Rob Willett
Analyst · Battle Road. Please go ahead sir
Thank you, Dr. Bob. Good evening, everyone. I am pleased with the results we reported tonight for the first quarter of 2015. Revenue, net income and earnings per share all set new first quarter records as a result of our ongoing investments in new product development and sales. Revenue was also higher than the guidance we gave to investors in February. Revenue increased 25% year-on-year to $113 million and that's despite a negative impact of nearly $7 million from currency exchange rate fluctuations. Growth came primarily from factory automation, where revenue increased 26% year-on-year. We also saw higher revenue from surface inspection and semi. Gross margin was 75%. Cost reductions, volume purchasing and manufacturing efficiencies were offset by pricing discounts on some large orders and higher new product introduction costs. Operating expenses increased by 9% from Q4. Our confidence in Cognex's growth prospects led us to make substantial investments during what is typically our lowest revenue quarter of the year. We feel good about our ongoing investments in engineering and sales and we believe that they will be important to delivering top and bottom line growth over the long-term. Operating margin was 21%. While most companies would be pleased with such a high level of profitability, it is below the 25% operating margin we've reported a year ago. We expect operating margin to improve as we move through the year. Reported earnings were $0.23 per share that is $0.02 higher than the first quarter of 2014 and $0.01 above Thomson Reuters' First Call consensus estimate. Let's now turn to the details of the quarter. Factory automation revenue was $95 million in Q1 and accounted for 84% of total revenue. As I said a moment ago, factory automation revenue increased 26% year-on-year. The growth rate in constant currency was an even stronger 34%. In addition, factory automation revenue increased by 2% on a sequential basis, which is contrary to our typical experience at the start of a new year. Looking at factory automation year-on-year from a geographic perspective, Asia, excluding Japan was our best-performing region during the first quarter in terms of percentage growth. Factory automation revenue from Asia grew more than 50% year-on-year during what is usually a seasonally soft quarter for that region. We saw strong demand in Q1 particularly in Greater China from customers looking to incorporate machine vision into their manufacturing processes. Europe had another strong quarter reporting factory automation revenue growth well in excess of our 20% long-term target even with the negative impact of currency exchange rates. We are encouraged by the underlying strength we see with customers in Europe together with our team’s strong execution. Factory automation revenue from the Americas increased mid-single digit over the first quarter of 2014. We continue to make progress on our growth initiatives in this region but are observing some tentativeness to place orders by customers in the US. And in Japan, revenue from the struggling factory automation market continue to be negatively impacted by the weaker yen. Our revenue from this region declined in the low-teens year-on-year on a reported basis and was flat in constant currency. In the surface inspection market, first quarter revenue was $12 million, which is an increase of 25% over a particularly low quarter a year ago. Surface inspection revenue is lumpy due to the timing of deliveries in installations and the impact of revenue deferrals. However, in Q1 of 2015, we saw a strong increase in revenue from the metals industry. Revenue from the semiconductor and electronics capital equipment market was $6.5 million in the first quarter. This represents an increase of 5% year-on-year and 26% over Q4. While we were pleased to see semi revenue increase, we continue to have low expectations for this market. Moving on to growth initiatives. We continue to make good progress on our investments to drive growth. In particular, we have invested a lot in new product developments and will be launching a number of important new products very soon. In regard to operating expenses, RD&E and SG&A in Q1 increased by $14 million year-on-year. Expenses grew faster than revenue in Q1 and I’d like to provide some color on that. Our growth investments represented roughly two-thirds of the increase. We spent more than $9 million on engineering headcount outside services and materials for new product development, sales initiatives and incremental capabilities geared towards larger opportunities. There were also incremental costs for two specific items. One, with a non-cash expense related to stock option, which increased $3 million year-on-year due to a higher stock price and larger employee base. The other was legal fees in excess of $1 million related to our patent dispute with Microscan. The strong outlook we have for our Company and industry, the confidence we have in our strategies and the strength of our balance sheet led us to make these investments during what is typically a seasonally low revenue quarter. We expect revenue to grow faster than expenses for the year. In summary, Cognex had a strong start to 2015. We are pleased to report an even stronger outlook for Q2. Our continued strong performance in growth areas is expected to drive revenue more than 30% higher than the level reported tonight for Q1. In regard to specific guidance, we expect revenue for Q2 to be between $152 million and $157 million. Gross margin is expected to be in the mid-70% range, slightly lower than the gross margin reported today for Q1. Operating expenses are expected to increase by approximately 5% on a sequential basis in support of the higher revenue expected for Q2 and further investments in growth areas. The effective tax rate is expected to be 19%, excluding discrete tax items. Now, let’s open up the call for your questions. Operator, we are ready to take questions.