Earnings Labs

Medifast, Inc. (MED)

Q2 2020 Earnings Call· Wed, Aug 5, 2020

$10.79

+0.28%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon. And welcome to the Medifast Second Quarter Fiscal 2020 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be a listen-only mode. [Operator instructions] After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Scott Van Winkle. Please go ahead.

Scott Van Winkle

Analyst

Good afternoon, and welcome to Medifast's second quarter 2020 earnings conference call. On the call with me today are Dan Chard, Chief Executive Officer, and James Maloney, Chief Financial Officer. By now, everyone should have access to the earnings release for the period ended June 30, 2020, that went out this afternoon at approximately 4:05 PM Eastern Time. If you've not received the release, it is available on the Investor Relations portion of Medifast's website at www.medifastinc.com. This call is being webcast, and a replay will be available on the company's website. 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. The words believe, expect, anticipate and other similar expressions generally identified forward-looking statements. These statements do not guarantee future performance, and therefore, undue reliance should not be placed upon them. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements. Medifast assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking projections that may be made in today's release or call. All the following statements contained herein speak only as of the date of this call. And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Medifast's, Chief Executive Officer, Dan Chard.

Dan Chard

Analyst

Thank you, Scott, and good afternoon to everyone joining us. Thank you for taking time to be with us today. On the call with me today is Jim Maloney, who recently joined us as Chief Financial Officer. Jim brings the Medifast great experience as public company CFO, as well as an International Operating and Food Industry Expertise. With years spent in businesses including LB Foster company, First Insight, HJ Heinz and Ernst & Young, Jim will bring important insights and understanding to the business. And I'm very pleased to introduce him today. And we're all excited that he's joined the team. After I've provided some updates on our business performance over the course of the last quarter, Jim will review the Q2 financial results in more detail. We'll then open up the call to take your questions. I'm pleased to say that Medifast had a strong second quarter as the trends we saw in April accelerated during the period. Revenue increased 80% to $220 million and non-GAAP adjusted earnings per diluted share increased 12% to $1.96. This growth is driven by robust year-over-year and sequential improvements in the number of active earning coaches, with 36,500 coaches at the end of the quarter, which was a new record level. Productivity per active earning coach also increased during the quarter to $5,851. A substantial increase quarter-over-quarter and approaching all time record high levels. The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly been the dominant issue over the last three months, impacting the low teen and personal lives of almost every single person across the world. With this in mind, we commissioned a U.S. focus survey to shine light on behavioral changes as it relates to healthy habits among consumers during the health crisis. The survey uncovered that 88% of Americans are currently experiencing stress and…

Jim Maloney

Analyst

Thank you, Dan. Good afternoon, everyone. It's my pleasure to speak with you today. I am honored to join this incredible team at Medifast. As Dan mentioned, I'm still getting up to speed on the business. We're so inspired by the company's unique business model for collaborative, culture and inspiring communities that they foster through their approach to the growing health and wellness market. Additionally, I look forward to getting to know all of you in the coming weeks and months, as I hit the ground running in work to propel this company into its next phase of growth. With that, let me walk you through our financial results for the second quarter ending June 30, 2020. Revenue in the second quarter of 2020 increased 17.6% to $220 million from $187.1 million in the second quarter of 2019. As Dan highlighted, we hit another record of active earning coaches ending the quarter with 36,500. This represents 19.3% growth as compared to 30,600 coaches in the same period last year and a 12% increase from the end of the first quarter. Average revenue per active earning coach for the quarter was 5,851, compared to 5,863 for the second quarter last year. We have now achieved two quarters of sequential growth, with the second quarter representing 9.7% improvement compared to 5,333 average revenue per active earnings coaches in the first quarter of 2020. Also of note Optavia branded products grew to 83% of our total company consumable units sold in the second quarter, up from 75% in the prior year period. Gross profits of the second quarter of 2020 increased 13.2% to $159.3 million, compared to $140.7 million in the prior year period. Gross profit margin as a percentage of net revenue decreased 280 basis points to 72.4% versus 75.2% in the…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Kara Anderson with B. Riley. Please go ahead.

Kara Anderson

Analyst

So I just trying to kick it off with kind of a two part question about trends. Just wondering, if you can talk a little bit more about business trends within the quarter. Obviously indicated by April saw slight improvement and you did a lot better than that. So anything you can give us a little bit more color? And what drove that shift past April? And then second, within the quarter, just wondering, if you've got any impact from former clients returning to make purchases up behind a sort of big rush to stop by many with the pandemic?

