Bernie Blegen
Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open
Good afternoon and welcome to the fourth quarter 2018 Monolithic Power Systems' conference call. In the course of today's conference call, we will make forward-looking statements and projections that involve risk and uncertainty which could cause results to differ materially from management's current views and expectations. Please refer to the Safe Harbor statement contained in the earnings release published today. Risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ are identified in the Safe Harbor statements contained in the Q4 earnings release and in our SEC filings including our Form 10-K filed on March 1, 2018, and Form 10-Q filed on November 2, 2018, both of which are accessible through our website, www.monolithicpower.com. MPS assumes no obligation to update the information provided on today's call. We'll be discussing gross margin, operating expense, R&D and SG&A expense, operating income, interest and other income, net income and earnings on both a GAAP and on a non-GAAP basis. These non-GAAP financial measures are not prepared in accordance with GAAP and should not be considered as a substitute for or superior to measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. A table that outlines the reconciliation between the non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures is included in our earnings release, which we have filed with the SEC. I would refer investors to the Q4 2017, Q3 2018 and Q4 2018 earnings releases, as well as to the reconciling tables that are posted on our website. I'd also like to remind you that today's conference call is being webcast live over the Internet and will be available for replay on our website for one year, along with the earnings release filed with the SEC earlier today. I'd like to begin today's comments with the two highlights of what was a very successful year for MPS. For the full year 2018, MPS achieved record revenue of $582.4 million, 23.7% higher than revenue from 2017. So $111 million increase in year-over-year revenue was the largest annual gain in the company's history. The 23.7% annual increase was the highest growth rate for MPS since the company redirected its focus in 2010 to the industrial, cloud computing, automotive and high-end consumer markets. Although we cannot escape the current macro-economic conditions, we see momentum in these segments continuing strong for the next several years. This was the sixth consecutive year of double-digit growth. 2018 was a significant year for MPS. On the technology front we widened our lead with BCD 5 solidly in volume production and with the development of BCD 6, a 55 nanometer process designed on a 12 inch wafer. Both of these advancements will significantly increase our product functionality, improve energy efficiency, reduce our solution size, ease our customers adoption efforts and keep our product cost competitive. In addition, we were increasing production capacity both in 12 inch and 8 inch wafer in anticipation of future revenue growth. On the customer front, MPS penetrated a number of new Tier 1 companies in the automotive and cloud server markets, generating initial and meaningful revenue. More importantly, we are co-developing next generation products with a number of these Tier 1 companies that will revolutionalize their industries. We expect these partnerships to drive substantial technological advancements and represent an important source of MPS's future revenue growth. A few examples include, developing specific leading edge system solutions, using QSMod technologies for GPU based artificial intelligence and machine learning applications, using MPS's 48 volt QSMod Technology for both cloud based and automotive applications, working with automotive companies to develop specific solutions for smart driving systems and unique lighting applications with a 2020 target for market introduction. Developing in mechanical relay replacement servicing the IoT and automotive markets, using MPS's high current high density process technology for improve reliability in a compact form. And we completed the integration of high current programmable power modules for communications application such as 5G networks. The target market applications for these modules are base stations and switchers, which require compact and reliable solutions. In addition to these exciting core development projects, 2018 was important as we launched our e-commerce website allowing engineers to design their own customized solutions from their desktop. This catalog of programmable solutions will greatly enhance our customer's time to market, lower their total cost of ownership and optimize the efficiency of their designs. Now let's look at our full year 2018 revenue by market segment compared with 2017. Computing and storage up 57.9%, automotive up 48.6%, industrial up 40.7% and communications revenue up 11.8%, consumer revenue was down 3.0%. Full year computing and storage revenue grew $58.3 million to $159.1 million in 2018. This increased primarily reflected strong sales growth for cloud computing, SSD storage, high-end notebooks and initial GPU power management sales. Computing and storage revenue represented 27.3% of MPS's total revenue in 2018, compared with 21.4% in 2017. Automotive revenue grew $26.2 million to $80.1 million in 2018. This growth primarily represented increased sales of infotainment, safety and connectivity application products. Automotive represented 13.8% of MPS's full year 2018 revenue compared with 11.4% in 2017. Industrial revenue grew $25.6 million to $88.5 million in 2018. This growth reflected sales for applications in power sources, security and industrial meters. Industrial revenue represented 15.2% of