ZEBRA TECHNOLOGIES CORP (ZBRA) FY 2023 MD&A

Item 7.Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

This section generally discusses fiscal 2023 and 2022 items and year-over-year comparisons between 2023 and 2022. Discussions of 2021 items and year-over-year comparisons between 2022 and 2021 are not included herein. Refer to “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Part II, Item 7 of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 for that discussion.

Overview

The Company is a global leader in providing Enterprise Asset Intelligence (“EAI”) solutions in the Automatic Identification and Data Capture (“AIDC”) industry. The AIDC market consists of mobile computing, data capture, radio frequency identification devices (“RFID”), barcode printing, and other workflow automation products and services. The Company’s operations consist of two reportable segments that provide complementary offerings to our customers: Asset Intelligence & Tracking (“AIT”) and Enterprise Visibility & Mobility (“EVM”). Refer to Part I, Item 1 of this document for additional information.

•The AIT segment is an industry leader in barcode printing and asset tracking technologies. Its major product lines include barcode and card printers, RFID and RTLS offerings, and supplies, including temperature-monitoring labels, and services.

•The EVM segment is an industry leader in automatic information and data capture solutions. Its major product lines include mobile computing, data capture, fixed industrial scanning and machine vision, services, and workflow optimization solutions. Our workflow optimization solutions include cloud-based software subscriptions, retail solutions, and robotic automation solutions.

Change in Segments

In the second quarter of 2023, our advanced location technology solutions business, which is primarily comprised of RFID devices and RTLS offerings, moved from our EVM segment into our AIT segment contemporaneous with a change in our organizational structure and management of the business. We have reported our segment results reflecting this change, including historical periods, on a comparable basis. This change does not have an impact on the Consolidated Financial Statements.

During the past year, we have maintained our position as a market leader in our core businesses, which are generally considered to be comprised of our mobile computing and data capture products, printing products and supplies, as well as support and repair services. Customers across the industries that we serve have benefited from our core offerings to keep pace with the increasingly on-demand economy and to invest in their long-term technology capabilities. The Company continues to focus on scaling and integrating our recent acquisitions providing growth opportunities across our solution offerings.

Macroeconomic Environment

We entered 2023 facing headwinds from global cost inflation, rising interest rates, and a stronger U.S. dollar, which have negatively impacted our current year results. As the year progressed, we experienced a broad-based decline in customer demand across our core product offerings. Demand declines were most pronounced in our mobile computing and printing businesses within our EVM and AIT segments, respectively, as we believe many of our customers were absorbing significant capacity built-out in recent years, while also experiencing tighter capital spending budgets. These dynamics, coupled with a general trend in distributors reducing their inventory levels, negatively impacted our current year results. We have been partially mitigating the financial impacts of these operating headwinds through a combination of cost management actions and targeted list price increases. Throughout 2023, we also experienced an overall improvement in both component part availability and costs of transportation, which enabled us to better meet customer demand as compared to the prior year. We are not yet seeing signs of a broad-based recovery in end-market demand.

2023 Financial Summary and Other Recent Developments

•Net sales were $4,584 million in the current year compared to $5,781 million in the prior year.

•Operating income was $481 million in the current year compared to $529 million in the prior year.

•Net income was $296 million, or $5.72 per diluted share in the current year, compared to Net income of $463 million, or $8.80 per diluted share in the prior year.

•Net cash used in operating activities was $4 million in the current year compared to net cash provided by operating activities of $488 million in the prior year.

•We repurchased $52 million of common shares in the current year compared to $751 million in the prior year.

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Restructuring Activity

As a result of the impacts on our business discussed above, the Company expanded the scope of its 2022 Productivity Plan and initiated a U.S. employee voluntary retirement plan (“VRP”) in the current year (the “Programs”). During the first quarter of 2024, the Company committed to additional actions under the 2022 Productivity Plan which will bring the total expected cost of the Programs to approximately $130 million. These costs are classified within Exit and restructuring on the Consolidated Statements of Operations. The Programs are expected to impact over 9% of our global employee base and are estimated to result in annualized net cost savings of approximately $120 million, primarily within Operating expenses. The Company has realized approximately $50 million of net savings to date, primarily in the third and fourth quarters of the current year. The actions under the VRP have been completed in the current year and the remaining actions under the 2022 Productivity Plan are expected to be substantially completed in the first half of 2024.

