Belden - Q1 2024

Transcript

Operator (participant)

I would now like to turn the call over to Aaron Redington. Please go ahead, sir.

Aaron Reddington (VP of Investor Relations)

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Belden's first quarter 2024 earnings Conference call. With me today are Belden's President and CEO, Ashish Chand, and Senior Vice President and CFO, Jeremy Parks. Ashish will provide a strategic overview of our business, and then Jeremy will provide a detailed review of our financial and operating results, followed by Q&A. We issued our earnings release earlier this morning and have prepared a slide presentation that we will reference on this call. The press release, presentation, and transcript of these prepared remarks are currently available online at investor.belden.com. Turning to slide two in the presentation. During this call, management will make certain forward-looking statements in reliance upon the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. For more information, please review today's press release and our most recent annual report on Form 10-K.

Additionally, during today's call, management will reference adjusted or non-GAAP financial information. In accordance with Regulation G, the appendix to our presentation in the investor relations section of our website contains a reconciliation of the most closely associated GAAP financial information to the non-GAAP financial information we communicate. I will now turn the call over to our President and CEO, Ashish Chand.

Ashish Chand (President and CEO)

Thank you, Aaron, and good morning, everyone. We really appreciate you joining us today. Let's turn to slide four for a summary of the major accomplishments we achieved in the first quarter and key messages I would like to highlight. As a reminder, I will be referring to adjusted results today. First, let me start by saying that once again, the key theme for the quarter is stability. For the first quarter, our revenue and EPS both exceeded the high end of our guidance, and our solutions transformation continues in this dynamic environment. Revenue totaled $536 million, and EPS came in at $1.24. Demand was stable, similar to what we saw in the prior period.

Orders in the first quarter were up 5% sequentially, resulting in a book-to-bill of 1.03x, up from 0.96 in the prior period. Our markets continue to experience headwinds, and I'm encouraged to see steady execution, resulting in performance exceeding our expectations. Second, I'm pleased to announce that we just recently signed a definitive purchase agreement for Precision Optical Technologies, Inc. for approximately $290 million in cash, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval, of course. Precision Optical Technologies is a leading supplier of value-added optical transceivers with proprietary software, firmware configurations, and related components.

I will go into further detail on the acquisition shortly, but let me summarize here by saying that we are very excited to add the team and product set to our solutions, and believe this acquisition will create new opportunities for our enterprise segment and broadband markets, particularly in the passive optical network or PON market. Third, our business continues to generate meaningful cash flow, and we are deploying capital consistent with our capital allocation priorities. Trailing 12-month free cash flow was strong at $241 million, roughly flat with what we produced in the same period last year. With the ample free cash flow, our team took steps to reinvest in high return opportunities. For the quarter, we returned over $58 million to shareholders, mostly through share repurchases, with approximately 700,000 shares purchased in the first quarter.

Further, our leverage remains low at 1.6x, roughly in line with our targeted net leverage ratio of 1.5x. Finally, whilst it's not reflected in our Q1 figures, our team plans to deploy capital towards the acquisition of Precision Optical Technologies, which we expect to close in the second quarter. Now, please turn to slide five for a summary of a few noteworthy solutions wins. As we do every quarter, let me take a moment to describe two recent customer wins to provide real-world examples of our solutions in action. In the first example, our team was awarded a $10 million-plus project to help with the rail network in India. In this example, we were working directly with Hitachi Rail STS India, as the systems integrator, and Chennai Metro Rail Limited, our end customer.

Chennai Metro was looking for a reliable and secure backbone network to ensure passenger safety and security, reliability, and in-house expertise in deploying complex solutions with top priorities for our customers, combined with a proven product portfolio. Our solutions consultants held multiple sessions with Chennai Metro, including a proof of concept test utilizing cutting-edge wireless and wired network components. The Belden design network proved successful in testing to increase operational efficiency by reducing communications-based train control outages. Further, the Belden solution also enabled IoT-based predictive maintenance functionality for a connected track system. Our team of solutions consultants, along with Hitachi Rail STS India, were able to add value to Chennai Metro and build a network to solve critical KPIs and improve passenger experience. In the second example, our team was awarded a multimillion-dollar project to assist in the redevelopment of a major hospital facility in the Americas.

