Analog Devices Inc
Analog Devices, Inc. is a global semiconductor leader that bridges the physical and digital worlds to enable breakthroughs at the Intelligent Edge. ADI combines analog, digital, AI, and software technologies into solutions that combat climate change, reliably connect humans and the world, and help drive advancements in automation and robotics, mobility, healthcare, energy and data centers. With revenue of more than $11 billion in FY25, ADI ensures today's innovators stay Ahead of What's Possible.
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31.8% overvaluedAnalog Devices Inc (ADI) — Q4 2017 Earnings Call Transcript
Operator
Good morning, and welcome to the Analog Devices Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2017 Earnings Conference Call, which is being audio webcast via telephone and over the web. I'd like to now introduce your host for today's call, Mr. Ali Husain, Treasurer and Head of Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours.
Okay. Good morning, everybody. Thank you, Jennifer. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for joining our conference call. You can find our press release and related financial schedules at the usual place at investor.analog.com. With me on the call today are ADI CEO, Vincent Roche; ADI's CFO, Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah; and Mike Lucarelli from Investor Relations. First, let's get through our disclosures. Note that the information we're about to discuss, including our objectives and outlook, includes forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those discussed in our earnings release and our most recent 10-Q. These forward-looking statements reflect our opinion as of the date of this call, and we undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. Today's commentary about ADI's fourth quarter and fiscal '17 financial results will be detailed further in our 10-K, which we expect to file over the next few days. In addition, note that ADI's fourth quarter and fiscal '17 financial results and short-term outlook will include non-GAAP financial measures when comparing our results to our historical performance. Special items are also excluded from the prior quarter and year-over-year results. Available reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures and additional information about our non-GAAP measures are included in today's earnings release and in our web schedules, which we have posted under the Quarterly Results section at investor.analog.com. Our web schedules also include a historical view of what the combined ADI and Linear Tech would have looked like by end market, by quarter for the last 3 years. And lastly, please note that our outlook for ADI's first quarter fiscal '18 includes an additional week, so fiscal 1Q '18 will be a 14-week quarter and is expected to include 1 normal week of revenue expense. Okay. So with that, I'll turn it over to ADI CEO, Vincent Roche. With the exception of fourth quarter revenue, Vince's comments about our financial results are on a non-GAAP basis and exclude special items outlined in today's release and in our web schedules. Okay, Vince, it's all yours.
Thank you, Ali, and a very good morning, everyone. I'd like to firstly welcome Prashanth to ADI. This is, as you know, Prashanth's first quarter as our CFO, and I'm really delighted to have him join ADI. Turning to the quarter. The fourth quarter fiscal 2017 was another very successful quarter for ADI, and I'm pleased to share our results with you this morning. Revenue in the fourth quarter totaled $1.54 billion and was above the midpoint of guidance as the communications and consumer markets led our sequential growth, while the industrial and automotive markets were stable compared to the prior quarter. Our strong overall revenue performance, coupled with disciplined operational execution, expanded gross and operating margins and drove diluted earnings per share to $1.45, which was above the high end of our guidance. And I'll provide you with a historical perspective. Over the last 5 years, ADI has doubled its revenue base to $5.2 billion, expanded operating margins by over 900 basis points to approximately 40% and nearly tripled free cash flow generation on a combined company basis to $1.9 billion or 34% of sales, which is within the top 5% of all S&P 500 companies. From a strategic perspective, 2017 was a watershed year as we completed the acquisition of LTC, further deepening and widening our competitive moat, expanding our capabilities in high-value signal processing and power management applications and giving ADI the ability to more completely serve the ever-expanding needs of our more than 100,000 customers. ADI is now able to solve customer problems from sensor to cloud, from DC to 100 gigahertz and from nanowatts to kilowatts with a leading market position in all product segments. Fiscal 2017 was also marked by strong execution across our portfolio of products and customers. For example, in the industrial market, which represented 46% of revenue in fiscal '17, our battery formation and test equipment solutions experienced both cyclical and secular growth as we gained additional dollar content in our customer systems and added new customers in this expanding market, which is forecasted to grow 5x by 2022. The factory automation sector also grew strongly during the year as customers made both brownfield and greenfield upgrades to manufacturing equipment. Here, ADI's technology solutions are enabling value creation for our customers by helping reduce plant downtime, boost productivity and make manufacturing more flexible and configurable. In health care applications, our optical sensor-based solutions also grew strongly over the prior year, led by vital signs monitoring and imaging applications. In the automotive market, which represented 15% of revenue in fiscal 2017, we made excellent progress on the promise of autonomous driving with new innovations in radar technology, where our solutions provide superior range and resolution capability beyond anything available in the market today. And in automotive infotainment applications, we hit an important milestone for our A2B audio bus solution, surpassing 1 million units shipped in the year across platforms of many automotive OEMs, including Ford. The communications market represented 18% of revenue in fiscal '17. Within this market, we have experienced a tenfold revenue increase over the past 4 years for our software-defined radio solutions, which have become the market leader from macrocell, massive MIMO and small cell. The consumer market represented 21% of revenue for the year and also grew strongly, led by portable applications. As we often say, luck favors the prepared minds, and we've been preparing and investing for this moment for many decades. And across our business, we are creating, capturing and retaining value by leveraging our culture of innovation to solve our customers' biggest and most pressing challenges. Building on a very strong 2017, we believe we can continue to drive long-term profitable growth by investing at the cutting edge to grow our core franchises and by extending our reach with our customers. So with that, I'd like to turn the call over to ADI's new CFO, Prashanth. In his short time here, Prashanth has hit the ground running, providing me and the organization with his keen strategic insights. And I'm very confident that with his operational focus and financial discipline, we will increase shareholder value further.
