SANM earnings / call
SANM earnings call transcript, November 9, 2026
Sanmina's Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2026 Earnings - webinar.net
Key takeaways from this call : results vs expectations, guidance, what analysts asked
- Management 25%
- Yuri Sola 3%
- Paige Melching 0%
- Analysts 13%
- Operator 5%
Management
Yuri Sola
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
2 min
Paige Melching
Management
<1 min
Analysts · 5
2 min
1 min
- F
Stephen Fox
Fox
2 min
- S
Mehdi Hosseini
SIG
2 min
- S
Anya Soderstrom
Sudoti
2 min
Transcribed automatically by Lician from the company's public webcast; it can contain errors and speaker names are best effort.
- Prepared remarks9:56
- Operator
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to San Mena's fourth quarter fiscal 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode.
- Q&A10:07
- Operator
During the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for an operator. This call is being recorded on Monday. November 9th, 2026. I would now like to turn the conference over to Paige Melching. Please go ahead.
- Paige MelchingManagement
Thank you, Marissa.
- Operator
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
And welcome to Sanmina's fourth quarter in fiscal 2026 earnings call. A copy of our press release and slides for today's discussion are available on our website at sanmina.com in the investor relations section. Joining me on today's call is Yuri Sola, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and John Faust, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
Good afternoon.
Before I turn the call over to Yuri, let me remind everyone that today's call is being webcasted and recorded and will be available on our website. You can follow along with our preparation.
- Yuri SolaChairman and Chief Executive Officer
Remarks in the slides provided on the website. Please turn to slide three of our presentation and take note of our safe harbor statement. During this conference call, we may make projections or other forward-looking statements. Regarding future events or the future financial performance of the company. We caution you that such statements are just projections. The company's actual results could differ materially from those projected. In these statements as a result of factors set forth in the safe harbor statement. The company is under no obligation to and expressly disclaims any such obligation to update or alter any of the four looking. Statements made in this earnings release, their earnings presentation, the conference call, or in the investor relations section of our website, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, unless other. Required by law. Included in our press release and slides issue today, we have provided you with statements of operations for the fourth quarter and fiscal year end, October 3rd, 2026, on a GAAP basis, as well as a certain non-GAAP financial information. A reconciliation between the GAAP and non-GAAP financial information is also provided in the press release and slides posted on our website. In general, our non-GAAP information excludes restructuring costs, acquisition and integration costs, non-GAAP stock-based compensation expense, amortization expense, and other unusual or infrequent items. Any comments we make on this call as it
relates to the income statement measures will be directed at our non-GAAP financial results. Accordingly, unless otherwise stated in this conference call, when we refer to gross profit, gross margin, operating income, operating margin, tax taxes, net income, and earnings per share, we are referring to our non-GAAP information. I would now like to turn the call over to Yuri.
Thanks, Paige.
- Operator
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome, and thank you all for being here with us today. First, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize our employees and Seminas. Leadership team for doing a great job. So to you Seminas team, thank you for your dedication, hard work, and delivering strong execution. For our customers. Please turn to slide four. Ladies and gentlemen, I can tell you that I'm very pleased with our performance. We delivered a great result. For a fiscal year 26. Revenue grew 79% year over year to $14.53 billion. Non-GAAP operating margin expanded from $5. 7.7% operating margin to 7.4% operating margin year over year. Non-GAAP diluted EPS more than doubled to $13. and $0.28. Cash flow from operation was also very, very strong. Came in at $944 million. I can tell you. that we are executing according to our plan, with strong execution in both core Sanmina and Sanmina AI Group ZT systems. Now let's go to our agenda for today's call. We have John, our CFO, to review details of the results for you. I will follow up. with additional comments about results and future goals. And John and I will open for questions and answers. And now, I'd like to turn this call over to John. John?
Thank you, Uri.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining today's earnings call. Before I review our financial results for the quarter and the fiscal year, I want to acknowledge the entire Sambina team for their focused execution and thank them for delivering a great fourth quarter and a strong finish to the fiscal year. This was a transformative year for Sambina as we delivered strong broad-based growth across all of our end markets while largely completing the integration of the ZT systems business expanding. Our position in the cloud and AI infrastructure and market. I'm very proud of the team's performance and I'm excited about the opportunities ahead across our entire business. Now please turn to slide six where I'll speak to the financial highlights. As you already mentioned, we are very pleased with our financial results. Which, as you can see, exceeded our previously communicated outlook for both the quarter and the fiscal year across all metrics. Revenue exceeded the high end of our outlook range. This was driven by both the core Sanmina business, which exceeded its outlook ranges with growth coming from all end markets, and the ZT system. This came in line with our outlook. Additionally, our non-GAAP operating margin and our non-GAAP diluted earnings per share both exceeded our outlook. Driven by strong execution, mix, and disciplined cost management. We also had about $30 million of tariff recoveries.
Primarily associated with legacy ZT systems products, which wasn't factored into our outlook and contributed about 75 basis points of favorability to our non-GAAP operating margin. And about $0.42 to our non-GAAP diluted earnings per share. All in all, this was an outstanding quarter for Sanmina, which closed out a strong fiscal year. And with our proven track record of solid operational execution, we're now well positioned to take advantage of robust market demand in the new fiscal year ahead. Please turn to slide seven, where I'll speak to our non-GAAP P&L performance. As shown on the prior slide, we delivered revenue of 3.0. $8.6 billion, which was up 84% versus the same period a year ago. Our core Sanmina business revenue of $2.97 billion grew 42. percent versus the same period a year ago, exceeding our outlook with broad-based strength across all of our end markets, several of which through double digits a year. Our ZTE Systems business revenue of $884 million was in line with our outlook. Our non-gap gross profit was $444 million, or 11 million dollars. 1.5% of revenue. This was up 210 basis points versus the same period a year ago and above the high end of our expectations. Our non-gap... Operating expenses were $96.3 million or 2.5% of revenue in line with our expectations.
