股息。我們也回購了價值約 5,100 萬美元的股票，目前的股票回購授權還剩餘 5.15 億美元。

We're on track for our goal to reduce the outstanding shares by at least 5% this fiscal year. Book value per share decreased to approximately $55 a share or a sequential decrease of $1 per share due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates.

我們正在實現本財年減少至少 5% 流通股的目標。由於外匯匯率的變化，每股帳面價值下降至約 55 美元/股，或較上季減少 1 美元/股。

Turning to guidance. For the third quarter of fiscal 2025, we are guiding sales in the range of $5.05 billion to $5.35 billion and diluted earnings per share in the range of $0.65 to $0.75. Our third-quarter guidance assumes current market conditions to persist and applies a sequential sales decline of approximately 6% to 11%. The sales guidance implies expectations of a seasonal sales decline in Asia due to Lunar New Year and a modest decline for sales in the western regions compared to typical seasonal sales growth.

轉向指導。對於 2025 財年第三季度，我們預計銷售額在 50.5 億美元至 53.5 億美元之間，每股攤薄收益在 0.65 美元至 0.75 美元之間。我們對第三季的預期是假設當前市場狀況持續下去，並假設銷售額環比下降約 6% 至 11%。這項銷售指引表明，預計亞洲地區銷售額將因農曆新年而出現季節性下滑，而西方地區的銷售額與典型的季節性銷售成長相比將出現小幅下滑。

This guidance also assumes similar interest expense compared to the second quarter, an effective tax rate of between 22% and 26% and 88 million shares outstanding on a diluted basis.

該指引也假設利息支出與第二季類似，有效稅率在 22% 至 26% 之間，且攤薄後流通股數為 8,800 萬股。

In conclusion, our team is consistently performing well in the areas within our control, driving working capital reductions and cash flows and being disciplined with our operating expenses. We continue to look for areas where we can reduce expense while still investing in our business and our capabilities. By providing value at the center of the technology supply chain to our customer and supplier partners, Avnet will be well-positioned to return to growth when market conditions improve.

總而言之，我們的團隊在我們控制的領域中表現良好，推動營運資本減少和現金流，並嚴格控制我們的營運費用。我們將繼續尋找可以削減開支的領域，同時繼續對我們的業務和能力進行投資。透過為我們的客戶和供應商合作夥伴提供技術供應鏈核心價值，安富利將在市場條件改善時順利恢復成長。

With that, I will turn it back to Phil for one last word before questions.

說完這些，在提問之前，我會把話題轉回給菲爾，讓他說最後一句話。

Hey. Thanks, Ken. Appreciate that.

嘿。謝謝，肯。非常感謝。

Yeah. Before we go to questions, there's going to be one analyst that's noticeably missing on the questions this quarter and I just thought it appropriate. I want to take a moment to congratulate Matt Sheerin of Stifel on his recently announced retirement. I'm not sure he's listening in today. Knowing him, he probably is. But we wish him well and thank him for his dedicated -- his decades of coverage of Avnet and the technology supply chain. He's been a longtime friend personally and as a -- in the industry and he will be missed. So best of luck, Matt, in your next chapter.

是的。在我們開始提問之前，有一位分析師本季明顯缺席了提問，我認為這很合適。我想花點時間祝賀 Stifel 的 Matt Sheerin 最近宣布退休。我不確定他今天是否有在聽。我了解他，他很可能就是這樣。但我們祝他一切順利，並感謝他數十年來對安富利和技術供應鏈的報導。無論從個人角度或從業界角度來說，他都是我的老朋友，我們會想念他的。所以祝馬特在下一章好運。

With that, I'll turn it over to the operator and we'll open it up for questions.

說完這些，我將把麥克風交給接線員，然後我們就可以開始提問了。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指令）

Toshiya Hari, Goldman Sachs.

高盛的 Toshiya Hari。

Maybe a market flush kind of cycle question for Phil. I know this is a tough one but curious how you're thinking about the overall industry beyond the March quarter. I think last quarter, you sort of hinted that, internally, your expectation was for the environment to improve in sort of late Q1, Q2 and definitely into the second half. Has anything changed over the past 90 days? And if so, if you can sort of expand on what has changed, that would be really helpful. And then I have a quick follow-up.

對菲爾來說，這或許是一個市場繁榮的周期性問題。我知道這是一個棘手的問題，但我很好奇你對三月季度之後的整體產業有何看法。我想上個季度，您曾暗示過，從內部來看，您預計環境將在第一季末、第二季以及下半年有所改善。過去 90 天有發生什麼變化嗎？如果是這樣，如果您可以詳細說明發生了什麼變化，那將會非常有幫助。然後我有一個快速的後續問題。

Yeah. Thanks for the questions. And obviously, this question has gotten a little bit more complex over the last several quarters to a year as we're kind of I think collective as an industry missing a mark here a bit and it's just a little bit more inventory out there than maybe we had anticipated. My overview -- overall view of the market and semiconductor cycle, I mean I'm still very bullish on our industry. I mean there's no question we're dealing with some challenges here. And some excess inventories out there that we're burning off.

是的。感謝您的提問。顯然，這個問題在過去幾個季度到一年的時間裡變得有點複雜，因為我認為我們作為一個行業整體在這方面有點偏離了目標，而且庫存比我們預期的要多一點。我的概述——對市場和半導體週期的整體看法，我的意思是我仍然非常看好我們的行業。我的意思是，毫無疑問我們正面臨一些挑戰。我們正在銷毀一些過剩庫存。

As an industry, it is improving on the burn off, okay? We're just not seeing it yet in our POS. So I still think it's end of -- June into the summer quarter, we start to see some recovery, but we're kind of beyond calling that this point in time. We just need to manage what we do know and what we're seeing for the current bookings, which are still below parity. How we're seeing our backlog, which is still getting eaten into a bit. And I think the real indicators, this is the second year in a row, and I've been at this a long time that we did not see the West come back greater than the East in the March quarter, okay?