Thank you, Vince. Good morning, everyone, and let me add my welcome to our fourth quarter earnings call. I'm very excited to be joining Analog Devices and to be part of Vince's leadership team. This is a company with a tremendous legacy of innovation, and I look forward to helping to drive the business and deliver against our long-term financial model. In my 8 weeks here, I've been deeply impressed with the quality of ADI's technology, the dedication of our employees, and the depth of our customer relationships. I have met many of you by phone already, and I look forward to getting on the road and meeting you in person. Now getting to our results. As Vince mentioned, the fourth quarter of 2017 was an excellent period across multiple dimensions and caps off a very strong year. As I walk through the P&L, with the exception of revenue and non-op expense, my comments will be on a non-GAAP or adjusted basis, which excludes special items outlined in today's press release. Revenue for the fourth quarter was $1.54 billion, up 6% sequentially and above our guidance midpoint. Gross margins were 40 basis points higher than our guidance, primarily due to higher utilization and cost synergy capture. Inventory was stable at 108 days in the quarter. On a dollar basis, inventory increased $31 million sequentially as we ramped production to match strong demand. Distribution channel inventory of 7 weeks was stable compared to the prior quarter as well on both a weeks and dollar basis. Operating expenses in the fourth quarter were $435 million or 28% of revenue, which improved operating margin to 42.6%. Non-op expenses in the fourth quarter were $67 million, and we should see this decline by $2 million to $3 million per quarter for fiscal '18. Our fourth quarter non-GAAP tax rate of 9% included a full year true-up to bring the 2017 rate to 9.6%. However, as we look to 2018, we expect a 12% tax rate, which is an improvement compared to our previously issued guidance of 15%. EPS for the fourth quarter was $1.45, bringing the full year to $4.72, up $1.65 from the prior fiscal year. Free cash flow generation was very solid in the quarter at $630 million with an associated free cash flow margin of 41%. During the quarter, we paid down $350 million of debt, which has helped reduce our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio to 2.6, down from 2.9 in the prior quarter. Capital additions in the fourth quarter were $65 million, and we expect capital additions in fiscal 2018 to continue to run at our model of approximately 4% of sales. During the quarter, we paid $167 million in dividends with an associated quarterly cash dividend of $0.45, representing an annual dividend payment of $1.80 per share. All in all, a good quarter to wrap up a solid year. Let us now turn to our outlook and expectations for the first quarter of fiscal '18, which, with the exception of revenue, are also on a non-GAAP basis. We are planning for revenue in the 14-week first quarter to be in the range of $1.44 billion to $1.54 billion. We expect a full week's revenue benefit from this 14th week as it falls in the last week in the month of January. Adjusting for the additional week and at the midpoint of guidance, Q1 revenue is expected to decrease sequentially. On this same basis, we expect ADI's B2B markets of industrial, automotive, and communications in aggregate to decrease in the mid-single digits sequentially in the seasonally slower first quarter but to be up over the prior year, led by the industrial end-market. Given that our revenue guidance by end-market is not perfectly correlated with our actual results, this will also be the last quarter in which we provide our revenue outlook by end-market. Of course, we will continue to guide you to an overall revenue range. We are planning for gross margins to remain relatively stable sequentially and to be in the range of 70.5% to 71%. Operating expenses are estimated to be in the range of $440 million to $450 million and include an additional week's worth of activity related to the 14-week quarter. On a 13-week basis, operating expenses are expected to decrease in the mid-single digits sequentially. Based on these inputs, we expect operating margins in the first quarter of 2018 to be in the range of approximately 40% to 42% and for diluted earnings per share, excluding special items, to be in the range of $1.20 to $1.36. So to wrap it up, this was a terrific quarter of performance and wraps up a very strong year of revenue growth, margin expansion, EPS growth, and free cash flow generation. Looking ahead, we're encouraged by a number of positive indicators across our business, including the strong secular growth drivers, a robust opportunity pipeline, and access to customers at an unprecedented level, which, combined with our strong free cash flow and commitment to deleveraging, will continue to drive value for our shareholders. Now before we move to the Q&A, I have an