Our strong revenue and non-GAAP gross profit results, along with ongoing cost discipline and operating leverage, enabled us to achieve non-GAAP operating profit of $348 million or 9.0% of revenue. Up 300 basis points, those are the same period a year ago. Our non-GAAP other income and expense was a net expense of $20.9 million, lower than our expectations, largely due to strong cash flow generation. Our non-GAAP deleted earnings per share was $4.43 based on approximately $55. million shares outstanding. This strong non-GAAP deleted earnings per share performance represents a 166% increase versus the same period a year ago and showcases the high potential of our combined core SAN MENA and ZT Systems businesses. Now please turn to slide eight where I'll speak to the
IMS revenue came in at three point zero eight billion dollars of eighty three point three percent versus the same period a year ago. This was driven by growth in all of our end markets including the contribution from the ZT systems business. Core Sammina IMS revenue was two point billion dollars for the quarter of 30.8% which is the same period a year ago. ZT revenue was eight hundred and eighty four million dollars for the quarter. IMS non-GAAP gross margin was eleven point two percent of three hundred and forty basis points versus the same period a year ago. This was driven primarily by favorable mix including the impact from the addition of the ZT systems business plus the tariff recoveries that I mentioned previous. DPS revenue came in at eight hundred and twenty two million dollars of eighty-three percent versus the same. period a year ago. This was driven by strong growth in our Viking Enterprise solution storage business, our metal fabrication business for AI system racks, and our high technology printed circuit board business for aerospace and defense related products. All of which we've been investing in since the end of last fiscal year. DPS non-gap gross margin. was 12.0% down 250 basis points versus the same period a year ago. This sequential and year-over-year decrease was primarily driven by mix as well as the impact of the depreciation and other expenses related to investments to support future growth that I've spoken about on prior earnings calls. Now please turn to slide nine where I'll speak to
our P&L performance for fiscal year 2026 as compared to fiscal year 2025. At the beginning of the year, when we provided our high-level expectations for fiscal 2026, we said we expected core SAN MENA revenue to grow in the high single digits and GT systems revenue to be at a run rate of 5.0%. $6 billion as it was being integrated into SAN MENA and going through a product transition, and we delivered on both of those commitments. Of course, SAN MENA revenue came in stronger. than expected with growth of 18.3% compared to the prior year, driven by a solid performance across all end markets. And GT systems revenue came in at $5.4 billion on an annualized basis, falling well within the $5 to $6 billion annualized run rate. As you may recall, we provided a formal full-year outlook in April during our second quarter earnings call, and then we increased that outlook in July in our third quarter earnings call. pleased to report that we exceeded the July outlook with revenue of 14.5 billion dollars, which is up 79 percent year over year, and 224 million dollars above the high end of that outlook. Non-gap gross profit was 1.47 billion dollars, or 10.1 percent of revenue. up 90 basis points compared to the prior year. Non-gap operating income was 1.07 billion dollars, or 7.4 percent of revenue. Representing a 170 basis point improvement compared to the prior year and exceeded the high end of our outlook. Non-gap diluted earnings per share was $13.28.
Which represents an increase of 120% versus the prior year and exceeded the high end of our outlook provided in July by $1.08.
These improvements were the result of strong revenue growth, favorable product mix, and solid operational execution. Now please turn to slide 10 where I'll speak to the balance sheet highlights. We continue to have a very strong balance sheet. with prudent leverage and ample liquidity given us the capacity to invest in support of our growth objectives. Cash and cash equivalents were 1.68 billion dollars. We ended the quarter with inventory of 2.6 billion dollars net of customer advances which is up 131 percent versus the same period a year ago. Driven by ZTE systems acquisition and material staging required to support current and forecasted revenue growth. Inventory terms net of customer advances were 5.2 times for the quarter down from 6.7 times in the same period a year ago. It's important to remember that inventory is bound to firm customer purchase orders and binding forecasts. And that we do not make purchases on a speculative basis. In addition, we continue to utilize customer advances and prepayment agreements to de-risk against shifts and end market demand. Our strong earnings growth and disciplined working capital management resulted in non-GAAP pre-tax ROIC of 48.8% for the quarter, which is well above our weighted average cost of capital and an improvement from the 28.3% from the same period a year ago. Our net leverage ratio was 0.33 times for the quarter, below our long-term target range of 1.0 to 2.0 times, but we still expect to increase.
into that target range this coming year as we invest in working capital to support the growth of the business. That being said, we remain committed to maintaining a healthy balance sheet. Which means carefully managing the liquidity needed to invest in the business and capitalize on the strategic opportunities that further strengthen our position in the market. Now please turn to slide 11, where I'll speak to our cash flow highlights. As a result of the team's disciplined working capital management, cash flow from operations came in. at $242 million for the fourth quarter and $944 million for the fiscal year. Capital expenditures were $159 million for the quarter and $404 million. Free cash flow was $83 million for the quarter and $541 million for the year. For the last several quarters, we've been making strategic investments and new capabilities and incremental capacity across both the Corsi and MENA and GT Systems businesses, and we will continue to do so. to support future growth. In the Corsi and MENA business, these investments include metal fabrication capacity for AI system racks, new capabilities for high technology printed circuit boards for both AI and aerospace and defense related products, and capacity equipment for the new medium voltage transformer business for the rapidly growing energy end market. In the ZT systems business, the focus has been on incremental power, liquid cooling, test cell capacity, and automation for the next generation of accessories.
