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Ambarella, Inc. (AMBA)

Q4 2013 Earnings Call· Thu, Mar 7, 2013

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. And welcome to the Ambarella Fiscal Fourth Quarter 2013 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference call maybe recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Deborah Stapleton, who will introduce our speakers for today. Ma'am, you may begin.

Deborah Stapleton

Management

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. And welcome to Ambarella's fiscal Q4 and 2013 financial results conference call. Thank you for joining us today. Our speakers will be Dr. Fermi Wang, President and CEO; and George Laplante, CFO. The primary purpose of today’s call is to provide you with information regarding our fiscal fourth quarter and fiscal 2013 performance. The discussion today and the responses to your questions will contain forward-looking statements regarding our financial prospects, market growth and demand for our solutions, among other things. These are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Should any of these risks or uncertainties materialize or should our assumptions prove to be incorrect, our actual results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements. We are under no obligation to update these statements. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions, as well as other information are potential risk factors that could affect our financial results are more fully described in the documents that we file with the SEC, including the final prospectus for our initial public offering and the annual report on Form 10-K that we will file for the 2013 fiscal year. Access to our fourth quarter and fiscal year 2013 financial results press release, historical results, and SEC filings and a replay of today's call can all be found on the Investor Relations portion of our website. I'll now turn the call over to Fermi Wang. Fermi?

Fermi Wang

Management

Thank you, Deborah, and good afternoon, everyone. In the last quarter, we continue our strong growth in revenue and the net profit. Q4 revenue was $31.5 million, up 28.3% from the $24.6 million we reported in fourth quarter a year ago. For fiscal 2013, we reported revenue of $121.1 million, up 24.5% from $97.3 million we reported in fiscal year 2012. Q4 non-GAAP net income was $5 million. This compares with non-GAAP net income of $2.7 million for the same period in the previous year. Non-GAAP net income for fiscal 2013 was $22.7 million. This compares to non-GAAP net income of $13.1 million for the year ended January 31, 2012. We ended the fiscal year with over $1 million in cash and cash equivalents. Therefore we are very pleased with our Q4 and fiscal 2013 financial results. I would like to discuss some of our products and market highlights then I will turn over to George for more in-depth discussion of our financial performance and our guidance for Q1. First, let’s look at our professional IP camera business which was a significant growth driver in fiscal 2013. In our professional IP camera security business, we saw significantly year-over-year growth and strong gross margin contribution. We are also enjoying increasing success in China which is the fastest growing security market. The market continues to grow rapidly, driven by the migration from analog standard definition cameras to digital IP-based high definition cameras. In addition to strong sales of Ambarella existing A5s SoC solution, the company is seeing significant interest in the new S2 SoC solution which we announced last September. The S2 supports the new 4K Ultra HD resolution video standard includes the opening of wide angle benefits and also provide the performance needed for both security and the business analytics. Ambarella…

George Laplante

Management

Thank you, Fermi, and good afternoon, everyone. During the call today, my financial discussion will always refer to fiscal not calendar period. I’ll start today’s call with a summary of the financial results for the fiscal Q -- fourth quarter, as well as the full year ended January 31, 2013, and then move on to the outlook for Q1 of fiscal year 2014. During the call, I'll discuss primarily non-GAAP results and ask that you refer to today's press release for a detailed reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP results. For Non-GAAP reporting, we have eliminated stock-based compensation expense adjusted for income taxes. As we discussed in the past, the company has seasonality to both its revenue and gross margins. So I will include year-on-year comparisons for certain key operating metrics to assist in the understanding of changes in our business. Although, we have seasonality to our revenues and related gross margins, our operating expenses do not materially fluctuate with revenue. Therefore, we may experience volatility to our operating margins due to changes in revenue from quarter-to-quarter. I will now discuss the financial results for the key -- company's key operating metrics starting with revenue. For the quarter and year ended January 31, 2013, the company had net revenues of $31.5 million and $121.1 million, respectively. The Q4 2013 revenue of $31.5 million represented an increased of 28.3% over the $24.6 million in revenue for the same period in the prior year. Camera market revenue is estimated at 83% of Q4 revenue as compared to 70.3% for the same period in the prior year. As Fermi said, we continue to experience growth in our professional and consumer IP security, wearable sports and automotive camera markets, contributing to the year-on-year revenue improvement. The remainder of the revenue in each period related to…

Fermi Wang

Management

Thank you, George. As you can see, we continue to feel confident with our opportunities for Q1 and beyond. We are focused on growth, especially in our major camera markets, which would include IP security cameras, both on a professional and the consumer markets, sports and other wearable cameras and in the fast-growing automotive camera markets. Again, I would like to thank our colleague’s effort to make this result possible. Operator, we will now take questions.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Kevin Cassidy of Stifel. Your line is now open.