additional announcement. To help continue the successful integration of Linear Tech, I am delighted to announce that Ali Husain has accepted the position of CFO for ADI's Power division, supporting Steve Pietkiewicz, and will be relocating with his family to sunny California. Vince and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ali for the tremendous work he has done with the investment community, and we look forward to working with him in this new role to drive even greater shareholder value in the future. Moving forward, Mike Lucarelli, whom many of you already know from his work with Ali over the past couple of years, will be your main point of contact in IR. I have enjoyed getting to know Mike over the past few weeks as someone who is both energetic and knowledgeable. I'm sure you'll find Mike to be a great resource for your investment research on ADI. And so with that, I'll turn it over to Ali for our Q&A session.
Great. Thanks, Prashanth. It's been a privilege working with the investment community, and I look forward to this new challenge. So all right, let's get to the Q&A session. So operator, let's get to our first question.
Operator
Our first question comes from John Pitzer with Crédit Suisse.
Vince, Prashanth, congratulations on the strong results. Ali, congratulations on the new role. My first question, Vince, is just around industrial year-over-year growth. I think, clearly, one of the investor concerns out there is that part of your business has been growing at greater than 20% for several quarters consecutively, and I think there are some concerns around sustainability. Last quarter, you sort of highlighted some one-offs that helped to drive some of the strength, including things like ATE. Were there one-offs in the October quarter? And I guess, more importantly, as you look out over the next several quarters, how would you expect the year-over-year growth rate to trend? And what sort of more normalized growth rate should we suspect as being sustainable?
Yes, that's a great question, John. To address the last part of your question regarding sustainable growth rates, if we examine our business over the past five years, our growth rate in 2017 exceeded 20% in the industrial sector. However, when averaged over five years, the growth rate was approximately 5%. I consider this a sustainable figure for the long-term growth outlook of our industrial business. Now, looking ahead to 2018, we believe that the solid GDP environment will positively impact the industrial sector. Additionally, we are witnessing strong growth drivers. I've had multiple discussions with executives from our industrial customers recently, and I've observed significant activity in developing industrial IoT, including brownfield upgrades in the U.S. and greenfield projects in China. These trends represent strong secular growth drivers that will endure for many years, particularly in China. Furthermore, we are seeing the rise of rechargeable batteries in various applications, including cars and smartphones. The creation and testing of these battery systems present significant performance challenges, offering numerous opportunities for us to introduce precision technologies to the market. While it’s important to remain cautious, I believe these growth rates are indeed sustainable at around 5%. As we move into 2018, we should be able to maintain our gains. The only potential concern in the industrial market could be in the area of ATE, but we also observe transitions from hard disk drives to solid-state memory, and the establishment of large memory factories and giga factories to meet consumer demand. Overall, considering all factors across instrumentation, aerospace and defense, and factory automation, I believe we are entering a favorable cycle.
Maybe as my follow-on, just on the consumer side, it was a lot stronger than expected in the October quarter. I wonder if you can give us some color on what was driving the strength. And I know, Prashanth, in your prepared comments, you mentioned you want to stay away from giving guidance on an ongoing basis by end-market. But during the Analyst Day this year, you kind of gave fairly specific guidance for all of fiscal '18 on consumer, and as we think about your differing content in flagship phones and how that might look into the January quarter, is there any help you can give us on what we should expect to see out of consumer, at least relative to seasonality going into January?
Our consumer business during the quarter exceeded our expectations, reaching the high end of our forecast, primarily due to portable applications. As we indicated during the Analyst Day, we anticipate a decline in our consumer business in 2018, mainly because of a weaker portable market. You can already observe this weakness reflected in the guidance we are providing. At the midpoint of our guidance for 2018, we expect a significant drop in consumer performance compared to 2017.
