Earnings Labs

Proto Labs, Inc. (PRLB)

Q1 2016 Earnings Call· Thu, Apr 28, 2016

$63.93

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

...will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host today, Mr. Bill Dietrick. Please go ahead, sir. William M. Dietrick - VP-Global Marketing & Head-Media Relations: Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. This morning, before the market open, Proto Labs issued a press release announcing its first quarter financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2016. The release is available on the company's website at protolabs.com. Before we get started, during the course of this conference call, the company will provide financial projections and make other statements about its business that are forward-looking and subject to many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. A detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties that affect the business is contained in the company's Annual Report filed on Form 10-K and other SEC filings, particularly under the heading Risk Factors. Copies of these filings are available online from the SEC or on the Proto Labs' website. The company's projections and other forward-looking statements are based on factors that are subject to change, and, therefore, these statements speak only as of the date they are given. The company does not undertake to update any projection or forward-looking statement. In addition, to supplement the GAAP numbers, we have provided revenue growth on a constant currency basis for both total revenue and revenue earned through legacy operation, adjusted consolidated statements of operations and adjusted net income and basic and diluted net income per share information on a non-GAAP basis. The non-GAAP adjusted consolidated statements of operations and non-GAAP adjusted net income each exclude the costs of stock compensation, amortization of intangibles, and unrealized foreign currency activity. We believe that these non-GAAP metrics…

John A. Way - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Thank you, Vicki. Revenue in the first quarter was $72.6 million, an increase of $14 million or 24% over the same quarter in 2015. Legacy revenue in the first quarter came from 13,249 unique product developers. This represented a 20% increase over the first quarter of 2015. Our unique product developer count does not include Alphaform as this information is not available in a comparable format at this time. Average revenue per product developer decreased 3% on a constant currency basis compared to the first quarter last year. The decline in revenue per product developer is reflective of the mix of our business with strong growth in 3D printing and lower growth in our injection molding parts business. Gross profit for the quarter was $39.7 million, an increase of $4.4 million over the comparable quarter of the prior year. Gross margin was 54.6%. Alphaform had a negative 380 basis point impact on our gross margins in the quarter. Excluding Alphaform, gross margin on the legacy business was 58.4% as compared to 58.6% in the fourth quarter and 60.2% in the first quarter of 2015. The fluctuation compared to the first quarter of 2015 was primarily related to additional investments in capacity to ensure we meet our brand promise to customers as we have discussed in previous quarters. The first quarter represents a trough in our gross margins. We will see improvement in our gross margins at Alphaform and in our legacy business in the second quarter and throughout the year. Our operating expenses were in line with our guidance at $24.5 million, a $200,000 reduction from the fourth quarter of 2015. Sales and marketing expense totaled $10.9 million or 15.1% of revenue for the quarter. We invested $5.3 million, or 7.3% of revenue in research and development in the quarter.…

Operator

Operator

. Our first question comes from Troy Jensen with Piper Jaffray. Please proceed with your question. Troy D. Jensen - Piper Jaffray & Co (Broker): Hey, thanks for taking my time. Good morning Vicky and John. Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning, Troy.

John A. Way - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Good morning, Troy. Troy D. Jensen - Piper Jaffray & Co (Broker): So, quick Vicki, if we can focus a little bit on injection modeling I mean 60% of your revenues and kind of biggest chunk, right. Just curious it feels like that was an area that you might have mentioned in previous calls as an area to focus as far as really trying to reaccelerate growth there and maybe the 3D print in this direction kind of prevented that? So, just curious how much are you guys planning on trying to get the injection molding side, I mean the story there was always the huge, huge market fractional share gains could really drive good growth for you? Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes. We still believe that, again the TAM is large there, huge market and we bring a lot of value in injection molding. We did refocus a little effort on injection molding here in the first quarter but great results on the mold side of things, so we moved that needle in the right direction. Injection molding tooling is a little more challenging of a sale than a 3D printed part nearly because you're looking at a bigger investment on the part of the customer. So we saw some improvement there. But we report injection molding, if we report both the mold and part and we actually saw growth in both mold and parts but when you take a look at the detail underneath that there are some segments where we actually saw a little bit of contraction particularly, one set or more impacted by the economic cycle. So, things like industrial equipment where spaces like 3D printers for example, we actually saw quarter to quarter declines in revenue. Industrial equipment that…

