You don't hear 5iresearch talk about this. Most of the time you see analysts cherry pick their data to suit their narrative, good or bad. Q4 2023 was marginally lower than last year.
Let me explain what I mean.
Q4 2023 operating income = $ - 6,237
Q4 2022 operating income = $8,010
Ive excluded non cash gains/losses to operating income above which is more reflective of a cash flow number. These numbers make it appear that Q4 of this year was a complete disaster. Not so fast. Government subsidies received and no bonus incentives paid last year could explain this gap.
Q4 2023 government subsidies = $0
Q4 2022 government subsidies =~ $4.6m
Q4 2023 bonus incentives =~ $8.6m
Q4 2022 bonus incentives = $0
If you exclude government subsidies and bonus incentives; that is, operating income before changes to the above, then,
Q4 2023 adjusted operating income =~$2,363
Q4 2022 adjusted operating income =~ $3,410
Government subsidies lowered sg&a expense which boosted operating income numbers last year. In addition, this year we had incentive bonuses paid out that were absent last year.
Even though the company paid out $19.9m in bonuses and didn't have the government subsidies in their favour ($1.2m vs $22.7 last year) they still managed to produce over $100m in free cash flow.
How's that for cherry picking the data?