John, I will only add that if you take the guidance we've given you, you adjust for the 13th quarter, which is the first calculation, and then you back out the B2B guidance we've given you, you should be able to impute the consumer guide and you'll come up with a pretty meaningful number, which is the trend that we've been indicating for the past several quarters is starting to materialize.
Operator
Our next question comes from Craig Hettenbach with Morgan Stanley.
I have a question about the automotive market. You mentioned 1 million units of A2B. Could you elaborate on that? I know you've talked about it before, but I'm interested in the range of designs and your outlook for the A2B trajectory.
Virtually all the OEMs globally have adopted A2B. We really started gaining momentum in 2017, mainly in the U.S. and also in Europe to some extent. We're still in the very early stages and haven't reached a tipping point yet. I anticipate significant growth in the A2B market over the next three years, with an increase in 2018 and 2019. By 2020, I believe we will achieve a considerable and sustainable level of revenue. We are currently in the ramp-up phase, but it's noteworthy that we have already shipped 1 million units into production models at this point.
Got it. And then as my follow-up for Prashanth, what are the key areas as you kind of step into the CFO role there, key areas of focus for you and opportunities you see going forward?
Sure. Thank you. Certainly, my primary goal is going to be ensuring that we deliver against the financial model that was communicated over the summer. That means we need to grow our revenue, convert that revenue into high profit dollars and then deliver that profit as cash flow growth to pay down our debt. I would say equally important will be to work collectively with the 3 division presidents to ensure the successful integration of LTC, to achieve both the revenue and the cost synergies that were underpinning the deal rationale. And then maybe last, I think Vince had mentioned in prior calls that I've been chartered with working with the division leaders to really uncover and capture opportunities for trapped value to help drive shareholder value. That includes areas that I've already begun working with the organization on such as pricing.
Operator
Our next question is from William Stein with SunTrust.
I'm hoping you can characterize lead times and book-to-bill in the quarter that's being reported and compare them to the prior quarter.
Sure. Yes, I can help you with that. So as I mentioned, activity remains fairly stable. So on a book-to-bill basis at the enterprise level, just a hair under 1 as we head into the first quarter, and then if you back out consumer, some slight expansion versus that. However, as I mentioned, the channel still looks very stable at around 7 weeks and equivalent on a dollar basis. So we're heading into the holiday season, but from where we stand today, given the somewhat limited visibility that this industry has, things look to be stable.
Okay. One other as a follow-up, if I can. I'm hoping you can offer some competitive commentary on the converter market in light of one of the field programmable gate array companies highlighting this product they call an RFSoC that they indicate is taking share in the converter market. If you can comment on that.
Yes. In the business world, strong markets tend to attract competition. The converter market has been consolidating over the past 5 to 7 years. However, we have a 50-year history of providing high-performance analog solutions to our customers in various sectors, including wireless and wired infrastructure, aerospace, defense, and civil aviation. As original equipment manufacturers face increasing technological complexity, particularly in communication systems that rely on high-speed data converter products, they require a wide range of microwave, RF mixed-signal technologies, and power technologies. It’s essential for them to smartly design their solutions for optimal performance, power efficiency, size, and cost. We have decades of experience not only meeting all these performance criteria but also delivering a comprehensive suite of converter products consistently on time and with high quality, alongside excellent application and system support. While competition will always exist, our portfolio stands unmatched in the industry, regardless of the configurations our customers choose. It is our responsibility to remain at the forefront of innovation.
Operator
Our next question is from C.J. Muse with Evercore.
I guess, first question, as you think about the extra week in January, do you expect that to be equally apportioned across all segments? Or do you think 1 or 2 will do better than others? And I guess, as a follow-up to that, how do you think about normal seasonality heading into the April quarter?
Sure. So C.J., that extra week is just the calendar consequence of how the ADI fiscal is run. It comes around every 5 to 6 years. It will be equivalent across all industries. Since it falls sort of in the month of January, I would not expect anything out of the ordinary for that. But I would remind everyone that as you build your models going forward into Q2 that you do want to adjust your sequential growth rates to reflect that you're moving from a 14-week into a 13-week quarter.
Okay. And then I guess, as my follow-up, I guess to kind of follow on, on John's question around the sustainability of industrial strength year-on-year, can you kind of walk through as you look back on '17, how much of the strength was sort of a reset to GDP versus replenishment in the distribution channel versus rising silicon content? How do you think about those 3 factors in terms of 20-plus percent growth?