With a focus on better patient outcomes, our solutions consultants were able to recommend core data infrastructure components, including our leading-edge DCX cabinets and high flex cabling, to support a robust network and allow for leading-edge use cases. The result for our customer is a more reliable system, utilizing a smaller footprint, combined with reduced complexity to allow for a more streamlined network capable of supporting our customer's critical KPIs. I'm proud of our solutions team as they work to gather highly reliable Belden products and put together a complete solution for our customer, ultimately winning their trust and business. Again, we highlight these solutions to further emphasize that Belden is winning in the marketplace with our solutions transformation, and that our value add to customers spans beyond the high-quality products we produce.

In fact, as an example, we recently launched three solution capabilities: network resilience, edge computing, and data interoperability, targeted at discrete manufacturers. These capabilities are enabled through Belden Horizon, which brings together hardware, software, and services in a single software platform. Our Horizon platform enables real-time management of complex industrial and enterprise networks and assists in the delivery of data-related services in a simple and highly secure manner. I point this out to highlight that at Belden, our focus is on solving customer problems and deepening our relationship with customers. Our high-quality products, Belden Horizon software platform, and our dedicated team and consultants are making our solutions incredibly impactful for customers and are keys to our success. Now, please turn to slide six for a summary of the Precision Optical Technologies acquisition.

Based in Rochester, New York, Precision Optical Technologies is a leading supplier of value-added optical transceivers with proprietary software, firmware configurations, and related components. The company's products are core elements in fiber infrastructure deployments, expansions, and network upgrades, benefiting from multiple secular tailwinds. Precision Optical Technologies' strong position in the optical transceiver market will be highly beneficial to Belden as we look to grow our solutions offerings in the enterprise segment and broadband markets. As networks are upgraded and bandwidth demands increase, Precision Optical Technologies products will be critical components as fiber deployments accelerate. Further, combined with Belden fiber and network products, our solutions teams will now have enhanced passive optical network, or PON, components and will sit deeper in the fiber network, allowing for additional use cases and opportunities with MSOs, telcos, data centers, and enterprise customers.

Precision Optical Technologies will be a great addition to the Belden team and will help us further drive solutions in our enterprise segment. On a full year basis, we expect the company to generate 2024 revenue of approximately $150 million. With exposure to optical transceivers and PON networks, we anticipate growth in the mid- to high-single digits over the next few years. We anticipate closing towards the end of the second quarter and will provide updates as appropriate. Post-close, the acquisition will be immediately accretive to our financials. And after being fully integrated, we expect the business to provide adjusted EBITDA margins comparable to the rest of Belden.

Precision Optical Technologies is the perfect example of the types of deals that are most attractive to us, as we are always excited to add good people and products to our team that further enable our solutions offerings. I will now request Jeremy Parks to provide additional insight into our first quarter financial performance.

Jeremy Parks (SVP of Finance and CFO)

Thank you, Ashish. I will start my comments with results for the first quarter of 2024, followed by a review of our segment results, a discussion of the balance sheet and cash flow performance, and finally, our outlook. As a reminder, I will be referencing adjusted results today. Now, please turn to slide seven in our presentation for a review of our results. First quarter revenue decreased 17% year-over-year and was down 17% organically to $536 million, exceeding the high end of our guidance of $520 million. As expected, we experienced softness in Industrial Automation, with revenues decreasing 17% organically, and Enterprise Solutions revenue decreasing 18% organically. Orders were up 5% sequentially, with strength in Industrial Automation, partially offset by typical seasonality in Enterprise Solutions....

We ended the quarter with a book to bill of 1.03, indicating a more stable order environment for the quarter. Gross profit margins were 38.4%, decreasing 20 basis points compared to the prior year, as favorable mix benefits helped to offset lower volume. EBITDA came in at $85 million, with EBITDA margins down 160 basis points to 15.8%. Decremental margins for the quarter performed as expected, in line with our target of 20%-30%. Net income was $51 million, down from $73 million in the prior year period. EPS was $1.24, above the high end of our guidance range of $1.10. Turning now to slide eight in the presentation for a review of our business segment results.