MPS's full year 2018 revenue compared with 13.4% in 2017. Communications revenue grew $7.0 million to $70.6 million. This improvement was primarily due to higher sales of our legacy home router and wireless gateway products. More importantly, though, we see initial ramping in the 5G market segment. Communications revenue represented 12.1% of our 2018 revenue compared with 13.5% in 2017. Switching to Q4, while we started to see the impact of macroeconomic headwinds in Q4, MPS still had a record fourth quarter with revenue of $153.5 million, 4.0% lower than revenue generated in the third quarter of 2018 that's 18.6% higher than the comparable quarter of 2017. By market segment revenue for industrial grew 66.6% over the same period of 2017. Computing and storage grew 63.2% and automotive grew 40.2%. Communications revenue - communications grew 27.1%, due primarily to increase revenue from MPS's legacy home router and wireless gateway products. Fourth quarter revenue for consumer fell 25.9% from the prior year. MPS experienced continued weakness in high volume consumer related businesses, with especially the soft demand in the Greater China region. In the fourth quarter, MPS continue to see strong design win momentum. However, many customers concerned about the economic outlook and trade policies delayed their production ramps for new products in automotive, computing and industrial which resulted in a less desirable sales product mix. As a result, fourth quarter 2018 non-GAAP gross margin was 55.6% 50 basis points lower than the third quarter of 2018 and 10 basis points lower than the fourth quarter of 2017. Our non-GAAP operating income was $46.6 million compared to $49.2 million reported in the prior quarter and $38.2 million reported in the fourth quarter of 2017. Fourth quarter 2018 GAAP gross margin was 55.1%, 50 basis points lower than the third quarter of 2018, but 10 basis points higher than the fourth quarter of 2017. Our GAAP operating income was $33.1 million compared to $33.5 million reported in the third quarter of 2018 and $25.1 million reported in the fourth quarter of 2017. Let's review our operating expenses. Our GAAP operating expenses were $51.5 million in the fourth quarter compared with $55.5 million in the third quarter of 2018 and $46.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2017. Our non-GAAP fourth quarter 2018 operating expenses were $38.7 million, down from the $40.5 million we spent in the third quarter of 2018 and up from the $33.9 million reported in the fourth quarter of 2017. On both the GAAP and a non-GAAP basis, fourth quarter litigation expenses were $409,000 compared with $343,000 expense in Q3 2018 and a $340,000 expense in Q4 2017. The difference between non-GAAP operating expenses and GAAP operating expenses for the quarters discussed are stock compensation expense and income or loss from an unfunded deferred compensation plan. Total stock compensation expense including $504,000 charged to cost of goods sold for the fourth quarter of 2018 was $14.8 million compared with $14.8 million recorded in the third quarter of 2018. Switching to the bottom line, fourth quarter 2018 GAAP net income was $27.6 million or $0.61 per fully diluted share compared with $0.71 per share in the third quarter of 2018 and $0.27 per share in the fourth quarter of 2017. Q4 non-GAAP net income was $44.6 million or $0.99 per fully diluted share compared with $1.06 per share in the third quarter of 2018 and $0.82 per share in the fourth quarter of 2017. Fully diluted shares outstanding at the end of Q4 2018 were $45.1 million. Now let's look at the balance sheet. Cash, cash equivalents and investments were $380.5 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to $353.1 million at the end of the third quarter of 2018. For the quarter MPS generated operating cash flow of about $47.6 million compared with Q3 2018 operating cash flow of $52.2 million. Fourth quarter 2018 capital spending totaled $4.5 million. Accounts receivable ended the fourth quarter of 2018 at $55.2 million or 33 days sales outstanding compared with a $59.9 million or 34 days reported at the end of the third quarter of 2018 and the $38.0 million or 27 days reported in the fourth quarter of 2017. Our internal inventories at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018 were $136.4 million, down slightly from the $136.8 million at the end of the third quarter of 2018. Days of inventory rose to 180 days at the end of Q4 2018 from the 175 days at the end of third quarter of 2018. I would now like to turn to the outlook. First, MPS is announcing a 33% increase in our quarterly dividend to $0.40 per share from $0.30 per share for shareholders of record as of March 29, 2019. We are forecasting Q1 2019 revenue in the range of $138 million to $144 million. We also expect the following. GAAP gross margin in the range of 54.8% to 55.4%, non-GAAP gross margin in the range of 55.3% to 55.9%, total stock-based compensation expense of $17.6 million to $19.6 million, including approximately $600,000 that would be charged to cost of goods sold; GAAP R&D and SG&A expenses between $55 million and $59 million. Non-GAAP R&D and SG&A expense to be in the range of $38 million to $40 million. This estimate excludes stock compensation and litigation expenses. Our income is - our other income is expected to be in the range of $1.4 million to $1.6 million before foreign exchange gains or losses; fully diluted shares to be in the range of 44.7 million to 45.7 million shares. In conclusion, despite uncertainty in the macro economy, we expect to continue winning market share in the cloud computing, automotive and telecommunications market. We believe the future is bright. I will now open the phone lines for questions.