Kevin Cassidy - Stifel

Analyst

Thank you. Thanks for taking my question and congratulations on a great quarter. Good outlook.

Fermi Wang

Management

Thank you.

Kevin Cassidy - Stifel

Analyst

You’re welcome. And on the outlook, can you state some of the moving parts within the cameras where you’re seeing some growth. It seems like this would be a seasonally slower period. But could you just say where you’re seeing some strength?

Fermi Wang

Management

Yeah. I think if you look on a year-on-year basis, we’re seeing strength in automotive, sports as well as IP security. All three markets are growing year-over-year as it relates to camcorder that continues to decline as it has in the last four quarters.

Kevin Cassidy - Stifel

Analyst

Okay. Maybe on the sports cameras, can you say last quarter, what’s your product mix as well as I guess, I’m just wondering, are the low-end camera selling or is it more of high end?

Fermi Wang

Management

Currently, more of the high end.

Kevin Cassidy - Stifel

Analyst

Okay. Is that more positive for you for gross margins?

Fermi Wang

Management

It’s more positive for us on the revenue side, obviously but not necessarily on the gross margin side at this point. That is a new chip. And we’re in the early stages of manufacturing.

Kevin Cassidy - Stifel

Analyst

Okay. And as you look out to 2014, fiscal 2014, do you expect that mix to stay at the high end?

Fermi Wang

Management

No. Not necessarily. There are new cameras being introduced in the sports area all during the year. And we expect most likely the ASPs will also come down on those cameras compared to where they are today.

Kevin Cassidy - Stifel

Analyst

Okay. Great. Thanks. I’ll get back in the queue.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Joe Moore of Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open.

Joe Moore - Morgan Stanley

Analyst

Great. Thank you. Is it right to assume from the comments that you made that security cameras were the fastest growth segment this quarter?

Fermi Wang

Management

Not necessarily but they were right near the top. There was several of the -- sports cameras and security cameras were the fastest growing.

Joe Moore - Morgan Stanley

Analyst

Okay. Great. Got it. And then the move from WT to direct with Chicony’s, is there any inventory impact from that? Does that mean you actually have a net lower level of inventory because you took an intermediary out. And is there any margin impact from that transition?

Fermi Wang

Management

There is no inventory impact because WT is not a stocking distributor.

Joe Moore - Morgan Stanley

Analyst

Okay.

Fermi Wang

Management

They are primarily a logistic partners and only do back to back orders with their customers. But we do pick up some margin because we don’t pay the commission that we pay to WT for handling that logistics.

Joe Moore - Morgan Stanley

Analyst

Okay. Great. Thank you very much. Good quarter.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Quinn Bolton of Needham & Company. Your line is now open. Quinn Bolton - Needham & Company: Hi Fermi and George. Congratulations on a good results and nice guidance. Just wanted to follow-up on Kevin’s question about what sort of the margin’s on the sports cameras, I think the high-end cameras today are based on the A7 solution, which sounds like because their newer products serve lower than -- just the initial stage of their yield. Kind of wondering how you see that progressing over the next several quarters. Do you think that the margins on those can come up as you ramp volumes or is it really -- does it take transition to the next generation family of chips to improve the margins at that higher end of the camera market?

Fermi Wang

Management

I think it takes to the next generation of chips. At the high end, I believe we’ll transition over the year down to the lower end chips. And I think that will be improved margins. But in the current environment and volumes, I would expect the transition to be the bigger impact on margins. Quinn Bolton - Needham & Company: Okay. Great. And then just second question with the A9 being introduced at CES and you’re now about a quarter -- few months later. Can you talk about sort of the reception you're seeing from customers especially in some of the higher frame rate features of that solution?