作為一個產業，它的消耗正在不斷改善，好嗎？我們只是還沒有在我們的 POS 上看到它。因此我仍然認為，到 6 月底進入夏季季度，我們才會開始看到一些復甦，但目前我們還沒有達到這個程度。我們只需要管理我們所知道的和我們看到的當前預訂情況，這些預訂仍然低於平價。我們如何看待我們的積壓工作，它仍然在被蠶食。我認為真正的指標是，這是連續第二年，而且我已經觀察了很長時間，我們並沒有看到 3 月份季度西部的復甦幅度超過東部，好嗎？

That's so atypical. And that'll shift, but we're just having some extra issues happening in our industry, whether it be geopolitical and other things that we all know about is just having a -- it's taking its toll and it's giving a lot more of a gray outlook. But I want to be -- I want to maintain a super positive on what's happening out there on the applications and what's happening for technology, for semiconductors. Again, bullish on the long haul. We just need to do what we're doing, and I think we're doing it well as managing through this cycle, okay?

這太不典型了。這種情況會發生變化，但我們的行業中也出現了一些額外的問題，無論是地緣政治問題還是我們都知道的其他問題——它正在造成損失，並帶來更多的灰色前景。但我希望——我希望對應用領域以及技術和半導體領域正在發生的事情保持非常積極的態度。再次，對長期前景持樂觀態度。我們只需要做好我們正在做的事情，我認為我們在這個週期的管理中做得很好，好嗎？

It's a little bit longer, a little choppier than we wanted, but we're healthy and we'll be ready when it bounces back.

雖然比我們預期的要長一點，也更不順暢一點，但我們的身體狀況良好，當疫情反彈時，我們已經做好準備。

And then maybe my follow-up for Ken on gross margins. You mentioned mix was the primary driver in the December quarter and your implied guidance for March as well. How should we think about gross margins again beyond the March quarter? I know you guys talked about your focus on demand creation and how the leading indicators look good. And I know you've got things going on at Farnell that over the medium to long term should improve profitability there. So both in near term and the long term, how should we be thinking about the puts and takes around gross margins?

然後我可能會跟進肯關於毛利率的問題。您提到組合是 12 月季度的主要驅動因素，您對 3 月的隱含指導也是如此。我們應該如何重新考慮三月季度之後的毛利率？我知道你們談到了對需求創造的關注以及領先指標如何表現良好。我知道你們在 Farnell 已經開展了一些工作，從中長期來看這些工作應該會提高那裡的盈利能力。那麼，無論是短期或長期，我們都應該如何考慮毛利率的利弊？

Yes, a couple of comments. I think the first would be if you think about kind of the gross margin for the quarter, we attribute about 75% of the decline coming from that Asia mix, right? And then there's puts and takes on the rest of it. We're trying to focus on margin of each business unit. So think about each of the regions as well as Farnell and how they're doing. And I think, generally speaking, they’re holding up pretty well. There's obviously some competitive pressures and, in general, as the demand environment gets soft, there's pressure on gross margin. But we feel pretty good about margins in each region are holding up pretty well.

是的，有幾則評論。我認為第一個是，如果你考慮本季的毛利率，我們認為大約 75% 的下降來自亞洲市場，對嗎？然後對其餘部分進行處理。我們正努力專注於每個業務部門的利潤。因此，請考慮一下每個地區以及 Farnell 的情況以及它們的運作情況。我認為，整體來說，他們的表現還不錯。顯然存在一些競爭壓力，整體而言，隨著需求環境變得疲軟，毛利率就會面臨壓力。但我們感覺每個地區的利潤率都保持得很好。

So that's a good sign. I think as we look forward, right, we would expect the mix shift to kind of normalize. Even in the guidance this quarter although the west isn't normal seasonality, we're still getting a little bit of a normal seasonal mix shift because Asia is down more than the west, right? So you'll see a little bit of gross margin gray-ish. But we think that mix normalizes over the next several quarters and then continue to drive those higher-margin opportunities that you talked about.

這是個好兆頭。我認為，當我們展望未來時，我們會預期混合轉變將會正常化。即使在本季的指引中，儘管西方不是正常的季節性，但我們仍然會有一些正常的季節性組合變化，因為亞洲的降幅比西方更大，對嗎？因此，你會看到毛利率有點​​灰暗。但我們認為，這種組合將在接下來的幾個季度內恢復正常，並繼續推動您提到的那些利潤率更高的機會。

And again, I think our base case is thinking about being able to hold the margin in each region, hopefully increase it some but we think we've got enough positive gross margin, product lines and opportunities to kind of keep margins flattish over the midterm here.

而且，我認為我們的基本情況是考慮能夠維持每個地區的利潤率，並希望能有所提高，但我們認為我們有足夠的正毛利率、產品線和機會來在中期保持利潤率穩定。

Yeah. Let me just -- Hari, if I can just jump back on the overview of the market. Let me just highlight, there's a lot of good stuff going on too. I mean if you look at Asia Pac, which we've highlighted, it's a second quarter in a row that we've seen year-on-year growth in Asia Pacific. So that's -- so it's not all doom and gloom out there by any stretch of imagination. So I just want to highlight that as well and that's typically a good sign for what's to come in the balance of the regions.

是的。讓我——哈里，如果我可以回顧一下市場的概況的話。讓我強調一下，還有很多好事正在發生。我的意思是，如果你看看我們重點關注的亞太地區，你會發現這是我們連續第二個季度看到亞太地區實現同比增長。所以 — — 所以無論如何，事情都不是那麼悲觀。所以我也想強調這一點，這通常是一個好兆頭，預示著地區平衡的未來將會實現。

Will Stein, Truist Securities.

Truist Securities 的 Will Stein。

A couple quick ones. I suspect that there was a benefit in the quarter from foreign exchange. Can you maybe tell me if I'm right and please quantify it if that's the case.