In terms of the increasing silicon content, it is evident that there is more sensing and measuring being applied to factory automation and process control machines, which benefits us. Another aspect that doesn’t receive much attention is the automation of labor in China, which is set to be a multiyear development. Many of our customers in Europe and Japan are seeing advantages from this development. This is a significant component of the China 2025 initiative and will have lasting implications. There is certainly some anxiety surrounding supply, which contributes to a portion of the demand. However, when we assess our channel and customer base, inventories are somewhat elevated. Our own inventories have risen slightly, but we are increasing them based on what we perceive to be genuine demand. Thus, this situation appears to be primarily demand-driven. Overall, inventories across the board are currently in a fairly balanced state.
Operator
Our next question is from Stacy Rasgon with Bernstein Research.
First, on the guidance for next quarter. The B2B corrected for the extra week down mid-single digits. It seems to be a bit worse than I would consider normal. Is there anything specific across your 3 businesses, I guess, relative to what we'd ordinarily see as we go into Q1 that's driving that maybe a little worse than normal seasonality?
Well, I would say, Stacy, that when you look at that on a year-over-year basis, even guiding B2B as we did, is still pretty healthy growth year-on-year. So that gets you almost to high single digits, low double digits.
Yes, but industrial is up like 25%, right?
Sorry?
The industrial is up like 25% year-over-year, so I mean, what's going on sequentially?
Stacy, in the first quarter, if you back into the guidance, industrial would be up in the mid-teens. The B2B markets, as Prashanth mentioned, are forecast to be up in the high single digits over the prior year in the first quarter on a 13-week basis. So into a quarter, that is typically lower on a seasonality basis, particularly for industrial given that you have the holiday period for the factories.
But I mean, you always have a holiday period in that quarter, right?
Correct. I'm just saying on a sequential basis.
Yes, we're entering a seasonally weaker quarter. We analyze the order flows and provide guidance that we believe is reasonable. You can consider the midpoint of that range, which indicates a high single-digit growth in the B2B markets compared to the prior year. That’s the information we can share. Additionally, we exceeded the midpoint of the guidance in the previous quarter by 260 basis points, indicating a strong performance. We believe the year-over-year growth rate is important for assessing the operation and success of our business. I hope that clarifies things. Do you have a follow-up?
I wanted to ask about the automotive sector. It seems to be relatively flat year-over-year, both sequentially and in combination with Linear, which appears to contrast with what we're observing from some competitors. It also seems somewhat inconsistent with the growth you're experiencing in your A2B market. Could you provide some insight into the auto dynamics, specifically regarding year-over-year trends? When do you anticipate a growth spurt? What has been happening over the past year?
Sure, Stacy. So yes, yes, okay. If you look at the legacy ADI business during '17, that part of our automotive business grew in the high single digits. Where we had some headwind was specifically because of the continuing battery management weakness in the LTC portfolio. That whole BMS thing, that whole market is highly concentrated in terms of customers and programs. So really, what we're seeing is still a working off of the inventories in China, but the pipeline that we have in BMS designs is good. We see that business recovering during '18 as several of these new customer programs start to come online. So I think by the end of '18, we'll be on a good growth track in that business. But that is the primary dampening effect, if you like, on our automotive business. As we said at the Analyst Day, we expect this business to grow at 2 to 3 times SAAR, and that's still our commitment.
Operator
Our next question is from Mark Lipacis with Jefferies.
If you examine the operating margins, they have increased by about 450 basis points over the past year and by 950 basis points over the last three years. I'm curious if there is a physical limit to the margin profile here. Is there any reason to believe that they won't continue to rise over time?
Mark, I would probably take you back to the financial model, and that's where we have modeled out how this business is expected to operate over the next several years. We have some favorability movement now. We've talked about utilization rates. We've talked about bringing in synergies a little earlier than possible. I'd say that the way to think about it is to really hold us to that model because that's the standard we hold ourselves to.
If I may follow up, in looking at industries that have gone through consolidation, there tends to be an improved pricing environment. The analog industry has experienced consolidation, and your company has played a significant role in that. Prashanth, you've mentioned that pricing is one of your focuses as you navigate this opportunity. Can you share your observations regarding the pricing environment over the years? Have you noticed any changes?
Yes, it's fair to say that consolidation has contributed to stabilizing prices across the industry. We're also experiencing stabilization due to the current environment and our increased focus on understanding where there is elasticity, as well as effectively retaining the value we generate. I believe this is a trend, and we have certainly observed a stabilizing trend in our business over the past two or three years, and I anticipate that this stability will persist.
