Good morning. My name is Laura, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Novanta Inc. 2020 Second Quarter Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ray Nash, Corporate Finance Leader for Novanta. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you very much. Good morning, and welcome to Novanta's second quarter 2020 earnings conference call. I am Ray Nash, Corporate Finance Leader of Novanta. With me on today's call is our Chief Executive Officer, Matthijs Glastra; and our Chief Financial Officer, Robert Buckley. If you have not received a copy of our earnings press release issued today, you may obtain it from the Investor Relations section of our website at www.novanta.com. Please note this call is being webcast live, and it will be archived on our website shortly after the call. Before we begin, we need to remind everyone of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements that we've outlined in our earnings press release issued earlier today and also those in our SEC filings. We may make some comments today, both in our prepared remarks and in our responses to questions that may include forward-looking statements. These involve inherent assumptions with known and unknown risks and other factors that could cause our future results to differ materially from our current expectations. Any forward-looking statements made today represent our views only as of this time. And we disclaim any obligation to update forward-looking statements in the future even if our estimates change. So you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any time after this call. During this call, we will be referring to certain non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of such non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available as an attachment to our earnings press release. To the extent that we use non-GAAP financial measures during this call that are not reconciled to GAAP measures in the earnings press release, we will provide reconciliations promptly on the Investor Relations section of our website after this call. I'm now pleased to introduce the Chief Executive Officer of Novanta, Matthijs Glastra.

Thank you, Ray. Good morning, everybody, and thanks for joining our call. Before we start our normal quarterly results review, I would like to thank all Novanta employees for how they stepped up. Their unwavering commitment to ensure the safety of their teammates and their families as well as to ensure business continuity to our customers has been impressive. We are very pleased with the resiliency, engagement and productivity of our teams through the pandemic. It's great to see that the Novanta spirit is alive and that our culture has been a strong foundation to help weather this crisis. While Novanta is not immune to the impact of the pandemic, I would like to reiterate, we are strategically and financially well positioned to weather the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic weakness. Our balance sheet is strong. Our innovation engine is strong. Our teams are secure and safe. And our portfolio is resilient as a result of our diversification across approximately 45 different applications, with exposure to long-term secular trends in robotics and automation, health care productivity and precision medicine. Now let's move on to our normal quarterly results review. We are very pleased with Novanta's performance in the second quarter of 2020. Our teams executed very well in the face of adversity and delivered above our expectations for revenue, profit and cash flow. Our company delivered approximately $145 million in revenue, representing a 7% year-over-year revenue decline on a reported and an organic basis. We are particularly pleased with how our teams manage profit decrementals. Adjusted EBITDA was $31 million in the second quarter, essentially flat versus the second quarter of 2019 and up 11% sequentially despite 7% lower sequential revenue. The power of the diversification of our portfolio was again evident in our results. In this particular crisis,…

Thank you, Matthijs, and good morning, everyone. We delivered $144.7 million in revenue in the second quarter of 2020, a decrease of 7% year-over-year on both a reported and an organic basis. As Matthijs already covered, despite the year-over-year decline, we are pleased with our sales performance in the second quarter, beating our own expectations and our previously issued guidance. To give some additional details on our sales, our revenue continues to shift towards our OEM customers who serve medical end markets. Sales to these end markets in the second quarter, were at 55% of total sales and declined 5% year-over-year. On a year-to-date basis, sales to medical end markets were 57% of total sales. Considering the significant deferral of elective surgical procedures, along with laboratory delays in capital spending for specialized life science equipment, such as production-scale DNA sequencers, our sales to medical end markets were actually better than expected. We continue to see pockets of strength during the downturn such as our medical consumables business, with integrated smoke evacuation, integrated data collection products for clinical test equipment and new products, such as integrated operating room informatics. The industrial capital spending environment and the overall economic climate continues to face high levels of uncertainty, resulting in significant impacts on demand as evident in the latest PMI trends. While there are pockets of growth and recovery, there are also pockets where uncertainty has increased. Novanta sales to advanced industrial markets was 45% of total sales in the second quarter declined 8% year-over-year. The decline was broad-based across the majority of industrial end markets, which is consistent with our expectations and what our industrial OEM customers are seeing in those same markets. One area within advanced industrials, where we continue to see solid demand is within our microelectronics customers, specific to…

Thank you. We'll now begin the question-and-answer session [Operator Instructions] And our first question will come from Joe Jagoda of CJS Securities.

So I guess to start, relative to the 14% increase in China and then the declines of 8% in the U.S. and Europe collectively, can you speak to the trends you're seeing in those geographies in July? And if you have it for early August?