For the quarter, performance by segment was aligned with our expectations. Orders were soft but stable, as our markets experienced continued slowness due to the impact of destocking. For the first quarter, revenue in our Industrial Automation segment was down 18% compared to the prior year. EBITDA margins were 19.5% in the quarter, down from 20.1% in the prior year. Orders in Industrial Automation were up 12% sequentially and down 5% year-over-year. For the quarter, we experienced weakness in our discrete end markets, particularly in the EMEA region, which continues to exhibit customer destocking. For the first quarter, revenue in our Enterprise Solutions segment was down 15% compared to the prior year. EBITDA margins were 11% in the quarter, down from 13.5% in the prior year.

Orders in Enterprise Solutions were down 4% sequentially and down 11% year-over-year. As expected, we continued to see customer destocking in both the smart buildings and broadband markets. Next, please turn to slide nine for our balance sheet and cash flow highlights. Our cash and cash equivalents balance at the end of the first quarter was $507 million, compared to $597 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. Our financial leverage was 1.6x net debt to EBITDA at the end of the first quarter. As we communicated before, we intend to maintain net leverage of approximately 1.5x over the long term. We plan to fund the acquisition of Precision Optical Technologies with cash on hand.

On a pro forma basis, we estimate that our net leverage ratio will be around 2x after close. With our ample free cash flow generation, we have the ability to quickly delever. As a reminder, our next debt maturity is not until 2027, with all of our debt fixed at rates averaging 3.5%. Through the first quarter, our trailing 12-month free cash flow was $241 million. During the first quarter, we repurchased approximately 700,000 shares, or $58 million, with $115 million remaining on our current repurchase authorization. Please turn to slide 10 for our updated outlook. For the second quarter, we anticipate customer destocking and other temporary headwinds to continue. Relative to the first quarter, end demand is expected to be stable, with revenues up slightly, in line with normal seasonal patterns.

For the second quarter, assuming current market conditions do not deteriorate further, we expect sales in the range of $565 million-$580 million, and adjusted EPS in the range of $1.30-$1.40. The acquisition of Precision Optical Technologies is not included in Q2 2024 guidance. The close date is subject to certain regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. We will provide updates as appropriate. That concludes my prepared remarks. I would now like to turn the call back to Ashish.

Ashish Chand (President and CEO)

Thank you, Jeremy. To close, let me reiterate, the first quarter for Belden can best be described as stable. We came in anticipating a dynamic market environment, with many customers continuing to reduce inventory, and it played out as expected. Looking forward into the second quarter, we see steadiness in our business and are hopeful that conditions improve in the back half of the year, resulting in an uptick in demand from current levels. Longer term, the secular drivers and investment cycles remain, and after we get on the other side of this weakness, we expect to see higher revenue and EPS through the next cycle. Reindustrialization is just beginning, and our products and solutions are aligned with many secular growth drivers.... We are well positioned to take advantage of the growth opportunities ahead of us, and our balance sheet is strong to enable our expansion.

Our team will continue to execute through this temporary weakness and will look for opportunities to gain share where possible. I would like to take a moment and recognize the contributions of our associates this past quarter. I appreciate your efforts and would like to thank you for your support as we continue to transform Belden through a challenging environment. Thank you for your hard work. That concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, please open the call to questions.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. If you would like to signal with questions, please press star one on your touchtone telephone. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star two. Again, if you would like to signal with phone questions, please press star one on your touchtone telephone. Our first question will come from Mark Delaney with Goldman Sachs.

Morgan Leung (Global Investment Research Associate)

Morgan Leung on the line, asking a question on behalf of Mark Delaney. Thanks for taking the questions. We were just wondering if you could give a little bit more color on what you're seeing with orders. Understand the messaging is around stability, but we just wanted to dig into more of, like, when you think the inventory de-stocking will end, and how that's gonna impact growth margins in 2Q relative to 1Q.