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Results of Operations: Year Ended 2023 versus 2022 and Year Ended 2022 versus 2021

Consolidated Results of Operations

(amounts in millions, except percentages)

Net sales to customers by geographic region were as follows (amounts in millions, except percentages):

Operating expenses are summarized below (amounts in millions, except percentages):

Consolidated Organic Net sales (decline) growth:

(1)Operating results reported in U.S. Dollars are affected by foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations. Foreign currency translation impact represents the difference in results that are attributable to fluctuations in the currency exchange rates used to convert the results for businesses where the functional currency is not the U.S. Dollar. This impact is calculated by translating the current period results at the currency exchange rates used in the comparable prior year period, inclusive of the Company’s foreign currency hedging program.

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(2)For purposes of computing Organic Net sales (decline) growth, amounts directly attributable to business acquisitions are excluded for twelve months following their respective acquisitions.

(3)Consolidated Organic Net sales (decline) growth is a non-GAAP financial measure. See the Non-GAAP Measures section at the end of this item.

2023 compared to 2022

Total Net sales decreased $1,197 million or 20.7% compared to the prior year reflecting declines in both of our segments resulting from broad-based decline in demand for our core products as well as a reduction of inventory levels at our distributors. Current year Net sales of both segments included the benefit of targeted list price increases, partially offset by the negative effects of foreign currency changes. Prior year Net sales of both segments were negatively impacted by supply chain bottlenecks, which were most pronounced in our EVM segment. Excluding the effects of foreign currency changes and acquisitions, Consolidated Organic Net sales decreased by 19.8%.

Gross margin increased to 46.3% for the current year compared to 45.4% in the prior year. As compared to the prior year, Gross margin was significantly higher in our AIT segment, while Gross margin in our EVM segment was modestly lower. Both segments, particularly AIT, benefited from lower premium freight and component part costs compared to the prior year, and were negatively impacted by volume deleveraging, particularly EVM.

Operating expenses for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022 were $1,642 million and $2,095 million, or 35.8% and 36.2% of Net sales, respectively. Excluding the $372 million settlement charge in the prior year, Operating expenses would have been 29.8% of Net sales. The increase as a percentage of Net sales over the prior year reflects the impact of expense deleveraging. Current year Operating expenses were lower than the prior year primarily due to the prior year including a $372 million settlement charge, lower employee incentive compensation, cost efficiencies attributed to our Exit and restructuring actions, lower Amortization of intangible assets, and lower Acquisition and integration costs, partially offset by higher Exit and restructuring costs and the inclusion of operating expenses associated with recently acquired businesses.

Operating income was $481 million for the current year compared to $529 million for the prior year. The decrease was due to lower Gross profit partially offset by lower Operating expenses.

Net income decreased 36.1% compared to the prior year primarily due to lower Operating income, as described above, as well as higher Other (expense) income, net. Other (expense) income, net was an expense of $147 million for the current year, compared to income of $15 million in the prior year primarily due to higher interest expense associated with higher interest rates and average outstanding debt levels as well as lower interest rate swap gains in the current year.

The Company’s effective tax rates for the years ended December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022 were 11.4% and 14.9%, respectively. The decrease in the effective tax rate compared to the prior year was primarily due to favorability in discrete items.

Diluted earnings per share decreased to $5.72 as compared to $8.80 in the prior year due to lower Net income, partially offset by lower average shares outstanding.

Results of Operations by Segment

The following commentary should be read in conjunction with the financial results of each reportable business segment as detailed in Note 20, Segment Information & Geographic Data in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements. To the extent applicable, segment operating income excludes business acquisition purchase accounting adjustments, amortization of intangible assets, acquisition and integration costs, impairment of goodwill and other intangibles, exit and restructuring costs, as well as certain other non-recurring costs (such as the settlement in the prior year).

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Asset Intelligence & Tracking Segment (“AIT”)

(amounts in millions, except percentages)

AIT Organic Net sales (decline) growth:

(1)Operating results reported in U.S. Dollars are affected by foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations. Foreign currency translation impact represents the difference in results that are attributable to fluctuations in the currency exchange rates used to convert the results for businesses where the functional currency is not the U.S. Dollar. This impact is calculated by translating the current period results at the currency exchange rates used in the comparable prior year period, inclusive of the Company’s foreign currency hedging program.

(2) AIT Organic Net sales (decline) growth is a non-GAAP financial measure. See the Non-GAAP Measures section at the end of this item.

2023 compared to 2022

Total Net sales for AIT decreased $186 million or 10.1% compared to the prior year primarily due to lower sales of printing products and the negative effects of foreign currency changes, partially offset by targeted list price increases. Excluding the impact of foreign currency changes, AIT Organic Net sales decreased by 8.8%.

Gross margin increased to 47.7% in the current year compared to 43.3% for the prior year primarily due to lower premium freight and component part costs, and price increases, partially offset by the negative impact of foreign currency changes and volume deleveraging.

