Avnet - Q3 2023

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Standby. Our presentation will now begin. Welcome to the Avnet third quarter fiscal year 2023 earnings conference call. I would now like to turn the floor over to Joe Burke, Vice President of Treasury and Investor Relations for Avnet. Thank you, sir. You may begin.

Joe Burke (VP of Treasury and Investor Relations)

Thank you, operator. Earlier this afternoon, Avnet released financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2023. The release is available on the investor relations section of the company's website. A copy of the slide presentation that will accompany today's remarks can be found via the link in the earnings release as well as on the IR section of Avnet's website. 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 Form 10-K and subsequent filings with the SEC.

These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this presentation. 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. Today's call will be led by Phil Gallagher, Avnet's CEO, and Ken Jacobson, Avnet's CFO. With that, let me turn the call over to Phil Gallagher. Phil?

Phil Gallagher (CEO)

Thank you, Joe, and thank you everyone for joining us on our third quarter fiscal year 2023 earnings conference call. I am pleased to share that we delivered another quarter of solid financial results, which exceeded the top end of our sales and earnings guidance. More importantly, we achieved these results despite the market uncertainty and macro headwinds affecting certain areas of our business. In the quarter, we grew sales 3% year-over-year in constant currency, and we delivered adjusted earnings per share of $2, which is our fifth consecutive quarter of adjusted earnings per share of $2 or greater. We continue to manage our operations with a sharp focus on efficiency.

That, coupled with a stronger than expected performance in Europe and the Americas, enabled us to achieve a 5% operating margin in our electronic components business and a 4.8% operating margin for Avnet overall. During the quarter, we saw sales growth in the Americas and EMEA regions offset by a sales decline in Asia. The decline in Asia was due to the expected seasonal impact from the Lunar New Year holiday and from an overall slowdown in demand in certain Asian markets. From an overall demand perspective in the quarter, we saw continued strength in key vertical segments, most notably industrial, transportation, and defense aerospace. Demand in other segments like consumer and communications remained weak. Demand signals continue to realign globally, resulting in lead times trending down on several component categories.

However, we continue to see constraints and shortages on other products, such as high-end MCUs, power, and MOSFETs. Lead times for these constrained categories have improved, but more modestly than other categories. Overall, semi lead times are above pre-pandemic levels, and IP&E lead times are modestly above pre-pandemic levels. The pricing environment remained stable during the quarter. At the beginning of the quarter, we still saw a handful of suppliers raise prices primarily due to the higher input costs for the components. As a result of the current demand and lead time conditions, our book-to-bill ratio remains below parity in all regions at levels similar to last quarter, and our backlog remained relatively consistent with the end of last quarter. Inventory levels remain elevated across the supply chain, and our inventory increased in the third quarter as well.

Our customers' inventory levels are elevated due to a combination of softer demand in certain areas and overall market conditions as it relates to component availability. They continue to seek certain key constrained parts that are needed to complete their end products. As a result, we are managing through adjustments to our backlog. While cancellation rates are up, they're still within our normal range. We remain confident in the quality of our inventory and are working to improve turnover and to ensure the inventory on hand is aligned to the near-term sales outlook. With that, let me turn to the highlights for our business. Our electronic components business sales grew 4% year-over-year in constant currency, which led to EC delivering a 5% operating income margin.

Our targeted margin is above 5%, we're pleased that EC achieved this milestone this quarter as it demonstrates our ability to continue to drive operating leverage as we focus on top line sales growth. I am particularly pleased with the Americas team delivering another solid quarter of sales and operating income. Our Americas business delivered the highest level of operating income margin in the past several years. The EMEA region delivered its second consecutive record sales quarter, our Asia business was able to maintain their operating margin despite the seasonally lower sales. Asia has been impacted by reduced demand in verticals like consumer and communications. We saw overall softness in key markets like China, leading to quarter-over-quarter sales declines, which we expect to continue for at least the next 2 quarters. We achieved another quarter of record revenue and gross profit dollars for demand creation.