Ashish Chand (President and CEO)

Thanks, Morgan. Yeah, I think the keyword is stability. We saw that, we witnessed that in Q1. If you go below the hood a little, orders in Industrial were up about 12%, sequentially, down 5%, year-over-year. And on Enterprise Solutions, orders were slightly down, led by Smart Buildings, although Broadband orders were up sequentially. And I think if you look further below that, we saw POS, so, you know, sell-out from our channel partners was as expected, you know, seasonally. So I think what we can conclude from this is that things are starting to normalize. Now, you know, every de-stocking is different. Historically, it takes about four to six quarters, and we are now halfway through that.

And we also know from history that typically industrial comes back faster, which we are also witnessing. So I think we, you know, we stay very firmly focused on the longer term or the midterm outlook here, which is driven by reindustrialization, consumption of more broadband bandwidth, and even the fact that, you know, smart buildings, whilst certain core commercial real estate markets are slower, there are many other markets that are emerging. You know, for example, material handling, hospitality, healthcare, data centers, et cetera. And we see all of those receiving investment or starting to receive investment now as part of the broader reindustrialization phenomenon. So yes, I mean, it's really we expect to see more positive trends in the coming cycle.

I can't precisely, you know, predict when that whole inventory situation will turn, because like I said, every de-stocking is different.

Morgan Leung (Global Investment Research Associate)

Right. That makes sense. That's really helpful. And then as a quick follow-up, it looks like you reiterated the $8 EPS target by 2025. So just kind of thoughts on, if you're on track to still hit that and the contribution from, your progress with, selling more full solutions. Thank you.

Ashish Chand (President and CEO)

Yeah, and sorry, I might have missed one aspect of your prior question, which was around gross margins in Q2. We actually don't expect any, you know, significant change in our gross margin levels. I think we've, you know, we've shown that those are fairly consistent. And on that note, then, you know, as we think about the 25 EPS, yes, $8 is still our target. We certainly have multiple levers to pull, including organic growth that is led by solutions, M&A, share repurchases. And I think the mid to long-term trends at this point make us comfortable that as we continue to invest, we will see, you know, clear progress towards that goal.

It just may not be as linear as we previously expected, right, when we first articulated the target, because there is this de-stocking cycle that we need to get through. But yeah, we, we feel good, and I think, you know, the announcement we made about Precision Optical Technologies is a good step in that direction.

Morgan Leung (Global Investment Research Associate)

Great. Super helpful. Thank you.

Ashish Chand (President and CEO)

Thanks, Morgan.

Operator (participant)

Our next question will come from William Stein with Truist Securities.

William Stein (Managing Director and Senior Analyst of Technology)

Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Congrats on these results, considering the environment and sounds are good relative to the derivative reads. First, I guess I want to ask about that. At least among other types of component companies, we've heard about similar end markets that you're exposed to, in particular, industrial automation and broadband, that sounded, you know, really negative heading into the quarter's result, yet you all exceeded the guidance that you provide us, and then you got Q2 well. So can you maybe put that in context? What you think is the difference? Is it the end market exposure is more nuanced, or were you suddenly uber conservative in guidance, or maybe there's something else going on? Thank you.

Ashish Chand (President and CEO)

Thanks, Will. First of all, I appreciate your, your positive comments. I think, it's a little specific by, by segment. So, you know, maybe we start with industrial. So as you know, Will, we've been on this journey around solutions, and what that does very uniquely for us versus our competitive set is, we are providing a combination of hardware and software to solve real KPIs. And we don't really focus on a rip-and-replace type of solution, but we supplement whatever digital assets, customers have. So for example, if somebody is not deriving the OEE from their plant, you know, we can go in and supplement whatever network and data solution they have to make that happen.

So really, in times like this, when capital is expensive, productivity is required, wages are high, really, our solutions become very useful. And, you know, we've demonstrated various examples where we can very quickly lead to an outcome for a customer. So I think we are seeing differentiated share gain in our industrial markets, and that has become obvious to us from not only the results, but ongoing customer conversations. It also helps that we are exposed to certain infrastructure markets versus some of our, let's say, you know, the component providing peer group that you referred to. Chennai Metro is a good example where, you know, we can go in and do a fairly comprehensive infrastructure solution.

