Earnings Labs

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (BIO)

Q1 2016 Earnings Call· Thu, May 5, 2016

$281.54

-2.00%

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.

Same-Day

-1.23%

1 Week

-0.14%

1 Month

+4.23%

vs S&P

+0.95%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Bio-Rad Laboratories, Incorporated Q1 2016 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Ron Hutton. You may begin. Ronald W. Hutton - Treasurer & Vice President: Thank you, Karan. Before we begin the call, I would like to caution everyone that we will be making forward-looking statements about management's goals, plans and expectations, our future financial performance and other matters. Because our actual results may differ materially from these plans and expectations, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements and I encourage you to review our filings with the SEC, where we discuss in detail the risk factors in our business. The company does not intend to update any forward-looking statements made during the call today. With that, I'd like to turn over the call to Christine Tsingos, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Christine A. Tsingos - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Management

Thanks, Ron. Good afternoon everyone, and thank you for joining us. With me today are Norman Schwartz, John Goetz, Shannon Hall, President of our Life Science Group; and John Hertia, President of our Diagnostics Group. Net sales for the first quarter of 2016 were $471.2 million, a slight decrease versus the same period last year's sales of $472.8 million. This decline reflects the continued strong currency headwind, which represented a negative impact on sales of nearly $20 million. On a currency neutral basis, sales increased 3.9%. During the quarter, we experienced good currency neutral growth across many of our key market and product areas, most notably in our Life Science segment, as well as certain products and markets in our Diagnostics segment. Sales growth in the quarter was somewhat tempered by continued weakness in the European diagnostic market, as well as challenges in the Eastern European region, both of which posted a decline in currency neutral sales versus last year. Offsetting these tepid regions was solid growth in the U.S., Asia Pacific and selected emerging markets. The reported gross margin for the first quarter was in line with expectations at 56% compared to 57.1% last year. The current quarter margin is the result of good product mix, partially offset by increased costs. The higher margin in the first quarter of last year reflected sizable, favorable manufacturing variances during that period, making the first quarter of this year a bit tough to compare. Amortization expense related to acquisitions recorded in cost of goods sold was higher at $7.2 million, which compares to $6.8 million in the first quarter of last year. The increase in amortization relates to the newly acquired flow cytometry technology for the cell biology market. SG&A expenses for the first quarter were up slightly at $189.7 million or…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our first question comes from Brandon Couillard with Jefferies. Your line is open.

Christine A. Tsingos - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Management

Brandon?

Brandon Couillard - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Hey. Thanks. Good afternoon. Yeah. Can you hear me? Ronald W. Hutton - Treasurer & Vice President: Yes.

Brandon Couillard - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Christine, business, could you break out the effect of, as you saw in growth in Eastern Europe on just the overall segment. If you back out those two regions, which have been weak for sometime though, sort of what does the base business look like in terms of growth?

Christine A. Tsingos - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Management

So, you're breaking up a little. Backing out, I think, I heard Eastern Europe and something else.

Brandon Couillard - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Yeah. Just if we back out those two weak markets, how would growth look for this segment sort of excluding those two regions?

Christine A. Tsingos - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Management

For Diagnostics?

Brandon Couillard - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Yes.

Christine A. Tsingos - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Management

So, Eastern Europe is smaller than some of the other segments. And obviously on a currency neutral basis, backing it out would increase their growth rate. But Western Europe is probably one of the largest regions, if not and I guess, the U.S. is probably larger now than Europe with what's been going on in Europe. So, I don't have a specific growth rate. But I think that it'd be safe that it would be a couple of points.

Brandon Couillard - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

I'm not sure if John Hertia's there. But I mean, if you had a point to one market or product vertical where you think you're gaining some share, which it certainly seems like you might be at least in the U.S. market, what are the kind of top two or three sort of contributors which you think are accounting for the strength? John Hertia - Executive Vice President & President, Clinical Diagnostics Group: Brandon, if I get this right, you are asking for what markets might be strengthening in the U.S. market?

Christine A. Tsingos - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Management

Gaining share, yeah.

Brandon Couillard - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Yeah. That's right. I'm sorry, if I'm not coming through. Sorry. John Hertia - Executive Vice President & President, Clinical Diagnostics Group: We were pretty strong across almost all segments in the U.S. line. We did introduce, I think we'd reported in the last conference call we did get FDA approval for a new diabetes instrument, the D-100 and got approval for a new blood typing instrument, the infinity and those are both contributing. And as Christine mentioned, BioPlex is doing very well around the world and that certainly is contributing to the U.S. too, especially in the areas of autoimmune, mumps testing and in the expansion of HIV and Vitamin D.

