Steven Roth
Analyst · Quinn Bolton with Needham. Please go ahead
Thanks Mike. Before I begin my remarks as Mike noted, the finance results present here will be on non-GAAP basis except where are noted. And that the non-GAAP presentation of the new merged company no longer excludes stock-based compensation. Also, this is the first full quarter of the financial results of the merged company. In the fourth quarter, our financial results represented the operations of Rudolph for the full fourth quarter, but only the results are former Nanometrics since the closing of the merger on October 26. I recognize that this partial period results may comparability somewhat difficult, and I'll try to bridge those differences for you. As Mike mentioned, our first quarter revenue was $139.9 million above the midpoint of our guidance. For the fourth quarter of 2019, we reported revenue of $120.6 million, which excluded 10 million of Nanometrics' October shipments and $1.7 million at deferred revenue that would have been in our results if we had closed the merger at the beginning of the quarter. Therefore, the full fourth quarter of the combined company would have been approximately $132.3 million. Based on those adjusted numbers, our Q1 results represent a 6% increase over the prior quarter. Breaking the revenue down by market, revenue from advanced nodes accounted for 44% of revenue, strength mainly in memory. Specialty devices and advanced packaging customers accounted for 35% of revenue, and the remaining 21% of revenue came from our software and services business. We had two customers in the quarter, both top five capital proven spenders that represent a greater than 10% of sales. As we've discussed, one of the benefits of the merged company is the broad and diverse customer base with over 150 customers from silicon wafer manufacturers all the way to advanced manufacturing customers. Turning to gross margin, first quarter gross margin was 52%, driven by strength in both the Atlas III and Dragonfly product lines. This compares to gross margin 51% reported in the 2019 fourth quarter, also impacting margins with lower inventory reserves in the first quarter. As we look forward to Q2, we continue to keep product mix as the primary driver of gross margin and currently anticipate margins to be in the range of 50% to 52%. Before I move onto a discussion about operating expenses, I wanted to provide an update on our progress with the merger synergies. As a reminder, we targeted $20 million in cost synergies that we believe we could execute on by the end of 2020. Those synergies were primarily around business rationalization, streamlining, corporate overheads and eliminating duplicative public company costs. To-date, we have now exceeded that target, implementing $21.4 million in synergies with an additional $3.2 million in supply chain synergies identified to be removed by the end of the year. Now, let's move to operating expenses. First quarter operating expenses were $49.6 million at the low end of guidance. The impact of the synergies I just mentioned and the lower overall spending from reduced travel expenses as a result of COVID-19 were the primary drivers for the lower operating expense. The 2019 fourth quarter, we reported $40.7 million in operating expenses, and those results excluded $8.7 million a fourth quarter Nanometrics expenses prior to closing. As I stated on our last call, historically operating expenses increased quarter-over-quarter from Q4 to Q1 every year. During the first quarter we perform our annual compensation reviews and equity grants, bonus plans and payroll taxes all reset for the year. However, our accelerated synergies and cost savings offset those increases. In the second quarter, we expect to see the full impact of the operating synergies for the operating expense synergies we implemented in Q1 and a partial impact of the synergies implemented beginning of Q2. Our currently forecasting our Q2 operating expenses to be in the range of 47.5 to 48.5 million, historically the operating expenses of the two companies, combined companies was about 52 million quarterly. So, we can already see the benefits of the merger synergies approximately $4 million next quarter. Net income for the first quarter was 19.7 million or $0.39 per share and at the higher end of our guidance. In 2018, fourth quarter we reported $0.41 per share; however, the share count used in that calculation was 43 million shares outstanding through the merger being closed in the middle of the quarter. In the first quarter, the share count was approximately 50.6 million shares, and using that share count, the fourth quarter net income would result in about $0.35 per share. Now turning to cash and investments which are on a GAAP basis, we ended the quarter with cash and a cash position of 219 million. During the quarter as Mike mentioned, we executed on the repurchase of 33.6 million of our stock under previously authorized repurchase program totaling 1.3 million shares. We also generate 8.9 million in cash from operations in the quarter; however, that amount was significantly reduced by the timing of shipments in the quarter. Slowdown in our supply chain and the moving to a split operation due to COVID-19 resulted in a majority of our shipments going out last month of the quarter affected our ability to collect a portion of our quarterly sales within the quarter. Historically, both Nanometrics and Rudolph were strong cash flow generating companies and combined were even stronger. We currently model our cash breakeven to be between 65 million and 75 million and quarterly revenue depending on product mix. That is also based on our current expense structure. So, we are confident that with our cash position and our ability to generate cash, we're in a strong position to navigate through the current challenges and maintain our ability to invest in our roadmaps and other revenue opportunities as they materialize from our R&D innovations. Now, I'd like to turn the call back over to Mike. Mike?