In this case, a communications-based train control solution, which is very different from, you know, procurement-driven component purchase cycle, which is at a different level. So I think that's clearly on the industrial side, the combination of software and hardware, the approach with solutions and the markets we're exposed to is helping. On the broadband side, you know, remember, we've referred to this previously, too. Our exposure is more to the MSOs, who are still, you know, very positively investing in expansion of their, you know, the DOCSIS expansions and just passing new homes. It's been more consistent than the telco market, which has a step function driven seasonality. So, you know, that exposure is certainly helping us.

We've consistently also grown the fiber content in that business. Again, Precision is a good step to help that, but that makes it a little more secular too, because it's more outside home and less inside home. And I think that, that is certainly helping the broadband market. And then even on smart buildings, it's interesting versus our competitors. We are developing three points of leverage that, you know, that I think differentiate us. First, the access we have to markets like material handling or discrete manufacturing or intelligent traffic systems, thanks to our industrial expertise. But remember, all those markets also need buildings. And so our competitors don't have easy access to those markets, but we do. Second, we built this whole solution-selling process, which we can leverage now on the enterprise side or the smart building side.

And third, part of what we do on the industrial side is that since we are providing active equipment, data orchestration and management, we have earlier conversations with customers at a higher level, but those same conversations are also allowing us to pull in some of the smart buildings infrastructure. So, so differentiated from competitors in all three markets, but obviously we wanna be modest in terms of... You know, so to your point, I don't think we were ultra conservative in our guidance, but I think we were thoughtful when we guided, and we're glad that, you know, we exceeded expectations.

William Stein (Managing Director and Senior Analyst of Technology)

Really great. Thank you. If I can have one follow-up, and that's on Precision Optical, the announced acquisition. The company detailed a pretty robust change in the way it's contemplating M&A at the last Analyst Day. And I'm hoping you can put this acquisition, really the origins of it, how you found out about this company and cultivated a relationship and wound up, you know, coming to an agreement. Can you put that in context? How did that unfold? Thank you.

Ashish Chand (President and CEO)

... Sure, Will, that's a great question. So I think Precision is just the kind of acquisition we would like to do as we go forward with our solutions transformation. So let me first speak quickly to the technology, and then I'll talk about the process. So basically, Precision Optical Technologies, they're experts in transceivers, right? So these are devices that convert optical signals to electrical and vice versa, right? And they use the SFP or the small form factor pluggable transceivers. And effectively, one way to think about this is that if you think about let's say, the broadband market, and at the two ends you have these transceivers and everything else in the middle, which could be, you know, up to 30 miles, 40 miles, 200 miles, there's a lot of other infrastructure that we currently provide a portion of.

But obviously now it's an end-to-end solution in the real sense because we are covering both ends, and we can participate in technical discussions, for example, around how will signals lose intensity over time? So what's the link loss budget? And that discussion allows us to pull through all our other components more convincingly than if we were only selling those components standalone, right? So it does, it does help us in those broadband markets with those accounts. The same technology is also showing up more and more in data centers, obviously. So that's something helping. That's good for us. You know, if you think about server switch, storage, interconnects, they're all based on transceivers. And then this market obviously is growing, transceivers as a market is growing faster than our portfolio, right?

It's growing faster than even fiber. So this is, this is a good, you know, it's a gap fill, which also expands our capability, with existing and new customers. So it's, it's good from that perspective. When we articulated our new, you know, new M&A approach, we said, "You know, we are not looking at transformative acquisitions." Well, we said we would be focused on bolt-ons that help us with solution sales or technology gap filling. And in this case, of course, we do both. So it showed up pretty high on our, on our funnel, right? So we said, "Okay, this checks the boxes on both sides." The process was really us, approaching them, which I think is a good, good way to do this. So, you know, it was not really, a competitive process in that sense.

We had good, long discussions. They were not really up for sale per se, but they appreciated how becoming part of the broader Belden solution platform would help them and grow their franchise. So a very positive outcome. I think we're very excited about you know, welcoming those employees into Belden. They're very solutions oriented, very technology focused, and I think this is really going to supercharge our broadband business.

