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LifeVantage Corporation (LFVN)

Q1 2014 Earnings Call· Thu, Nov 7, 2013

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, and welcome to today’s LifeVantage First Quarter Fiscal Year 2014 Conference Call. Today’s conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to your host for today’s call, John Mills of ICR. You may begin.

John Mills

Management

Thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the LifeVantage Corporation’s fiscal first quarter 2014 conference call. On the call today from LifeVantage are Doug Robinson, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Dave Colbert, Chief Financial Officer. By now, everyone should have accessed to the earnings release which went out this afternoon at approximately 4:00 pm Eastern Time. If you have not received the release, it 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 would 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 future performance and, therefore, undue reliance should not be placed upon them. These statements are based on 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-K and 10-Q. These risk factors contain a more detailed discussion of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements. This call also contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of the date of this live broadcast November, 7, 2013. LifeVantage assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking projection 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 three. And with that, I’d like to turn the call over to the company’s President and CEO, Mr. Doug Robinson. Go ahead, Doug.

Doug Robinson

President

Thanks, John, and good afternoon, everyone. On today’s call, I’ll briefly recap our first quarter results and then discuss our progress on the initiatives we have implemented to position our business for long-term success. Our financial results were in line with our expectations. We generated revenue of $51.3 million, which is similar to the same period last year when factoring in the devaluation of the yen. Excluding the devaluation of the yen we would have achieved revenue growth of approximately 4% compared to the same period last year. Operating margins improved on a sequential basis and we generated net income of $3.3 million. The metric that we started providing on our last call, is the 90-day retention rate of our preferred customers and distributors. These retention rates were approximately 49% for preferred customers and approximately 53% for distributors as of September 30. We continue to improve our balance sheet and end of the first quarter with more cash on hand as compared to the end of fiscal year 2013. Based on our first quarter results and our outlook for the remainder of the year we are reiterating our fiscal year 2014 annual revenue, operating margin and earnings per share guidance. On the operational side of our business, we implemented and achieved a tremendous amount in the past few months including the recent launch of My LifeVenture partnering with the leading financial institution to complete the modified Dutch auction for our shares, entering into a new long-term branding opportunity, expanding our geographic reach, continuing to pursue new product development both internally and externally and implementing a U.S. shipping price increase. We’ve accomplished a tremendous amount of operational initiatives in a short amount of time. However, we’re not claimed to the fact that we have experienced five quarters of consistent revenue levels.…

Dave Colbert

Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Doug, and good afternoon, everyone. As Doug mentioned earlier, in the first fiscal quarter of 2014, the company reported net revenue of $51.3 million, compared to $52.9 million for the same period in fiscal 2013. Revenue for the quarter was negatively impacted by foreign currency fluctuation of 7.4% were $3.9 million. Excluding this foreign exchange impact revenue growth was approximately 45 year-over-year. Also of note, our auto-ship revenue or recurring revenue for the current quarter was 59% of overall revenue. This is an increase when compared to the prior year quarter of 45%. Gross profit in the first fiscal quarter of 2013 was $43.5 million, compared to $45.1 million in the same period last year. Our gross margin in first fiscal quarter of 2014 was 84.8% compared to 85.2% in the same period last year. Operating income for the first fiscal quarter of 2014 was $5.1 million. This compares to $6.9 million in the prior year quarter. Operating income in the first fiscal quarter of 2014 was 9.9% compared to 13.1% in the prior year period. The decline in operating margin for the first quarter of 2014 is primarily due to higher operating expenses that included investments in our internal resources that Doug just outlined. I believe it’s important to look at how our operating margins are trending. On a sequential basis, our operating margins improved from both the third and fourth fiscal quarters of fiscal 2013. There is a quick reminder, in Q4 of fiscal 2013 we experienced one-time expenses about $1.7 million for the retirement of Dr. McCord, and $1.6 million for the launch of My LifeVenture. Net income for the first quarter of fiscal year 2014 was $3.3 million, or $0.03 per diluted share. This compares to net income of $4.2 million, or $0.03 per…

Doug Robinson

President

Thanks, Dave. We are aggressively addressing our flat quarters of revenue performance and closely engaged with our distributor leadership both in the United States and Japan to increase our revenue. I believe we are a great company. We have great products. We have strong operational platforms. We have the great distributor base and we have great opportunities for product and country expansion. We’re poised to grow the top line again this year and we believe we’re on track to achieve our annual outlook of revenue growth and improvements in our operating margin. And at this point, I’d like to open the call for any questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) And we’ll take our first question from Alec Jaslow with Midtown Partners. Alec Jaslow – Midtown Partners: Hey guys, how are you?

Doug Robinson

President

Hey Alec, how are you? Alec Jaslow – Midtown Partners: Good, thanks. I’m just wondering I know on the last call there was a question about operating margins and there was a potential to maybe get in the mid-teens by the end of next year and I’m just wondering if you think that still possible or and that if you could also talk about timing for the infrastructure spend that you’ve discussed in the past and when that might happen?

