Gerald G. Colella
Analyst · Stifel, Nicolaus
Thank you, Seth. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us on the call today. As in the last call, I'll start with a progress update on our strategic initiatives, then I'll give a recap of the second quarter 2014 with some highlights on our business and finally provide our outlook for the third quarter. Following me, Seth will give further details on our financial results and then we'll open the call for your questions. Starting with the vision and goals we have for MKS. Specifically, we are on the path to continue to broaden our leadership in vacuum processing; measurably improve our profitability throughout the cycle; efficiently deploy capital to increase shareholder value; and aggressively pursue opportunities created by current technology inflections. In the second quarter, we continued to make progress against all of these goals. In the area of vacuum leadership, last quarter, we announced our acquisition of Granville-Phillips, or GP, a worldwide leader in the indirect gauging market. I'm very pleased to report that we successfully closed this strategic acquisition at the end of May. The combination of GP indirect gauging products with our leadership in direct measurement capacitance manometers gives MKS one of the strongest, broadest and most complimentary technology portfolios in the vacuum gauging market. The contribution of GP is immediately accretive to non-GAAP EPS and performs favorably on other key financial metrics. We have already identified and have begun capturing synergies within product development, as well as other operational improvements. For example, we have consolidated all MKS vacuum gauges under 1 General Manager, we are merging our existing indirect gauge product lines under GP, and GP now fully participates in our technology and road mapping process. We have also begun aligning our sales channels to minimize redundancy and provide a closer connection to both our OEM and end-user customers. With the acquisition of GP, we have added approximately $30 million of revenue and further improved our operating profitability, which we expect will increase annual non-GAAP earnings by $0.10 to $0.12 per share. Incremental to the positive financial contribution of GP, we have been taking additional measures to improve our profitability, resulting in substantial improvements to our operating model. We outlined the improvements we initiated in Q1, which we expect will generate improvements for our gross margin, operating margin and net income throughout the cycle. Additionally, we have a robust M&A pipeline and will continue to explore attractive M&A opportunities, and I am confident that we will continue to successfully identify, acquire and integrate other technology-based companies. Along with our vision of deploying capital in the best, long-term interest of our shareholders through strong M&A execution, we are also committed to returning capital to our shareholders. In the second quarter, our Board of Directors voted to further increase our dividends. Our goal is to increase cash dividend over time as a result, this is our second dividend increase, bringing the dividend level to 10% higher than what was initiated in 2011. Also during the quarter, we repurchased $20 million of stock. Since 2007, the combined return of capital from dividends and share buybacks has totaled $370 million. In 2014, year-to-date, we have deployed over $125 million in capital through the acquisition of GP, shareholder dividends and share repurchase. Moving to our second quarter results. Sales were above guidance at $185 million due to better-than-anticipated sales in the semiconductor market, as well as continued growth into other advanced markets. In the semiconductor market, we continue to work closely with all OEMs and device makers, as they design and optimize tools and increase the utilization and productivity in the fab. In semiconductor manufacturing, we are in the midst of a significant technology inflection point, the leading etch migration to 20-nanometer and smaller devices continues to propel technological changes. Scaling limits and the need to reduce power by driving 3D designs and as advanced lithography techniques continue to be delayed, device makers are increasingly relying on multi-patterning to achieve sub-20-nanometer geometries. These technology inflection points are significantly increasing capital intensity due to the increase number of critical steps required, and our major customers are estimating that spending to support these inflection points could double in the next 3 to 4 years. This is especially true in etch, deposition and critical cleaning, which are necessary technologies to achieve 20, 16 and 14-nanometer devices. We have very strong exposure to all etch, deposition and critical cleaning OEMs who rely on MKS technologies to enable their process tools. And this creates additional opportunity for the advanced power, reactive gas, control, flow, pressure and other technologies MKS develops. For example, we continued to gain acceptance for advanced pulse RF power products, which enable precision etch control for fine lines and high aspect ratio holes in leading edge 2D and 3D devices. Recent demonstration in this pulsing capability resulted in orders from major OEMs, both dielectric and poly-etch. We also continued to directly support device manufacturers as they optimize tool performance. Recently, our LIQUIZON PrimO dissolved ozone system was spec-ed in by a prominent logic device maker for leading etch, cleaning applications. This PrimO has been specifically designed to recirculate ozonated water rather than disposing between process steps. The recirculation of ozonated water, this customer will save an estimated 75% in water usage, thereby improving profitability and eliminating water waste. This quarter, we also had several significant sales to major Asian semiconductor manufacturers for power, remote plasma, flow and pressure products, as well as service support. At this same customer, we also displaced an incumbent of gas analysis for several monitoring applications, due to our superior performance and local technical support. We are excited to see continuing results from increased investments in Korea where we received significant follow-on orders for both remote plasma and microwave products for new, advanced strip processes from a major Korean strip OEM. Our localization strategy continues to pay dividends as we see deeper penetration there into OEMs and device makers, as well. Looking beyond the semiconductor industry sales, the global economy continues to recover. And this past quarter, our sales to all of the markets increased for the third consecutive quarter, coming in at $58 million. These markets include medical, thin films, bio and pharmaceutical manufacturing, LEDs, flat panel displays and other diverse applications. Building on the success in the semiconductor market, our LIQUIZON products have also become the standard for cleaning during flat-panel display manufacturing. This quarter, a large Chinese display manufacturer, which is starting production for an active-matrix OLED displays, placed a multisystem order for our LIQUIZON cleaning subsystems. We won this business because LIQUIZON is recognized as a leading technology for critical cleaning in active-matrix OLED production. In the medical market, this quarter, we saw strong follow-on orders for our Baratron capacitance manometers, for bench top medical sterilization equipment used to disinfect dental and surgical tools. In medical imaging, where we provide our power amplifiers to MRI OEMs, the market is expanding internationally, especially as healthcare improves in developing countries. One of our newer Chinese MRI OEM customers is seeing rapid acceptance of their MRI tool in China. And based on their success, they have applied for regulatory approval to expand their market, to sell into other growing Asian markets. As a corporate initiative, MKS has identified several key megatrends, which we anticipate will drive growth, and over the last 2 quarters, we have deliberately redeployed people and capital to fund activities in these growing areas. One of these megatrends is the environmental market where air quality and the impact of carbon emissions on global warming are growing concerns around the world. We believe our technologies are well-suited to address environmental monitoring challenges and have launched an initiative to further explore and extend our work in gas analysis to identify additional opportunities, to address this mega trend. This will build on our existing efforts where we continue to see further acceptance and increase sales of our FTIR gas analyzers for emissions and safety monitoring. With our recent TUV certification, which is required in the EU, additional opportunities are available to us in the continuous emissions monitoring of incinerator exhaust, where FTIR measurement is required to monitor pollutants. This quarter, we were awarded a new contract, displacing an incumbent, because of our superior monitoring capability and performance. There are just a few examples of the many diverse and growing customers and applications we serve, and to which provide growth opportunities for MKS. Looking ahead, reports following the recent semiconductor and trust industry tradeshow continue to project that third quarter OEM shipments maybe down from the second quarter, followed by a possible improvement in Q4 and into 2015. In our other markets, the global economy continues to improve and we continue to search out and leverage growth opportunities in a strategic manner. Based on these factors and looking at current business levels, we anticipate that sales in the third quarter may range from $170 million to $190 million. At these volumes, our non-GAAP net earnings can range from $0.28 to $0.42 per share. These ranges include a full quarter of GP results. At this point, I'll turn the call over to Seth to discuss our results, expand our guidance.