Mark, I would only add from my personal observation, that there's a broad section of the ADI portfolio that is very sticky. We need to ensure that we take advantage of that to ensure that we're getting fair value for the technology that we bring to our customers, and that could represent some pricing opportunities.
Operator
Our next question is from Tore Svanberg with Stifel.
Congratulations to Prashanth and to Ali. My first question is on communications. So it's starting to grow nicely year-over-year again. I was just hoping you could add a little bit more color on what's driving that, especially in relation to topics like 4.5G, 5G, optical and so on.
The communications business is primarily driven by two main sectors. We've seen strong performance in wireless infrastructure, which increased compared to the previous quarter, fueled by demand in developing regions like India and also in more developed markets such as North America and China. Both macro and small cell markets are performing well. I will provide more details on technology shortly, but first, let me address the wireline side. It is widely recognized that the wireline business, especially the optical segment, has faced challenges in China over the last year, which has impacted results. Looking ahead, I believe the wireless sector will experience significant growth over the next three to five years. There continues to be robust activity in 4G, as well as a strong focus on 4.5G, while 5G is currently in the trial stage. The distinctions between 4.5G and 5G are becoming less clear, as both technologies will utilize massive MIMO. Market growth is expected to accelerate in late 2018 and into 2019, with peak demand likely occurring in 2020. We're observing that our existing customers are working to extend the life of their 4G systems, which involves upgrading to 4G, implementing 4.5G, and preparing for 5G. We continue to tackle integration, design agility, and power consumption issues. Following our acquisition of LTC, we have strengthened our power portfolio, positioning ourselves to better leverage these trends. Regardless of how our customers configure their systems among 4G, 4.5G, or 5G, we are well-equipped to meet their needs.
That's very helpful. And for my follow-up for Prashanth, so you talked about utilization being up sequentially. Can you talk about where you stand on utilization today? And maybe more certain, in general, where you are on in-house versus outside outsourcing at this point, especially given some of the fiber capacity that's out there at the wafer level?
Yes, sure. Thank you. So I think your first question is utilization levels. So Q4 was a significant improvement for us in utilization. We don't share specific utilization percentage rates, but it's fair to say that we were extremely busy internally in our fabs. As for the balance between now that we have the LTC operation consolidated, we're about a 50-50 split between what we do in-house and what we give to third parties or our channel partners.
Operator
Our final question comes from Ambrish Srivastava with BMO.
This is Gabriel Ho calling in for Ambrish. So I'm just looking at the core, ADI business is up 14% year-over-year, and then your Linear is up 5%. So what is driving the differences in year-to-year performance? And also going forward, how should we think about maybe the 2 businesses to come work as you integrate the 2 businesses?
I'm sorry, I did not catch your name.
This is Gabriel Ho.
Gabriel. Sorry, sorry. Thank you, Gabriel. All right. I would say a few things. First, LTC's industrial business grew double digits year-over-year. That is very much in line with how the peers are doing. The automotive business, as Vince has already spoken to, is affected by the inventory unwind. We're comfortable with where LTC is. Historically, an investor pain point for LTC has been their focus on managing the business for gross margins versus a balance of revenue growth, and that is part of what the integration process is driving and bringing them into ADI's mindset about profitable growth to deliver the EBIT margin and free cash flow. Looking forward, I think that's very much into what we look to merge with the organization to bring that top line focus into LTC, which, for some of the organization, hasn't been as strong as it has been in ADI.
I see. And as a follow-up, I think now that the 2 businesses are combined, I think setting the 13-, 14-week quarter aside, how should we think about, in general, the seasonality of your business for each quarter on a quarterly basis going forward?
Yes, Gabriel, I'll just take that. I think the way to think about it is that the ADI and Linear Tech B2B markets actually behave quite similarly on a seasonal basis. What I would encourage you to do is we placed a schedule on our website that tracks the end market revenue by quarter for the combined companies and suggests that you can go back and calculate what you think seasonality would be because, going forward, it's our sense that these 2 businesses, certainly in the B2B markets, will track quite similarly. So okay. I hope that was helpful. Thank you again for joining us this morning for the call. A copy of this transcript will be available on our website. All the reconciliations and additional information can be found on the Quarterly Results section of our Investor Relations site at investor.analog.com. So with that, thank you for joining us, and have a Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
Operator
This concludes today's Analog Devices conference call. You may now disconnect.