We believe these strategic investments will help drive profitable growth and future cash flows and generate an attractive ROI. For the company and shareholders. In Decoder, we repurchased about 825,000 shares for $154 million and for the full year. We repurchased about 2.4 million shares for $393 million. At the end of our fourth quarter, we had approximately $446 million available. Now please turn to slide 12, where I'll speak to our liquidity position.
We ended the quarter with total available liquidity of over $3.83 billion, which consists of $1.68 billion in cash and cash equivalents, an undrawn revolver, and other. Similar facilities of $1.55 billion, and a term loan A delayed draw of $600 million. After the end of the quarter, we refinanced. We financed our debt, further enhancing our financial flexibility and increasing our liquidity while reducing our interest costs. Refinancing, which was very well received by our existing and new lenders. Increased our Funded Term Loan A amount back to $1.4 billion, which was the original amount of that facility before we repaid approximately $70 million over the past year. So only a nominal increase. In addition, the maturity of both our revolver and the Term Loan A facility was extended by by one year to October, 2031, and our option to borrow the delayed draw component of the Term Loan A facility, which is currently undrawn, has been extended by six months to April, 2027. which better aligns with our actual needs. Annual mandatory repayment amounts have also been reduced giving us further financial flexibility. And finally, the credit spreads have been reduced by approximately 25 basis points and are now linked to our credit rating, rather than our leverage ratio, providing us with an additional opportunity to further reduce our interest cost in the future. As I mentioned previously, we remain committed to maintaining a healthy balance sheet, which means carefully managing
the liquidity needed to invest in the business and capitalize on the strategic opportunities that further strengthen our position in the market. Now please turn to slide 13, where I'll speak to our capital allocations.
When it comes to capital allocation, it's incredibly important to have a clear strategy and a well-defined set of priorities when making decisions. As we shared with you before, our first priority... ...is to invest in our business to drive long-term organic growth and margin expansion. We evaluate all investments with discipline and take a structured, ROI-based approach. Second, we continuously evaluate strategic acquisition and partnership opportunities, which need to meet our ROI expectations to help accelerate our growth. Third, we carefully manage our balance sheet and liquidity position with a focus on our long-term net leverage target, as well as our long-term goal.
And finally, when appropriate, we return capital to shareholders through share repurchases, subject to maintaining a strong balance sheet and liquidity position. We have and will continue to execute on this strategy by utilizing these options, which enables us to take advantage of opportunities to grow.
Now, please turn to slide 14, where I'll speak to our cloud and AI infrastructure strategy. Earlier this year, I provided an overview of our three. The first phase plan for the ZT systems business, and I explained how we had clear objectives for how to realize the full value of combining the two companies. In that plan, the first phase was focused on executing the immediate post-transaction integration actions, including making the necessary capital investments in incremental power, liquid cooling, and test cell capacity to be production ready for the next generation of accelerated compute. All of which is largely complete at this point. The second phase was focused on the successful execution of a product transition process, which required that we win new accelerated compute business. Which we've now done with Hyperscale, Frontier AI Lab, and OEM customers. And the third and final phase is about driving growth and expansion. And that's what I'd like to speak. about today. The first step is focused on our AMD partnership. Over the past year, we've made tremendous progress in establishing our partnership with AMD by winning new business with Hyperscale, Frontier AI Lab, and OEM customers for the Helios Accelerated Compute program. The customer validation process This is going well, and we're working in very close collaboration with AMD and our joint customers to support pre-production activities, providing the quality, delivery, and services.
We've finalized the operating models for several customers and are working to do the same for the others and will continue to do so as new customers get added. We've also received preliminary production schedules from our customers, which will continue to get refined and updated throughout the program launch process. I'm also pleased to announce that we've now begun to ship the Helios product. in small quantities and we're very excited about the opportunity ahead as we grow and scale the program. The second step is focused on adding new platforms. In our last earnings call, we announced that we won new programs on a second platform, which we're very excited about as it took place earlier than expected. These new programs which will start to ramp this fiscal year are included in our fiscal year 2027 outlook, which I will provide shortly. This past quarter, we also started discussions. to win programs on a third platform. These programs are not included in our fiscal 20 year fiscal year 2027 outlook but could lead to upside later in the year. We're very pleased with the project. The progress we made with these new platforms which demonstrate our value proposition through a full suite of product and service offerings and our ability to build upon what we acquired with VT systems. to significantly scale our business in the cloud and AI infrastructure at March. The third and final step is focused on vertical integration.
While we didn't expect to participate in vertical integration with the Helios program, due to high demand and our ability to demonstrate our key technology offerings, we've won some initial programs. Our close collaboration with customers during the pre-production validation process has given us the opportunity to showcase our unique value proposition. In combining ZT Systems' large-scale systems integration capabilities with Sanmina's extensive sub-assembly expertise, we can deliver a full suite of offerings that includes our components. products and services. We plan to continue investing in our engineering capabilities to support all platforms, and in doing so, we expect... our vertical integration opportunities and wins to grow and scale throughout the year and into the future. Now, please turn to slide 15, where I will provide our outlook for the first quarter. Our outlook is based on current customer forecasts, the return to a 13-week quarter, and takes into account ongoing market uncertainties and the geopolitical environment. With that said, we expect revenue between $3.8 and $4.1 billion. With the ZT Systems integration largely completed, going into the next year, we will be looking at the ZT Systems integration. Going forward, we will report revenue for cloud and AI systems, which includes ZT Systems, as well as the additional platforms and other related products and services.