John A. Way - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Yes, and I think that's – the whirlwind of that range is probably the right way to look at it, and then we will keep climbing from there. Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes. The biggest thing that's going to help drive that Alphaform margin that's where we need to be will be volume, and sales revenue, because we got a fixed cost component when we acquired that business of both the work force and the equipment that we need to cover. And we are on track for this integration. We did not plan on turning our marketing and sales engine in a big way until we had the software in place, and we literally turned that on this week. We went live this week. So, with that, we are now literally this week going live with our marketing – our sales of marketing, more aggressive sales and marketing activities for 3D printing in Europe, and I'm confident when we turn that on, we will begin getting Proto Labs customers at our price points coming in to our European business in 3D printing, and we will be able to start getting those margins up. Troy D. Jensen - Piper Jaffray & Co (Broker): All right. Good luck, Vicki and John. Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you.

John A. Way - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Brian Drab with William Blair. Please proceed with your question. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Hi, good morning. Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good morning, Brian.

John A. Way - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Good morning. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: So, Vicki and John, are you guys surprised somewhat that given the macro wasn't great in 2015, especially second half of 2015 when you did 25% plus organic revenue growth, that you saw this kind of drop off or decline from fourth quarter to first quarter? I think you were surprising a lot of people there second half of last year with that growth. Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: And we are starting to think that maybe we were missing something, but now you are saying the parts business has slowed down. So, can you just give more color there? Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes, Brian, it's a good question. And I will say we were somewhat surprised as we sat here in fourth quarter we got – I think there were a couple of questions in February on our call that we had not seen the economic decline that many of the companies that are in the industrial production space we're seeing, and we haven't. And I will say here in the first quarter we grew 16%, so we grew organically, 24% in total, 16% organically. But it was a little bit lower than what we had expected within a range but at the low end of that range. And as we looked at the data, we did find that there are some sectors particularly where we're used for production parts where we saw an impact. And then also I think we are at the beginning of the year, many companies took a look at – we believe many companies took a look at some of their…

John A. Way - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Yes, so it will be kind of over the next two quarters that we will feel it. The resin business will be done at the end of May, so we'll feel about $350,000 impact in Q2 and then another $700,000 approximately in Q3 related to that. And then as Vicki said MIM and thixo will be winding down, that one we are going to be taking orders and talking to our customers to see what those volumes are. But the range of the numbers over the next 12 months is what you said $2 million to $3 million of pressure as that business winds down. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: John, that resin business in the fourth quarter last year was how much?

John A. Way - Chief Financial Officer

Management

It was a little bit low the million. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Okay.

John A. Way - Chief Financial Officer

Management

It's in that other category that we've broken out, it was about $800,000 I think. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Got it. Okay thanks a lot. Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thanks, Brian.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Ben Hearnsberger with Stephens, Inc. Please proceed with your question.

Ben Hearnsberger - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · Stephens, Inc. Please proceed with your question.

Hey thanks for taking my question. I wanted to look a revisit the full year guide the model you guys put out on the last call, in light of slowing growth in 1Q and implied sub 25% growth in 2Q, is that full year guidance for 25% to 30% revenue growth still good, or do we need to rethink or reevaluate that?

John A. Way - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Yes, Ben, we do have short times in our business as an on-demand manufacturer. Our backlog is 7 days. So we've provided guidance and will continue to provide guidance kind of on a quarterly basis. And I do think – as you are looking at in and questioning that, that range is going to be a challenge; I mean just doing the math would show that. So I do think we'll have to readjust or look at that from that perspective. But right now, we've got visibility – we've got Q1 under our belt, we can provide guidance on Q2 and as we're watching basically this economic situation and the impact of our customer we've got to wait for that to pick-up.