I mean, I made some generic remarks around not geography-wise, but more end market-wise, that we -- our customers in the medical end markets have reported that the -- let's say, the elective surgical procedures, depending on the exact modality are at 80% to 90% of pre-COVID levels. We do see, I think, as recently as today that within Europe, you see Germany rebounding from a factory orders perspective, but other parts of Europe, not so much. And both medical and industrial activity in China is -- has, of course, picked up. Semiconductor microelectronics, very strong; medical procedures, back to pre-COVID levels; and in those, some of the industrial markets still lagging a little bit because demand for Chinese-based production is often driven by Europe and the U.S. So that's kind of high level as we see it. And in terms of dynamics, I don't think I'm going to say anything unusual here that, of course, the declines in the U.S. were probably the steepest, but you see recovery being relatively quick. What is, of course, uncertain is, yes, the resurgence of the virus, and you do see some signs of pausing actually of the recovery as a result of that. Europe was less steep. But the recovery is also slower, yes? So those are kind of the dynamics I can comment on. Those are more end market dynamics. How they work their way through the supply chain and the timing and the impact to Novanta is uncertain, yes? So, but that's what we're seeing today.

So then just going at it a different way then, related to the medical elective surgical market being at, 80% to 90% of pre-COVID levels, can you sort of give us the slope of the recovery in terms of how bad it got in April? And then where we were in June versus July, if July is 80% to 90%?

Well, it got really bad for our customers.

Yes. So I think our customers have reported minus 55.0%. Certain procedures, so it ranges, Lee, what type of procedures, right? So let's say, ophthalmology procedures in doctors' offices, those were disclosed. There were no procedures done. So those were kind of down 80%. And then, of course, elective procedures that were critical in a way. They're called elective, but still critical, let's say, cancer related, that could not be deferred. They were down maybe 25%, 30%, right? So there's a range on the type of procedures. But on average, in the U.S., it was probably down 40%, 50% and then a quick snapback. I think what is unclear, and I think it's pretty consistent across different customers and geographies, et cetera. What is unclear is the trajectory from here, the 80% to 90%, to actually back to pre-COVID levels. So that's where the uncertainty is.

I guess the second question would be, is there any information that you're getting from your customers as it relates to their level of component inventory that we can kind of use to say, either they're over inventoried or they're under-inventoried relative to the current shipment levels on their side?

Yes. Listen, I think as you look at the third quarter and you take the range, we provided a range of $135 million to $142 million. The upper end of that range reflects the demand that we're seeing right now. And the lower end of the range is any sort of disruptions that we might see in our supply chain. So I think from a demand profile perspective, though, we're kind of at that upper end of the range there. So if you think about that in the context of the quarter, it's organic growth, very similar to what we saw in the, organic decline, I should say, similar to what we saw in the second quarter. So it's fair to say, there's two things happening there. One is the diversification of the portfolio, it's helping to mute the overall impact. So it's not that we're not seeing the declines in elective procedures or the shutdowns of OCT-type markets, it's just the diversification is helping us a little bit. The other is the customers themselves did not whipsaw their vendors as extreme as what they saw in those months. But that being said, the bulk of the impact is really hitting us in the third quarter as a consequence of the shutdowns in April and May. So as you get into the fourth quarter, does that mean we're going to see some sort of V shape? I think the answer to that is clearly no. It's not going to jump up in a V-shaped type recovery as we get into the fourth quarter. But what it looks like, still, is a lot of question marks and a lot of uncertainty.

Yes. And we're in very close contact, Lee, with our major customers in terms of their inventory levels. And of course, that has been tuned as we speak, what we want to be careful with is that we're not sitting in the chain, in the kind of excessive amounts of inventory. On the other hand, customers are actually, let's say, trying to position themselves as well for the recovery, and they don't want to be out of product, right? So there's kind of a daily management of that.

Last one from me. Robert, I think you made the comment that your SG&A and R&D, depending on how the quarter plays out, could be flex. I assume that's both up and down. And in terms of flex to the upside, I mean, if you do get a snapback or see a rapid increase in demand, are we looking at a situation where there could be some negative operating leverage on the upside of this thing? Just because costs have to come back so quickly because you cut so hard.

I wouldn't be able to flex it that much in that scenario. Meaning that, what you're implying is a significant reinvestment back into the business. And if you consider that the bulk of the spending is really on personnel, that wouldn't necessarily be feasible. So there's a range of what I can flex there, but I can, I certainly have more flexibility to flex down than I have, to go up.