Further proof of the value we provide to our customers and supplier partners despite the mixed market conditions. Demand creation and customer expansion remain critical to us as well as our supplier partners. Just a few weeks ago, I was able to meet with leaders of 3 of our top 10 suppliers. One of the first things they wanted to discuss was demand creation and how Avnet can continue to help them grow their sales and increase their customer accounts. The success of our engineering teams and the digital design tools have been key to improving our margins, particularly in the Americas and EMEA regions. Roughly 1/3 of our revenues come from demand creation, and this strategic priority is one of the elements that should enable us to achieve our higher margin goals in the medium term. Let's turn to our Farnell business.

Farnell's sales increased 9% sequentially and 1% year-over-year in constant currency. Farnell's operating margins held steady sequentially at 9% during the quarter and were down year-over-year, primarily due to the expected unwinding of pricing premiums as certain components become more available. Farnell continues to be our highest margin business, and we expect the operating margin to expand as supply constraints on single-board computers ease in the first half of our fiscal 2024. To be clear, there continues to be a healthy backlog for single-board computers, and when the semi electric components become more available to complete their production, we expect to begin to realize improved sales as we move into the September quarter.

We have made substantial investments in Farnell's inventory offerings over the past three years and plan to make additional investments where we see the potential for accelerated growth and a solid return. Our Farnell inventories have increased nearly 50% in the past year as Farnell has expanded its line card, replenished inventory levels, and continue to focus on both on the board and off the board growth opportunities. Farnell's e-commerce business mix continues to improve, with 56% of Farnell's total sales and 74% of total orders placed through their e-commerce platform. We remain excited about Farnell and continue to see opportunity to leverage Farnell's and electronic components unique and synergistic collaboration, which is a key differentiator for Avnet. Our near-term milestone is driving Farnell to over $2 billion of annual sales at double-digit operating margins.

While we are pleased with the sales and earnings results for our third quarter, we are closely monitoring market conditions and the impact of component lead times on our backlog and inventory levels as products become more available. We also continue to manage through the impact of inflation and higher interest rates on our overall business, which we have successfully done over the past few quarters. In the same way that demand outstripped supply over the past two years, supplier product has begun to exceed overall demand. Our current view, supported by our supply chain industry tracking metrics, is that we're experiencing an inventory correction that will take a few quarters to play out.

As we manage through this correction phase, we will continue to work with both our supplier partners and customers to regulate incoming orders and prioritize getting the right inventory levels to support sales and improve our terms. Although the market correction is underway, we are not overly concentrated to any supplier end market. We continue to believe that due to our balanced line card, combined with the diverse end markets we serve, we are well-positioned to outperform the overall components market, to gain market share, and expand our operating margins when market conditions normalize. With that, I'll turn it over to Ken to dive deeper into our third quarter results.

Ken Jacobson (CFO)

Thank you, Phil. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for your interest in Avnet. With another quarter of year-over-year sales and operating income growth, we believe our third quarter financial performance demonstrates further progress toward achieving our medium-term financial targets, led by the 5% operating income margin achieved in our electronic components business. Our sales for the quarter were $6.5 billion, modestly higher year-over-year, and exceeding the top end of our guidance range. In constant currency, sales growth was 3% year-over-year. On a sequential basis, sales were down 5% in constant currency, which is lower than our historical seasonal trend of sequential sales growth. Sales grew year-over-year, led by EMEA with nearly 10% growth and the Americas with 5% growth. This sales growth was offset by a decline in Asia of 10%.

In constant currency, year-over-year sales grew 15% in EMEA, 5% in the Americas, and declined 8% in Asia. From an operating group perspective, electronic component sales grew 1% year-over-year or 4% in constant currency. Quarter-over-quarter, electronic component sales were 6% lower in constant currency. Farnell sales declined 3% year-over-year, but were up 1% from the prior year in constant currency and 9% higher sequentially in constant currency. Excluding sales of single-board computers, Farnell sales grew 2% year-over-year in constant currency. For the third quarter, gross margin of 12.5% improved 79 basis points quarter-over-quarter and was relatively flat year-over-year. The sequential improvement in gross margin was primarily due to higher gross margins across all of our regions and from the seasonal shift in sales mix from Asia to the Western regions experienced every third quarter.