幾個簡單的。我認為本季外匯帶來了一些好處。你能告訴我我是否正確嗎？

Yeah. I would say we didn't really get much benefit from currency. If anything, it was a little bit different. So I guess how I'm looking at here is it was, call it $40 million the sales line. So that's kind of the gist there. Currency didn't move a lot during the quarter. We mentioned it did help on the working capital side at the end of the quarter versus the beginning of the quarter, which is how the balance sheet gets translated.

是的。我想說我們實際上並沒有從貨幣中獲得太多利益。如果有什麼不同的話，那就是有點不同。所以我想我現在看到的是，銷售額是 4,000 萬美元。這就是那裡的要點。本季貨幣沒有太大變動。我們提到，與季度初相比，它確實對季度末的營運資本方面有所幫助，這就是資產負債表的翻譯方式。

And maybe a different way to go with the inventory question. You made some good progress this quarter, but it's still about 20 days above typical. And I wonder if you see sort of a normal path to reduction there. Maybe when I say normal, I mean sort of straight line, just a matter of time it'll burn off or maybe is there something else to talk about in inventory? Like I've heard some industry folks talk about what they call sludge when there's things in the inventory that aren't really moving or stuff that you don't have price protection or rotation rights on. Maybe you can characterize it that way for us so we can maybe get a better idea as to when we might see things clear up and normalize on a day’s basis.

或許可以用不同的方式來解決庫存問題。本季您取得了一些進展，但仍比平常多出約 20 天。我想知道您是否看到了一種正常的減排途徑。也許當我說正常時，我的意思是某種直線，只是時間問題它會燃燒掉，或者也許在庫存中還有其他東西可以談？就像我聽到一些業內人士談論他們所謂的污泥，即庫存中有些東西實際上並沒有賣出去，或者有些東西沒有價格保護或輪換權。也許您可以這樣描述，這樣我們也許可以更好地了解什麼時候我們才能看到事情逐漸明朗並恢復正常。

Yeah. Thanks, Will. I'll give you some comments here and then Phil can jump in. I think there's no silver bullet. The answer is complicated. Do we still have pockets of inventory that's becoming aged that customers have committed to, but they need to take and we're working through with them on how to get them to absorb that inventory. We've got pockets of inventory that are really just kind of we kind of bought the wrong stuff. We need to work through those.

是的。謝謝，威爾。我會在這裡給你一些評論，然後菲爾就可以加入進來了。我認為沒有什麼靈丹妙藥。答案很複雜。我們是否仍有一些客戶承諾但需要處理的老化庫存，我們正在與他們合作如何讓他們吸收這些庫存。我們有一些庫存，實際上只是我們買錯了東西。我們需要解決這些問題。

And then we just in general, demand is down. So it's taking more time to get through some of those broader inventory challenges. It's not elevated everywhere. It's not aged everywhere, right? We kind of know the targets and they've been lit up. It's just a matter of working through them and we think we made good progress this time. So I think it's going to take a few more quarters to continue the progress there and clearly, if demand picks up, right, that will help as well.

整體而言，需求下降。因此，解決一些更廣泛的庫存挑戰需要更多時間。並不是所有地方都有高架。不是到處都老了，對吧？我們知道目標，而且它們已經被點亮了。這只是一個解決這些問題的問題，我們認為這次我們已經取得了很好的進展。因此，我認為還需要幾個季度才能繼續取得進展，而且顯然，如果需求回升，那也會有所幫助。

So I think we're doing what we can and we don't view this as high risk of meaningful write-offs and huge charges related to inventory. It's still good inventory. It's still underlying. There's demand. It's just lower than expected as well as customers having more. So we'll just continue to work through it, but it's more of the same. I wouldn't say that anything's fundamentally changed. If anything, we're actually seeing more opportunities to use our stock rotations and work with our suppliers to get rid of some of those stuff that have been problems that maybe we couldn't have done a year ago.

因此，我認為我們正在盡力而為，並且我們不認為這會帶來與庫存相關的重大註銷和巨額費用的高風險。這仍然是好的庫存。它還是潛在的。有需求。只是比預期的低，而且顧客的數量也更多。因此我們會繼續努力，但結果還是一樣。我不會說任何事情發生了根本性的改變。如果有的話，我們實際上看到了更多機會來利用我們的庫存週轉並與我們的供應商合作來解決一些我們在一年前可能無法解決的問題。

So we're seeing more flexibility in the overall system to help everyone get through this.

因此，我們看到整個系統具有更大的靈活性，可以幫助每個人度過難關。

Yeah. And Will, it's Phil. It's a great question. It's one of the questions, right? And we're looking at this obviously very closely internally. So the short answer is yes, we're going to continue to work inventory down. The acceleration, so that's going to determine somewhat on the previous question we had based on the market growth, right? But we're definitely going to want to continue to or will continue to move the inventory down. It's just, at what pace.

是的。威爾，我是菲爾。這是一個很好的問題。這是其中一個疑問，對吧？我們顯然正在內部密切關注此事。因此，簡短的回答是肯定的，我們將繼續減少庫存。加速度，這將在某種程度上決定我們基於市場成長的先前問題，對嗎？但我們肯定會繼續或將繼續減少庫存。只是，以什麼樣的速度。

The other side of that coin, yeah, we're all tracking sludge, slab, whatever you want to call it. But we're tracking, we call NMI. So we're tracking our non-moving inventory and right now, we're in pretty good shape. There some that's aging obviously. And then we're working out with the sales teams and the customers to try to get that moved or with suppliers on rotation.

另一方面，是的，我們都在追蹤污泥、板坯，無論你想叫它什麼。但我們正在追踪，我們稱之為 NMI。所以我們正在追蹤我們的不動產庫存，目前，我們的狀況非常好。其中一些顯然正在衰老。然後，我們與銷售團隊和客戶合作，嘗試推動這項進程，或與供應商輪流合作。

Key point I want to make in addition is it's not all the inventory. I think it's very, but we put that deliberately in the script, it's a handful let's just call it suppliers that's driving it up a bit. We're working with them. And I mentioned that because we're still making investments in inventory. I mean we still need to kind of run the business and our returns business and our supply chain business. And we have a lot of suppliers that join the calls and customers.