Fermi Wang

Management

Yeah. I think from -- in the last quarter, when we talked to a quite a few customers who are interested in this A9 and especially for that 4K. They probably sound that, most interested on the high-priority areas you mentioned. Because of our sports camera, the slow motion is really the critical icon. So I think that the combination that we can provide are very high resolution like 4K but also can drive the very high. Both are very, very interesting to our customers. And we do expect that we get something that way and early next year we hope we can see products. Quinn Bolton - Needham & Company: Early calendar ‘14?

Fermi Wang

Management

That’s correct. Quinn Bolton - Needham & Company: Okay. Great. And then just lastly, it sounded like you said that the digital still camera market, which I know was a small market for you today was down. I wasn’t sure if that was sequentially or year-over-year. But we just wondered if you could give us any update on how you see the opportunities playing out in the digital still cameras. Is that still market that you think you can focus and grow your share? I know, you are going to sort of back away from DSCs because maybe the opportunity in margins are changing?

Fermi Wang

Management

Right. So for DSC, I think the market as a whole continue to drop year-over-year and sequentially mainly because of the low-end basically just being clarified as smartphone. And our playing DSC hasn’t -- it will still make you sit. We do have much of the revenue there. But our goal is we’re going to focus on really the higher end DSC, which has much or less impact by the smartphone mainly that mirrorless and also high end DSCs that require higher features. And we certainly do not want to play in a low-end side which is really not that a market that we think we can participate. Quinn Bolton - Needham & Company: Do you think that’s an opportunity you see ramping in fiscal ‘14 or do you think that’s really more of a fiscal ‘15 opportunity in terms of meaningful revenue?

Fermi Wang

Management

So mirrorless camera definitely I think two years up. Quinn Bolton - Needham & Company: Okay. Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Ross Seymore of Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open.

Ross Seymore - Deutsche Bank

Analyst

Hi. I just had a quick question, you mentioned that you’re seeing some critical strength in the high end of your product stack. Is there an ASP component to your pretty solid, pretty strong guide or is it -- could you give some kind of ASP versus units, just. Are you seeing ASP tailwind essentially?

Fermi Wang

Management

If you’re looking within the total camera space, our ASPs have actually gone up slightly quarter-on-quarter and that’s just primarily mix of some of the high end. We see that continuing for a couple of quarters and then as we transition out of that high-end chip back to the lower end. Our overall ASPs will decline.

Ross Seymore - Deutsche Bank

Analyst

Great. And then just finally, I’m curious if I missed it, did you give the share count number for the guidance in the per quarter?

George Laplante

Management

I have not given a share count in my discussion but it is going to be published. So it’s going to be estimated to be 28.7 million shares, fully diluted.

Ross Seymore - Deutsche Bank

Analyst

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Our next question is a follow-up from Kevin Cassidy of Stifel. Your line is now open.

Kevin Cassidy - Stifel

Analyst

Yeah. Thanks for taking my follow-up. I was just wondering on the automotive market, it seems like its getting good growth. Can you just say any progress that you’re getting in -- selling into the OEM rather than aftermarket automotive?

George Laplante

Management

Kevin, I think selling to OEM is our long-term goals. And we’re just starting to engage in this process. And I think 100% of our current revenue all come from the after market sales. But I think like I say in the past, we are definitely thinking of the long-term automotive OEM as a target. But right now, there is nothing that we can put at its limit.

Kevin Cassidy - Stifel

Analyst

Okay. Do you have any idea of what penetration you might have for the automotive markets in Asia that you’re addressing. Is it even percentage or is it just -- do you have any color?

Fermi Wang

Management

Yeah. Kevin because there is really no marketing research report on this market. The only data that we have is really formulized by our own loss sales by talking to customers and sales to supplier. So we that’s enough data that we probably should not disclose but we do believe that we continue to get market share on a high-definition video or high-definition automotive market right now. But more importantly, the whole market is very clear transition foster definition to high definition which is benefiting for us.

Kevin Cassidy - Stifel

Analyst

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And at this time, I’m not showing any further questions on the phone line. I’d like to turn the call back to management for any further remarks.

Fermi Wang

Management

Okay. I just want to thank everybody for joining in today’s call and special thanks to all our employees to make this happen. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today’s conference. This does conclude today’s program. You may all disconnect. Everyone have a great day.