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LifeVantage Corporation (LFVN)

Q2 2012 Earnings Call· Tue, Feb 14, 2012

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to today’s LifeVantage Second Quarter Fiscal 2012 Earning Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Hosting today’s conference will be John Mills with ICR. As a reminder, today’s conference is being recorded. And now, I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Mills. Please go ahead.

John Mills

Analyst

Thank you. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome to LifeVantage Corporation’s fiscal second quarter 2012 conference call. On the call today from LifeVantage are Doug Robinson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Carrie McQueen, Chief Financial Officer, as well as David Brown, President of LifeVantage Network. By now, everyone should have accessed with the earnings release which went out this afternoon at approximately 4:00pm Eastern Time. If you’ve not received the release, that is available on the Investor Relations portion of LifeVantage’s website at www.lifevantage.com. This call is being webcast and a replay will be available on the company’s website as well. Before we begin, we’d like to remind everyone that the prepared remarks contain forward-looking statements and management may make additional forward-looking statements in response to your questions. These statements do not guarantee you future performance and therefore undue reliance should not be placed upon them. These statements are based on our current expectations of management and involve inherent risk and uncertainties including those identified in the Risk Factors section of LifeVantage’s most recently filed 10-Q and 10-K. These risk factors contain a more detailed discussion of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the new forward-looking statements. LifeVantage assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking projections that may be made in today’s release or call. Based on the number of participants on today’s call, during the Q&A session, we ask that you please limit the number of your questions to 3. And with that, I’d like to turn the call to the company’s CEO, Doug Robinson. Go ahead, Doug.

Douglas Robinson

Analyst

Thanks John. Good afternoon everyone and welcome to our second quarter fiscal 2012 call. On today’s call, I will provide some highlights of our record Q2 results. I will then provide a general update on our business and growth initiatives, and we’ll also discuss some of the investments that we are making to our infrastructure, to ensure that we are positioned to capitalize on the tremendous opportunities ahead of us. After that, I will turn the call over to Carrie McQueen, our Chief Financial Officer for a more detailed discussion of second quarter results and to provide an update to our increased guidance range for the full fiscal 2012. First, let me provide a quick review of our financials. We generated record revenue of $25.3 million during the second quarter, a 239% increase compared to the second quarter of last fiscal year. Our operating income increased to $4.3 million, which translates to an operating margin of 16.9%. We also strengthened our balance sheet during the quarter and in Q2 with over $13 million in cash and no debt. Our financial performance exceeded our expectations and based on this and our expectations for the remaining 6 months of the year, we are raising our fiscal 2012 guidance range for revenue and operating income. We are increasing our revenue guidance from a range of $95 million to $105 million, to a range of $105 million to $115 million. As a reminder, our 2012 -- excuse me, our 2011 fiscal year revenue was $39 million. We’re also increasing our operating margin guidance from a range of 12% to 14% to a range of 13% to 15%. Last fiscal year’s operating margin was 9.5%. We believe that our strong first 6 months financial performance demonstrates the expanding awareness of our products Protandim and True…

Carrie McQueen

Analyst

Thank you, Doug. As Doug said, we are very pleased with our second quarter results and our ability to continue to improve our financial performance. We are proud to be reporting our 12th consecutive quarter of net revenue growth and our sixth consecutive quarter of generating operating income. Let me review our results in more detail. In the second fiscal quarter of 2012, we generated record net revenue of $25.3 million, which represented 239% increase over the second fiscal quarter of 2011. On a sequential quarterly basis, our revenue increased 26% from $20.1 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2012. Gross profit in fiscal Q2 of 2012 increased to $21.6 million from $6.3 million in the same period last year, reflecting our higher sales. The gross margin in fiscal Q2 of 2012 was 85.4%, we are pleased with the gross margin level and believe we will sustain similar margins in coming quarters. Total operating expenses for the second fiscal quarter of 2012 were $17.3 million which represented 68.5% portion of revenue. This is a significant percentage decrease from operating expenses of $5.7 million or 75.9% of revenue in Q2 of fiscal ‘11. And a comparable percentage of our operating expenses of $13.7 million or 68.2% of revenue in Q1 of fiscal ‘12. The increase in operating expenses on a dollar basis is primarily due to increased sales commissions, which are direct results of our increased revenue. The dollar increase also reflects continued investments, personnel and infrastructure to position the company for future growth. The decrease in operating expenses as a percent of revenue from the same period in the prior year is due to increased leverage of our fixed expenses and infrastructure. As Doug mentioned, we expect to continue to make strategic investments into our infrastructure in coming quarters…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And first we’ll go to Jack Ford [ph].