另外我想強調的重點是，這並不是全部的庫存。我認為這是非常重要的，但是我們故意把它寫在了腳本中，這是一個很小的因素，我們就稱之為供應商吧，這會稍微推高價格。我們正在與他們合作。我提到這一點是因為我們仍在對庫存進行投資。我的意思是我們仍然需要經營我們的業務、退貨業務和供應鏈業務。我們有很多供應商和客戶加入通話。

I get feedback after the call. We don't want them to think we're taking all our inventory down to zero because that's not the game we're in, right? So we need to have inventory, and we need to have the right inventory while we work off some of the stuff that's aging a bit. So I do want to make that clear as well.

通話後我得到了回饋。我們不想讓他們認為我們會將所有庫存降至零，因為這不是我們所玩的遊戲，對嗎？所以我們需要有庫存，我們需要有合適的庫存，同時我們要處理一些有點老化的東西。所以我也想把這一點說清楚。

Joe Quatrochi, Wells Fargo.

富國銀行的喬‧夸特羅奇 (Joe Quatrochi)。

Maybe just a follow-up to that. I mean I guess how do we think about just the mix of your investment in strategic inventory of key verticals relative to the optimization? I mean do you think that inventory at the overall level here get contained or down or I guess it depends on how fast the cycle kind of turns to see that dynamic?

也許只是對此的一個後續行動。我的意思是，我想我們如何看待您對關鍵垂直產業的策略庫存的投資組合與最佳化之間的關係？我的意思是，您是否認為這裡的整體庫存會被控製或下降，或者我猜這取決於週期轉變的速度來觀察這種動態？

We don't -- it's a good question, Joe. We have to do some work on that to get you down to the [NAT's] tail there to buy. We don't inventory by vertical, that's right. Because I'm looking at the verticals now because a lot of what's used in industrial, it's also used in comm and might be used in transportation, et cetera. So it's not necessarily inventoried by vertical. We do look at it by supply chain and things along those lines. But there's not any one vertical that we're overly concerned about with having excess inventory.

我們不知道──這是個好問題，喬。我們必須在這方面做一些工作，讓你到 [NAT] 尾部去購買。我們不按垂直方向盤點庫存，沒錯。因為我現在正在研究垂直行業，因為很多東西用於工業，也用於通信，也可能用於運輸等等。所以它不一定是用垂直方式盤點的。我們確實從供應鏈和類似的角度來看這個問題。但我們並不需要過度擔心某個垂直產業的庫存過剩問題。

It's just with the, as you know, probably your next question, we're very heavy in industrial and even in Europe, we're even heavier than we are in the balance of the world in industrial and that segment as a vertical, it has slowed. Now we mentioned in the transcripts that there are some select customers have picked up, but it's not like it's across the board and that's called out in the between 30% and 40% of our business.

如您所知，這可能是您的下一個問題，我們在工業領域的佔比非常大，甚至在歐洲，我們的比重甚至比在世界工業領域的平衡中還要大，而作為一個垂直領域，我們的成長已經放緩。我們在記錄中提到，有一些特定客戶已經接受了這項服務，但這並不是全面的，這只占我們業務的 30% 到 40%。

And then the other big one, that's obviously slow is transportation, okay? And I will tell you, in transportation because there are some unique technologies and quality issues in transportation inventory. That inventory is not that overly concerning at all, okay, in transportation where we have select products. So it's really, and aerospace defense, there's no issue really there. And inventory of that business as we called out is continuing to grow nicely unfortunately, I guess for many, right, but that's increasing in particularly on the defense side and we're still starting to see a bounce back on the aerospace side.

然後另一個顯然很慢的大問題是運輸，好嗎？我會告訴你，在運輸方面，因為運輸庫存中存在一些獨特的技術和品質問題。庫存根本不太令人擔憂，好的，在運輸過程中我們有精選產品。所以事實上，對於航空航天防禦來說，這裡確實沒有問題。正如我們所呼籲的，不幸的是，該業務的庫存繼續保持良好增長，我想對很多人來說都是這樣，但這一增長尤其在國防方面，我們仍然開始看到航空航天方面的反彈。

And Joe, I'll just add that I think our overall expectation is inventory should continue to go down, but we have capacity to invest. So we'll bring it down but still make investments and so it may not come down as meaningful as some would like because of those investments. But I think it's -- there's opportunity to get the pockets of inventory. And we're really focused on getting the right inventory down. We could just go ahead and stop the spigot and stop inventory coming in, but that's not good for our business. That's not good for our customers, right?

喬，我只想補充一點，我認為我們的整體預期是庫存應該繼續下降，但我們有投資能力。因此，我們會降低利率，但仍會進行投資，因此由於這些投資，利率可能不會像某些人希望的那樣有意義。但我認為，有機會獲得庫存。我們真正關注的是降低正確的庫存。我們可以直接關閉水龍頭並阻止庫存流入，但這對我們的業務不利。這對我們的客戶來說不太好，對吧？

We want to make sure we're attacking where we have challenges in inventory and not just getting the total inventory line item down. It's attacking those areas that are in excess or slow moving. And so we'll continue to do that. And there may be -- from a quarter to quarter, there may be timing differences between those two items of the investments and the bringing the inventory down, but still plenty of capacity and opportunity to bring inventory down while still making the investments in the right kind of inventory to position us well for recovery.

我們希望確保能夠解決庫存方面的問題，而不僅僅是降低總庫存項目。它正在攻擊那些過度活動或緩慢的區域。我們會繼續這樣做。並且可能存在 - 從季度到季度，投資和降低庫存這兩項之間可能存在時間差異，但仍然有足夠的產能和機會來降低庫存，同時仍然對正確的庫存進行投資，為我們實現復甦做好準備。

And as a follow up, can you talk about just the level of inter-quarter turns or just-in-time demand that you saw in the December quarter and just how should we think about that level of type of demand that's embedded in the March quarter guidance?