Ben Hearnsberger - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · Stephens, Inc. Please proceed with your question.

Okay. And in light of maybe some slower growth, should we rethink these cost levels, are you going to maintain kind of high-end of your spending range in light of kind of what we are seeing on the topline or are you going to start to adjust it downward?

John A. Way - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Yes. So, I think from a percentage of revenue levels, we will manage those costs. So, sales and marketing, I think we are going to continue to invest at about that 15% level. We do want to make sure that we are investing to drive the revenue growth and continue to penetrate the opportunities there. But, we do want to be prudent in how we are doing that and make sure we are aligning with the revenue. Similarly, on the manufacturing side we've put in some more processes to make sure that we've got our costs aligned with the revenue that we see coming in and I am confident that we will see some benefit there, as we go through the year. So, I think as you look at the percentages that we've guided related to revenue I think those are all still valid.

Ben Hearnsberger - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · Stephens, Inc. Please proceed with your question.

Okay. And one last question on cross-selling and you may not be able put this data out, but you maybe provide some color if you can of the 13,000 or so unique developers you had in the platform this quarter how many used multiple services across the platform? Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes. So, when you look at it as an individual product developer level there is probably only about 15% to 20% of the individual product developers that i.e. multiple products but when you look at it at a customer company level the vast majority of our top customer companies by across all three services. And that kind of makes sense when you think about it because you've got different developers who tend to focus in different parts of a process, so within customer companies you look at our top 500 customer companies – vast majority by multiple products.

Ben Hearnsberger - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · Stephens, Inc. Please proceed with your question.

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Bobby Burleson with Canaccord Geuity. Please proceed with your question.

Robert Burleson - Canaccord Genuity, Inc.

Analyst · Canaccord Geuity. Please proceed with your question.

Yes, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions.

John A. Way - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Good morning. Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Hi.

Robert Burleson - Canaccord Genuity, Inc.

Analyst · Canaccord Geuity. Please proceed with your question.

So, I was just wondering Vicki, if we look at the MIM and the thixo molding exiting those businesses wondering when the initial decision was made to get into those services. And what if anything has changed in that valuation process? Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes. Good question. Yes. So, the company is started working on MIM and thixo technology development as early as 2013, it was a very challenging technical problem to solve and team did a fantastic job on re-inventing the manufacturing process for metal injection molding and thixo molding in a way that we could do it with cost effectively with low volumes. So, huge breakthrough. But I think what we – and the market itself, in terms of the total size of the market, I think we did a pretty good job assessing that and the market growth rates in that market, we did a pretty good job assessing. What we didn't really understand until we got into this market, is that there are the volume of unique new parts being designed every year is lower than they are in some of the other processes that we serve.

Robert Burleson - Canaccord Genuity, Inc.

Analyst · Canaccord Geuity. Please proceed with your question.

Okay. Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Like injection molding of thermoplastics, injection molding of thermo stuff like, liquid, silicone rubber or even machines part, now because of that actual volume unique parts is lower that's where we see the philosophy for our model to really make sense. And we just did not see that this was going to be able to scale to the level that things need to scale for our digital manufacturing models and meet our profitability target and also had a very – it's a niche manufacturing technology and used of lot of sales and technical sales resources to close relatively few part.

Robert Burleson - Canaccord Genuity, Inc.

Analyst · Canaccord Geuity. Please proceed with your question.

Okay. Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: And so, this allows us to redirect those resources on metal – on injection molding for thermoplastics, injection molding for thermos stuff or CNC machine parts and get a little more productivity from that sales and market expense. So, it's a combination of lower volume of unique products that come in that we really didn't expect and getting that sales and productivity out of sales and marketing.

John A. Way - Chief Financial Officer

Management

And probably that also creates challenges from a profitability perspective because we've got the equipment and the staff that is underutilized from a capacity perspective, so we are actually carrying the cost to run more volume through but, having the lower volumes...

Robert Burleson - Canaccord Genuity, Inc.

Analyst · Canaccord Geuity. Please proceed with your question.