Brandon Couillard - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Super. While I have you, any update you can share with us on the status of the new Bio project? John Hertia - Executive Vice President & President, Clinical Diagnostics Group: The new Bio project continues, continue to make progress and we're anticipating something in the near future.

Brandon Couillard - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

All right. John Hertia - Executive Vice President & President, Clinical Diagnostics Group: Obviously, it's still in development.

Brandon Couillard - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Okay. Last one, Christine. Do you have a revised FX outlook in terms of the revenue impact for the year you can share with us?

Christine A. Tsingos - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Management

Well, I mean, it all depends on where the currencies go from here. So I think we will stick with the originally anticipated – that kind of $50 million to $75 million. We had $20 million of it on the top line in the first quarter. I still think that as we get to the second half of the year then we don't have the same headwinds, but a lot of that Brandon is just going to depend on what happens to the rate.

Brandon Couillard - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Got you. Okay. Thanks. I will hop back. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Dan Leonard with Leerink Partners. Your line is open.

Kevin C. Chen - Leerink Partners LLC

Analyst · Leerink Partners. Your line is open.

Hi, this is actually Kevin Chen in for Dan today. So my first question is regarding the Life Sciences. Were there any one-time items or large orders in the quarter and how should we think about the order rate for that business?

Christine A. Tsingos - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Management

I think the Life Science growth, it's a combination of really good ongoing strength in some of the base business and the Droplet Digital PCR technology. We did have a good quarter for the process media, which can be a lumpy business as customers will buy in bulk. And so, in any given quarter there could be $3 million to $5 million of an extra order in there, but even that business is starting to smooth out a little now that we have such a broad reach of customers.

Kevin C. Chen - Leerink Partners LLC

Analyst · Leerink Partners. Your line is open.

Got it. Thanks. And then my follow up would be on China recently expanded their Life Science spending. I'm just curious what you're hearing on the ground over there and do you perhaps see any incremental tailwinds going forward?

Christine A. Tsingos - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Management

China Life Science spending trends continues to be pretty robust. I guess that's the way, I would describe it.

Kevin C. Chen - Leerink Partners LLC

Analyst · Leerink Partners. Your line is open.

Okay. That's good to know. And then, and just lastly, I know you mentioned tax rate was so far in the high-end of the range. But how would it trend throughout the year? Was it – can you just help us understand that?

Christine A. Tsingos - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Management

Well, I think you know, we guided to 30% to 32%, and now we've just kind of banked a 39% in terms of the effective tax rate. Obviously, as the year moves on, some of the discrete items get spread on an annualized basis. So I think for a base rate of being in that 30% to 32% is where we'll probably trend for the year because of the Q1 39%, you know I think the math is going to point more to that, that higher end at 32%, with the caveat of, you know every quarter there could be discrete items that move the rate either up or down.

Kevin C. Chen - Leerink Partners LLC

Analyst · Leerink Partners. Your line is open.

Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Jeffrey Matthews with RAM Partners. Your line is open.

Jeffrey L. Matthews - RAM Partners LP

Analyst · RAM Partners. Your line is open.

Thanks. Hi, everybody.

Christine A. Tsingos - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Management

Hey, Jeff.

Jeffrey L. Matthews - RAM Partners LP

Analyst · RAM Partners. Your line is open.

Christine, you mentioned increase in professional fees as part of the SG&A increase on a currency neutral basis. Does that relate to the ERP spending, and is that going to increase as you go into your next phase?

Christine A. Tsingos - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Management

Some of it relates to ERP. Some relates to legal costs. But I think for the ERP, we've talked about spending operating expenses in that $30 million, low $30 million number and I think that's probably still the right number to use. Remember, a lot of the professional fees with the project are actually capitalized labor, but then there is a lot of kind of side projects, if you will, other systems that are impacted by this that require some professional services as well.

Jeffrey L. Matthews - RAM Partners LP

Analyst · RAM Partners. Your line is open.

Okay. Thanks. And then, the dollar has been pretty weak lately. And the last time you came out with your here is what the dollar is going do to us this year, I think that was pretty much close to the peak in the dollar. Are you just not, don't want to change your outlook at this point? You want to see where things go or has there been no movement in the currencies that are really particular to Bio-Rad?

Christine A. Tsingos - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Management

Well, so no, Jeff, it's a good point and we have seen, since December 31, some weakening in the dollar even against some of our major currencies. But we also have exposure to the Russian ruble and Brazil and some currencies that are still a bit volatile. So, it's kind of a mixed bag for us. Obviously, if we keep trending this way, then the currency headwinds for the full year should come in lower than what we anticipated at the beginning of the year.

Jeffrey L. Matthews - RAM Partners LP

Analyst · RAM Partners. Your line is open.