作為後續問題，您能否談談 12 月季度的季度間週轉水平或即時需求，以及我們應該如何看待 3 月季度指引中所體現的這種需求水平？

Yeah. We touched on that last quarter that we started to see a slight, and again, I think we're careful in the words we use here, Joe. When I said last quarter, it's September quarter, slight increase in turns. We saw that continue in December but not -- nothing overly exciting. So we are not building in a lot of turns outside the norm for the March quarter.

是的。我們在上個季度談到了這一點，我們開始看到一些輕微的現象，而且我再次強調，我認為我們在這裡使用的詞語要謹慎，喬。當我說上個季度時，也就是 9 月季度，週轉率略有增加。我們看到這種情況在 12 月繼續發生，但沒有什麼特別令人興奮的事情。因此，我們不會為三月季度的常規建設增加很多輪次。

Now that could change. I mean there are some things happening out there that that, hey, we're still in January. I mean March is a big month and typically has been a big month. Right now as we're looking at it, we're looking at our backlog. We're looking at what we have in supply chain backlog and say, hey, that's kind of what we're forecasting. We did not put a lot of turns in there. If that changes, that would be good news, but right now, we're being conservative on the turns number.

現在這種情況可能會改變。我的意思是那裡發生了一些事情，嘿，我們還在一月。我的意思是三月是一個重要的月份，而且通常都是重要的月份。現在，我們正在查看它，我們正在查看我們的積壓工作。我們正在查看供應鏈積壓的情況並說，嘿，這就是我們所預測的。我們沒有在那裡投入太多精力。如果情況發生變化，那將是好消息，但目前，我們對轉彎次數持保守態度。

Ruplu Bhattacharya, Bank of America.

美國銀行的 Ruplu Bhattacharya。

Phil and Ken, I want to ask you a question on operating margins. And the gist of my question is what is under your control that you can do to help margins? So what are you -- some of the things on the Farnell side that you're doing to improve margins and 1% operating margin, how do you see that trending over the next couple of quarters? And the same question on the core business. I know mix is a big driver for margins but are there things under your control?

菲爾和肯，我想問你們一個關於營業利潤率的問題。我的問題要點是，您可以採取什麼措施來提高利潤？那麼，您在 Farnell 方面做了哪些努力來提高利潤率和 1% 的營業利潤率，您認為未來幾季的趨勢如何？關於核心業務的問題也是同樣的。我知道產品組合對於利潤率來說是一個很大的推動力，但是有什麼事情是在你的控制範圍內的嗎？

And what I'm thinking is you recently hired a Chief Digital Officer. I know most of the sales are not through the website I think on the core side. But is that something that can -- if that can grow and can help you on the cost side? So just give us your thoughts on what's under your control and what's not and how you see margins improving on the EC side as well?

我想您最近聘請了一位首席數位長。我知道，我認為從核心方面來說，大多數銷售都不是透過網站進行的。但是，這是否可以——如果它可以增長並且可以在成本方面為您提供幫助呢？那麼，請告訴我們您認為什麼在您的控制範圍內，什麼不在，以及您如何看待 EC 方面的利潤率提高？

Yeah. Thanks, Ruplu. Yeah, it's hard to control a regional mix and I think our goal is to not necessarily focus on regional mix and if Asia is growing, we want to take advantage of all that growth. We do focus on the gross margin in each region. So I'll maybe start with Farnell. In addition to the expense actions, which will help operating margin, we've got a few different things going on in terms of the overall sales organization where things we think we can control. A part of that is how do we leverage the broader Avnet and our customer base to kind of facilitate market share growth in Farnell with those customers.

是的。謝謝，Ruplu。是的，控制區域組合很困難，我認為我們的目標不一定是專注於區域組合，如果亞洲正在成長，我們希望利用所有的成長。我們確實關注每個地區的毛利率。因此我可能會從 Farnell 開始。除了有助於提高營業利潤率的費用行動外，我們還在整個銷售組織方面採取了一些不同的行動，我們認為這些行動是我們可以控制的。其中一部分是我們如何利用更廣泛的安富利和我們的客戶群來促進 Farnell 與這些客戶的市場份額成長。

You mentioned Dave Youngblood, our Chief Digital Officer, and he's really connected with Farnell. And I think there's more we can do in terms of just the conversion and the approach we take with Farnell e-commerce proposition. So we do think that's within our control, and we can move that up independent of where overall demand is.

您提到了我們的數位長 Dave Youngblood，他與 Farnell 關係密切。我認為，在轉換以及我們採用 Farnell 電子商務主張的方法方面，我們還可以做得更多。因此，我們確實認為這是在我們的控制範圍內，而且我們可以獨立於整體需求的位置來提高這一水平。

And if Dave was on the call, he would tell you that we get a lot of traffic to the Farnell and related websites as well as Avnet. And so we just got to unlock that, make those visits turn into sales. And there's some things we're driving to help do that. So there's a few examples. On the core side or EC side, listen, our demand creation mix was better this quarter. IP&E was actually higher mix than semis this quarter. So those things we've talked about including supply chain services, the embedded business, our Tria brand, those are all things that do have a higher margin that we believe are going to have higher growth than let's say the broader market.

如果戴夫在通話中，他會告訴你我們為 Farnell 和相關網站以及 Avnet 帶來了大量流量。所以我們必須解決這個問題，讓這些訪問轉化為銷售。我們正在採取一些措施來幫助實現這一目標。有幾個例子。從核心方面或 EC 方面來看，本季我們的需求創造組合會更好。本季度，IP&E 的混合比實際上比半導體更高。因此，我們所討論的內容包括供應鏈服務、嵌入式業務、我們的 Tria 品牌，這些都具有更高的利潤率，我們相信它們的成長速度將高於更廣泛的市場。

So those will help. And again, more scale helps as well if our -- get back on the growth pattern and some more market share opportunities, some perhaps shift to business from our suppliers, from their direct channel to the distribution channel. All those things can help get additional scale to kind of help return the operating leverage into the model. So there is things we continue to work on. And again, our focus and our investments are focused on medium to long term, not just the short term. It is a little tougher than we thought.