We continued to maintain discipline around SG&A expenses as adjusted operating expenses were $497 million for the quarter, down 2% year-over-year and up 3% sequentially. Foreign currency negatively impacted operating expenses by $12 million in the third quarter as compared to the second quarter. As a percentage of gross profit dollars, adjusted operating expenses were 61% in the quarter, 138 basis points lower than a year ago and 41 basis points lower than last quarter. For the third quarter, we reported record adjusted operating income of $350 million, which increased 4% year-over-year and grew more than 2 times greater than sales in constant currency.

This is the ninth consecutive quarter of operating income growth exceeding our sales growth by more than 2 times. Our adjusted operating margin was 4.8% in the third quarter, which improved 15 basis points year-over-year and improved 36 basis points quarter-over-quarter. By operating group, Electronic Components operating income was $205 million, up 15% year-over-year. EC operating margin was 5%, up 64 basis points year-over-year and up 34 basis points quarter-over-quarter. All three EC regions saw year-over-year operating margin expansion led by our EC Americas business, which expanded operating margin by more than 80 basis points. Farnell operating income was $41 million, down 41% year-over-year.

Farnell operating margin was 9% in the quarter, down 589 basis points year-over-year, held steady quarter-over-quarter. Farnell operating margin continued to be impacted by the expected unwinding of pricing premiums experienced due to component shortages and from unfavorable changes in foreign currency exchange rates. During the quarter, the Farnell operating margin was also impacted by certain non-recurring expenses recognized in the quarter. Farnell continues to be the highest margin business within Avnet, Overall operating margins continue to benefit from our focus on their growth and continued investment in their inventories, systems, and distribution centers. We expect Farnell operating margins to remain at similar levels for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023, with improvements in operating margin beginning when certain components impacting the completion of single-board computers become more available. Turning to expenses below operating income.

Third quarter interest expense of $72 million increased by $46 million year-over-year and $13 million quarter-over-quarter, primarily due to a combination of increases in interest rates and from higher average borrowings to support working capital increases. This increase in interest expense negatively impacted adjusted diluted earnings per share by $0.37 year-over-year. Our adjusted effective income tax rate was 24.5% in the quarter. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were $2 for the quarter, which decreased 7% year-over-year, but were flat quarter-over-quarter. Differences in foreign currency exchange rates negatively impacted adjusted diluted earnings per share by $0.09 year-over-year. Turning to the balance sheet and liquidity. During the quarter, working capital increased by $232 million, including a $381 million increase in inventories.

Foreign currency negatively impacted the increases in working capital by $62 million overall, of which $45 million impacted inventory. As a result of this working capital increase, working capital days were 96 days for the quarter, which increased 12 days quarter-over-quarter. Our inventory days increased by approximately 9 days, and our receivable days increased by approximately 2 days quarter-over-quarter. Our inventories grew during the quarter, and as Phil mentioned in his remarks, this is consistent with the broader trend across the supply chain and our customers. The quality and freshness of our inventory continues to be good. Consistent with last quarter, inventory turnover slowed in the third quarter as customers requests for rescheduling of product shipments continued as customers managed through their own inventory and production timing challenges.

Our return on working capital continues to be more than 2 times greater than our cost of capital, however. In the third quarter, we generated $18 million of cash from operations, and we expect to generate positive cash flow from operations in the fourth quarter. Our debt decreased by approximately $80 million. We ended the quarter with a gross leverage of 2.3x, which was an improvement from the second quarter. At quarter end, we had approximately $750 million of available committed borrowing capacity, and our teams continue to work on selling inventory on hand and collecting receivables to provide additional liquidity. With regard to our capital allocation, in the near term, we continue to prioritize the needs of our business, including working capital and capital expenditures. During the third quarter, cash used for capital expenditures was $26 million.

For the long term, we remain committed to our roadmap of delivering a reliable increasing dividend and share repurchases to increase our shareholder value when we believe our shares are undervalued by the market, which continued to be the case in the third quarter. In the third quarter, we paid our quarterly dividend of $0.29 per share, or $27 million. We have $319 million left on our current share repurchase authorization as we enter the fourth quarter. Book value per share improved to approximately $50 a share, or a sequential increase of approximately $2 a share, due primarily to our strong earnings for the quarter. Turning to guidance.