That I just spoke about. To be clear, cloud and AI systems is a subset of our cloud and AI infrastructure and market. We expect cloud and AI systems revenue to be between 1.3 to 1.5 billion dollars. As we mentioned last quarter, we expect this part of our business to accelerate throughout the year, primarily driven by the timing of the Helios program ramp, as well as the additional platform opportunities and other related products and services. At the midpoint, total standing in revenue would be $3.95 billion, which represents 23.8% growth versus the same period a year ago. Non-GAAP operating margin of 7.0% to 7.5%, depending on mix. Above the high end of the expectations, Yuri and I set for the combined business. When we first announced the ZG Systems acquisition, we expect other income and expense to be at net expense of approximately $24 million. We expect... ...our non-GAAP effective tax rate to be between 21% to 23%. We estimate an approximate $5 million non-cash reduction... ...to our net income to reflect our India Joint Venture partners' equity interests. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share in the range of $3.50... ...to $3.85, based on approximately 55 million diluted shares outstanding. At the midpoint of $3.67.5, that represents a 50 million... ...a 54.4% increase compared to the same period a year ago. We expect capital expenditures to be $150 million as we continue to invest strategically.
...to support our future growth expectations. And finally, depreciation of approximately $48 million. Now please turn to slide 16, where I will... ...to provide our outlook for the full fiscal year in 2027. Much like our outlook for the first quarter, our fiscal year of 2027 outlook... ...based on current customer forecast and takes into account ongoing market uncertainties and the geopolitical environment. With that said, we expect revenue between 17.0... ...5 and 19.5 billion dollars. We expect cloud and AI system revenue to be in the range of 7.5 to 9.0 billion dollars. As I mentioned earlier, cloud and AI... ...Systems is a subset of our cloud and AI infrastructure at market and includes ZT systems as well as additional platforms and other related products and services. When we first announced the ZT systems acquisition in May 2025, we said we expected Sanmina revenue to double from about $8 billion to about $16 billion. Within three years. At the start of fiscal 2026, we accelerated that timeline to two years. Based on this fiscal 2027 guidance, we're now setting that bar even higher with a revenue midpoint of $18.5 billion, which represents 27.4% growth versus... the same period a year ago and sets us on a great trajectory for the future. We expect non-GAAP operating margin 7.0 to 7.5%, depending on mix, which is above the... the high end of the expectations Yuri and I set for the combined business when we first announced the ZG Systems Act.
We expect other income and expense to be at net expense. approximately 140 million dollars. We expect our non-GAAP affected tax rate to be between 21 percent to 23 percent. We estimate an approximate 20 million dollar non-cash reduction to our net income to reflect our India Joint Venture Partners equity interest. Non-Cash. We get diluted earnings per share in the range of $15.50 to $17.50 based on approximately 55 million only diluted shares outstanding. At the midpoint of $16. That represents a 24.2% increase compared to the same period a year ago. We expect capital expenditures to be $450 million as we continue to invest strategically. We support our future growth expectations while carefully managing our liquidity position in order to maintain a strong balance sheet. And finally, depreciation of approximately... $200 million. In summary, I'm very pleased with our results for both the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2026, as the team did an excellent job staying... Focused on the core Sanbena business while we worked to integrate the ZG Systems business and worked through a transition process and did so in a very dynamic market. And on top... We exceeded expectations on all fronts, not only for the fourth quarter, but also on a full-year basis from a revenue growth, non-GAAP operating margin expansion, and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share growth. There is still a lot of work to do, but we're on a great trajectory, and that is clearly evident in our outlook for the full fiscal year 2027.
And with that, I would like now to turn the call back over to you.
Thank you, John.
- Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, please turn to slide 18. As you heard from John, we deliver strong financial results. But also, you heard from him, there's a lot of things that we're doing, making this company a stronger company for the future. We are executing to our business plan. As you heard from John, we exceeded all our- with both the fourth quarter and fiscal year 26. Also, we've been adding new customers and expanding our partnerships with existing customers. This allowed us to deliver the growth across all land markets in fiscal year 26. Most important, again, is that Sanmina is well-positioned for growth in fiscal year 27 and beyond. Please turn to slide 19. Let me share with you some of the performance by market. As you heard, cloud and AI infrastructure did really well. In our last quarter, 2.3 7 billion. That's a growth of 179% year over year. And for a year we delivered in this segment 9.25 billion up 198%. Energy, medical, defense, aerospace, and automotive did well in the fourth quarter and delivered 1.49 billion in revenue. 19% year over year, and for a year delivered 5.27 billion up 5%. Also, exciting news for us is when we look at our business is the bookings. Bookings in the fourth quarter were very strong. Book to build came in 1.2 to 1. Please turn to slide 20. Now let me talk to you about, you know, market view for fiscal year 27 and beyond. I can tell you that we see.
Strong demand cross our customer base. For cloud, AI infrastructure, communication networks, bookings continue to be strong. We are winning new AI platform business. We added new customers. And for this segment, we see strong demand, not just for 27, but also for 28 today and beyond.
