Technology
Information Technology Services
$23.22B
15.1K
CDW Corporation is a leading multi-brand provider of information technology (IT) solutions to small, medium, and large businesses, as well as government, education, and healthcare customers in the US, UK, and Canada. They offer a broad range of products and services, including hardware, software, and integrated IT solutions with on-premise and cloud capabilities. CDW is a vendor-neutral sales channel partner with a large customer base.
Key insights and themes extracted from this filing
Net sales decreased to $20,998.7 million in 2024 from $21,376.0 million in 2023, a decline of $377 million or 1.8%. This is attributed to a decrease in netcomm sales, partially offset by an increase in notebooks/mobile devices.
Gross profit margin increased by 10 basis points to 21.9% in 2024, primarily due to a higher contribution of netted down revenue, mainly software as a service, partially offset by lower product margin due to mix and rate in notebooks/mobile devices.
Operating income decreased by $30 million, or 1.8%, to $1,651.3 million in 2024, compared to $1,680.9 million in 2023. This decrease is consistent with the decrease in net sales across all operating segments.
On November 27, 2024, the Company completed its acquisition of Mission, a leading cloud professional services, managed services and consulting provider, for $330 million. This strengthens the Company's capabilities to deliver full lifecycle projects and complements its existing cloud, data, artificial intelligence and software platform engineering solution capabilities.
During 2024, the Company repurchased 2.4 million shares of its common stock for $500 million under the share repurchase program. On February 5, 2025, the Board authorized an additional $750 million increase to the program.
Continued economic uncertainty and the complex technology landscape has led customers to be cautious and measured in their approach to technology spending, leading to a decline in Net sales.
Selling and administrative expenses decreased $20 million, or 0.7%, primarily due to lower performance-based compensation, including equity-based compensation, consistent with lower attainment against certain financial measures, and lower payroll expenses.
Customers are evaluating the complex technology landscape in order to balance priorities and focus on solutions that lead to business optimization, cost management and security risk management, resulting in a more measured approach to their IT spending.
The amount of cash generated from operations will be dependent upon factors such as the successful execution of our business plan, general economic conditions and working capital management.
Social, ethical and safety issues relating to the use of new and evolving technologies such as artificial intelligence-based technologies, including generative AI in our hardware, software and service offerings, as well as in our internal platforms, may result in reputational harm and liability.
We, and third parties upon which we rely, regularly experience malicious attacks and other attempts to gain unauthorized access to our systems, and attacks against us by state-sponsored organizations and nation-states may increase during periods of intense diplomatic or armed conflicts.
Our success is heavily dependent upon our ability to attract, develop, engage and retain key personnel to manage, lead, innovate and grow our business, including our key executive, management, sales, services, specialists and engineers.
We compete with resellers, manufacturers who sell directly to customers, large service providers and system integrators, communications service providers, cloud providers, e-commerce companies and office supply retailers, among others.
Our sales are dependent on continued innovations in technology by our vendor partners and the competitiveness of their offerings, and our ability to partner with new and emerging technology providers.
Our continued competitiveness depends upon our ability to anticipate and evolve at pace and scale with new technologies, services and solutions through strategic and timely investments in innovation, expansion of offerings and the capabilities necessary to implement them.
The cash conversion cycle increased to 18 days at December 31, 2024, compared to 17 days at December 31, 2023. The overall increase was primarily driven by an increase in DSO due to multi-year transactions and timing of collections.
The success of our business depends on the continuing development, maintenance and operation of our information technology systems. Our success is dependent on the accuracy, proper utilization and continuing operation, maintenance and development of our information technology systems.
We have outsourced certain business processes to third-party outsource partners and any service failures or disruptions related to these outsourcing arrangements could adversely affect our business.
Technology trends drive customer purchasing behaviors in the market. Current technology trends are focused on delivering greater flexibility and efficiency, as well as designing and managing IT securely.
Customers are evaluating the complex technology landscape in order to balance priorities and focus on solutions that lead to business optimization, cost management and security risk management, resulting in a more measured approach to their IT spending.
On November 27, 2024, the Company completed its acquisition of Mission, a leading cloud professional services, managed services and consulting provider, for $330 million. This strengthens the Company's capabilities to deliver full lifecycle projects and complements its existing cloud, data, artificial intelligence and software platform engineering solution capabilities.
During 2024, the Company repurchased 2.4 million shares of its common stock for $500 million under the share repurchase program.
On February 5, 2025, we announced that our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend on our common stock of $0.625 per share.
On November 27, 2024, the Company completed its acquisition of Mission through a purchase of all the issued and outstanding equity interests for a base purchase price of $330 million.
Our global operations span a variety of legal regimes, subjecting us to numerous complex, diverse, evolving and at times potentially inconsistent or conflicting laws and regulations in a number of areas, including labor and employment, advertising, e-commerce, tax, trade, import and export controls, economic and trade sanctions, anti-corruption, data privacy and security requirements, competition, environmental, social and governance and health and safety.
Additionally, there is increased focus by stakeholders on environmental sustainability and corporate responsibility matters, and stakeholders may disagree with the Company's commitments and initiatives on such matters.
We have adopted The CDW Way Code, our code of business conduct and ethics, that is applicable to all of our coworkers, including officers, and directors. A copy of The CDW Way Code is available on our website at www.cdw.com.
General economic conditions are a key factor affecting our results as they can impact our customers' willingness and ability to spend on information technology. Macroeconomic uncertainty persists as a result of the inflationary environment and the corresponding level of interest rates driven by monetary policy.
Changes and uncertainty related to spending policies, budget priorities, timing and funding levels, including stimulus packages, are key factors influencing the purchasing levels of government, healthcare and education customers.
Technology trends drive customer purchasing behaviors in the market. Current technology trends are focused on delivering greater flexibility and efficiency, as well as designing and managing IT securely.