For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023, we are guiding sales in the range of $6.1 billion-$6.4 billion and adjusted diluted earnings per share in the range of $1.60-$1.70. Our fourth quarter guidance is based on current market conditions and implies a sequential sales decline of 1%-6%. This guidance assumes below traditional seasonality in sales across all regions. This guidance also assumes similar interest expense compared to the third quarter, an effective tax rate of between 22% and 26%, and 93 million shares outstanding on a diluted basis. In closing, I want to thank our team for delivering another solid quarter of year-over-year operating income growth and margin expansion. Our team continues to deliver great results while demonstrating our value to our customer and supplier partners.

With that, I will turn it back over to the operator to open it up for questions. Operator?

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove that question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment please while we poll for any questions. Our first question comes from the line of Ruplu Bhattacharya with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

Ruplu Bhattacharya (Analyst)

Hi, thanks for taking my questions. Phil, last quarter you had expected in 3Q, both Europe and Americas revenues to be flat to slightly down sequentially, but they grew. What was better than expected? Which products or which verticals came in better than you had thought? When you look at the demand environment today versus 90 days ago, do you think that the demand, is the end markets are stronger or weaker? Can you talk about the pricing environment? I mean, as the lead times are coming down, are you seeing any change in pricing?

Phil Gallagher (CEO)

Yeah, thanks, Ruplu. Appreciate that. We'll start with Europe and Americas. It was really not any one vertical. It's a few we talked about. I mean, automotive or transportation continues in our world to be very good. You know, I always say transportation, that includes your e-bikes, cars, trucks, everything, right? And industrial. The industrial market has held up, frankly, probably a little bit stronger than we had anticipated this time last a quarter ago. It's really those two. Then of course, in more Americas centric, the defense and aerospace has been really positive for us. There are a handful of verticals, and it's pretty, like I said, it's pretty broad across the regions. Real positive.

Yeah, on the pricing trends, you know, we're kind of holding on right now. You know, we touched on that in the script briefly. Actually, in the beginning of the quarter, you know, we had a handful of suppliers that actually raised prices, you know, upwards of 15%-20%, still on certain... Again, that's what's key, Ruplu, on certain technologies, not everything, right? Because the input costs are still there. Other than that, I would say the pricing environment right now is relatively stable. On the overall question on demand environment, how do I see it going forward? We got some typical seasonality coming into play a bit with the quarter. I would say kind of steady.

You know, look, we know there's inventory out there and some buildups in, in all the, in all the verticals to some degree. Right now I would just say steady. You know, just kinda it's holding on right now, and thus the guidance that we gave for our June quarter.

Ruplu Bhattacharya (Analyst)

Got it.

Phil Gallagher (CEO)

It's very mixed bag out there, Ruplu.

Ruplu Bhattacharya (Analyst)

Okay. Yeah. No, thanks for the details there, Phil. Let me ask Ken something on inventory. It looks like sequentially inventory was up 8%. Was there some timing issue I think you talked about? When we think about, inventory working capital and free cash flow, I mean, what's your near-term target in terms of cash conversion cycle, and how should we think about free cash flow going forward?

Ken Jacobson (CFO)

I think that obviously with the inventory up, the working capital rates are higher than we'd like. We'd like to get that, you know, back down into the 80s and the low 80s. I would say part of it's timing. You know, there was some stuff that we received at the end of the quarter, but a lot of it's stuff that we received during the quarter and weren't able to ship out. I wouldn't say there's one in particular fact. I mean, about 10% or so is foreign currency, 10% is Farnell, and the 80% is really the bulk of the EC business across the board between all regions. Looking into next quarter, you know, we'd expect inventory to be flattish.

We still think it's gonna take a couple quarters to really get through, you know, the inventory levels being elevated.