Doug Robinson

President

Let me, thanks for your questions Alec. Let me hit the second half of your question first. Really what I outlined in terms of our operational expenses and infrastructure spend is largely behind us, we did as I explained we were chasing revenue coming out of fiscal 2012 and into fiscal 2013 we had an infrastructure that clearly could not support the size of the company and the growth and so we started to add in all the areas that I outlined really much if not all of those examples are truly behind us. As the company grows and grows again, we will scale in areas directly related to that growth like in distributor support, call center support sales and sales management support in areas like that, but it will be directly related to our growth. With respect to operating margins, we’re bullish on the company on a go-forward basis we know that we got these improvements and uplift in terms of our operating margin certainly versus fiscal 2013 we’re seeing sequential quarter growth at the end of fiscal 2013 and now into first quarter of fiscal 2014, we think that’s absolutely directionally where we need to be going. And we’re not going to be satisfied as a management team until we continue to grow that operating margin significantly on a go-forward basis. Alec Jaslow – Midtown Partners: Okay, great. And another question I had was about the Canine Health product I was just wondering if it’s met your expectations so far or just in comparison to other products you’ve rolled out when you first rolled them out?

Doug Robinson

President

Yeah we introduced Canine Health in January of this year so it’s really it’s not even a year yet. Personally I’m not satisfied with what the sales are of that yet it’s about 2.5% of our revenue. It’s a tremendous product, there is not another product like it on the market. I think we can support that product much more than we have in terms of our marketing messaging and we intend to do that. but I’m bullish on that product as well simply put, it’s basically Protandim for our Canine that’s for our extended family members and for those of us myself included who have pet dogs that have been Canine Health the results are pretty amazing. So I’m bullish on that product on a go-forward basis, but no, to be very clear with your question, we haven’t been begun to satisfy the expectations of that product yet on a go-forward basis. Alec Jaslow – Midtown Partners: Okay, great. Thanks very much, that’s all I have at this time.

Doug Robinson

President

Thanks Alec. Alec Jaslow – Midtown Partners: Thanks.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll go next to Matt Schwarz at Maze Investments. Matt Schwarz – Maze Investments: Hi guys.

Unidentified Company Speaker

Analyst

Hi Matt. Matt Schwarz – Maze Investments: Here you highlighted some great initiatives to drive top and bottom-line in the future, can you help me understand your confidence level in the current guidance may be by helping me understand your approach or your methodology to formulating the guidance and also wanted to spend that you start to see improvements on the initiative?

Doug Robinson

President

Yeah Matt, thanks again for the questions. What we’re trying to do internally and certainly what we’re trying to message to you and others on call like this is the focus that we have on getting the belief lifted with our 65,000 plus distributors, our sales force for terms and purposes between the United States and Japan in particular two largest markets. And so to reiterate we’re strengthening our distributor and proffered customer culture to promote that growth partner in center with that is the My LifeVenture cultural program, upon the center is also the recent branding announcement with our partnership which we Real Salt Lake in getting the name of the LifeVantage out there domestically and internationally to support our distributors. Beyond that we believe we’ve got a tremendous base scientifically validated products, we’ve set the bar very high for ourselves at LifeVantage and we believe our new product development both internally and as well as externally is going to be critically important to our growth on a go-forward basis. And then lastly, expanding our geographic reach and I’ll highlight two things with respect to that last point. Not just new countries and as I said, in December we went into Hong Kong and June we went into Canada next month we’re about to ready to launch into the Philippines. We’ve got other countries on a short-listed consideration largely either here in the America’s hemisphere or in Asia-Pacific where we have our two centers of infrastructure. But also the markets that we’re currently in we hit barely scratched the surface in terms of penetration, saturation in the markets that we’re currently in and so we’re working very closely with the Field Advisory Boards those are the leadership Boards if you will of our field distributors, both here in the U.S. and again in Japan to get the lift and to get back going on the business of building this business. And it’s with all of those initiatives and the confidence that we have in working with our distributors that we’re confident that our guidance is appropriate and then we will get the lift and we’ll get this company back on track for the growth that it deserves and that you deserve as our shareholders. Matt Schwarz – Maze Investments: Okay, great. That’s all and thank you.

Doug Robinson

President

Thanks Matt.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) And we’ll go next to [Eric Weisenberger].

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Yeah, thank you, can you hear me all right?

Doug Robinson

President

I can Eric, how are you?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Fine, thanks. I have three quick questions, one is, for those of us who tendered restricted shares we were told that we were allowed to do so, but I noticed that those have not been either paid by the company or the excess shares that are going to be returned have not hit the accounts, I noticed that the accounts did settle for non-restricted shares, when is the company going to make the payment on the restricted shares and will we get back non-restricted shares for those whose shares that are been returned?

Doug Robinson

President

Yeah we’ve been instructed by computer share that the physical checks for payment were made mailed on the system and also the shares were also mailed on the shift as well. Electronic payments DCG I’m sorry, DTC was paid out on the first. So all of that has been, all that administrative work has been taken care of computer share.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

And are they going to return restricted shares or non-restricted?

