CTS Corporation (NYSE:CTS) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 6, 2024 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Kieran O'Sullivan - President and Chief Executive Officer

Ashish Agrawal - Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Justin Long - Stephens

John Franzreb - Sidoti & Company

Hendi Susanto - Gabelli Funds

Operator

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the CTS Corporation Fourth Quarter 2023 Conference Call. My name is Daisy, and I'll be coordinating your call today. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to hand over to your host, Kieran O'Sullivan, CEO, to begin. So Kieran, please go ahead.

Kieran O'Sullivan

Great. Thank you, Daisy. Good morning, and thank you for joining our fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings call.

We continue to experience soft demand in the industrial, distribution and commercial vehicle markets as outlined in our last earnings call. The light vehicle market is more stable. Across medical and defense, we saw good growth and see continued momentum in the year ahead.

We are committed to a disciplined capital structure, focused on supporting organic growth, strategic acquisitions and returning cash to shareholders. Our Board recently approved a $100 million share repurchase program that replaces our existing program authorized in February 2023.

Ashish will now take us through the safe harbor statement, Ashish.

Ashish Agrawal

I would like to remind our listeners that this conference call contains forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements.

Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties is contained in the press release issued today, and more information can be found in the company's SEC filings. To the extent that today's discussion refers to any non-GAAP measures under Regulation G, the required explanations and reconciliations are available with today's earnings press release and supplemental slide presentation, which can be found in the Investors section of the CTS website.

I will now turn the discussion back over to our CEO, Kieran O'Sullivan.

Kieran O'Sullivan

Thanks, Ashish. Overall, 2023 was a challenging year.

We finished with sales of $125 million in the fourth quarter, a decline of 12% from the fourth quarter of 2022. For the full year, sales were $550 million, down 6% from 2022. For the full year, Non-transportation sales were down 12%, and Transportation sales were down at 1% from last year.

Customer demand remained soft as expected in the fourth quarter. Our book-to-bill rate was 0.96 in the fourth quarter and 0.97 for the full year. I want to thank our teams for their support as we carefully managed operating expenses, while we navigated a challenging revenue environment, particularly in the fourth quarter of 2023.