Okay. And then on the Illumina announcement, how did that come about and when might there be something in the marketplace related to that? John Hertia - Executive Vice President & President, Clinical Diagnostics Group: So, I guess, it came about, this whole area of single cell analysis is something that's of more and more interest to customers and Illumina was looking for a kind of a complete solution for the customers, and I guess they probably approached us. I don't know who made the first move, but got together and looked at what we could do together with that. And so that's, I guess that's the way it basically came about. The two groups are working pretty closely together and anticipate something coming out around the end of the year.

Jeffrey L. Matthews - RAM Partners LP

Analyst · RAM Partners. Your line is open.

Okay, great. And then a final one. I'm just curious on the U.S. It seems like we've had some loosening up in the NIH budget or increases in it and you seem more optimistic in the U.S., is just things generally better here now than they have been? John Hertia - Executive Vice President & President, Clinical Diagnostics Group: Yes. There's certainly, I mean the word sequestration has seemed to have dropped out of everybody's vocabulary and I think that's certainly a big help. In addition to that, I think there is certainly an increased focus. The government has kind of I would say gotten back on track with the importance and value of this basic science and investing in science in the NIH. And so, I think that's a good trend.

Jeffrey L. Matthews - RAM Partners LP

Analyst · RAM Partners. Your line is open.

Great. Thanks very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back to Christine Tsingos for any further remarks.

Christine A. Tsingos - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Management

So, can you just poll one more time?

Operator

Operator

Yes. And I'm still showing no further questions.

Christine A. Tsingos - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Management

Okay.

Operator

Operator

Oh, we do have one more question from Jeffrey Matthews from RAM Partners. Your line is open.

Jeffrey L. Matthews - RAM Partners LP

Analyst

What the heck. John Hertia - Executive Vice President & President, Clinical Diagnostics Group: Okay.

Jeffrey L. Matthews - RAM Partners LP

Analyst

Haven't asked the acquisition question in a while. Just wondering what the landscape looks like these days. Money got pretty tight in the first quarter and it seemed to be a good time to be a Bio-Rad seller. I don't know if that's filtered into any of the companies you are looking at. But, are you optimistic about adding anything to the portfolio this year? John Hertia - Executive Vice President & President, Clinical Diagnostics Group: Yeah. We are optimistic. As you know, it's always hard to say when something might actually happen or what competition for it might be, but we continue to kind of work along that path and I'm certainly hoping that we can do something this year.

Jeffrey L. Matthews - RAM Partners LP

Analyst

Thanks very much. Good luck.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Brandon Couillard from Jefferies. Your line is open.

Brandon Couillard - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Thanks. Question for Shannon on the process chromatography business. Christine called out 40 FDA approved products in which you are specified. Is that a substantially higher number than where you are, let's say 12 months ago? Shannon Hall - Executive Vice President & President, Life Science Group: Not substantially.

Christine A. Tsingos - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Management

it's certainly higher. Shannon Hall - Executive Vice President & President, Life Science Group: Yeah. John Hertia - Executive Vice President & President, Clinical Diagnostics Group: But I think the point is that it continues to grow, and I think the other point is being spec'd in those drugs is a good indicator of a repeatable or continuous business.

Brandon Couillard - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Okay. Then one question for John Goetz. I would love to get your views, sort of as we look out over the next, let's call it, 18 months. What does the time line look like for the ERP deployment in Europe? Kind of when do you expect to turn the first – go-live in the first country and then kind of walk us all the way through the end of next year? John Goetz - Chief Operating Officer & Executive Vice President: Okay. We are currently in the, I would say the configuration phase of the project. Right now, our teams are working on it as we speak in Europe. A lot of that is cleaning up data of course, but it's the localization of the system that we've put in place here in the U.S., but having it more applicable to what we're doing in Europe. We see a go-live timeframe right at the start of second quarter next year. That's our -- it's kind of our hard target and assuming everything goes well, we'll flip the switch at that time. And of course when you do that, you immediately jump on that system with a lot of hyper care as you pull yourself through the mess of a go live. So then we'll see probably another couple of quarters, maybe even three quarters of stabilization over there. It's a pretty complicated roll out and then I think we're probably going to take subsequent roll outs in more bite size pieces as we maybe complete the rest of our European deployment. There is some countries that are excluded in this scope, and then we'll move onto Asia in the subsequent quarters and kind of go from there. But, by the time we finish this deployment that we plan for Europe, which is a go-live in that second quarter timeframe next year, we'll have captured the lion share of our manufacturing plants and top-line sales. So, that's – we're really encouraged by that.

Brandon Couillard - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Super. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And I'm showing no further questions.

Christine A. Tsingos - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Management

Okay. Great. Well, thank you as always for your interest in Bio-Rad and taking the time to join us today. Bye-bye.