Earnings Labs

Amtech Systems, Inc. (ASYS)

Q2 2016 Earnings Call· Sat, May 7, 2016

$16.79

-5.30%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.
Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings everyone. All participants will be in listen only mode. [Operator Instructions]. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions]. Please also note, today's event is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference call over to Mr. Robert Hass, Amtech's Interim Chief Financial Officer. Sir, please go ahead.

Robert Hass

Analyst

Good afternoon and thank you for joining us for Amtech Systems' Fiscal Year 2016 Second Quarter Results Conference Call. On the call today are J.S. Whang, Amtech's Executive Chairman; Fokko Pentinga, our President and Chief Executive Officer; Brad Anderson, and myself, Robert Hass, Amtech's Interim Chief Financial Officer. At the close of trading today, Amtech released its financial results for the second quarter fiscal year 2016 ended March 31, 2016. Net earnings release will be posted on the company's web site at amtechsystems.com. Please note, this call will include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from management's current expectations. We encourage you to review the Safe Harbor statements contained in today's press release and Form 10-Q and risk factors detailed in our Securities and Exchange Commission Filings, including our Form 10-K. I will now turn over the call to J.S. Whang, our Executive Chairman, to begin the discussion. J.S.?

J.S. Whang

Analyst

Thank you, Robert. Welcome to our discussion today. As always, we appreciate your interest in Amtech and your efforts to join our call to hear about our progress. There is a tremendous global opportunity in solar energy, and we stand as a strong player in the marketplace. The positioning of the solar as a reliable, cost effective, clean energy, and our strategy continues to be -- to stay ahead of tomorrow's expectations. Let's talk about the global marketplace; China continues to be the largest market for solar installation, which is expected to reach close to one-third of the total global capacity this year. The U.S. continues to advance with a forecast indicating significant growth for this year again. The solar market in India is emerging with its rate of growth now exceeding previous expectations. India's goal is to have 100 gigawatt installations by 2012 [ph] from this year's expected capacity of just 4 gigawatt. Japan is expected to add more than 13 gigawatt of new solar capacity this year, and the rest of the global emerging market shows continued expansions. This is clearly indicative of how solar is viewed as part of the global solar solutions -- global solar energy solutions for today and the long term. It is very clear that, solar industry is quickly evolving as a key energy source and needed energy source across the world. Our role is to develop the technologies and products that position our customers for all the manufacturers of solar cells and modules to win in this significant market opportunity. We are focused on the next generation solar cell technology solutions, that are required to address the demand for higher efficiency at a lower total cost of ownership. At Amtech, we will continue to work hard each day, to participate with our customers in this exciting growth opportunity. And now, I will turn the discussion over to Fokko, our CEO. Fokko?

Fokko Pentinga

Analyst

Thank you. I'd like to note my persuasion for you, taking the time to find us today. I am going to go over some second quarter highlights in just a minute and Robert will discuss our financial results in more detail, shortly. First, J.S. and I would like to acknowledge Brad Anderson, who has served as Amtech's Chief Financial Officer for many years. We announced Brad's plan to retire as CFO on February 25th. So effectively April 1, Robert Hass has shown the responsibility of Interim CFO. Brad is now staying busy in his advisory role and as a director of special projects, he works closely with J.S. and me in certain projects. The search for a Chief Financial Officer is underway and until that appointment, we are in good hands with Robert and his in-depth financial experience and strong financial team supporting him, and Brad continuing in an advisory capacity. So I am very confident that we will make seamless transition into the future. And now, let's discuss the second quarter results; I'd like to emphasize, that we are very pleased with the progress made in the quarter. We had strong bookings, with the increase in both bookings and backlog, validating that we are converting and growing the quotation pipeline into sales. We are pleased with our $45 million bookings in the second quarter, including $28 million of solar orders, which is the highest solar bookings since the March quarter of fiscal 2011. With those bookings, we now have a backlog of $67 million, which is a 57% increase over that of December 31st and the highest in four years. We now look forward to converting this backlog to shipments and revenues over the next couple of quarters, and we look forward to continuing to pursue more wins in…