Ruplu Bhattacharya (Analyst)

Got it. Ken, if I can squeeze one more in, real quick. The core components margins even on sequentially $200 million lower revenues, you know, it grew to 5%, so 30 basis points sequentially. Impressive performance. Can you help us break that down into how much was because of mix or versus volumes versus pricing? As we think about this going forward, I mean, do you think that this level is sustainable? Or at what revenue levels can this margin level of 5% be sustainable? Thank you so much.

Ken Jacobson (CFO)

I think we need to have in the mid $6 billion to make the 5% sustainable. You know, I will say, as we kinda look out there, we don't really foresee sales in any quarter dropping below $6 billion or really operating margin dropping below 4%, you know, as we currently see it. Getting into the current quarter, you know, we did have a favorable mix. So, you know, about half and half. Half of it was a more favorable mix than we thought. I would point out for EMEA and Americas, it was still below normal seasonal growth. Although we did better than expected in those regions coming out of December quarter, it was still lower in terms of growth rates than we'd expect to see in a normal environment.

you know, the rest was, you know, a little bit better margin in each of those regions, so they did drive a better mix. We talked about demand creation. It's all those things we've been talking about help to contribute to the little bit higher gross margin in all the regions as well.

Ruplu Bhattacharya (Analyst)

Thanks for all the details, and congrats on the strong execution.

Phil Gallagher (CEO)

Thanks, Ruplu.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from the line of Melissa Fairbanks with Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

Melissa Fairbanks (Analyst)

Hi, guys. Thanks so much. Congrats on a great quarter and guide. Really nice progress on the margins. It's really good to see in this kind of an environment. I know you're probably tired of talking about it, but I'd like to dig in on the inventory levels. Thanks for providing the color on the FX impact. I'm curious if price inflation is also impacting the new inventory you're bringing in. You've seen continued price increases in the past quarter. We've heard a few suppliers so far this quarter signal that more price increases are coming. Separately, there's a number of suppliers that have been holding inventory back from the channel, including in distribution. As the supply continues to ease, we'd expect these suppliers to begin releasing more inventory.

Is there a potential for your inventory levels to continue to rise as this happens?

Ken Jacobson (CFO)

Melissa, I'll take the first part. I mean, I think how I'd characterize it is, you know, pricing is clearly an impact not only to the sales growth but also the inventory levels. I would say it's more muted than it was a couple of quarters ago. That's a component I wouldn't characterize the inventory increase overall, let's say 80% coming from the core business. I wouldn't characterize, let's say, more than 25% coming from pricing. You kind of see that in our sales growth as well. You know, going back to the question about whether or not, you know, inventory levels could rise. I mean, I think that's a possibility. That's what we're aiming to resolve. I would say it rose more than we expected it to rise coming to this quarter.

What I would say is, you know, if that happens with certain suppliers that are gonna give us more inventory because of, you know, our demand or our orders, you know, we're working on the other ones with a handful that did, you know, contribute to the increase this quarter. It all kind of be puts and takes in the overall kind of, you know, ins and outs of inventory.

Phil Gallagher (CEO)

Yeah. Thanks, Ken. Melissa, this is Phil. Thanks for the comments and the questions. On the inventory, you know, I wanna reemphasize, it's fresh inventory, it's good inventory, it's not aging. Like any Pareto, there's a handful of concentration where the inventory has really grown. It's not across the board, right? It's not every line or every technology. It's really a, I would say, the classic Pareto there with the concentration in a handful. The other thing is, you know, we're balancing the customer's requirements, kind of going back to the previous, how do we see demand, you know, and it depends on the vertical. We're managing the customers, you know, how much can they take?

Maybe they might have a little bit too much inventory. We're trying to manage, you know, being in that center technology supply chain, the suppliers and the customers and what the real needs are. You know, we're in it for the long haul with these customers. Where they maybe can't take it this quarter, hey, can they take it next quarter? Then, maybe we have to extend a little bit of AR, as you heard one out a little bit as well. It's all, you know, kind of hand-to-hand combat on every one of these deals.

Melissa Fairbanks (Analyst)

Okay, great. Thanks very much. That's super helpful. Maybe just one really quick follow-up. This might be for Ken. This is definitely not a quote-unquote, normal cycle, because of some of these supply constraints and, you know, changing behavior of holding more inventory on the supplier side. Does this potentially change the normal countercyclical pattern of the working capital release in your model?