In Energy, we have very strong customer base. We expect growth to accelerate in fiscal year 27, driven by expanding our energy business for AI data center. Others, and a lot of other new programs that we have in a pipeline to drive the growth in fiscal year 27 and beyond. For medical, in this medical business, we are well diversified. We have a great customer base. We are leveraging our regulatory knowledge and experience to expand our customer base. and programs. And for fiscal year 27, we expect to see improvements in demand, mainly driven by new programs that are coming up. For defense and aerospace, we expect the growth in traditional USA defense and aerospace business to continue to grow. We are expanding our customer. Based in a satellite market, which is very exciting for us, and we continue to see strong demand also in this segment, not just for 27, but also for 28 and beyond. For our motive and transportation, overall we see stable demand. We continue to bring new programs from new and existing customers. And we also have a great customer base in this segment. Please turn to slide 21. Let me talk to you about a few things. was talking about you know we've been investing into diverse set of industry leading capabilities. We also as we got more and more involved in AI. business we're looking into increasing our addressable market through vertical integration and engineering. We've been beeping up our full system architecture and design. We've been investing in our traditional high tech
technology business around military and AI. We're expanding our assembly capabilities, mechanical precision machining around rocks and enclosure. We're investing in liquid cooling, including cooling manifolds and bus bars. We've been expanding our joint development and ODM products such as compute and storage. Our custom memory has been doing well and we're expanding that. We're also expanding our custom optical modules and investing. that segment. John talked to you a lot about the AI investments around the ZT and of course all the way to global order fulfillment. and services. So really excited what's in front of us from that point of view. So please turn to slide 22. Let me talk to you now what are my personal priorities. I call internally back to basics. Number one is continue to diversify our customer base. On the positive side we are expanding our long-term customer partnerships. We are adding new customers to building strong partnership by providing industry-leading technology solutions to them. Number two, we're executing cloud and AI strategy. Just to add a few things that you heard from John, ZT System has been a great acquisition. For us, not just from our technology and capabilities, but from the people that we acquire. But also in the last 12 months, we made a lot of investments to drive operational excellence. Companies well-positioned in AI segment and expanding partnership with
AI market leaders. Very exciting time for us. Number three, we are focused on long-term growth, margin expansion, and cash generation. For fiscal year 27, we see strong demand, and we expect strong demand to continue into fiscal year 28. In this market, we expect to maximize our operating level. To expand profitability. And number four is always to maximize shareholders' budget by focusing on long-term shareholders' returns. We do have lots of opportunities to drive the growth the next two years. And the goal is to build some in a bigger and stronger company. And longer-term, we expect to see continue to improve margin. We still believe there's room for improvements there. Now, please turn We'll see you soon. Turn to slide 23. In summary, we delivered a strong fourth quarter and a fiscal year 26. Exciting. Time for us. We are executing strategic priorities to try to drive sustainable growth. We'll continue to expand our industry. Leading capabilities and manufacturing footprint. Investments that we're making today, it's not just for a growth for 27, but also for a growth for 28. We're seeing new products. We are seeing new products and platforms being introduced in fiscal year 27. Very positive trends for us. We expect the growth from all of our key end markets in fiscal year 27. Based on what we see today. Our outlook for 27 reflects a strong demand and rentless focus on operational execution.
So, as you heard from John, for fiscal year 27, we've got a position for profitable growth. As we share our outlook. For a year, revenue of $17.5 billion to $19.5 billion. An operating margin of 7% to 7.5%. And non-GAAP. $15.5, $15.50 to $17.50. The key for our success, as always, is being delivered in comparison. It's a positive advantage to our customers, and I believe we are doing that.
- Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, now I would like to thank you all for your time and support. Operator.
We are now ready to open the lines for questions and answers.
Thank you again.
Thank you, Mr.
- Operator
Sola. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press... followed by one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to remove your hand from the queue, please press... followed by two. And if you are using a speakerphone, please... lift the handset before pressing any keys.
Your first question comes from Ruplu Bhattacharya with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Question · BofA Securities
Ruplu BhattacharyaAnalyst · BofA SecuritiesHi.
- Management
Hello Ruplu.
Question · BofA Securities
Ruplu BhattacharyaAnalyst · BofA SecuritiesThanks for taking my questions. For fiscal 27, you're guiding to a strong 8.25 billion of cloud and AI infrastructure. Revenue. Can you comment on how we should think about the cadence of that, like how much is first half, how much is second half, how much is the mix, GPU versus CPU, and how much is consigned? Versus non-consignment. And I have a follow-up. You've got a lot of questions. First of all, let me ask you there, and maybe John can add more. First of all, we expect a strong demand for AI hardware in the second half of fiscal 27. I mean, we see it today. It's all about now. You know, where, you know, customers will accept the deliveries. The good thing is we're starting to deliver. We are learning a lot. And, you know, it's very exciting. So, not to break it in all details, you know, when we deliver the full system, it includes everything that you just said, from GPUs, CPUs, and so on. It's a very expensive system. That's why... Performance, engineering performance quality is very, very critical for us. At the same time, we are expanding, you know, if you look at our Samina... I don't want to talk about and name it today, but we have a lot of customers that are typically being in networking business for a long time, but now also, you know, growing this... business. A lot of their products that we used to ship to them will actually be shipping it to ourselves to integrate in the systems that we built. So it's a very strong demand, Ruplu, and now it's all about executing.
- Management
You know, and eliminating when our customer needs it. John? Yeah, just to add to what Yuri said, I agree with all that, you know, Ruplu, in short, not a whole lot has changed. So from a timing perspective, still expect it to be. back-end loaded, you know, to the second half. Still early days, you know, we wanted to give a full-year perspective, so we did that as committed, both the Q1 guide and a full-year guide, but still expect it to be. We need more back-end loaded. In terms of the mix, no real change either, right? A lot of that revenue, the $7.5 billion to $9 billion for the full year, you know, is related to ZT systems. GPU and the Helios business. But, you know, as far as some of these other platforms, like, we expect those to ramp throughout the year. So we'll see what those are able to deliver. And then, yes, the assumption is still that net accounting basis with the consignment model. So we've, you know, as I said in my prepared remarks, we finalized that with a couple of the customers already. You know, the rest are in the work. But no change to the core assumptions. Got it. Thanks for the details there. Can I ask your guiding for the full year 7.25% operating margin at the midpoint? Again, how much is that being contributed by the core business improving versus having AI become a bigger part of the mix? And how does that impact working capital and free cash flow for fiscal 27?