Dan Chard

Analyst

Sure, I think the answer to your first question is we were finishing in April which is basically the insight that we gave you in the last call that was reflective of the first month of our promotion. So what we saw in as we moved through the rest of the quarter was continued activity related to promotion, which we ran through May as well. So if you remember, we started out with the training and foreign health incentive in March added in April, both of those together and in May had just the essential start to kind of continue on. So the positive trends as we move through the quarter were really related to our coaches getting behind the program that was put in place, which included those three elements. Related to the second question, I think, we don't give that level of detail, but those who were coming to make purchases were primarily new clients. The promotion also applied to clients who had been, who hadn't made a purchase within the previous 12 months. But the majority of those clients who came back and participated in the program were clients to were new to Optavia.

Kara Anderson

Analyst

Just kind of a follow-up to the promotions and incentives you ran. Is there any impact that rolls forward beyond the second quarter that we should consider the modeling kind of margins in SG&A?

Dan Chard

Analyst

No, I think the biggest question the thing was, we're watching very carefully is understand how a client, who comes in on the promotion acts in month two, month three. What we've seen so far is that the retention rate or repeat rates on the first month and for those who purchased in April, the second month is very similar, so not much difference to a typical client. So we view that as very positive. But that is something that we're watching very closely. We have not put any of those promote. We don't have any of those for the third quarter. We don't have any plan promotion. This similar to that we do, however, have what I mentioned earlier in the scripts, in business builder promotion, which essentially focuses on different parts of our leadership structure and the coaches which is meant to motivate and incentivize training, new coaches, who were previously clients.

Kara Anderson

Analyst

And then just one housekeeping question and I'll jump back in the queue. Can you tell us what the commission paid within SG&A within a quarter? Or a percentage of SG&A revenue?

Dan Chard

Analyst

Jim will answer that one.

Jim Maloney

Analyst

So the commission paid within SG&A is approximately 70% of the SG&A.

Dan Chard

Analyst

Just to be, as a percentage of SG&A. But to be clear that our commissioner's percentage of total is slightly elevated by approximately 1.3% but still within that kind of 42.5% range.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Doug Lane with Lane Research. Please go ahead.

Doug Lane

Analyst · Lane Research. Please go ahead.

So just a follow-up on that when you say 70% of SG&A. Is that the GAAP SG&A? Or the adjusted SG&A to the onetime items?

Jim Maloney

Analyst · Lane Research. Please go ahead.

That would be the non-GAAP piece.

Doug Lane

Analyst · Lane Research. Please go ahead.

Okay, thank you. And then Dan, at the end of February you were looking for low to mid-single digit growth this year. And here we are through the end of June and you're up 13%. So what changed between the end of February and the end of June that turned so positive, so quickly?

Dan Chard

Analyst · Lane Research. Please go ahead.

Yes. I think that's a great question. I think what we saw early in the year were the challenges of starting the year with a lower percentage of the new clients and new coaches. As we put in place the programming which was really a result of looking at the business in a very different way as we are all facing the realities of what a global pandemic looks like. We put in place the program that we described and found essentially that one, our coaches were able to break through in a period that we've assumed that they would not be able to. And that new clients were far -- I'll say far more ready than we anticipated to take on this health and transformation journey that our coaches talked about. So, stepping back, I'd say that our message was relevant during this period of time despite the challenges. The offer that we put together for our coaches to help them break through was relevant for them. And the consumer side of the promotion was motivating to new clients who are coming in. So those three things kind of brought together a turned out to be a very strong quarter for us.

Doug Lane

Analyst · Lane Research. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Dan. No, that's fair. And then looking -- shifting gears to your Asia strategy here. Any change in thinking, given the geopolitics that are underway currently?

Dan Chard

Analyst · Lane Research. Please go ahead.

No. We see -- it's hard to kind of pull apart what's having a bigger app impact the geopolitics or the pandemic or the two combined but we still view our two markets in southeast in Asia-Pacific region, as an important part of our future. Each time we add new elements to support those markets as a good and positive impacts on coaching client experience. So you can hear from -- you could hear from my earlier comments that we're making investments in call center as well as continuing to put together programs and enhance our training there as well.

Doug Lane

Analyst · Lane Research. Please go ahead.

Okay, that's great. Just one last thing. What and I realized is just a couple of weeks ago, but what are the learnings from the virtual convention this year? And how do you envision that event changing in a post-COVID environment?

Dan Chard

Analyst · Lane Research. Please go ahead.

Yes. I mean, so certainly the event up to be together live was a reaction to the travel restrictions. We fully anticipated being together in Atlanta for what is our traditional in person convention. What we learned was one, I mean huge credit to our team internally who reprogrammed the entire back half of the year. So we found that we were able to quickly pivot work through the whole new dynamic of event planning. What we saw from our coach community and client community was a very strong uptick. Obviously, having the far greater number of registrants, sign up with over 50,000 and then seeing after a significant number 140,000 shares. And so, what we saw beyond that is a lot of watch parties. So even those numbers that we're talking about were probably larger than the numbers that I just shared. But, in terms of what we've learned, far greater reach, more efficient spend. And we'll, we've had nothing but positive comments from all of our coaches and clients. So we think it will be very positive and certainly some things we can learn and continue to leverage on a go forward basis even beyond the pandemic, which is the catalyst for doing it online in the first place.