Ken Jacobson (CFO)

I guess Melissa, I wouldn't say we see it that way. I think, you know, it could take a few more quarters to get that flow going, right? Because typically that normal seasonality would be, sales go down, so therefore my inventory goes down, and I collect the receivables from those higher sales, and that's what creates the cash. That still holds true, but the inventory hasn't gone down, right? We look at more cash flow than we got this quarter, next quarter, you know, but the key is going to be getting the inventory down to actually create that larger countercyclical effect. We don't believe it's changed. We have not seen the inventory, whereas you've seen in other cycles, the inventory goes down 2 quarters after the sales go down.

Melissa Fairbanks (Analyst)

Okay, great. Thanks very much. That's all for me.

Phil Gallagher (CEO)

Thanks, Melissa.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from the line of Matt Sheerin with Stifel. Please proceed with your question.

Matt Sheerin (Analyst)

Yes. Hey, thanks, and good afternoon, everyone. Phil, just your comments regarding, I mean, I think you said that you expect that the correction or inventory correction to take a few quarters. It seems like you're lagging some of your suppliers because your business obviously is holding up. You're one of the few companies within semiconductors that were still up year-on-year. It seems like you're just getting started here. In terms of your visibility and how long that will take, are you expecting your sequential or less than seasonal trends at least through the rest of the fiscal year or the calendar year?

Phil Gallagher (CEO)

Yeah. Thanks, Matt. Well, first of all, the seasonal trends and the typical seasonality has kind of been thrown out the window. It's tough to. Let me just tell you what we're seeing. Our guide reflects that. As far as our estimate, based on the backlog we have, the inventory we show pipeline coming in, and the revenue forecast gave me the facts to say, "Yeah, I think it's about a couple quarter, maybe it's 2 or 3 quarter kind of burn off." It's just a very different cycle than we've seen, you know, before. There's so many mixed signals, Matt. I mean, some verticals, i.e., PC, consumer, you know, are down mobile, other ones are up, right? The industrial continues to be strong or steady and automotive.

It's given us, just so many different mixed signals this time. That's our estimate. We think that the demand, and what we see in our forecast, we're getting it from our customers, it's gonna allow us to 2 to 3 quarter cycle. I think it's correction, Matt, more than a cycle.

Matt Sheerin (Analyst)

Got it. In terms of, you know, your own inventory build, is that a function of suppliers maybe shipping ahead of their lead times because of their own, you know, maybe seeing cancellations from other customers and then you seeing cancellations and pushouts from customers, and that's why sort of it's piling up, if you will?

Phil Gallagher (CEO)

Yeah, I don't know. I don't think so. I think they're catching up. I mean, you know, because lead times in many cases are coming in, so they're catching up to the old promised dates or required dates. We're not, I mean, I really want to emphasize, and the suppliers, as noted earlier, have been working with us, they're not shipping early, so we are not taking in products quarters early or anything along those lines. Some of it is just catching up so quickly, then you can't pass it on to the customers because even if they were missing the goals, they can't build it all in a month, right? They got to plan out their manufacturing if things are coming in quicker than they thought.

It's kind of a, like I said earlier, it's everyone's a bit of a one-off. I do not believe that the suppliers, want to ship early or are shipping early at this point in time. We're not seeing that.

Matt Sheerin (Analyst)

Got it. I know you're guiding revenues down roughly 4% sequentially. Would you expect all regions to be down sequentially?

Ken Jacobson (CFO)

Yeah. I mean, I think, I think I would say normally, Matt, Asia would be up a little bit coming off the Lunar New Year. They're up less than we'd like. You know, EMEA and Americas would be down is kind of it. It's a little bit more unfavorable mix than it was in, like, the third quarter, I would say, with the, with the $6.25 billion.

Phil Gallagher (CEO)

That's typical in the West, Matt. You know, Europe and America is coming down from the March quarters typically are one of the largest quarters.