- Management
Yeah, so, you know, the contribution is from both parts of the business or all of the business. So I'll say that, you know, when... And Yuri and I, when we first announced the ZT Systems acquisition, you know, we made an assumption that, you know, we'd have, that business would have Sanmina-like margins, and we talked about a 6% to 7% operated margin range. So now that we're... in fiscal year 27, you know, we're a little bit above that, which is great. A big part of that is the contribution of the core business. You know, the core business is doing very well. It grew quite a bit in the second half. This past year, you know, we expect that trajectory to continue, and we've been driving margin expansion there too, you know, both in terms of the mix of the business, operational improvements, and just operating leverage. And then, yeah, the VT systems side, or what we're calling cloud and AI systems, you know, is doing well too. So all in all, we're in a pretty good place, and, you know, we're very happy with where we're at from executions. standpoint, essentially being ahead of the curve of what we initially thought in our investment thesis. And what I mean by that is, you know, winning programs on new platforms, starting to get things going with vertical integration. Now, on the working capital front, you know, this past year, we had a great year for cash flow. And we saw that with what we just reported, you know, cash flow from operations coming in at $944 million.
- Management
So, as we head into this next year, you know, we do expect working capital to build, right? And as I was saying in my prepared remarks, I do expect, well, start to fall within our target range of that leverage ratio. But that's to be as expected, you know, no different than what we said before. And we're certainly still very well capitalized. Can I just ask a quick clarification? And when you say second platform and third platform, John, are these still with AMD or does ZT have the capacity now to move beyond AMD to other platforms as well? It's moving beyond AMD. So when we talked about last quarter, there was a second platform, so separate from AMD. So just early stages of that. But it is included in our guide and part of that cloud and AI systems revenue because we do expect that to. ramp throughout the year. So still a lot of work to get that off the ground, but we're making good progress. The third platform that I mentioned is not included in our guide. Now that's still early stages. So not, you know, not definitive enough to be able to include in guidance, but that's why I said in my prepared remarks, you know, we're very positive about that third separate platform. Hopefully, you know, if all goes to plan, we'll be able to talk more about that and it could provide some upside potential. But again, it's a little bit too early. So first, we've got to get that deal done and then we can start.
- Management
We're thinking about the timing of short term, we are planning on our plate. All right.
- Management
Thanks for all the details. Appreciate it.
- Management
Thanks, Ruplu.
- Management
Thanks, Ruplu.
- Operator
Your next question comes from Manmohanpreet Singh with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Question · J.P. Morgan
Manmohanpreet SinghAnalyst · J.P. MorganHey, IP.
How are you?
- Management
Hello, IP.
- Management
Hi, Ruplu and John.
Question · J.P. Morgan
Manmohanpreet SinghAnalyst · J.P. MorganThank you for taking my questions. And congrats on the strong print and guide. For my first question, just wanted to double click on the fiscal 27 guide. I think it's a pretty wide range than usual. So can you just help us understand like what are the. Drivers which are making you give a wider range and overtime, what would help you to narrow that range down to a more more discreet guidance and follow up. Yeah, sure. You know, it's really just the length of the fiscal year. And if you look at our Q1 guide, our guidance ranges are very much in line with what we've been doing historically, right? So a revenue range of about $300 million. EPS range of $0.35, so below 10% on both fronts, you know, very much similar to what we've done for the last several quarters. On a full-year basis, you're right, right? The revenue range of $2 billion and the $2 of EPS. A little bit wider, above that 10% mark, but really the rationale is, is that, you know, we've got a lot of new programs, big programs that are coming online, so it's a little bit early. Like we said on the... call, you know, everything that we know about from a customer forecast perspective, there's a lot of demand, as Yuri said, you know, geopolitical perspective, you know, all those. Things have been factored in, but there's still a lot of risk out there when you have a big new program, a complex program, there's always some risk.
- Management
So even if you look at the cloud and AI systems revenue guide, if I. The point you did that on the full year, seven and a half billion to nine billion. So that's one and a half of the two billion overall range. So so that's really the context. It's really just the length of time. Just the dynamic nature of the market. But over time, we should expect to tighten that up. Yeah, if I can add to that, also the supply chain, you know, we have right now shortages out there. And then there's some uncertainties around supply chain. Exactly. No, that's helpful. And a quick follow-up on the fourth quarter results. So the course and MENA. Business growth accelerated to, I think, over 40% in fiscal 4Q, while, like, firstly, I just want to double-click on, like, what exactly are the drivers within there? Is it some new market share wins or new? Program wins or what's really driving that? And then when we look into fiscal 27, course and meaner growth kind of moderates into 27. So is it just conservatism given its or into the year or are there any definite drivers or definite drivers which are making you to kind of imply a moderation and growth rate there? Thank you. Yeah, MP, you know, kind of. For Semino, legacy Semino business, you know, in the last couple of years, we invested a lot of, how do I say, time with our critical customers. We had a lot of new programs coming. I mean, end of 25 into the 26. So we see a lot of those now programs starting to mature. And, you know, we believe that's what drove the.