William Stein (Managing Director and Senior Analyst of Technology)

Thanks so much.

Operator (participant)

Our next question will come from Steven Fox with Fox Advisors.

Steven Fox (Founder and CEO)

Hi, good morning. I had a couple questions as well. My first question was kind of a follow-up to Will's question on the quarter. The answer you gave was great. It went through all the big picture issues that are driving outperformance. I'm just curious, if you dialed it in to what specifically happened in Q1, how would you sorta force rank what drove the upside? And then I had a follow-up.

Ashish Chand (President and CEO)

I think, there were a couple of things going on, Steve. First of all, like I said, on the industrial side, we continue to take share in a differentiated manner. Also, remember I talked about the fact that, you know, in past destocking cycles, industrial typically goes down faster, but comes back faster, right? So we've seen that phenomenon, I think, play out in Q1. I think on the enterprise side, we witnessed a little more inventory reduction in Q4 than what was healthy, because suddenly people had service level problems and outages, and I think there was a little bit of rebalancing in that. And I think we saw that in the broadband business, quite a bit.

So, you know, a little more normal, normalized approach to how our customers were managing their supply chain and inventory versus maybe, an overreaction, let's say, in the second half of 2023. So I think that was next. And I think third, like I said, on smart buildings, it is true that, you know, some of the traditional markets are not growing at this point, but we've been able to pivot, fairly successfully, right? Look at the healthcare example I talked about, and we were able to go in there with a full solution, that allowed them to not only lay the infrastructure, but also to monitor the data flow on that infrastructure. And that's a combination of, you know, our portfolio from across automation into smart buildings. And I think that gives us some unique growth opportunities.

I think that's the, that's the kind of rank ordering of, you know, industrial share gain, bounce back, broadband, more normalization, smart buildings, really more share gain.

Steven Fox (Founder and CEO)

... Great, that's helpful. And then just on the pace of the recovery in terms of, you know, channel destocking in the industrial markets. It seems like a lot of companies are sorta taking a more conservative outlook in terms of how long it's gonna take to sorta recover, you know, get inventories clear and start to recover towards more better growth. I know you mentioned three to six quarters, but is there anything right now that makes you either agree with that assessment or makes you, you know, think that things can clear more within that time range? Any puts and takes versus prior cycles will be helpful. Thanks.

Ashish Chand (President and CEO)

Yeah. You know, I actually agree with the broader thesis around, you know, markets in general taking some time to come back and normalize. I think, however, there are opportunities for being differentiated, and those are derived from two main areas, Steve. One, I think, is geographical exposure. So some of the companies that you are referring to also have a larger exposure in the East Asian context. And as you know, right, some of those more OEM export-oriented markets are sluggish at this point. While our exposure is more in markets like in the U.S., North America, Western Europe, where there is a need for reshoring, reindustrialization, and more projects seem to be taking shape as people build out capacity.

In fact, I would argue, there are markets where, because of labor shortage, people are not able to build out their projects as fast as they would like. So I think we are going into these markets geographically that need reindustrialization, and because they can't deploy new fixed assets, they need to make their existing assets more productive, and our solutions fit right in, into that opportunity. So I think there's some differentiation by geography. And then I think linked to that, there is some differentiation by technology. Because, you know, if you think about the data and network solutions we provide, they have a large portion of data orchestration and management, you know, the active products we provide, which is again, a little differentiated from some of our competitors.

That is not really seeing the same sluggishness, or the same inventory cycle, as some of the other components. So, I think the combination of geography, solution, and the split in that industrial stack is allowing us to grow faster, whilst overall, I think macro uncertainty is indeed true. I think on the four to six quarters question, I think past cycles have shown us that that's the cycle. But this, you know, this situation is a little different. I think geopolitics are different at this point, so it's not that easy to predict. But we will continue, I think, remaining differentiated versus competitors in this space.

Steven Fox (Founder and CEO)

Great. That's super helpful. Thank you.

Ashish Chand (President and CEO)

Sure.