Yes, it should get pretty high. That's pretty high. You need to see it. Let's say, in case, let's say, if unexpectedly, things turn for the worse, then, of course, we'll have to relook at flexing down certain expenses.

And the next question will come from Rick Eastman of Robert W. Baird.

Just a follow-up on that particular point. So Robert, again, you said SG&A might drift up a little bit sequentially. Can we assume that, that is at the upper end of your revenue guide for the third quarter? And then flat at the midpoint? I mean, is that the range with which you're kind of talking about flexing SG&A?

You mean in terms of the dollar or as a percent of...

Yes, just the dollars. Dollars of SG&A kind of move a bit up if you're up at the $142 million kind of mark? I mean, I presume there's more selling expense, but...

And then if it flex down, I don't think it can flex down beyond what we saw in the second quarter. So I mean I could with more dramatic actions, but we're not necessarily seeing that level of issue right now.

I think you made that clear on the revenue trends there. Okay. And then can I just ask, did you see any pull forward of revenue into the second quarter from what might have been gone in the third, again, as these elective procedures start ramping back up? I mean, just that trend, did your customers perhaps buy a bit ahead of a third quarter that might be ramping? I mean, is that any of the upside to your revenue number?

Well, no. What we said -- if we put ourselves back into what we said in the previous earnings call, right? So what we said is that the upper end of our guide in the second quarter would assume no major disruptions to our supply chain and demand materializing as we saw it. And what you see is, we did slightly better, right, than the upside because we saw actually some countercyclical growth turning out better than expected. And our supply chain and operations teams just did a fantastic job. So therefore, the downside scenario of supply chain interruptions didn't materialize, right? So that's kind of how you need to see it. So it is not like a pull forward or anything. It is just those dynamics.

And is that kind of focused a little bit more on the industrial side? I mean, your micro-e business, obviously doing well. Would maybe some of that upside be slanted towards the industrial side where maybe you are thinking things could have been worse?

Yes.

Yes, yes, I think that's absolutely fair. I think there's a little exception in terms of like our smoke evacuation is selling a lot better than we anticipated. So we are seeing a little bit more strength there. But it's certainly the scenario that we had planned for worse and things are not materializing.

Yes. And the reason why I think on the medical side, I mean, what we have seen, and this is kind of what I high-level alluded to, Rick, is that we saw some pretty quick mix shifts, right? So you needed a lot of agility, right? And so you don't necessarily see that at the revenue level, but the composition of the revenue was changing a lot, right? So for example, the fact that we were able to show double-digit growth on the WOM smoke evacuation consumables, the rest of that business was not necessarily up. So we had to pivot very quickly, and we were unsure if we could actually execute on that. The same thing is true, for example, for our Detection & Analysis business, where, of course, demand for ICU patient monitoring and COVID-related things were through the roof, literally, whereas others were declining very rapidly, right? So you saw that bifurcation and therefore, we were unsure at the beginning of the quarter, if actually our supply chain could follow all that. Yes.

And then just maybe one last question. When I look into the third quarter here relative to your revenue guide, is there any of the three business groups that might see a sequential increase in revenue? And I'm kind of thinking around the Precision Motion business in particular -- but or is it better to think, seasonally plus the dynamics around the medical side of the business that all three business groups likely decline modestly sequentially in revenue?

Or be closer to flat, it depends. I mean, you're right in that the third quarter is a lot of people are on vacation, and there's always a little bit of weakness generally as a consequence of that. Things are slower. In the pandemic, people seem to be taking 2 weeks of vacation instead of 1. So there are effects like that, we're trying to work through. But I would say, generally speaking, it's probably closer to flat on a sequential basis.

Yes, there's no material kind of one part of the company, miraculously, kind of picking up and others kind of going down, right? Sequentially a lot. So I think on average, it's similar, I would say.

And the next question will come from Brian Drab of William Blair.

I just want to stick on the SG&A just for another second. So it's down from $31 million to $25 million. Can you just discuss a little bit further what exactly were the levers that were pulled there? And what, how that $6 million kind of breaks down? And I'm really looking forward to 2021 at the moment in the model. And just kind of, I want to understand which of the items are going to be temporary, like incentive comp, and I know there was some cuts in incentive comp. And what comes back in 2021? So there's a huge difference in the run rate, I mean, right? Like in 2019, SG&A was $118 million, $25 million a quarter, you're at $100 million. So this is going to have a huge bearing on the model as we're looking a little bit further out.