Operating income decreased 4.2% in the current year compared to the prior year due to lower Gross profit and higher Operating expenses.

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Enterprise Visibility & Mobility Segment (“EVM”)

(amounts in millions, except percentages)

EVM Organic Net sales (decline) growth:

(1)Operating results reported in U.S. Dollars are affected by foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations. Foreign currency translation impact represents the difference in results that are attributable to fluctuations in the currency exchange rates used to convert the results for businesses where the functional currency is not the U.S. Dollar. This impact is calculated by translating the current period results at the currency exchange rates used in the comparable prior year period, inclusive of the Company’s foreign currency hedging program.

(2)For purposes of computing EVM Organic Net sales (decline) growth, amounts directly attributable to business acquisitions are excluded for twelve months following their respective acquisitions.

(3)EVM Organic Net sales (decline) growth is a non-GAAP financial measure. See the Non-GAAP Measures section at the end of this item.

2023 compared to 2022

Total Net sales for EVM decreased $1,011 million or 25.6% compared to the prior year primarily due to lower sales of mobile computing products (contributing the majority of the total decrease) and data capture products, which were partially offset by higher sales of services and software, and contributions from our recent acquisitions. Current year Net sales included the benefit of targeted list price increases, substantially offset by the negative effects of foreign currency changes. Excluding the impacts of foreign currency changes and acquisitions, EVM Organic Net sales decreased by 24.9%.

Gross margin decreased to 45.6% in the current year compared to 46.4% for the prior year primarily due to product volume deleveraging, the negative impact of foreign currency changes and inventory-related charges, partially offset by pricing, higher service and software margins, and lower premium freight and component part costs.

Operating income for the current year decreased 51.8% compared to the prior year due to lower Gross profit, partially offset by lower Operating expenses.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

The primary factors that influence our liquidity include the amount and timing of cash collections from our customers, cash payments to our suppliers, capital expenditures, acquisitions, and share repurchases. Management believes that our existing capital resources, inclusive of available borrowing capacity on debt and other financing facilities and funds generated from operations, are sufficient to meet anticipated capital requirements and service our indebtedness. The following table summarizes our cash flow activities for the years indicated (in millions):

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2023 vs. 2022

The change in our cash and cash equivalents balance during the current year is reflective of the following:

•$492 million of incremental operating cash outflows primarily due to reduced operating profits and higher cash payments for income taxes, Exit and restructuring actions, interest, inventory purchases, and the settlement, partially offset by favorability in the timing of customer collections and lower employee incentive compensation payments.

•$876 million less in investing activities primarily due to cash payments for the acquisition of Matrox in the prior year.

•$136 million less in financing activities primarily due to increased borrowings in the prior year as a result of the Company refinancing its long-term credit facilities, partially offset by lower common stock repurchases in the current year.

Company Debt

The following table shows the carrying value of the Company’s debt (in millions):

In May 2022, the Company refinanced its long-term credit facilities by entering into its third amendment to the Amended and Restated Credit Agreement, which increased the Company’s borrowing under Term Loan A from $875 million to $1.75 billion and the Company’s borrowing capacity under the Revolving Credit Facility from $1 billion to $1.5 billion, extended the maturities of the facilities to May 25, 2027, and replaced LIBOR with SOFR as the benchmark reference rate.

Term Loan A

The principal on Term Loan A is due in quarterly installments, with the next quarterly installment due in March 2024 and the majority due upon maturity in 2027. The Company may make prepayments in whole or in part, without premium or penalty, and would be required to prepay certain outstanding amounts in the event of certain circumstances or transactions. As of December 31, 2023, the Term Loan A interest rate was 6.71%. Interest payments are made monthly and are subject to variable rates plus an applicable margin.

Revolving Credit Facility

The Company has a Revolving Credit Facility that is available for working capital and other general business purposes, including letters of credit. As of December 31, 2023, the Company had letters of credit totaling $11 million, which reduced funds available for borrowings under the Revolving Credit Facility from $1,500 million to $1,489 million. As of December 31, 2023, the Revolving Credit Facility had an average interest rate of 6.66%. Upon borrowing, interest payments are made monthly and are subject to variable rates plus an applicable margin. The Revolving Credit Facility matures on May 25, 2027.

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Receivables Financing Facilities

The Company has two Receivables Financing Facilities with financial institutions that have a combined total borrowing limit of up to $280 million. As collateral, the Company pledges perfected first-priority security interests in its U.S. domestically originated accounts receivable. The Company has accounted for transactions under its facilities as secured borrowings. The Company’s first facility allows for borrowings of up to $180 million and matures on March 19, 2024. The Company’s second facility allows for borrowings of up to $100 million and matures on May 13, 2024.

