John Vandemore
Analyst · Stifel
Thank you, Patti. We delivered strong results again this quarter, which reflect our focus on driving profitability and returns on invested capital. This quarter's highlights include: expanding total revenues 11% to $600 million; improving adjusted operating income 13% to $164 million; and GAAP operating income 10% to $129 million; and increasing adjusted earnings per share 33% to $0.36; and GAAP earnings per share 38% to $0.29. I'd like to begin this quarter review with product sales, where our business performed extremely well again with this quarter, driven by a 66% increase in North American unit shipments. We are confident that we gained ship share in both new and replacement markets, as total revenues, units recognized and gross profit all grew double digits. Average sales price and product margins declined year-over-year, mainly due to targeted promotional activity and an unfavorable mix shift. Our product momentum continued this quarter as our new Dolly Parton game began appearing on casino floors and generating strong results. Our new skill-based Reel Edge games, which include the introduction of our rising new star, Tully the Turtle, were also very popular this quarter. In our International markets, we saw strong sales in our systems business, while machine sales declined slightly year-over-year, driven by challenging economic trends. As a result, revenues were essentially flat. We are gaining traction internationally as we strive to capture market share with our growing library of localized content and compelling offerings in the systems business. Turning to gaming operations, where we remain focused on managing the business for the highest possible returns and cash flow, our revenues declined 4% year-over-year, partly driven by declining yields. However, gross margins grew year-over-year to 62% on lower jackpot expenses and depreciation. And our installed base was up year-over-year and flat sequentially, as gains in our global lease operations offset decline in our MegaJackpots installed base. Average revenue per unit was down 6% year-over-year to $49.26, primarily due to lower MegaJackpots revenue, as gross gaming trends in the U.S. remained under considerable pressure. However, average revenue peer -- per unit was up 5% sequentially, reflecting positive seasonal trends. We now expect that our objective of achieving flat year-over-year yield by the fourth quarter will be more challenging than previously anticipated. However, we remain focused on improving yields, confident that we can continue to offset a portion of yield pressures by managing costs. As we mentioned on our last call, we have implemented a number of initiatives to improve our performance in this business. We added resources to the MegaJackpots team, increased the mix of our franchise titles, like Wheel of Fortune, invested in direct-to-player marketing efforts through social media and other venues and launched Game Changers, our new value-oriented product in the MegaJackpots category. Game Changers combines the proven performance of our core game library in titles like Golden Goddess and Siberian Storm, with flexible integrated progressive jackpot gameplay. Game Changers was introduced at ICE this year and is now available for sale. Looking forward, we expect to see a decrease year-over-year in our gaming operations' capital expenditures, driven by a decline in installations. We are committed to disciplined capital deployment as we will not chase yield with capital that does not offer an accretive return on investment. Our interactive business delivered another fantastic quarter with remarkable growth. At IGTi, revenues were up 7% on a sequential basis as our online casino product continues to grow and to gain share. However, revenues declined slightly year-over-year due to the absence of our European online poker network. At DoubleDown, revenues grew 31% sequentially as we marked the 1 year anniversary of the acquisition this quarter. Over this time, we've seen a confirmation of our original investment pieces, as legacy IGT content has generated dramatic revenue growth in the DoubleDown Casino. Since the acquisition, the number of daily active users has increased over 25%, while the average bookings for daily active user has grown to an industry-leading $0.37, which is twice the $0.18 average that DoubleDown was generating when we acquired the company. And the opportunities continue to grow with the launch of DoubleDown in French, German and Spanish, facilitating our entry into new markets. As we develop these markets, we expect that the number of daily active users will grow, but the average revenue per daily active user could decline slightly. We remain optimistic about our further growth opportunities at DoubleDown, where the number of daily visitors is nearly 15x that of the Las Vegas Strip. And we are reaching and building relationships with the next generation of players that we believe will create tremendous value for our customers and IGT. We are very pleased with the performance of DoubleDown and we continue to expect the transaction to be GAAP accretive by 2014. Turning to cash flow and the balance sheet. Fiscal year-to-date, we have generated operating cash flows of $183 million. It is worthwhile to point out that this includes a portion of the acquisition-related payments to DoubleDown, totaling $46 million. The balance of the acquisition-related payments appear under Financing Activities. Contractual debt obligations increased during the quarter by $55 million, reflecting borrowings under our credit facility, primarily used to fund our share repurchases. This week, we closed on a 5-year unsecured $1 billion revolving credit facility. This refinancing increased our available liquidity, partly in anticipation of forthcoming maturities; lowered our borrowing cost by over 20% and extended our overall debt maturities. We believe that the favorable refinancing terms reflect the market's confidence in IGT's operating strength, disciplined financial management and robust cash flow generation. This quarter, we are increasing our adjusted earnings per share guidance from continuing operations for fiscal 2013 to $1.26 to $1.32 per share and note that this implies growth of between 22% and 28% over fiscal 2012. This guidance reflects the continued momentum in our business, as well as current global market conditions. I'll now turn the call back to Patti for her closing remarks.