- Management
Well, diversified customer base, you know, across all the markets. And if you look at our industrial. Energy, medical defense, and aerospace, you know, that market today's well position grew nicely in that fourth quarter of 19%. And so we expect the Samina's business to. To grow, you know, double digits and but there's a lot of a lot of strong programs in our pipeline. And, you know, it's a good, good time for us. You combine the opportunities we have with the ZTAI. That's why we're excited about the fiscal year 27 and beyond. John, you want to add anything to that? I think you said it well here. I mean, we're not. You're not supporting core SIN MENA versus ZT systems anymore, right? But you're kind of backed into the high-level math of low double digits growth of that core business. I think that's a good proxy. At the end of the day, the reality is, is both cloud and AI infrastructure, communication networks, for a while, we have six quarters in a row of 20% year-over-year growth, but the last quarter in Q3. Now, this quarter, that accelerated. So, you know, we expect that to continue to the first half, but then in the second half, we'll have some tougher compares, right? But the rest, industrial energy, medical defense, and aerospace, you know, that's really been accelerated. So, but our team, if I can add that really give a compliment to our operational team, our team is executing really well. Anytime you do a major opposition as we.
- Management
Did a year ago, you always kind of worried. So if you look at our forecast from a year ago and what we delivered, we delivered better than 40% than what was the. And that's all really to our, you know, operational team by executing our customers that are being very supportive because of our execution and technology that we bring to them. And that's what. We are building on. There's a lot in this business, MP, you never can relax, you know, it's a one day at a time. And but the team has been doing well, and I think that's the reason we are winning the new programs. And hopefully, that will continue. Thank you. Thanks a lot for the call there.
- Management
Thanks, MP.
- Operator
Your next question comes from Stephen Fox with Fox.
Fox advisors, please go ahead.
Question · Fox
FStephen FoxAnalyst · FoxHi.
Good afternoon and congrats.
Hi. I guess, first of all, just thinking about the full year. Margin guidance. How would we think about that on sort of an apples-to-apples comparison? You had the tariff benefits in Q4, but you also had some unusual margins on some pre-engineering work you called out in prior quarters. Like, what are we... Comparing the 7 to 7.5 to you, would you say, just to get a sense for that? And within that question, can you just give us... It sounds like mix is the biggest driver on top of volume, but I just want to make sure I got that right. And I had a follow-up. Yeah, no, that's exactly right, Steve. I mean, I think it's a fairly apples-to-apples comparison. You know, the NRE, the non-recurring engineering that we saw with the Helios program, the reality is that's part of our... not just on the ZT system side of the business, but of course in MENA business, too. You know, we always do that. It just happens that Helios is a very large program with large customers, and so that, you know, that... ...had a pretty big impact, and it was just more than what we had expected within the year, so that kind of led to some of that. But that'll continue, and hopefully if we win the programs... ...after Helios, we'll see some of that again, but it exists on both sides of the business, so kind of apples to apples. Tariffs was kind of a unique one-time thing, the $30 million. At the end of the day, that was related to some legacy ZT systems so much. It's not part of like the core same business model, and it won't be part of ZT systems going forward either. So you can kind of adjust for that.
- Management
On a full year basis, which isn't a huge amount. And that's why if you think about where we exit in 26, you know, full year compared to our full year 27 outlook. Not too far off aside from mix adjustments. And also, if you look and see what we've been investing in the last 12 to 18 months, we've been in all more advanced technology products. It should help us, sometimes in 47, add to the bottom line. Great. That's very helpful. And that actually leads into my second question, which is, if I think about sort of the revenue guidance for the cloud and AI segment that you're now defining, ZT plus additional platform business, is basically the difference between the total and whatever would be ZT related to you guys. Getting more attach rate on, you know, your vertical capabilities. Is that how we should think about it? Is there anything else that's getting in there that you're having success with? And then what do we think about the attach rate, you know, maybe now? Versus exiting the year for some of those vertical skills. Let me take that question, Steve, more from a business perspective. where we are being focused on. Every year is a different year and the mix of the business is very critical. We've been strategically investing in our in a business that will allow us, well they're a lot more difficult to build, require bigger investments, but it should deliver us a better margin in the future.
- Management
we're not there yet, we think there's a room for improvements as we go out a few quarters, and you know John a little bit talked about the energy investment, that this is a new business building large. transformers that are over 12 tons, you know we have a huge demand on that right now, that you know once we start the production on that in January we expect to start seeing. some good profitable business middle of the next year, all those things and we think differently today and I mean even GT, GT is completely a different company today from capabilities point of view. Then when we acquired it, we invested a lot of money into that. We strategically positioned for the, you build, we building some very, very advanced system that can't fail. And those type of things, if you can do it right, you can squeeze out based on our efficiencies and leveraging your capabilities. A penny here, a penny there should help. us move in the right direction. Yeah, just to add to that, Steve, when we did the ZTE systems acquisition, that was a decision Yuri and I made to expand deeper. into the data center and market. You know, big focus on RAC integration, but other opportunities, too. So when you think about, like, adding new platforms, for example, some of that could happen in the ZTE plants, but some will be done in course in Mena plants. So the lines are starting to blur, right? And even some of the vertical integration opportunities that we have, we win with, like, a Helios program, for example, you don't get incremental revenue for that.
- Management
Because it gets eliminated. But we can also sell some of those products and services to non-Helios, right? So if you think about mechanical racks, right, we can give mechanical racks. For Helios for those customers, that revenue gets eliminated. But if we sell mechanical racks to other customers, now that's upside. So the point is, is things, the lines are blurring, as we've talked about, between coursing. GT systems, which is why we shifted to this cloud and AI systems category to help to give some insight in this first year as we turn the corner and grow. Great. That's all very helpful. Thank you. Thanks. Operator, we have time for one more question. Wonderful. Final question comes from… Two more questions. Sorry. Two? Okay. Absolutely.
