Mary G. Puma
Analyst · Needham & Company. Please go ahead
Thank you, Janine. With me today is Kevin Brewer, Executive Vice President and CFO; and Doug Lawson, Executive Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Strategy. If you've not seen a copy of our press release issued earlier today, it is available on our website. Playback service will also be available on our website as described in our press release. Please note that comments made today about our expectations for future revenues, profits and other results are forward-looking statements under the SEC’s Safe Harbor provision. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations and are subject to the risks inherent in our business. These risks are described in detail in our Form 10-K Annual Report and other SEC filings, which we urge you to review. Our actual results may differ materially from our current expectations. We do not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Today, Axcelis reported strong third quarter financial results driven by continuing customer adoption of all three Purion products and a solid contribution from GSS along with tight control of expenses and improving systems gross margins. Revenues of $79.3 million and earnings of $0.05 per share were at the high end of company guidance and above analyst consensus estimates. For the fourth consecutive quarter systems revenue showed an even split between the memory and non-leading edge foundry and logic markets. The commonality of the Purion platform combined with our innovative scanned spot beam, advanced energy filters, and Eterna ELS source has enabled the Purion products family to rapidly gain market share in both of those segments. Year-to-date Purion systems have accounted for approximately 85% of our systems revenue. As a result of the rapid adoption of the Purion platform we expect that Axcelis will exit 2015 with between 17% and 20% share of the total ion implant market. Turning to fourth quarter guidance, we will be impacted in the near-term by the recent spending slow-down in DRAM. As a result, a higher percentage of our Q4 revenue will come from the non-leading edge market where customers continued to adopt the Purion platform. We expect fourth quarter revenues of between $60 million and $65 million, gross margins of approximately 33% to 34%, operating profit of approximately $1 million, and EPS at breakeven. Our cash balance will be approximately $80 million. While our guidance is down quarter-over-quarter, customer activity across our full product line remains very strong. As we manage through this industry slow-down I would like to highlight the significantly different and improved position Axcelis is in. We now have the full Purion product family in production and multiple customers in multiple fabs with two additional Purion H customers very close to volume production. Our market share has increased significantly highlighting the additional revenue opportunity available to us. The Internet of Things, image sensor, power device, and automotive markets continued to drive significant non-memory opportunity for Purion as well as for our legacy tool business. Our customer satisfaction level has been the highest in the industry for two consecutive years and we have a strong balance sheet and a much lower cost structure. Bottom line is that Axcelis is in a much stronger position not just to weather the storm but more importantly to enhance our position during the downturn and enter the next upturn with higher market share, a larger customer base, new product capabilities, and higher earnings potential. Our accelerated market share growth in 2015 has been primarily driven by the fastest growing new product in Axcelis's 38 year history. This product is the Purion H high current implanter which is having great success in the memory market and also recently penetrated a non-leading edge foundry. While the Purion H's success is critical to Axcelis, as the high current market represents 60% of the implant TAM, all three Purion platform products have seen significant adoption during the year. Two large memory customers have all three tools in production, the Purion XE is the industry standard for high energy, and the Purion M has seen increased adoption in image sensor and power device markets. The non-leading edge foundry and logic markets has also become a rapid adopter of the Purion platform. Customers focused on image sensors and power devices have chosen Purion XE and Purion M for high productivity and low metals contamination. This is a very important market for Axcelis, one in which we will continue to invest. As a result we've recently announced an extended energy option for the Purion XE specifically focused on this market. We have also announced additional capabilities in wafer substrate, size, and temperature control for the Purion platform, making it capable of handling 150 millimeter to 300 millimeter wafers and multiple substrates. Orders for the Purion M with these capabilities were recently announced. The Internet of Things continues to permeate society and will become one of the most pervasive data collection systems ever created. This means our IOT customers should continue to expand production capabilities throughout 2016 and likely beyond. But the real winner of the Internet of Things build out will be our [technical difficulty] analysis. For the last decade memory technology has been relatively stagnant and the supplier base has been consolidating. Recently that has changed. The first new memory type in 15 years was introduced by Intel and Micron. Intel announced plans to reenter the memory production business, Western Digital announced plans to acquire SanDisk, and the Chinese government and investment community have also targeted entering the memory business. It appears based on recent activities the memory market is switching from consolidation to an expansion phase. We believe this will result in a prolonged memory build cycle. Memory process flows of all types are capital intensive ion implantation. With our strong position in memory, a prolonged memory build will be positive for Axcelis and will drive market share. Now I would like to turn it over to Kevin to discuss our third quarter financial results.