這些會有所幫助。再次，如果我們恢復成長模式和更多的市場份額機會，更大的規模也會有所幫助，一些業務可能會從我們的供應商轉移到直接通路到分銷管道。所有這些都可以幫助獲得額外的規模，以幫助將經營槓桿重新納入模型。所以我們會繼續努力。再說一次，我們的重點和投資集中在中長期，而不僅僅是短期。這比我們想像的要困難一些。

So we're probably going to sharpen the pencils on our overall operating expenses considering the market hasn't recovered as quickly as we thought it might. But there are things we continue to control. They may not yield benefits today, but 6 to 12 months from now, we do think those things will yield benefits on margin.

因此，考慮到市場復甦的速度沒有我們想像的那麼快，我們可能會大幅削減整體營運費用。但有些事情我們仍能控制。它們今天可能不會產生效益，但我們確實認為，從現在起 6 到 12 個月內，這些東西將會產生邊際效益。

Yeah. Ruplu, let me jump in. Thanks for the question.

是的。魯普魯，讓我跳進去。謝謝你的提問。

I'll just maybe reemphasize a couple of points that Ken made and maybe add a few. Yes, on the digital side, it's a big investment in Dave. He's been on Board just 90 days now barely. And yeah, we can impact our online sales at Avnet, Inc, let alone just Farnell. Online sales tends to run at a higher margin. It's low touch, so it's lower cost. So that's a good thing.

我可能只是想重申肯提出的幾個觀點，也許還會補充一些。是的，從數字方面來看，這對戴夫來說是一筆巨大的投資。他上任才剛90天。是的，我們可以影響 Avnet, Inc 的線上銷售，更不用說 Farnell 了。網上銷售的利潤率往往更高。由於接觸較少，所以成本較低。這是一件好事。

So he is chartered and working with Rebeca, our President with Farnell to increase our percentage of sales online. So that's something we can absolutely action through improvements on the customer experience on the website. Fundamentally, the biggest thing we could do in short term is cost and we've been doing that. We talked about it in the transcript some of the benefit and we're not where we want to be with Farnell. I made that very clear.

因此，他受邀與 Farnell 總裁 Rebeca 合作，提高我們的線上銷售比例。因此，我們絕對可以透過改善網站上的客戶體驗來採取行動。從根本上來說，短期內我們能做的最大的事情就是降低成本，我們也一直在做這件事。我們在記錄中談到了它的一些好處，但我們與 Farnell 的合作還未達到預期。我已經說得很清楚了。

But some of the benefit we've seen even as the markets continue to decline has been some of the expense actions we've taken over the last year and again, more in the last quarter at Farnell and there's some more that will still be trickling in as they now have rebuilt that staff and rebuilt the strategy to go after driving increased revenues and better mix.

但是，即使市場繼續下滑，我們也看到了一些好處，這是我們在過去一年以及 Farnell 在上個季度採取的一些費用削減措施，還有一些好處會逐漸顯現，因為他們現在已經重建了員工隊伍，重建了戰略，以追求增加收入和改善產品組合。

And then Ken touched on it. I'm just going to reemphasize it. IP&E runs about 400 bps higher in margin than semis. Demand creation is similar, and we have good demand creation quarter. We continue to have a good demand creation story and the suppliers are all bought in on demand creation, which is exciting.

然後肯談及了這一點。我只是想再次強調這一點。IP&E 的利潤率比半導體產業高出約 400 個基點。需求創造情況類似，我們有一個好的需求創造季度。我們繼續擁有良好的需求創造故事並且供應商都參與了需求創造，這是令人興奮的。

And then the embedded business that Ken talks about, not only is it sticky once we're in, but we're actually doing turnkey design of boards, right, that are in the industrial, right, and it's the middle of the customer base we're focused on that again. Not only is it sticky, it runs at roughly 2x the margins or more than we're running in the core.

然後 Ken 談到的嵌入式業務，不僅在我們進入後具有黏性，而且我們實際上正在進行工業領域的電路板的交鑰匙設計，這是我們再次關注的客戶群的中間部分。它不僅具有黏性，而且其運行利潤率大約是我們在核心中運行的 2 倍或更多。

So anyway, just a few that I wanted to add.

無論如何，我只想補充幾點。

For my follow-up, if I can ask, in this environment, how are you thinking about capital returns? Phil, do you see any opportunities for any rollups or any M&A? I mean you talked about investments that you are making to better position the company. Is there any chance for inorganic growth? Are you taking any share organically versus competitors in this environment? And Ken, how do you think about free cash flow and buybacks and use of the cash?

我的後續問題是，如果可以的話，請問在這種環境下，您如何考慮資本回報？菲爾，您是否看到任何合併或併購的機會？我的意思是，您談到了為更好地定位公司而進行的投資。無機成長還有機會嗎？在這種環境下，您是否能相對於競爭對手獲得一些市場份額？肯，您如何看待自由現金流、回購和現金的使用？

I'll go first, Ken. Yeah, we think we're gaining share, but we don't want to gain share at the -- by sacrificing cost, right? So we're just trying to -- we just continue to work and drive value in the marketplace, value our customers and suppliers, being that center of technology, supply chain and back to even Will's question, I think one of the questions on inventory. Yeah, some areas might have a little bit more inventory than we want. Well, you know what, we're working with those customers. We don't want to force stuff on customers that they can't pay for.

我先走了，肯。是的，我們認為我們正在獲得份額，但我們不想透過犧牲成本來獲得份額，對嗎？所以我們只是試著——我們只是繼續努力，在市場上推動價值，重視我們的客戶和供應商，作為技術、供應鏈的中心，回到威爾的問題，我認為其中一個問題是關於庫存的。是的，有些地區的庫存可能比我們想要的多一點。嗯，你知道嗎，我們正在與那些客戶合作。我們不想強迫顧客購買他們無力支付的東西。

We want to build that long-term strategy with the customers. And on the upside or upstream, as I like to say with our suppliers. So it's a constant balancing act, but we think we have the right balance there not to overuse the term of driving responsibility and accountability with having long-term relationships with these customers and extracting more value and more share out of those customers, okay?