Yes, the reality is the majority of the actions that we had taken in the first half of the year were temporary. So the elimination of incentive comp, even the cost, the more severe cost reduction actions, such as furloughs, are inherently temporary in nature. And so they all, and we would anticipate them all coming back in 2021. And the only thing that would prevent that is really taking some cost actions in the back half of the year, which are what we're looking at now. So we are looking at ways to better position the overall business if the duration of the pandemic is longer than anticipated. So that's not something that we're going to pull hard cord on yet. But we are looking at actions that we might do a little bit as we get into the third quarter, just to better position us for 2021. It also remains to be seen how the overall market recovers in 2021. And we don't want to kind of get into that, but we haven't hired a ton of people. We've had hiring freezes in place for the most part, unless the role is super critical. And so we haven't taken the cost structure up a lot more. And so in theory, if the recovery is solid, then the margin profile is going to look better across the board. But it gets into like very speculative as is nature. So I do think, what are the actions we took? Furloughs. We eliminated the bonus, we replaced that with the stock comp grant. We cut back on, obviously, travel expenses and other discretionary expenses. We put hiring freezes in place that still are remaining today. We have not taken significant structural actions yet, but we will look at that as we get into the third quarter and as we look at the fourth quarter, and there might be some things that we pull in. There were plans that we were doing in 2021 or even 2022 that we'd pull in into 2020 in order to start executing on that now and provide that cushion. But then the last I would say is that our gross margins, we anticipate them going up in 2021, with the actions that we're taking, including rolling out the NGS process in a more institutionalized way and really putting a hard focus on material productivity, which is the bulk of our cost of goods sold.

And then acknowledging the limits on, your geographic breakdown of revenue because of where the customers are located versus where the revenue is recorded. I'm just curious, your comment on the EU and U.S., I interpreted as a collective, down 8%. Are both of those regions individually down about 8%?

Individually, they're both down about 8%. There's, it's fair to say there were pockets in Europe that showed a little bit better performance. So Germany, as an example, showed actual growth, where other parts of Europe saw declines comparable to the United States.

And then just last quick word. What are you guys seeing in the additive manufacturing market in the 3D printing market?

Well, yes, I mean, again, you got to look at it by end market, right? So we sell into laser additive manufacturing, players then who sell into end markets. Some of these end markets are depressed like aerospace, right? And so you can kind of see announcements there, and that should not be a surprise that, that is down. Another part of the market that is increasing is medical implants. And that, while that, of course, short term, had an impact, the long-term trajectory of the technology penetration of additive manufacturing in the medical implants segment is growing, and investments are continuing. So there, we are, yes, very confident that, that is a structural driver. And then you got broad industrial where it kind of depends, quite frankly. And I would even say on the aerospace side, even though short term, you saw, of course, demand pull back. I mean, laser additive manufacturing can structurally be used to reduce cost and reduce the inventory, right? So if you look at players that are looking similar to us, you're looking at business continuity scenarios. I mean, it's a strategic tool, right, that is going to be deployed. So listen, short term, the PMI-related kind of macro climate will kind of put some damper on the growth there. But again, we see structurally going forward, yes, we're leaning into that application because we see that to be a structural grower in the mid- to long-term, right? But short term, headwinds.

So Brian, knowing you and your coverage universes a little bit. One of the caveats, I would just add, is that most of the commentary that Matthijs just gave is focused on metals-based type marketplace.

Yes.

Yes. So I wouldn't want to construe that as on the plastic side. Our exposure on the plastics tend to be relatively minimal. Yes.

And this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Matthijs Glastra for any closing remarks.

Thank you, operator. So to summarize, in the second quarter of 2020, Novanta delivered a solid performance in an uncertain macro environment. We're obviously, very pleased with our positioning and performance of our portfolio and very proud of the performance and agility of our teams. Novanta is not immune to the impact of pandemic, but we are strategically and financially well positioned to weather this crisis. And our balance sheet is strong, our innovation lineup is strong and our portfolio diversified with exposure to long-term secular trends that we discussed. And while the short-term outlook is uncertain with the health epidemic, we are investing into the headwinds, remain focused on the long-term growth drivers in our business on the back of the macro trends in Industry 4.0, precision medicine and minimally invasive surgery. And in closing, I would like to thank our customers, our employees and our shareholders for their ongoing support. I'm particularly grateful for the dedication and strong contribution of our teams of committed Novanta employees that are showing just tremendous agility and resilience during these times. And we appreciate your interest in the company and your participation in today's call. I look forward to joining all of you in several months on our third quarter 2020 earnings call. Thank you very much. This call is now adjourned.

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