As of December 31, 2023, the Company’s Consolidated Balance Sheets included $483 million of gross receivables that were pledged under the facilities. As of December 31, 2023, $129 million had been borrowed and was classified as current. Borrowings under the facilities bear interest at a variable rate plus an applicable margin. As of December 31, 2023, the facilities had an average interest rate of 6.81%. Interest is paid monthly on these borrowings.

See Note 12, Long-Term Debt in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for further details related to the Company’s debt instruments.

Receivables Factoring

The Company transfers certain receivables to banks without recourse as part of its credit and cash management activities. Such transfers are accounted for as sales and the related receivables are removed from the Company’s balance sheet. The Company does not maintain any beneficial interest in the receivables sold. The Company services the receivables on behalf of the banks, but otherwise maintains no significant continuing involvement with respect to the receivables. Sale proceeds that are representative of the fair value of factored receivables, less a factoring fee, are reflected in Cash flows from operating activities on the Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows, while sale proceeds in excess of the fair value of factored receivables are reflected in Cash flows from financing activities on the Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows. The Company has two Receivables Factoring arrangements. One arrangement allows for the factoring of up to €150 million of uncollected receivables originated from the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions. In the third quarter, the Company amended its second arrangement to allow the factoring of uncollected receivables originated from the EMEA region from up to $25 million to $50 million. Otherwise, the amendment did not substantially change the terms of the arrangement.

As of December 31, 2023 and 2022, there were a total of $56 million and $61 million, respectively, of uncollected receivables that had been sold and removed from the Company’s Consolidated Balance Sheets.

As servicer of sold receivables, the Company had $112 million and $130 million of obligations that were not yet remitted to banks as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. These obligations are included within Accrued liabilities on the Consolidated Balance Sheets, with changes in such obligations reflected within Cash flows from financing activities on the Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows.

See Note 19, Accounts Receivable Factoring in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for further details.

Share Repurchases

On May 17, 2022, the Company announced that its Board of Directors authorized a share repurchase program for up to $1 billion of its outstanding shares of common stock. This authorization augments the previous $1 billion share repurchase authorization which was announced on July 30, 2019. The newly authorized share repurchase program does not have a stated expiration date. The level of the Company’s repurchases depends on a number of factors, including its financial condition, capital requirements, cash flows, results of operations, future business prospects and other factors its management may deem relevant. The timing, volume, and nature of repurchases are subject to market conditions, applicable securities laws and other factors and may be amended, suspended or discontinued at any time. Repurchases may be affected from time to time through open market purchases, including pursuant to a pre-set trading plan meeting the requirements of Rule 10b5-1(c) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. During the year ended December 31, 2023, the Company repurchased 194,319 shares of common stock for approximately $52 million. As of December 31, 2023, the Company has cumulatively repurchased 3,517,602 shares of common stock for approximately $1.1 billion, resulting in a remaining amount of share repurchases authorized under the plans of $893 million.

Future Cash Requirements

We believe that our Cash and cash equivalents, which totaled $137 million as of December 31, 2023, along with anticipated cash generation from operations and available borrowing capacity on debt and other financing facilities, will be sufficient to fund the Company’s cash requirements during the next 12 months and thereafter based on our current business plans.

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Included in the Company’s Cash and cash equivalents are amounts held by foreign subsidiaries, which was $33 million and $36 million as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. We do not expect that Cash and cash equivalents held by foreign subsidiaries will need to be repatriated in order to fund the Company’s U.S. operations based on current cash requirements.

Our cash requirements during the next 12 months and thereafter include payments to satisfy the following obligations:

•Purchase obligations — The Company has a limited number of multi-year purchase commitments, primarily related to semiconductors and cloud services, which contain minimum purchase requirements and are non-cancellable. As of December 31, 2023, these multi-year commitments were approximately $124 million. This amount excludes routine purchase orders for goods and services, as well as amounts already reflected within Current liabilities on the Consolidated Balance Sheet. See Note 14, Accrued Liabilities, Commitments and Contingencies in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional details.

•Debt obligations — We expect to make total payments of approximately $291 million associated with the Company’s debt facilities in 2024. This expected use of cash is based on the Company’s current borrowings and applicable interest rates and margins as of December 31, 2023, and includes principal and interest payments along with expected cash settlements associated with the Company’s interest rate swaps. In the ordinary course of business, the Company may decide to borrow additional amounts or repay principal earlier than contractually owed, which would affect future cash payments. See Note 12, Long-Term Debt in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for further details related to the Company’s debt facilities.