我們希望與客戶一起制定長期策略。正如我喜歡和我們的供應商說的那樣，這是好事或上游的事。因此，這是一個持續的平衡行為，但我們認為我們在那裡找到了正確的平衡點，不要過度使用推動責任和義務的術語，與這些客戶建立長期關係並從這些客戶那裡獲取更多價值和更多份額，好嗎？

What was the other part of that question?

這個問題的另一部分是什麼？

And we're glad to say that, I think we're going to continue to maintain what Avnet has been doing. Obviously, we'll prioritize the business, the investments we need in the business. But beyond that, we're going to continue to support the dividend and just increased this past September as well as buying back shares and again, we had a good cash flow quarter of $1.2 billion over the past four quarters. We want to keep leverage under control. But at the same time, we view the shares as pretty attractive and we're going to continue to buy back and achieve our goal of at least 5% of the share count being reduced this fiscal year.

我們很高興地說，我認為我們將繼續保持安富利一直在做的事情。顯然，我們會優先考慮業務以及業務所需的投資。但除此之外，我們將繼續支持股息，並在去年 9 月增加了股息，同時回購股票，並且過去四個季度我們的現金流良好，達到 12 億美元。我們希望控制槓桿。但同時，我們認為這些股票非常有吸引力，我們將繼續回購，實現本財年減少至少 5% 股票數量的目標。

So I would say we're just more of the same and we want to just drive some consistency there.

所以我想說我們只是大體上是一樣的，我們只是想在那裡保持一致性。

Yeah. And Ruplu, the other part of your question was M&A. So Ken touched on the capital allocation with the dividends, share backs, driving down on debt, other priorities. We're always in the business of M&A, okay? But we're just going to be very selective, okay? Yes, we talk to people. Yes, we have bankers calling us. We think the fastest way to grow profitably is still organic growth, okay? We got to protect you first. But if there's the right type of acquisition that would come along and fit one of these areas that we talked about in the transcripts, we just talked about in Q&A that are strategic in nature, higher margin in nature, differentiate us in the marketplace, brings us expertise that maybe we don't have, yes, we're open to that dialogue and are having some of those dialogues.

是的。Ruplu，您問題的另一部分是併購。因此肯談到了股息、股票回饋、減少債務等資本配置等優先事項。我們一直從事併購業務，好嗎？但我們會非常謹慎地選擇，好嗎？是的，我們與人們交談。是的，有銀行家給我們打電話。我們認為獲利成長最快的方式仍然是有機成長，好嗎？我們必須先保護你。但是，如果有合適的收購出現，並且符合我們在會議記錄中談到的某個領域，我們剛才在問答環節中談到了戰略性、更高利潤率的收購，這些收購可以使我們在市場上脫穎而出，為我們帶來我們可能沒有的專業知識，是的，我們對這種對話持開放態度，並且正在進行一些這樣的對話。

William Stein, Truist Securities.

威廉·斯坦（William Stein），Truist Securities。

I wanted to ask about tariffs and the potential impact and even the impact that we might have seen in the quarter just closed. I think in your prepared remarks, Phil, you talked about in Asia having received some slight benefit from anticipation of tariffs. That would be I guess a pull in to try to get ahead of any action. But I think when you were discussing the Americas, you said there's no effect like this going on. And I'm just hoping you can maybe give us some idea as to how you know when a customer orders, whether there's upside or downside, how do you know if it's in anticipation or not in anticipation of this? That would be helpful.

我想問關稅以及其潛在影響，甚至是我們可能在剛結束的這個季度看到的影響。菲爾，我想在您準備好的發言中，您談到了亞洲因預期關稅而獲得的一些輕微利益。我猜那將是一種試圖領先於任何行動的做法。但我認為當您討論美洲時，您說過沒有發生這樣的影響。我只是希望您能為我們提供一些想法，如何知道客戶何時下訂單，是否有好處或壞處，如何知道這是預期的還是非預期的？那將會很有幫助。

So let me start. I'll turn it over to Ken on the revenue impact. I think it was in -- I don't know if it was my transcript or his, but yeah, we did -- we do have a number or an estimate for you and it wasn't that large. And in general to just work backwards, we thought we would see more. And Will, how we would see it is pull ins from like the March quarter into December quarter, the backlog that's there to the customers. Hey, I don't want to take a chance on waiting. I just want to bring this inventory in now and then because we don't know the uncertainty around tariffs.

那麼就讓我開始吧。我將把有關收入影響的問題交給肯。我想是在——我不知道這是我的成績單還是他的成績單，但是是的，我們有——我們確實有一個數字或估計，而且沒有那麼大。總的來說，只要回顧過去，我們認為就會看到更多。威爾，我們會看到，從 3 月季度到 12 月季度，客戶的積壓訂單量增加。嘿，我不想冒險等待。我只是想時不時地引進這些庫存，因為我們不知道關稅的不確定性。

And that's how we would measure it. And we didn't see much of it. Surprisingly, we thought we would see more. And we offered to customers and went to customers. And part of me is like, glad, we didn't because got to do well in March. So we're going to need the March backlog there too, right? No sense of driving that unnecessarily to Rob Peter to pay Paul. So we just didn't see that backlog move a little bit in Asia.

這就是我們測量它的方法。我們並沒有看到太多這樣的情況。令人驚訝的是，我們以為會看到更多。我們向客戶提供服務並服務客戶。我心裡有點慶幸我們沒有這麼做，因為我們在三月表現不錯。所以我們也需要三月的積壓工作，對嗎？沒有必要採取這種拆東牆補西牆的做法。因此，我們並沒有看到亞洲的積壓訂單有絲毫變化。

I'll let Ken touch on. As far as tariffs in general go, yeah, it's an everyday conversation. But and I got asked this in New York City with our IR team, we had tons of analyst meetings in December and the actual shareholder meetings, and everyone asked about tariffs. And my high-level response is, hey, we'll deal with it when we know what it is. And we're not losing sleep over it. We've handled it before.

