Benchmark Electronics Inc. (NYSE:BHE) Q3 2020 Earnings Conference Call - Final Transcript

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Benchmark Electronics Third Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Lisa Weeks, Vice President of Strategy and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today for Benchmark's Third Quarter 2020 Earnings Call. Joining me this afternoon are Jeff Benck, CEO and President; and Roop Lakkaraju, CFO. After the market closed today, we issued an earnings release highlighting our financial performance for the third quarter, and we've prepared a presentation that we will reference on this call. The press release and presentation are available online under the Investor Relations section of our website at www.bench.com. This call is being webcast live, and a replay will be available online following the call. The company has provided a reconciliation of our GAAP to non-GAAP measures in the earnings release as well as in the appendix of the presentation. Please take a moment to review the forward-looking statements advice on slide two in the presentation.

During our call, we will discuss forward-looking information. As a reminder, any of today's remarks that are not statements of historical facts are forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties as described in our press releases and SEC filings. Actual results may differ materially from these statements, most notably from the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Benchmark undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement. For today's call, Jeff will begin by covering a summary of our third quarter. Roop will then discuss our detailed third quarter results, including a cash and balance sheet summary and fourth quarter guidance. Jeff will wrap up with an outlook by market sector, an update on our strategic initiatives and a discussion on our midterm financial model before we conclude the call with Q&A.

If you will please turn to slide three in the presentation, I will turn the call over to our CEO, Jeff Benck.

Thank you, Lisa. Good afternoon, and thanks to everyone for joining our call today. We hope you are all staying safe and healthy during these unprecedented times. In Q3, we delivered revenue of $526 million, which was up 7% sequentially from Q2, supported by strong demand in our defense, semi-cap and telco sectors and improved manufacturing productivity. With improving operational efficiency, non-GAAP gross margins rebounded 170 basis points to 8.7% for the quarter. Improved profits and focused expense management resulted in non-GAAP earnings of $0.32 per share, which includes $1.3 million or $0.04 per share of COVID-related costs.

We believe COVID costs are a part of the new operating normal. And while we believe they will decline to some degree from current levels, they will likely not completely go away. After a challenging couple of quarters, I'm pleased to report that our manufacturing and engineering services operations have essentially returned to pre-COVID productivity levels, which has supported our improved results for Q3. This has not been