Unknown Analyst

Analyst

Okay. So, I just -- mine as a distributor. And I was at the leader conference. And I’m very pleased and I’m starting to have some pretty good results. One of the questions that came up that I couldn’t find is, on the -- on the 5 -- our 5 plans, where are they growing, at what countries or what kind of policy is there, people seem to be so conscious today to you know, material are coming from -- I don’t know if that’s a fair question but I’m asking it anyway.

Douglas Robinson

Analyst

Sure. David, you know, Jack, as we mentioned at the top of this call, in addition to myself and Carrie fielding questions, we’ve also got David Brown, who is our President of LifeVantage Network as well. And I’m going to turn this question specifically over to him for the answer.

David Brown

Analyst

Let me address that in a number of ways. First, the raw materials are grown in a variety of countries, including the United States. We get raw materials from a variety of vendors, all of whom are pre-qualified. They have to meet our very stringent GMPs or good, nice action practices, which they not only certified to, we then send those results out and raw material samples to an independent lab to certify that those raw materials meet our potency and purity requirements so that the actives are present, the active ingredients for each of those materials is credited in the amount that we call for it as well as the fact there is nothing there that we don’t want, such as pesticides and heavy metals and things like that. A related question to that might be, how do, we foresee the supply of such ingredients going forward, especially in the face of such strong growth. And believe that there is no problem obtaining proper supplies. The operations, people are on top of that. And ultimately, we will further stratify so that we are really looking at things from the beginning with vendors and farmers and making sure we can always adequately supply pure and potent raw materials for our products.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We’ll now go to David Rothman [ph] with Phoenix Capital Management.

Unknown Analyst

Analyst

I believe the price of the stock has been hurt by these derivative warrants and I sent you on the right track. What percentage of -- or should I say, what dollar amount of warrants are left on the books and what will be left after Q3 reported is made?

Carrie McQueen

Analyst

If you take a look at our current balance sheet you’ll see a line item short term derivative liabilities. That’s the remaining balance as it was valued at December 31, 2011. And 100% of that value is represented by the warrants which are expiring in March and April of this year. So, in the next 90 days, that entire balance will go to 0 as those warrants are exercised.

Unknown Analyst

Analyst

Yes, a question Carrie, well, how many of those warrants will be exercised by the end of March and reflected in the next quarter queue?

Carrie McQueen

Analyst

I expect a vast majority that 100% will be exercised before the end of the quarter. I believe there is only a few hundred thousand of approximately $7.5 million that carryover into April with expiration dates.

Unknown Analyst

Analyst

Super. Last question is, could you elaborate a little bit on the new product pipeline, you’re obviously spending more capital and I was wondering if there is anything specific that you can comment on at this time.

Douglas Robinson

Analyst

David, this is Doug. Nothing specific necessarily but sufficed to say you know, and we have made this well known in previous calls and at various different investor meetings that, you know, we enjoy a presence in the fighting and oxidative stress with our 2 products, Protandim and True Science. We think it behooves us tremendously to stay focused in that fighting and oxidative stress. And so, as we build out products that complement our 2 products, we will stay laser focused in that fight, that’s certainly our primary intent. We know that on a go forward basis to grow this company to the heights that we expect to, to take the company, we will need and will have additional products. Anything more specific at this time, we really can’t say other than that we are working very hard in this area on a go forward basis.

Operator

Operator

Next we’ll go to Jack Rukenbrod with Financial America Securities.

John Rukenbrod

Analyst

I noticed in the filing today that the number of studies being ongoing currently is like 25. Now that’s -- I think poor from the last I saw. Can you comment on what the new ones are and is there -- do you have a timetable on how these studies, when these studies will be completed, like, is the average, a year, 2 years, 3 years, do you have any feel for what we could expect over the next fiscal year?