我會讓肯談談。就一般關稅而言，是的，這是日常話題。但是，我在紐約和我們的投資者關係團隊一起被問到這個問題，我們在 12 月舉行了大量分析師會議和實際的股東大會，每個人都問到關稅的問題。我的高層回應是，嘿，當我們知道它是什麼時，我們會處理它。我們不會因此失眠。我們以前處理過這個問題。

My personal belief is it will come down quite a bit from where the rhetoric is today, but we have processes in place. We got free trade zones in place. I think we know a lot more. We talked a lot about this yesterday in the Americas ops review. I'm going by memory. I think there's like 8% of our business in the Americas. Something along those lines is actually coming out of China.

我個人認為，與今天的言論相比，這一比例將有所下降，但我們已經制定了流程。我們建立了自由貿易區。我想我們知道的還很多。我們昨天在美洲行動評論中對此進行了大量討論。我憑記憶去做。我認為我們的業務有 8% 在美洲。類似的事情其實已經從中國傳出。

And within some of those suppliers that we have, they can ship the similar product out of a different region, okay, instead of out of China. Now it's complex because the suppliers, they need to move their supply chains and whatnot. So while these are all the dialogues we're having with our suppliers, our customers and internally, we've got the processes set up, it's really important and I'll restate this, maybe it's obvious, but we're not paying the tariffs. That I can assure. We have customers on the line. They know that it will be a pass through. We don't make money on tariffs, but we will make sure we pass it through.

在我們的一些供應商中，他們可以從不同地區運送類似的產品，而不是從中國運送。現在情況變得複雜了，因為供應商需要轉移他們的供應鏈等等。因此，雖然這些都是我們與供應商、客戶以及內部進行的對話，我們已經建立了流程，但這確實很重要，我重申一下，也許這很明顯，但我們不會支付關稅。我可以保證。我們有客戶在線。他們知道這將是一次通過。我們不會從關稅中賺錢，但我們會確保將其轉嫁出去。

So we can't afford obviously to absorb that in the products that we're receiving and distributing to the customers. So again, it's an issue. It's not one of the issues that keep me up at night because I think we're well prepared for it. I think our customers are well prepared. We'll -- it's not going to be -- it's not their first rodeo either and we'll just have to manage through it. But I think we'll be okay.

因此，我們顯然無法承受在我們接收並分發給客戶的產品中吸收這些成本。所以，這又是一個問題。這不是讓我夜不能寐的問題之一，因為我認為我們已經做好了充分的準備。我認為我們的客戶已經做好了充分的準備。我們 — — 這不會是 — — 這也不是他們第一次遇到這種情況，我們必須設法度過難關。但我想我們會沒事的。

Ken, will you make a comment on the Asia?

肯，你能對亞洲發表一些評論嗎？

As of the December quarter, we did see some slight benefit in the top line from Asia customers, pulling in advance of potential regulatory changes, right? And Phil mentioned that. We also saw a couple of things. There was a price increase that took effect in January on some high-end technology. So we saw a little bit of uptick in demand in December for getting out in front of those price increases. Independent of tariffs, we didn't see much benefit in the Americas from tariffs, but we saw some global benefit from customers buying in advance of a price increase that took effect in January as well as there was an end-of-life product on the high end side as well that we were able to get some benefit from in the quarter.

截至 12 月季度，我們確實看到亞洲客戶的營收略有成長，這得益於潛在的監管變化，對嗎？菲爾也提到了這一點。我們還看到了一些東西。從一月份起，一些高端技術產品的價格有所上漲。因此，我們看到 12 月需求略有上升，以應對價格上漲。除了關稅之外，我們並沒有看到美洲地區從關稅中獲得太多好處，但我們看到全球範圍內有一些客戶在 1 月份價格上漲生效前提前購買，並且高端產品也已停產，我們在本季度從中獲得了一定好處。

So we kind of normalize things. Our guidance was down 6% to 11%. We think at the midpoint, when you normalize for those things, it goes from 8% midpoint to somewhere in 4% to 5% down midpoint when you kind of normalize for those items. So it was something. It wasn't a huge amount, but all those three things combined added 3% to 4% of the underlying quarter. Some of those were anticipated, some were not.

所以我們讓事情正常化。我們的預期是下降 6% 至 11%。我們認為，在中點，當你對這些事物進行標準化時，它會從 8％ 的中點變為 4％ 到 5％ 的中點左右。所以這是一件大事。雖然金額不算很大，但這三個因素加起來佔本季總收入的 3% 到 4%。其中一些是預料之中的，有些則不是。

There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to hand the floor back over to Phil Gallagher for any closing comments.

目前沒有其他問題。我想將發言權交還給菲爾·加拉格爾，請他發表最後評論。

Okay. Thank you and hope 2025 is off to a good start for everybody.

好的。謝謝大家，祝福 2025 年對大家來說都有一個好的開始。

Hey, thanks for attending today's earnings call and we look forward to speaking to you again at our third-quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings call, which will be reported in April.

嘿，感謝您參加今天的財報電話會議，我們期待在 4 月份報告的 2025 財年第三季財報電話會議上再次與您交談。

One last comment. I guess in advance of the Super Bowl week, it's 1.5 weeks from now. I just want to say, Go Birds, okay? I think most of you know who are from Philly. So if you're from Kansas City, I apologize. We're going to do the best we can to upset you.

最後一則評論。我想，超級盃開賽前一周，也就是從現在起的 1.5 週。我只想說，加油，小鳥們，好嗎？我想大多數人都知道誰來自費城。所以如果你來自堪薩斯城，我深感抱歉。我們會盡我們最大的努力讓你難過。

All right. Have a great rest of the day. Thanks.

好的。祝您今天剩餘時間愉快。謝謝。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

女士們、先生們，今天的會議到此結束。現在您可以斷開您的線路。感謝您的參與。