Scott Beamer
Analyst · Dmitry Silversteyn with Longbow Research. Your line is now open
Thanks Dave and good morning everyone. My comments will generally follow the related slide presentation we posted on our website this morning. Let's start with an overview of our financial performance this quarter which is provided on Slide 3. Revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2018 was a record $143 million, which is approximately $24 million or 20% higher than the same quarter last year. This increase reflects continued strong global semiconductor industry demand and our focus on our three key product areas. Sequentially, revenue increased $3 million, or approximately 2%, which is in line with the expectations shared on our previous conference call in January and at our Annual Meeting in March. This is notable since the March quarter has traditionally been a seasonally softer quarter for us. Our net income of $29.7 million was also a record, and represented an increase of $11.5 million, or approximately 63%, over the same quarter last year driven by higher revenues and increased gross margin. Non-GAAP net income was $31.3 million. Dave mentioned our previously announced capital deployment program and research collaboration with Fujimi. Later, I will elaborate on the capital deployment program. Now let's drill down into revenue, which is shown on Slide 4. As previously stated, we defined tungsten slurries, dielectric slurries and polishing pads as three key product areas that are strategically important to us. During the quarter, these accounted for approximately 80% of total revenue, and I'll mention each in order. Tungsten revenue was $60 million, an increase of approximately 17% compared to the same quarter last year. Dielectrics slurries delivered record revenue of $35 million, up approximately 24% from the same quarter a year ago. Sales of polishing pads delivered record revenue of $21 million, up approximately 23% compared to the same quarter last year. Sales of slurries for polishing metals other than tungsten, including copper, aluminum and barrier, represented $17 million, and increased approximately 15% from the same quarter last year. Finally, revenue from our Engineered Surface Finishes products, which includes QED, Data Storage, Electronic Substrates, and Surface Finishes, was $10 million. During the quarter, we divested our Surface Finishes business, which did not have a material impact on our second quarter financials. Now please refer to Slide 5, which provides some higher-level P&L comparisons. Gross margin for the quarter was approximately 52.5%, compared to 50.4% in the same quarter a year ago. Excluding $1.3 million of amortization expense related to the NexPlanar acquisition, gross margin was approximately 53.4%. Higher sales volume and a higher valued product mix were positive, but were partially offset by higher fixed manufacturing costs, including higher incentive compensation expense. Year-to-date, gross margin was approximately 52.7%, compared to 50.1% last year. We now expect our GAAP gross margin for the full fiscal year to be between 51% and 53%, increasing our guidance from the prior expectation. This includes an adverse impact of approximately 100 basis points related to NexPlanar amortization expense. Operating expenses, which include research, development and technical, selling and marketing, and general and administrative costs, were $38 million this quarter, an increase of $1.9 million over the same quarter a year ago. This primarily reflects higher incentive compensation and annual merit increases. As a percent of revenue, our operating expenses declined to 26.5% compared to 30.3% in the second quarter of fiscal 2017. Our operating margin was 25.9% in the quarter, an increase of 580 basis points from the same quarter last year. This increase was driven by higher gross margin and prudent control of operating expenses. Diluted EPS was $1.14 this quarter which represents an increase of approximately 61% over the prior year quarter. Diluted EPS on a non-GAAP basis was $1.19. This was primarily driven by higher revenue and higher gross margin. Now please refer to Slide 6, which provides balance sheet and cash flow information. We generated cash flow from operations of $36.5 million. We ended the quarter with a cash balance of $461 million and $138 million of debt outstanding. We paid off this debt in April. Capital spending for the quarter was $4.6 million, bringing our year to date total to $8.8 million. Accordingly, our free cash flow was $31.9 million in the quarter. Let me provide a few reminders about our capital deployment program. As we reported in March, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.40 per share on our common stock, representing a 100% increase over our previous quarterly cash dividend, and an annualized rate of $1.60 per share, or approximately $40 million in aggregate. This represents approximately one third of our fiscal 2017 free cash flow of $120 million. We also announced our intention to distribute at least 50% of our prior year cash flow to our shareholders on an ongoing basis through a combination of cash dividends and share repurchases. This combination would represent at least $60 million to be paid in fiscal year 2018. We believe the increase in our regular quarterly cash dividend and our stated intention to distribute at least one-half of our free cash flow allows us to return a meaningful amount of capital to shareholders, while also affording flexibility to execute M&A that leverages our core capabilities. As a reminder, our capital deployment priorities remain, investing in the organic needs of our business, paying dividends, executing mergers and acquisitions in related areas, and repurchasing shares. As of March 31, 2018, we had approximately $115 million of authorization remaining under our existing share repurchase program. Separately, the passage of the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act facilitated our repatriation of approximately $200 million in overseas cash and short-term investments. We executed this in April and used some of this cash to pay off our term loan. As a result, we expect to save approximately $4 million in interest expense on an annualized basis. We provide some closing remarks on Slide 8. From a financial perspective, we achieved strong performance in our fiscal year 2018 second quarter. Revenue increased $24 million from the prior year, while operating income increased $13 million, implying that approximately 54% of our incremental revenue dropped directly to operating income. Finally, in the appendix on Slide 9, we provide a table showing the updates to certain expectations. As we think about the second half of fiscal 2018, at present we expect continued solid industry demand. With that said, and as Dave mentioned, we currently expect fiscal third quarter revenue for our IC CMP consumables to show a low to mid-single digit increase compared to our second quarter. As stated, we are raising our full fiscal year gross margin guidance to 51% to 53%. We intend to continue to manage our operating costs to provide strong operating leverage and net income growth. We now expect our operating expenses for the full fiscal year to be between $148 million and $153 million, an increase from the prior range. This increase allows us to support additional revenue and primarily reflects higher incentive compensation and annual merit increases. Our effective tax rate for this fiscal quarter was 19.6%, and we continue to expect our effective tax rate for the remaining quarters to be between the range of 21% and 24%. Our capital spending expectation for the full fiscal year remains between $18 million and $22 million. Now I'll turn the call back to the operator, as we prepare to take your questions.