Operator (participant)

Once again, if you would like to signal with questions, please press star one on your touchtone telephone. Again, star one. Our next question comes from David Williams with Benchmark.

David Williams (Equity Research Analyst)

Hey, good morning, gentlemen. Thanks for taking my question, and congratulations on the stability of the business here.

Ashish Chand (President and CEO)

Thank you.

David Williams (Equity Research Analyst)

I guess one question on the acquisition. Just kind of thinking about the optical device suppliers and their upbeat commentary about the opportunity around AI that that's driving, at least near term. Just kind of curious how much of this acquisition was really driven by capturing maybe that opportunity of demand, in particular in the data center? And then if that's an area that you anticipate to play in through this acquisition.

Ashish Chand (President and CEO)

Thanks, David. I think that's, that's certainly a very important aspect of the, the acquisition, right? So, our, our modeling around Precision Optical Technologies is based on the markets we currently, jointly serve around broadband solutions. But like I said before, right, the, the whole high-speed interconnect market, driven by server storage, switch connectivity in data centers being, you know, really accelerated by AI trends, is something we are keenly, keenly looking at. And I think this is where Precision will allow us to, also, serve our data center customers in a way that we haven't been able to do before. So, so yes, we think of ourselves more as the second derivative beneficiaries of AI, because we don't actually sell products that directly enable AI.

But if we are a provider of network and data solutions, we must enable that, AI. And I think, we've been certainly gaining, you know, share because of that on the industrial side, because we do data orchestration and management. And now I think on the enterprise side, precision will certainly help us with that. And, you know, you're right. I think when we look at how the broader market is thinking about that, and I know, you know, you have maybe companies in your coverage universe that focus on those markets, we feel very positive about that, growth momentum.

David Williams (Equity Research Analyst)

... Okay, fantastic. Thanks for the color there. And then do you anticipate this to be more of a captive solution with the internal consumption, or will you still have an opportunity to sell outside those components to maybe your existing customer base?

Ashish Chand (President and CEO)

It's gonna be far less captive, actually. We, you know, we at this point, it's still gonna be more part of a broader product bundle, approach, right? But we will build more captive solutions over time. But I think for the foreseeable future, it would be more, it would be less captive. And I think that's the right approach in this market right now, because, this is gonna be part of a broader, a broader solution, on the broadband side, you know, where a number of kind of providers come together to serve these MSOs and telcos. So we are happy to be part of that. But yes, especially for data centers and for certain other applications, you know, think about interoperability or resilience, we will certainly start building this into our captive solutions.

David Williams (Equity Research Analyst)

Fantastic. Yeah, and just one more, if I may. Can you speak to, the magnitude of the destocking that you're expecting? And, and maybe any colors around areas that have improved or maybe deteriorated. And apologies if I missed that earlier, I, I joined a bit late. Thank you.

Jeremy Parks (SVP of Finance and CFO)

Yeah. Hey, David, this is Jeremy. So with respect to the magnitude of the destocking, I think one of the elements that's made it difficult to quantify, as a discrete item, is the fact that we are seeing destocking not just at distribution, but at end users and OEMs. So it's our distributors' customers, in some respects, are taking down inventory, and we don't have great visibility. I think from our perspective, if you look at the drop off from first half to second half last year, and then obviously we're still behind first half last year, I think a significant portion of that is related to destocking, in all markets, in industrial, in broadband, and in smart buildings.

So I think from our perspective, it's obviously a key storyline and the number one Pareto item, the number one driver behind the reduction. But I can't quantify it in a discrete number for you.

David Williams (Equity Research Analyst)

That's fair. Thanks again for the time. Certainly appreciate the help.

Jeremy Parks (SVP of Finance and CFO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

That does conclude the question and answer session. I'll now turn the conference back over to you for any additional or closing remarks.

Jeremy Parks (SVP of Finance and CFO)

Yeah, thank you, operator, and thank you everyone for joining today's call. If you have any questions, please contact the IR team here at Belden. Our email address is [email protected]. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. That does conclude today's conference. We do thank you for your participation. Have an excellent day.