Doug Lane

Analyst · Lane Research. Please go ahead.

But it doesn't sound like you want to abandon the in-person of that so I mean there important as well, aren't they?

Dan Chard

Analyst · Lane Research. Please go ahead.

Yes, no, absolutely. This was -- this is certainly replaced our convention, but it doesn't in the long-term, it replaced it out of necessity. Conventions are very effective for the in-person training, allowing the difference coach stands to get together and have that interaction. This was allowed us to address a much larger market more efficiently. So I'd say that to your question that would most likely work together in the future.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Stephanie Wissink with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Seb Barbero

Analyst · Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Hi, this is Seb Barbero for Steph Wissink. I had a few questions. Number one gross margins were down 280 basis points in the quarter effective a product and production costs. Was product from almost no longer pressure in Q3, should we expect gross margin to normalize towards 75% plus in the back half of the year?

Jim Maloney

Analyst · Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Yes, so, we would expect that without promotions to get to a more historical level in the next quarter. So significant portion of the decline in the margin was due to the essential start promotion in Q2. So, as Dan was mentioning, that we're not going to be promoting in Q3, we should expect that to get back to normal levels.

Seb Barbero

Analyst · Jefferies. Please go ahead.

And the inventory was down 20%, the payrolls were up 30%. Any additional color that you could provide us with here?

Dan Chard

Analyst · Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Yes, the inventory being down is really a reflection of the strong uptake on the promotion. So we had historically carry a little bit more inventory than we currently are. And so it's really reflection of a stronger than anticipated promotion, we would expect those inventories to move up closer to the historic levels. And your second question was around, what was around payroll?

Seb Barbero

Analyst · Jefferies. Please go ahead.

On payables.

Jim Maloney

Analyst · Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Payables is really just a function of the timing of payments this quarter versus comparable periods. There really isn't anything unusual. It's just that the timing of the payments occurred are occurring a little bit later in, I guess in August, most of those payments will be made.

Seb Barbero

Analyst · Jefferies. Please go ahead.

And lastly, on the buyback front pretty muted this quarter cash balance of $145 million at quarter end. Should we expect a more active stance in the back half of the year?

Dan Chard

Analyst · Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Yes, I think we've answered this question pretty consistently the same way, which is that, as it relates to capital allocation, we'll continue to review on an active basis. How to best return value to our shareholders that will be in a combination of dividends share buyback. And primarily those two things. And I think that will be looking at whether that continues which of those makes sense. As in the past, we will buy when we're there are opportunities to do share repurchase and we remain committed to stronger dividend.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Bill Baker with GARP Research. Please go ahead.

Bill Baker

Analyst · GARP Research. Please go ahead.

Yes. And by the way, I've got conference was pretty good. I enjoy Dr’A’s presentation. I guess what the [Indiscernible] encouraged to see this quarter was the [indiscernible] and this is happening even before you're starting this strives to increase the coaches in Q3? And the productivity was pretty high [Indiscernible] effect that [Indiscernible] lockdown people how things better to do to make that happen.

Dan Chard

Analyst · GARP Research. Please go ahead.

Bill you broke up a little bit. But I think, you’re asking the question about what drove improved coach productivity? And the answer to that is you're right. And we were back up to the historic high levels that we saw at the end of 2018, beginning of 2019. I think it's a reflection, again of our coaches being very active having a highly relevant message and having a lot of potential prospects out there during the lockdown period have become either more aware or more having a greater need for what offer the coaches offer. So I think we look at it as a very positive sign of where the business is going and continue to watch it closely.

Operator

Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Dan Chard for any closing remarks.

Dan Chard

Analyst

Thank you. I think we'd like to first of all, thank -- I thank all of you for participating. We appreciate you taking the time. I think in closing, just make a couple comments. We feel like the second quarter was a reflection of our continued ability to support a fast growing health and wellness community across our markets. It's supported by very large addressable market of both clients and coaches. We remain diligent and focused on leveraging our strong financials I think as we mentioned earlier, we have 95% of our revenue coming from recurring orders. We remain focused on investing to support our long-term growth by strengthening our operating infrastructure. You've heard several examples of that. And with that, we feel like we are ready now to continue to move through the rest of the year understanding how to make additional adjustments in this continuously changing environment. We feel like, we're well positioned to capitalize on the significant opportunities ahead. So thank you for joining.

Operator

Operator

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.