Joshua H. Levine
Analyst · Cowen & Company. Your line is open
Thanks Doug. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining on today's call. Following the market close today we reported second quarter financial results, highlighted by strong growth for both gross orders and backlog. Gross orders for the quarter increased 17% year-over-year to $78.5 million, while our backlog grew 16% year-over-year to a record $426.2 million. We believe our progress is evidence that the catalysts driving order growth discussed with you over the last several quarters are beginning to take hold. These catalysts include a meaningful replacement cycle for Accuray products and greater recognition by both existing and new customers that our company's product portfolio offers increased versatility and functionality for customers. Over the next few minutes I'd like to provide more color on the most important of these catalysts, before turning the call over to Kevin for a more detailed review of our financial performance and full year outlook. First, as many of you know, we are entering the early phase of a multi-year replacement cycle of approximately 200 TomoTherapy and CyberKnife systems that will reach their tenure in service dates within the next 36 months. While we anticipate replacements will generally average 10% to 20% of orders on an annual basis, the results in the second quarter were north of that range with the largest number of replacements occurring in the US market. At the end of our first fiscal quarter we communicated we had secured commitments for several replacement orders in Q1 that were indeed finalized in the second quarter. We are optimistic about the replacement sales momentum continuing. When we look at the full file of our installed base we have a mix that leans heavily towards large multi-bunker [ph] academic institutions where many have our earlier generation Tomo and CyberKnife systems, who will therefore benefit from the significantly improved functionality, versatility and reliability of our newest devices. Many of these institutions are led by key opinion leaders who are engaged in research and who recognize the value of improved workflow and efficiency associated with our latest generation products. Our view is bolstered when we look at an installed customer base that is increasingly satisfied with the performance and reliability of our systems. Related to this earlier in the month, we announced that Accuray radiation therapy systems continue to set the industry standard for customer satisfaction once again receiving MD Buyline's highest Composite Overall User Satisfaction rating among radiation treatment delivery systems in the US. In fact most recent ratings report for calendar Q4 showed that Accuray radiation therapy products have now achieved the highest composite rating among industry peers for 11 of the past 12 quarters. The MD Buyline survey results are consistent with the net promoter scores by IMV ServiceTrak, where Accuray was rated number one in overall system performance. We believe these improvements in system performance reliability and ease of use are helping to drive gross order and backlog growth. Additionally, future order growth benefited from an improved order mix of our CyberKnife system. We continue to see the majority of CyberKnife system orders configured with a Multileaf Collimator, which not only increases the versatility and speed of the system but also enhances the average selling price and margin profile. While it's probably too early to attribute the second quarter CyberKnife order strength to recent clinical data, we do believe that CyberKnife SBRT study for low and intermediate risk prostate patients that was presented at ASTRO In September will enhance the strategic positioning and clinical validation of CyberKnife as an effective full body radiosurgery device, supporting momentum and order growth going forward. Additionally, while the majority of our Q2 CyberKnife orders in the US were replacement cells, throughout the rest of the world we saw a healthy mix of both replacements and new CyberKnife customers, which speaks to the expanded versatility of our latest generation CyberKnife platform. Transitioning to Radixact, future orders also benefited from the early rollout of our new Radixact System, the next generation of our TomoTherapy platform. As we announced the first patient treatments had occurred in a number of our early reference site accounts -- site accounts in the U.S. and Europe. Customer feedback regarding the performance of the new Radixact System at those locations was extremely positive with regards to speed, efficiency and image quality of the device. Customers were also pleased with the performance of our new precision treatment planning software and its adaptor [ph] planning and retreatment capabilities. Additionally in Q2, we continued our multi-system momentum with the booking of another multi-system order for three Radixact units with the prestigious Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital. Regarding Onrad, our new value product segment offering in China, we remain on track with regards to our initial launch. As we have discussed previously regarding Onrad, a large element of the selling process is dependent on successful participation in provincial level tender processes. Based on the tender process timelines, we expect initial order uptake for Onrad to begin late in fiscal Q3 or early Q4 with further order ramp continuing from there forward. While we’re pleased that the halfway mark of our fiscal year to be above our internal forecast for gross orders and backlog, we recognize that potential variability in terms of outcomes, timing in two key areas, potentially create some revenue uncertainty in the second half of this fiscal year. Let me touch on these two areas, revenue conversion and the timing of Class A license issues in China in more detail. First, we continue to see modestly extended revenue conversion times, due to a higher mix of international distributor orders in our backlog. We experienced that increasing trend in the percentage of our backlog related to distributor orders which increased 6% since fiscal year-end 2014. The impact of working with independent distributors in general is that we have less direct control over the timing in converting these orders to revenue versus our direct sales. Process critical activity such as site planning, installation planning and coordination of contractors, when the distributor has primary responsibility for system installation, results in less direct line of site with the end user facility and limits our ability to manage all elements of the installation process, which can result in timing variability and delays. The second area of potential impact is the timing uncertainty of a final announcement concerning Class A radiotherapy licenses from the Chinese Ministry of Health. Given the delays in this announcement over the past several quarters, it’s becoming more difficult to predict when the Class A license program specifics will be finalized. Our internal assumption supporting our second half fiscal 2017 revenue forecast is tied to a final announcement regarding Class A radiotherapy licenses coming by the end of our fiscal third quarter. But given the delays we’ve seen and the uncertainty of timing going forward, we believe it’s prudent to remind you of the potential impact of our second half revenue outlook related to continued delays. With that said, we remain very confident in the China market opportunity overall and our competitive positioning in the class A radiotherapy segment. And with that I’d like to turn the call over to Kevin.