Douglas Robinson

Analyst

Thanks for the questions Jack. I’m smiling when I hear your question because it’s a tough one to quantify, plain and simple. For this very reason, there is a growing interest in Nrf2, Nrf2 Activation, Protandim, this entire space. And as you probably well know, most of the studies that are already either underway or we’ve even published have been from very, very reputable third party research institutions importantly not us, not LifeVantage. And so, there are a number of studies that we know that are underway in various different stages. So, I’m going to try to get at the heart of all of your questions. One of your questions was how long did these studies take, really it’s tough to say because they’re all studying different effects if you will that Protandim might have on various different health conditions. And they conduct their studies in different ways. So, sufficed to say there is just a hard way to quantify how long these studies take especially since we aren’t conducting the studies ourselves. The other reason why I smile when I get this question and I get it often is can you put an actual number on the studies? We can’t, nor should we. All we know and we keep track of that there are a number of studies brewing, more studies coming online. But to say that there is 25 or 24 is really not doing anyone a service, our self-included, you included and also the researchers because they’re undertaking these studies at various different times, gaining funding for the studies, et cetera, et cetera. The last thing I’ll say in all of this is that we’re very, very heartened by the fact that more and more studies are underway. And we think with the proliferation of Nrf2 and Nrf2 Activation and Protandim and the role that it plays in Nrf2 Activation is only going to bode well for our science on a go forward basis and certainly for our company. I hope that -- that’s a long winded answer to your question if it’s helpful. But I wish I could be more specific, I just simply can’t, given the nature of this question.

John Rukenbrod

Analyst

The number of 25, I got from your filing today with the SEC.

Operator

Operator

Moving on to Eric Weisenberger [ph].

Unknown Analyst

Analyst

I’m sorry, I got into the call late because for some reason the service was asking me for a password which I didn’t have. And I tried that again, I got through. So, I missed the first part. But I was curious if you could comment on any additional countries you’re ready to launch and I know you did, you’re operating a little in Canada. Where does that stand now and what’s next?

David Brown

Analyst

We are constantly being beset by offers and enquiries from others in other countries by people who are interested to get the benefit to Protandim and True Science to their friends and family there. We will expand on a judicious basis, and still we’re looking at countries that we can go into from a regulatory standpoint and where we have the requisite and distributor leadership in place. As Doug mentioned, we are currently selling into [indiscernible] to preferred customers only. We have announced to our distributor force that we are currently working with the regulators in Canada to obtain approval to ultimately be able to allow distributors to function in Canada as well. And the same thing is true in Australia, which also has a rich history of network marketing and supplement specific rate. And Doug also mentioned, we received certification from the TGA, the Therapeutic Good Administration for Protandim and that opens a door to other hurdles that internally have set that we want to accomplish to fully go there. And so, sufficed to say, that we eventually would like Protandim the benefits that they provide and there to go around the globe. And will be still as our infrastructure and resources whilst to do so most effectively.

Unknown Analyst

Analyst

And just one quick follow-up question if I could. Is the barrier to entry in a lot of these countries getting -- happening protection for Protandim and whether they’re going to honor our passing on our product or not?

David Brown

Analyst

No, that’s not it. Each country has its own version of the FDA. And they are just as worried about and concerned about the product coming in for ingestion, our state and effective is ours. So, they want to make sure that we can provide that type of documentation. And also, from a business standpoint, they want to make sure that the company is coming in or will adequately funded companies so that we can apply with proper entity requirement and other registration requirement that you might expect from any company doing business in a foreign country.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll now go to Erin Lumkey [ph].

Unknown Analyst

Analyst

As far as the stock enlisted on the NASDAQ, what is the share price that it needs to read. Is it a combination of share price and volume?

Carrie McQueen

Analyst

This is Carrie. It’s a combination of 3 or 4 listings right here depending on the exchange and which category you request listing for. We’ve crossed the hurdles on volumes, size of the company. The most recent hurdle was stockholders equity which was recently swung from a deficit to stockholders equity now. The last remaining hurdle for example for the NASDAQ would be a share price requirement of $4 or $5 depending on the category we requested.

Operator

Operator

And we have no further questions at this time. So, I’ll turn it back over to Doug Robinson for any additional or closing remarks.

Douglas Robinson

Analyst

Well, again, thank you very much everyone. We obviously -- hopefully you gathered from our prepared remarks and the questions that we answered that were very, very excited about our Q2 performance and even more excited about our future in front of us. We will be attending a number of investor events in the coming months and we hope to see many of you there. Again, thank you very much for your participation in our call today.

Operator

Operator

Again, this does conclude today’s conference. We do thank you all for joining us.