Clyde Hosein
Analyst · Goldman Sachs
Thank you, Sehat, and good afternoon, everyone. As Sehat mentioned, Q1 revenues for fiscal 2012 came in at approximately $802 million, representing an 11% sequential decrease from Q4 fiscal 2011 and a 6% decrease from the same period a year ago. Our overall revenue performance was at the lower end of our prior forecast. As Sehat indicated earlier, this was mostly attributable to low Mobile and Wireless revenues and by the supply disruptions caused by the Japan earthquake impacting our HD demand later in the quarter. Our non-GAAP gross margin for the first quarter was approximately 58.5%, in line with our guidance and roughly 90 basis points lower than the prior quarter. The sequential decrease in gross margin was mainly due to a combination of higher commodity prices, including gold, and tape out costs for leading-edge products, for leading-edge process nodes as we ship to 40-nanometer and finer [ph] geometry. The higher commodity prices has impacted our margins by over a point in the last year, and we have the patience [ph] to persist in the near term. Our overall operating expenses for the first quarter on a non-GAAP basis were approximately $279 million, slightly below the midpoint of our guidance. As compared to the prior quarter, overall expenses increased 4% and was up about 9% in the same period a year ago as we continued to prepare for the launch of several new products this fiscal year. R&D expenses for the quarter were approximately $223 million, up about 6% from the last quarter and up about 11% from the same period a year ago. SG&A expenses for the quarter were approximately $56 million, a 5% sequential decrease from the prior quarter. This resulted in non-GAAP operating margin of 24%, in line with our guidance. I want to highlight that even at this low point of our revenue cycle, our operating margin continues to be in the top tier of our peer group. Interest income was just over $3 million, consistent with our forecast. However, this was offset by certain non-cash charges related to the currency impact of the eroded U.S. dollar on our international tax liabilities. On a non-GAAP basis, we recorded tax expenses of approximately $1 million, slightly below our prior forecast. Our non-GAAP net income for the fiscal first quarter was approximately $189 million, or $0.29 per diluted share, in line with our prior guidance but a decline from the $0.40 earned in the prior quarter and $0.38 earned during the same period a year ago. The shares used to compute diluted non-GAAP EPS during the first quarter were approximately $663 million, a decrease of roughly 22 million shares from the prior quarter, primarily due to our share repurchase program. Changes in the diluted share count are primarily due to share repurchase, options exercised by employees, share purchased through the ESPP program and variations in average trading price in the reported periods, which impacted the treasury method of the computing diluted share count. Cash flow from operations for the first quarter was approximately $177 million as compared to $251 million reported in the fourth quarter and lower than the $256 million reported in the same period a year ago. Free cash flow for the fiscal first quarter of 2012 was $157 million, representing a 20% free cash flow margin, compared to free cash flow of $213 million reported in the previous quarter and $237 million in free cash flow reported in the year ago period. We define free cash flow as cash flow from operations less capital expenditures and purchases of IP licenses. Let me now summarize our quarterly results on a GAAP basis. We generated GAAP net income of approximately $147 million, or $0.22 per share, in the first quarter of 2012, down from the $223 million, or $0.33 per share, in the prior quarter and the $206 million, or $0.30 per share, we reported in the same period a year ago. The difference between our GAAP and non-GAAP results during the first quarter of fiscal 2012 was due to stock-based compensation expenses of approximately $27 million, or about $0.04 per share. Amortization of intangibles represented approximately $14 million, or about $0.02 per share, and restructuring-related costs are less than $0.01 per share. Now I'd like to review our balance sheet as of the end of fiscal Q1. Cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments were approximately $2.3 billion, a decrease of approximately $662 million sequentially but up $189 million from the same period a year ago. During the first fiscal quarter, we repurchased about 50 million shares for a total consideration of about $800 million. Accounts receivable was approximately $425 million, down about $34 million sequentially and a decrease of $23 million as compared to the same period a year ago. DSO was 50 days, up from 47 days last quarter and 43 days a year ago. Net inventories at the end of the first quarter were $299 million, up from $245 million reported in the fourth quarter and $207 million in the year ago period. Day sales inventory was 74 days, up 15 days from the 59 days reported in the previous quarter and the year ago period. The sequential increase in inventory is mainly due to anticipated seasonal bills by our customers and the ramp of new products over the next couple of quarters. Accounts payable were approximately $322 million, down $10 million sequentially and up $26 million on a year-on-year basis. Now I'd like to turn to our expectations for the second quarter of fiscal 2012. We currently project second quarter revenues in the range of $870 million to $910 million. At the midpoint of this range, this represented growth of about 11% sequentially. By end market, we expect storage to grow low to mid-single-digits sequentially, networking to grow mid-single-digits and mobile and wireless to grow over 20%. We have previously mentioned that our fiscal first quarter would be dilutive for us, as we anticipated growth in the second quarter in all of our served end markets. In the Mobile area, in addition to continuing revenues from existing customers on account of new product launches, we expect to benefit from strong growth in branded and non-branded TD handsets in China. As Sehat mentioned earlier, we have seen the benefit of our early investment in TD. During Q1, we began to shift production volume of our TD customers, and we anticipate that revenue to more than double in Q2. In Wireless, we expect seasonal build and new products to drive growth in our Connectivity business. In the networking end market, we expect revenues in Q2 to increase sequentially from new design wins at existing and new customers, resulting in better-than-market outlook for our Networking business. In our storage end market, we expect revenues to increase low to mid-single-digits sequentially. As Sehat indicated earlier, this represents essentially a flat market for HDD drives and continued share gains at new HDD customers. We currently project non-GAAP gross margins in the range of 58% to 58.5%. We currently anticipate non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $285 million plus or minus $5 million. We anticipate R&D expenses to be approximately $225 million and SG&A expenses of approximately $60 million. At the midpoint of our range, this should translate into an operating margin of approximately 26% plus or minus a point. The combination of interest expense and other income together should net out to be approximately a $2 million benefit. Non-GAAP tax expense should be approximately $3 million. We currently believe the diluted share count to be approximately 630 million shares. This share count reflects the full-quarter effect of more than 50 million shares we repurchased and retired in the last quarter. Taken together, we project non-GAAP EPS to be $0.37 per diluted share plus or minus a couple of cents. On the balance sheet, we currently expect to generate over $200 million in free cash flow during the quarter. We anticipate our cash balance to be about $2.5 billion excluding any special items, M&A activity or continued share buyback. We currently expect our GAAP EPS to be lower than our non-GAAP EPS by about $0.07 per share plus or minus $0.01. About $0.05 of this is related to stock-based compensation expenses. In summary, the first quarter of fiscal 2012 was a tough one for us. We experienced an unexpected product shift at our leading mobile customer in response to market dynamics [ph]. This came at a low seasonal point of most of our customers compounding the effect. Even at this low point in our revenues, we still generated top-tier gross operating and free cash flow margins in our peer group, demonstrating the resilience of our business model. We took advantage of this low point by repurchasing and retiring 8% of our common outstanding shares. Our business will continue to grow, evidenced by the more than 10% sequential growth we have made this quarter, and we expect to improve our profitability as that growth continues. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to the Operator to begin the Q&A portion of the call. Jeff?