Doug Robinson

President

Restricted shares.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay. Second question is, what are you – I noticed your facility as for $67 million, $47 million was funded at that time of the auction, what is – what are your plans – what have you got – what are you thinking about for the excess?

Doug Robinson

President

At the present time we don’t have any specific plans for the $20 million excess. It was really based on a multiple of our EBITDA, our trailing 12 months EBITDA and what we’re projecting going forward. So we’re able to get some flexibility in our facility, but the present time we don’t have any plan for it.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

And thirdly, how you mentioned, Doug mentioned getting the shares down to the 70 million to 80 million range from 10.3 or whatever it is 10.11 how you plan to do that which is like a 25% drop are you going to have to further auctions?

Doug Robinson

President

Yeah it’s actually our current shares outstanding on $102 million, and to get down to the 70 million to 80 million share range it’s going to be a steady cadence of share repurchases at the appropriate time the management team, the Board were constantly evaluating the proper time to go out into the market and either do repurchase or a tender. So, to get to that level we will have a steady cadence of repurchases to get to the 70 million to 80 million range.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll go next to Steven Martin with Slater. Steven Martin – Slater: Hi, guys.

Doug Robinson

President

Hi, Steve. Steven Martin – Slater: You talked about returning to growth this year can you give us some quarterly guidance as to when we should expect that?

Doug Robinson

President

Steve we don’t provide quarterly guidance, we only provide annual guidance and then on these quarterly calls we address that quarterly – excuse me that annual guidance. So obviously through one quarter we’re reiterating our guidance for the year that has the range of between 8% and 13% growth. And as we’ve said and I’ll repeat here we are very confident that we will return the growth, the belief we believe in our strategies that we’re putting in place, the communication and the partnership that we have with our Field Advisory Board, the leaders in the field much of what we’ve – what we either have done certainly what we have done we’ve embedded with them, but many of the things that we’re talking about on a go-forward basis were appropriate we also met with our Field Advisory Boards again domestically here in the U.S. as well as over in Japan and we’re very encouraged by what we have in our pipeline, what we’re hearing from them and the discipline that we have to put all of this together. So, adding all of that up, that’s why we’re bullish about our guidance for the balance of the year and returning this company to the growth that it deserves. Steven Martin – Slater: Okay. Can you talk specifically you and I have had discussions and I know you talked about new products, it’s been a while and other than the Canine product you’ve talked about buying them, you’ve talked about developing them, can you give us an update on with some detail about what your plans or how close you are there something?

Doug Robinson

President

Yeah let me, that’s a delicate question, because obviously we’re not prepared to make an announcement outright on a new product or products. But sufficed to say we had been working for quite some time on exciting new products that we know our field, our distributors will be excited about, our preferred customers will benefit greatly from and ultimately the company will benefit from. We are in – in the final stages of some development with respect to our next launch and I think you should stay tuned very closely tuned to a press release sometimes soon for the release of yet our next product and product release. That’s I’m sorry for being a bit optimistic here Steve but we’re just prepared today literally today to make announcement, but we know that it’s been a long drum roll, but partly that is due to the high standards that we have with our scientifically validated products. So stay tuned. Steven Martin – Slater: One last one, can you talk a little bit about what’s going in Japan now that you’ve changed your sales methodology you did last year?

Doug Robinson

President

Yeah. So I think what you’re referring to is when we move from the not-for-resale model to an on-the-ground model. We went through and we talked about this in previous calls, the headwinds of a couple of things they’re what you’re specifically referring to is that move to an on-the-ground model that is now behind us, it was an administrative challenge to say the least late last year, late last calendar year October, November, December it was effective on January 1. That’s largely behind us we’ve made another change rather recently in the marketplace David Toda who was heading up our Japan Operations has taken on a different responsibility and important responsibility of the company as our Chief Marketing Officer, in doing that it left the void in that marketplace for leadership. And what I asked one of our long-standing executives someone that’s been here almost since day one and certainly since day one since we moved into the network marketing channel Kirby Zenger to take on that market on an interim basis and return that market to growth. And so Kirby is spending – has been spending most of his time over the last two months in particular in Japan working with the Field Advisory Board to get them reinvigorated so that that market also grows and grows significantly going forward. As you’re well known, if you can tell from our numbers Japan represents about 40% of our revenue it’s a huge market for us and one that has and again from looking at the numbers you’ve seen that it’s lagged. So we are emphasizing and putting the proper boots on the ground there to reinvigorate that market as well. Steven Martin – Slater: All right, thank you very much.

Doug Robinson

President

Thanks very much Steve.

Operator

Operator

This does conclude today’s question-and-answer session. I’d now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Doug Robinson for any additional or closing remarks.

Doug Robinson

President

Thank you very much everyone. And thank you for your attention, your continued support of LifeVantage. As you just heard from some of our questions we’ve got some important announcements here in our near future please stay tuned for those. And we look forward to seeing you at Investor Conferences in the coming quarter in our next call at the end of this incumbent quarter. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

This does conclude today’s conference. Thank you for your participation.