- Operator
The next question comes from Mehdi Hosseini with SIG. Please go ahead.
Question · SIG
SMehdi HosseiniAnalyst · SIGThank you, Mehdi.
How are you? Very good. Thank you.
Thanks for taking my question.
Mehdi, I almost forgot you here for a second. That's all right. I'm sure you've been busy. And actually, speaking of being busy, if I just take the midpoint of your fiscal year 27, a guide for cloud and AI system, can you talk? Talking to diversification of customers, I know you talked about a second platform, but I also want to. Get a better sense of how big the second platform is, and I'm sure if I ask, you're not going to give me the dollar amount, but perhaps you could talk about a diversification of the customers. We're mixed in the cloud and AI system midpoint for 2027, and I have a follow-up. Yeah, a couple of things, Matty. So one, even with the AMD platform business, primarily Helios, we've got a very diversified business, right? So we've got multiple customers. Talked about hyperscalers, the frontier AI labs, OEMs, NeoClouds, and that's across both the U.S. and non-U.S. or international, so pretty diverse base. Then you add on top of that, to your point, additional platforms, you know, and other products and services. Now one thing I'll point you to. If you didn't notice it, but in slide 19, in our earnings presentation, it's the end market mix that you recovered. We did actually put in there the cloud and AI systems baseline for FY26. You got a comparison point. So what you can see is that ZT was $4.9 billion for last fiscal year. Cloud and AI systems 5.3. So again, it's mostly ZT. Now we'll see how things progress.
- Management
Throughout the year, this is why we have that broader range, right? But our goal is always to be, we've always wanted to drive diversification within the AMD business and then across the broader category overall. Gotcha. Gotcha. Which is all encouraging. And this leads to my next question. If I just take your commentary and midpoint of the overall revenue, you're exiting.
- Management
A fiscal year 27 in a revenue, a quarterly revenue of 5.5 to 6 billion. And given this diversification of AI customers and a prospect of the. Third platform materializing, then I see a continued double digit growth into FI 28, given the run rate you're exiting 27 at. Is that a. Would you agree with that? Thought process. Everything is possible as a potential. We'll just see how we are very positive with the key customers that we have today about the future. You know, definitely 27. But we also see a lot of positive things in 28. I think potential is there to grow. I mean, that's what we want to do. That's what we are hoping. For and working for, not just hoping. We're making things happen to position the company to have that potential. And I think he already said it well earlier when he said that there's a lot of demand out there, right? If we can go out and execute. You know we can manage the supply chain well and that's done in coordination with with our partners and with our customers. You know if we can take advantage of that demand I mean anything's possible. So I agree. So John would your CapEx guide of your CapEx guide of 450 million. I'm sorry 450 right? Correct that's correct. Yeah is that CapEx for fiscal and that's correct. Would FI 27 be enough to sustain a double-digit growth into FI 28? Well the one thing I'll remind you of Mehdi is that you know that third platform that we talked about is not part of our guide either on the P&L perspective you know either CapEx as well right so put that aside but you know the guide that we have right now for 50 very much
- Management
supports the the P&L that we guided the 17 and a half to 19 and a half now the things go very very well we start to see that demand develop right that you were just asking about for FY20 and beyond you know is it and we start trending towards the higher end of 19.5 billion then certainly could we invest a bit more sure and you know we'll always look at those opportunities you know fall in our capital allocation strategy that i talked about during as a part of my prepared remarks so got it okay thank you thank you your final question comes from Anya Soderstrom with Sudoti please go ahead hi thank you for taking my questions and congrats on the nice quarter here thanks Anya Most of my questions have been answered already or addressed already but I I'm just curious you're talking about the third platform not included in the guidance but what does the pipeline look. Like beyond that third platform. Yeah I mean you know at this point as Yuri was saying just just a few minutes ago like we've got a lot to execute you know with what we've got going on at the core business you know the AMD partnership. even the second platform but you know we've got the capacity to do more now you know we're focused on this third platform right now so we'll see if there's something beyond that that makes sense but one point. do you want to make on you is that you know we intend to maintain a very well diversified portfolio right we exited this year you know FY26 well diversified between all of our ed markets and we want to continue.
Question · Sudoti
SAnya SoderstromAnalyst · Sudotithat going forward because as great as you know the data center business has been and how much demand is out there there's a lot of opportunities elsewhere you know we feel it's important across ed markets. you know the customers that we have geographies you know all of those things we'll balance those decisions about what comes next you know with that lens. Okay again just in terms of the margin you you guided to the same margin for the first quarter in the full year but given it's going to be sort of a back-end loaded year shouldn't that expand as you get higher revenue and. might the full year margin guidance be a little bit shy maybe yeah no I think it's fair and balanced you know we always forecast on a center-weighted basis you know like our the midpoint. is our best guess there's upside risk there's downside risk that's why we put the ranges out there and a slightly higher range to MPs question on a full year basis but it's predominant. right yes to to your point you know as as we grow should we get more off weight operating leverage yes more fixed cost leverage yes but also you know some of the businesses that we're in have a you know a little bit lower margin profiles some of the other ones that we're growing is higher so our our best guess at this point in time is that seven to the seven and a half but it will depend on and we'll update that on a quarterly basis okay thank you well ladies and gentlemen uh thank you very much uh for uh great questions and a call
- Management
you know we excited what's in front of us uh so if you have any more if we didn't answer any of your questions please give us a call and uh and uh appreciate your support and talk to you 90 days from now thank you bye-bye
- Operator
ladies and gentlemen this concludes today's conference call thank you for your participation you may now disconnect