Adam C. Spice
Analyst · Stifel, Nicolaus
Thank you, Kishore. I will first review our results and then briefly discuss our outlook. In summary, our Q1 revenue of $26.5 million was right the midpoint of our guidance and brings to a quick ending the inventory correction in cable we experienced in Q4. As Kishore noted, growth in our revenues from cable was broad-based, and cable seems poised to continue to drive top line in 2013. We believe that the weakness in terrestrial revenues is largely attributable to seasonality and remain encouraged that a combination of hybrid TV and ISDB-T digital terrestrial TV set-top box applications will contribute to growth in the coming quarters. Now moving to the rest of the income statement. GAAP and non-GAAP gross profit for the first quarter were both approximately 63% of revenue, above our prior guidance of 61%. This compares to 63% in the fourth quarter of 2012 and 60% in the year-ago quarter. The significant improvement in gross margins relative to our guidance was largely due to favorable product mix changes within cable and terrestrial and better-than-expected improvement in COGS. Our Q1 GAAP operating expenses were $18.9 million, which includes $2.8 million of stock-based compensation, $1 million for an accrual related to our performance-based equity bonus plan for 2013 and $1 million in net professional fees related to the Silicon Labs patent litigation. Consistent with 2012, payouts under our 2013 performance bonus plan will be settled in shares of MaxLinear stock. Net of these items, OpEx was $14.2 million, which was below our prior guidance of $15 million, driven primarily by slower-than-anticipated headcount ramps and a continued tight focus on discretionary spending items. First quarter GAAP OpEx attributable to R&D was $11.5 million, which included stock-based compensation of $1.8 million and $600,000 related to the 2013 bonus plan. The declines in R&D spending relative to Q4 2012 were primarily due to the roll-off and timing of certain project-driven engineering expenses, such as R&D maps, equipment rentals, PCBs, layout consulting, which were offset somewhat by increased spending on payroll-related items due to increases in headcount, as well as seasonal step-ups in payroll taxes. First quarter GAAP OpEx attributable to SG&A was flat quarter-on-quarter at $7.4 million, which included $1 million in stock-based compensation, $400,000 in bonus plan accruals and $1 million in net professional fees related to Silicon Labs patent litigation. Within SG&A, we experienced increases in spending for professional fees related to patent filing and for payroll-related items similar to those described for R&D, which were offset by declines in commission expenses and general tight controls on discretionary spending. At the end of the first quarter of 2013, our headcount was 281 as compared to 276 at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. We continue to selectively add headcount to staff growth initiatives and continue to look to gain leverage in R&D by appropriately balancing hiring across our R&D design centers in the U.S., India, China and Taiwan. GAAP loss from operations was $2.2 million in Q1 compared to the loss from operations of $4.4 million in the prior quarter and GAAP loss from operations of $6.5 million in Q1 of last year. GAAP net loss per share in the first quarter was $0.07 on basic shares outstanding of $32.8 million. GAAP net loss per share includes $2.8 million in stock-based compensation expense, $1 million for an accrual related to our 2013 performance-based bonus plan and $1 million in net professional fees attributable to the Silicon Labs patent litigation. This compares to GAAP net loss per share of $0.14 in the prior quarter, loss of $0.20 -- a loss of $0.20 in Q1 of last year. Net of these items, our non-GAAP earnings per share in Q1 was $0.07 on fully diluted shares of $34 million compared to $0.02 per share in Q4 2012 and a loss per share of $0.06 in Q1 of last year. Moving to the balance sheet and cash flow statement. Our cash, cash equivalents and investment balance was unchanged from Q4 2012 at approximately $77.3 million and a decrease of $6.1 million compared to the $83.4 million in Q1 of last year. Our cash-generated operations in the first quarter of 2012 was $800,000, approximately $600,000 less than in the fourth quarter of 2012 and approximately $1.9 million better than in the year-ago quarter. Unlike in Q4 2012, we did not repurchase shares from our loan -- remaining VC investor in the first quarter. Accounts receivable totaled $18 million at the end of the first quarter 2013 compared to $14.6 million in the prior quarter and $11.1 million in Q1 of last year. The days sales outstanding for the first quarter was approximately 54 days or 2 days lower than the previous quarter and approximately 1 day more than the DSOs in the year-ago quarter. We remain comfortable with the quality of our accounts receivable rating, having experienced a very limited bad debt expense. As a reminder, we only recognize revenue on a sell-through basis. And as such, we are not subject to the revenue fluctuations caused by changes in distributor inventory levels. Our in-house inventory at the end of the quarter was $8.7 million, down approximately $1.2 million compared to $9.9 million in the previous quarter and up approximately $1.9 million versus the year-ago quarter. Our inventory turns improved to 4.5x in the first quarter compared to 4.1x in the fourth quarter and improved relative to the 4.3x in the year-ago quarter. That leads me to our guidance. We are pleased to note that we expect revenue in the second quarter 2013 to increase approximately 6% to 10% sequentially to $28 million to $29 million. Built into this range, we expect both cable and terrestrial revenues to increase on a quarter-over-quarter basis. More specifically, we expect growth forecast for the cable to come predominantly from data and video media server applications and anticipate growth to come from hybrid TV tuners and our ISDB-T digital TV standard tuner-demod SoC solutions in terrestrial. We expect GAAP and non-GAAP gross profit percentage to be approximately 61% to 62% in the first quarter. Our gross profit forecast could vary somewhat, depending on product mix and other factors, in particular, the relative contribution of the cable and terrestrial applications. We continue to fund strategic development programs targeted at delivering attractive top line growth in 2013 and beyond, with a focus on increasing operating leverage in the business. We expect Q2 2013 GAAP operating expenses to increase approximately $1.5 million relative to the prior quarter to $20.5 million, with desktop payroll-related expenses, which will include the first full quarter effect of our incremental Q1 hires, anticipated Q2 hiring and our annual merit process that took place -- took effect in early April, along with some 40-nanometer maps-related expenses. We expect that Q2 2013 non-GAAP operating expenses will step up approximately $1.5 million to $15.5 million, with similar payroll-associated increases referenced for R&D earlier. In summary, we are pleased to report in-line revenues in Q1, combined with significant gross margin upside and OpEx constraints that delivered another quarter of positive operating cash flow, along with significant improvements in both GAAP and non-GAAP bottom line results. Our guidance for Q2 2013 revenues to grow 6% to 10% despite the prior strong quarter signals confidence in our product cycle-driven momentum. And with that, I'd like to now open the call to questions. Operator?