•Leases obligations — We lease certain manufacturing facilities, distribution centers, sales and administrative offices, equipment, and vehicles. As of December 31, 2023, the Company’s fixed lease commitments totaled $237 million, of which $53 million is payable in 2024. See Note 13, Leases in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for further details related to the Company’s lease arrangements.

In addition to the expected cash requirements described above, the Company may use cash to fund strategic acquisitions, investments, or repurchase common stock under its share repurchase program. We also expect to spend approximately $80 million to $90 million on capital expenditures in 2024.

Critical Accounting Estimates

Management prepared the consolidated financial statements of the Company under accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. The application of these principles requires the use of estimates which affect the amounts reported in our consolidated financial statements. While we believe that our estimates are reasonable based upon available information, actual results could differ substantially from those estimates. Note 2, Significant Accounting Policies in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements provides additional discussion of these items along with other significant accounting policies of the Company. The accounting estimates described below have been identified by Management as those that are most significant to our financial statements.

Income Taxes

We estimate a provision or benefit for income taxes and amounts to be settled or recovered in several tax jurisdictions globally. Our estimates are complex and involve significant judgments and interpretations of regulations. Resolution of income tax treatments in individual jurisdictions may not be known for several years after completion of a given year. We are also required to evaluate the realizability of our deferred tax assets on an ongoing basis, which requires estimation of our ability to generate future taxable income. In particular, our income tax provision or benefit is dependent on our ability to forecast future taxable income in the U.S., U.K., Singapore, and other jurisdictions. Significant judgments included in our forecasts include projecting future sales volumes and pricing, costs to manufacture and procure products and to deliver services and solutions, among other factors. There were no significant changes in estimates to our income tax provision during the current year.

Acquisitions

We account for acquired businesses using the acquisition method of accounting. This method requires that the purchase price be allocated to the identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed at their estimated fair values. The excess of the purchase price over the identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed is recorded as goodwill. The estimates used to determine the fair values of long-lived intangible assets can be complex and require judgment. We generally value intangible assets using income-based valuation methodologies, such as the excess earnings method, which require critical estimates that include, but are not limited to, future expected cash flows from revenues and the determination of discount rates.

Goodwill Impairment

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Our goodwill impairment testing includes a comparison of the estimated fair value of each of our reporting units to its carrying value. Fair value determinations require judgment and can be sensitive to changes in underlying assumptions, estimates, as well as market factors. We estimate the fair value of reporting units using both income and market-based valuation approaches. Estimating the fair value of reporting units requires that we make assumptions and estimates including projections of revenue and income growth rates as well as cash flows; capital investments; competitive and customer trends; appropriate peer group selection; market-based discount rates and other market factors. Our annual impairment testing, most recently completed in the fourth quarter of 2023, continues to indicate that the fair values of each of our reporting units significantly exceed their respective carrying values.

Revenue Recognition

We recognize revenues when we transfer control of promised goods, solutions or services to our customers in an amount that reflects the consideration we expect to receive. The consideration that we expect to receive is estimated by reflecting reductions to our transaction price for product returns, rebates, and other incentives. These estimates are developed using the expected value that the Company anticipates receiving and are based on recent trends observed in similar transactions. Additionally, some of our contracts with customers contain multiple performance obligations, including various hardware, software, and/or services. For such contracts that contain multiple performance obligations, we allocate the estimated total transaction price to each performance obligation based on relative standalone selling prices (“SSP”). The determination of SSP is established at a regional level. SSP is based on observable prices in recent standalone transactions for the same or similar offerings, to the extent available, which is often applicable to tangible products and software licenses. Alternatively, in the absence of recent observable prices, the Company generally applies the expected cost-plus margin approach to professional services, repair and maintenance services, and solution offerings. There were no changes to our estimation processes for consideration received or SSP that materially affected revenues during the year.

New Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 2, Significant Accounting Policies in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements regarding recent accounting pronouncements.

Non-GAAP Measures

The Company has provided reconciliations of the supplemental non-GAAP financial measures, as defined under the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission, presented herein to the most directly comparable financial measures calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP.

These supplemental non-GAAP financial measures – Consolidated Organic Net sales (decline) growth, AIT Organic Net sales (decline) growth, and EVM Organic Net sales (decline) growth – are presented because our management evaluates our financial results both including and excluding the effects of business acquisitions and foreign currency translation, as applicable. Management believes that the supplemental non-GAAP financial measures presented provide additional perspective and insights when analyzing the core operating performance of our business from period to period and trends in our historical operating results. These supplemental non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered superior to, as a substitute for, or as an alternative to, and should be considered in conjunction with the GAAP financial measures presented.

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