Robert Hass

Analyst

Thank you, Fokko. Total customer order in fiscal 2016 were $45 million, of which $28 million were solar. This compares to $35.6 million in the preceding quarter, of which $23 million were solar. In the second quarter of fiscal 2015, orders totaled $30.9 million, including $16.7 million of solar. At March 31, 2016, our quarter backlog was $67.3 million, including $51.3 million in solar orders. The effect of foreign exchange on our backlog was an increase of approximately $1.9 million. As a reminder, our backlog includes deferred revenue and customer orders that are expected to ship within the next 12 months. Net revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2016 was $22.5 million, compared to $22.1 million in the preceding quarter and $24.3 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2015. The decrease from the second quarter a year ago, is primarily due to lower shipments caused by the cyclicality of the semiconductor industry and the polishing segment. Gross margin in the second quarter of fiscal 2016 was 27% compared to 27% in the previous quarter and 28% in the second quarter of fiscal 2016. The slightly lower margin in Q2 of 2016 compared to a year ago, resulted in primarily from lower usage of previously reserved inventory in the solar segment and lower sales volumes in the polishing segment. Selling, general and administrative expenses in the second quarter of fiscal 2016 were $7.4 million compared to $7.6 million at the preceding quarter and $8.1 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2015. The decrease compared to a year ago, results primarily from lower legal and consulting expenses related to the activity that led to the company's acquisition of BTU in January 2015, as well as lower commission expenses, partially offset by the inclusion of BTU for a full quarter…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. And our first question comes from Sven Eenmaa from Stifel. Please go ahead with your question.

Sven Eenmaa

Analyst

Okay. Thanks for taking my questions and congratulations on a solid performance. Wanted to ask first, in terms of the coding activity you mentioned, which remained strong; under your coding activity, what is the timing of expected deliveries of equipment there? What timelines are being discussed?

Fokko Pentinga

Analyst

That's a good question Sven. Fokko here. That differs from the type of product; but one thing is for certain that customers need quicker deliveries now than they used to do, let's say, a couple of years ago, and we made sure that we are able to do that, not on every case, but our operations are set to do it quicker. So you are talking about five/six months, but it could range from shorter for certain products to longer for major larger volumes. But we are set up to be a bit more flexible than anywhere in the past.

Sven Eenmaa

Analyst

Got it. And then in terms of geographies, what are the kind of key areas which are kind of adding capacity here?

Fokko Pentinga

Analyst

That is still relatively the same for us. Mostly, it is China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia, where we are doing a bit more in Malaysia, so that's the area. You add up the three, then you got a large portion of what we do and where the capacity addition is. As you look at other areas, that is still more in the planning stage, but not really adding capacity. So these are the areas where we are strongest. Of course, there are more areas that add capacity, but that is for us, the most important area.

Sven Eenmaa

Analyst

Got it. That's very helpful. And second question I had is, in terms of a margin cadence here, what are your expectations when you look at third quarter versus kind of second quarter here; like, do you expect your semiconductor and polishing revenues to increase, and what is the kind of margin profile on those revenues? Would you expect to [indiscernible] margin profile BTU used to have?

Fokko Pentinga

Analyst

Well, as we stated, we are guiding to approximately the mid-20s for the entire company and the solar of course, is the biggest part of the top line, both normally, and particularly in quarter three. So we only see a slight increase in the semiconductor, and so we don't expect to achieve the efficiencies we see that we think are potential.

Sven Eenmaa

Analyst

Also, for the shipments now. The solar and the market of course has changed, so we now have new equipment, new technologies, and really great machines, but the volumes we had five years ago when we had hundreds of machines a year, and we are not -- and those volumes yet -- also we have the selling prices high after the throughputs are double. So there is still some -- we need a few quarters where the material cost price would come down, and you need some time for that. So that would improve that over time, also on the solar side. LED, as we mentioned, is still relatively weak. Also there, we hope to see some improvement later on, but not necessarily already in next quarter.

Sven Eenmaa

Analyst

Got it. And then the last question I had is, in terms of when you think about your operating and earnings breakeven or getting into positive territory, what would the revenue run rate need to be for that?

Robert Hass

Analyst

We generally don't guide on that. So we need to get back to you on that.

Fokko Pentinga

Analyst

But it's very -- depending on the mix of products. So with the growth of the solar side in volume, and we are now having a nicer backlog; so the volumes go up, that certainly does help. But we don't guide exactly. The first quarter you will see, we are in the black, you do that times four and overreact [ph], but we have some idea, but we don't state it yet.

Sven Eenmaa

Analyst

Got it. Thanks so much.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. and ladies and gentlemen, at this time, in showing no additional questions, I'd like to turn the conference call back over to management for any closing remarks.

Robert Hass

Analyst

Thank you for your time today and for your interest in Amtech. This concludes our call today. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, with that, we will conclude today's conference call. We thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.