Matt Sheerin (Analyst)

Okay. Just lastly on that, on that interest expense, which is up, yeah, obviously significantly year-over-year, and you're still guiding to that $70 million level or so. I would think that that would be a priority for you in terms of your balance sheet to try to work down those short-term borrowings. Is there a plan there?

Ken Jacobson (CFO)

Matt, I mean, I think that's the priority. As cash gets generated, we pay down the debt, and I think we're kind of hit the plateau there with the, with the peak there, the $70 million. Yeah, we gotta work that down as well. Clearly, you can see the headwind it's created with the EPS, right? Our EPS would be a lot more robust hadn't we had that, you know, additional expense to fund the working capital.

Matt Sheerin (Analyst)

Yep, fair enough. Okay. Thanks for the answers. I appreciate it. Thanks.

Phil Gallagher (CEO)

Thanks, Matt.

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the queue. You may press star two to remove that question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Our next question comes from the line of Joe Quatrochi with Wells Fargo. Please proceed with your question.

Joe Quatrochi (Analyst)

Yeah, thanks for taking the questions. My first one, I wanted to ask about the change in collections that you're seeing. I think you talked about that last quarter, and maybe you referenced it again this quarter. I guess, are you seeing that spread to additional customers? Then, kinda coupled with that, are there any sort of change in customer behaviors, just given kinda some of the banking issues that we've seen across several of the regional banks?

Ken Jacobson (CFO)

Yeah, thanks, Joe. I mean, I think from an overall quality of the receivables, aging of receivables, I would actually even say it improved a little bit from the end of December. Part of that blip in December was, you know, our customers' year-ends and things like that. You know, I think it's more of the same. You know, it's payment terms are stretched out a little bit, but we're collecting and we don't have any near-term headwinds we're seeing from customers going bankrupt, and that's, you know, part of the inventory equation as well. I think we feel pretty good that we're in a steady state there in terms of collections and we're working with our customers. Feel good there.

You know, on the banking situation, you know, we were able to, and congratulations to our treasury team, to close a debt deal right before some of that noise happened, to give us a little bit more liquidity. We're glad we were able to get in before the noise. You know, we had some customers that had their banking in some of these, you know, regional institutions that were impacted, but overall, it's not been an impact to us, I would say.

Phil Gallagher (CEO)

Yeah, just would add on the AR's receivables are, you know, strategic for us, right? We knowingly are working with our customers. There's no real surprises on the AR going out. As we get the inventory in, if they can't afford to take it right now, we'll hold a little bit more, or if we ship it, we extend their receivable. It's again, they're all one-on-one conversations with the customers. 'Cause again, we're in it for the long haul. We wanna keep them viable and keep them afloat in some cases. I've been really proud of the credit and collections team. They've done a phenomenal job thus far.

Joe Quatrochi (Analyst)

Got it. Just as a quick follow-up, and I apologize if I missed it. You said that total book-to-bill was relatively the same as last quarter. Did that change at all really by region?

Phil Gallagher (CEO)

Not really. It's below parity, Joe, and some of that, you know, negative book-to-bill is us moving backlog as well, right. What we're adjusting where suppliers are allowing that. If some of the NCNRs get kind of some relief there, we're managing that as well. Some of that's, I'll call it, self-inflicted, for the right reasons, right. To get the real. 'Cause suppliers want to know what the real pipeline is too, right. We wanna go to our customers and say, "Hey, do you need this or don't you need it?" Most of it or much of it is on our own. The other thing is, we're not seeing as much in the cancellations. The cancellation rates are pretty much within our range, okay.

In that 30, 25%-30% range. We are seeing some pushouts, right? Which again, is not necessarily a bad thing, the customers are still reluctant to cancel the backlog, which is interesting.

Joe Quatrochi (Analyst)

Got it. Thanks for the color.

Phil Gallagher (CEO)

Thanks, Joe.

Operator (participant)

Okay, everyone, there are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the floor back over to Phil Gallagher for any closing comments.

Phil Gallagher (CEO)

I would just, thank everyone for attending today's earnings call and look forward to speaking to you again at our fourth quarter fiscal earnings report in August. Have a great day. Thanks.

Operator (participant)

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