Yuval Wasserman
Analyst · Needham & Company
Thank you, Annie. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us for our fourth quarter and full year conference call. With the completion of the inverter wind down in the fourth quarter, I would just like to mention that all references to financials reflect the continuing operations of our core Precision Power business. Following three years of consecutive double-digit compounded annual growth rates in revenue and operating income, 2015 was a strong year for Advanced Energy. Total revenues grew by 13% driven by record annual semi revenue, and GAAP diluted EPS from continuing operations climbed 20% year-over-year even as the semiconductor industry took a collective pause in the fourth quarter. Our solid cash flow allowed us to accomplish a number of key initiatives during the year including launching and substantially completing a $50 million accelerated share repurchase program and completing the wind down of our inverter business. We are now solely focused on Precision Power Solutions going forward. In the fourth quarter, total revenues decreased 21% from last quarter mainly due to softness in the semiconductor wafer fab equipment market. The decline in semi was moderated slightly by service revenues which reached their highest fourth quarter levels in core Precision Power service, all but negating the typical seasonality, and industrial revenues which remained consistent with last quarter. In total, fourth quarter revenue was $87 million, non-GAAP profitability was $0.32 driven by solid operating margins for our core Precision Power business. We put our cash to work during the quarter through the ASR and ended the year with a cash balance of $170 million. 2015 was a strong year in design win activity across our served markets. We made significant inroads in applications for our RF technology in semiconductors and we increased our SAM in a variety of markets. Our success in winning new designs reflects our ongoing commitment to maintaining our leadership in Precision Power technology and products by investing in R&D and expanding the application of our technology into adjacent and new markets. In the fourth quarter, we won the vast majority of the semiconductor design wins we pursued. Similar to last couple of quarters, we had multiple wins in advanced memory applications including 3D NAND and DRAM. The industry's transition to 3D devices is generating increasing demand for RF power supplies and accessories. The growing number of steps associated with deposition and etch processes is driving an increase in the number of process chambers for fab and higher content of more advanced power solutions per chamber. As etching processes become more challenging due to increasing aspect ratios in advanced 3D devices, more advanced RF technology that includes pulsing and increased control and instrumentation is needed. We're capitalizing on these trends and providing a broader range of more complex combinations of RF power and frequencies and launching more capable matching networks to manage and control the delivery power. In industrial applications, we remain focused on taking our products to new applications in world regions. In hard coating applications, we continued to expand the presence and scope of our Solvix product line in important new markets outside of EMEA. This quarter, we won all of the hard coating contests in which we competed, increasing our penetration into Asia and North America, where we outpaced our projections for the quarter and the year. In architectural glass, we won all the design wins we pursued this quarter. As part of our strategy to accelerate growth by providing new technology for retrofitting existing glass lines and allowing the end users to reuse and repurpose the capital equipment, we saw both new coater and retrofit wins in the quarter. We also had success in securing wins in Europe and North America in decorative films position and Roll-to-Roll coating applications. In the high voltage market, we made gains across an array of industries ranging from defense to analytical equipment. In keeping with the strategy to expand our SAM, this quarter we targeted and won designs in key applications such as mass spectrometry and industrial x-ray, where we had a notable win in Japan and outpaced our projections for the year. In our PCM business, in addition to our U.S. partnerships, we realized initial revenue from our second industrial automation partner in Europe. Now let me turn to our quarterly results. The fourth quarter marked what we believe was a temporary but substantial dip in the current semiconductor cycle. Driven by a delay in the migration to next-generation technology into mass production and inventory adjustment from memory overcapacity, revenue from semiconductor applications fell 31% from last quarter. Even as the semi equipment industry experienced this pause, the mega trends of mobility, connectivity, and the cloud continued to increase demand for higher density memory, high-speed logic devices, and lower power consumption. Capital spending across the industry should lend itself towards major trends including the move to next-generation technologies such as 3D devices, both Finfet and NAND, 3D packaging and multi-patterning in Logic and Foundry, supported by the initial ramp of 10 nanometers. These areas are driving a significant expansion of the market for etch and deposition steps. With our exposure to these areas and our recent win rates in advanced RF applications, we expect to grow faster than the wafer fab equipment market. In the first quarter, we look for a significant double-digit recovery in our semiconductor revenues as Logic and Foundry buyings resume and investment in memory upgrades continues. Revenue from industrial applications remained at similar levels to last quarter with a change in mix. Our new retrofit strategy to extend the life of older glass coating machines with the new bipolar DC technology drove significant increases in architectural glass revenue. This helped offset the decrease in flat panel display in the quarter. General industrial applications remained flat in the quarter, with mixed results across a variety of applications. Importantly we saw increased penetration in high-voltage industrial x-ray with several new projects including our first win in Asia. Furthermore, as we grow our sales channel and broaden our reach into various markets such as industrial thermal applications, we are starting to see power control module revenue from our industrial automation partnerships. Looking into the first quarter we expect to see a softening in industrial applications, driven primarily by lower demand for architectural glass and hard coatings after a strong fourth quarter. Excluding the remaining service associated with inverters, core Precision Power service reached a fourth quarter high, offsetting normal seasonal declines. The business fundamentals continue to work in our favor as we believe that the recent focus on total cost of ownership among leading fabs is resulting in a significant push towards high quality global maintenance and service organizations such as AE. As companies see the increased value of higher up time resulting from fewer repairs and timely upgrades of their equipment, we are gaining market share. In conjunction with new service offerings in upgrade and retrofits, we expect to see steady sustainable growth in our service business. Finally this quarter we began to execute on our capital deployment strategy to effectively utilize our cash and return value to our shareholders. During the quarter we launched and completed a $50 million accelerated share repurchase as part of our three years $150 million share repurchase program announced in September. This initiative is part of our overall capital deployment strategy also announced in September to utilize approximately 70% of our future free cash flow for organic and inorganic growth investments and 30% for share repurchases. In summary even during a cyclical downturn, the strength of our business model remains evident. While revenue performance in the fourth quarter was hampered by investment delays in semi, the diversity of our applications allowed us to reduce the effect of the cycle. Our financial model generated strong profitability and cash at the peak as well as the drop [ph] of the investment cycle. After the fourth quarter pause we expect to see an improvement in first quarter revenue as investment in semiconductors return. With our focus solely on Precision Power moving forward, we are better positioned as a leader in the industries we serve. We remain committed to accelerating revenues both organically and inorganically, driving targeted operating margins, effectively deploying our cash, and returning value to shareholders. I’d like to thank our customers, partners, shareholders, and our valued employees for their support. Thank you for joining us and we look forward to seeing many of you in the upcoming quarter. I’d now like to turn the call over to Tom. Tom?