Understood. Okay. Thank you. And then just one more quick one, strategic engagements curious once the agreements reached how long it takes for that to kind of flow through in organization in terms of using Proto Labs? Is that a long process once an agreement is reached, is there additional selling that you guys need to do within the organization, just a little bit more color on how we can think of that going forward? Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Right. So at least, we want to talk about an example like J&J that helps you get a appreciation for this. So, we talked about the J&J Ethicon division, it's one division of Johnson & Johnson and the advantage that we got within that division by having senior leadership really understand our model that helps drive through much more quickly because the senior managers will go to their developers and their engineers and really encourage the use of Proto Labs and it does accelerate our growth within that group. We still have to penetrate other products of Johnson & Johnson. So it's a longer – it's a process that takes time and it is the use of word agreement not only to get a court agreement, it's really getting that understanding by the customer how to unlock the power for the labs because we can bring so much value to them but usually it takes somebody who's got some strategic insight that can kind of understand how to incorporate us into their business.

Robert Burleson - Canaccord Genuity, Inc.

Analyst · Canaccord Geuity. Please proceed with your question.

Okay. Great. Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: So, it takes a little bit of time. It takes a very different kind of selling engagement which we're early – it takes time for us to kind of shift our selling model, our transactional selling model has been very successful for this company. So, we are not abandoning the transactional selling model what we are doing is adding a strategic selling model on top of it. So it takes some time.

Robert Burleson - Canaccord Genuity, Inc.

Analyst · Canaccord Geuity. Please proceed with your question.

Okay. You know, there was one more thing I forgot to ask. Thanks. John, one of the things that was mentioned I think was Q1 year-over-year growth organically 16% on a constant currency basis, did you guys fall within your 20% plus target range?

John A. Way - Chief Financial Officer

Management

No. Constant currency had about a 70 basis point impact on the quarter. So, yes, I mean, we are below that target range on the legacy business.

Robert Burleson - Canaccord Genuity, Inc.

Analyst · Canaccord Geuity. Please proceed with your question.

Okay. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Jim Ricchiuti with Needham & Company. Please proceed with your question. Jim Ricchiuti - Needham & Co. LLC: Thank you. Good morning. Vicki, you've alluded to I think with the parts business you have a decent window on demand almost in real-time. And I'm wondering how that business attract as you went through the quarter and maybe what you are seeing thus far in the month of April. And if there is any flavor you can give us geographically? Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: So, how attractive is – January was slow. January was a lot slower than what we had expected to be. So, once again, I think there is a little bit of – wind back to January and the rhetoric in the industrial space. There was a lot uncertainty in the market place. So, I think we saw some companies being very cautious on spend. It continued to build pace throughout the quarter, so continue to move up, but there wasn't a big spike in March, it's very steady, steady improvement. And it is that state at where we are today that is informing our second quarter guidance, and as John said, we are on-demand manufacturer with a 7 to 10 day backlog of orders. As we see a change, we will adjust that guidance. So, as we see that improve, we will adjust it. But at this point I think it's prudent for us to be conservative in that guidance given where we are. Jim Ricchiuti - Needham & Co. LLC: Fair enough. Next question – final question from me is just on new products. Given the exit from the MIM's market and thixo, how should we think about the bogey for new products?…

Operator

Operator

Thanks. Our next question comes from Michael Weisberg with Crestwood Capital. Please proceed with your question.

Michael Roy Weisberg - Crestwood Capital Management LP

Analyst · Crestwood Capital. Please proceed with your question.

Hi, everyone. When I think of your major end markets, I think of aero, medical, auto and I am wondering, first have you seen the parts slowdown in those end markets? Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Not as much in medical, not as much in aerospace, auto no, industrial machinery is the biggest category where we have seen a drop off. It is difficult because it's a customer by customer situation as well, so individual customer companies are just so many of them, so you got to know what their story is. So, I'm not saying there wouldn't be any in an auto category or in a medical category. But generally if you look at these top 100 customer companies, we saw an impact – greatest would be in industrial machinery and equipment.

John A. Way - Chief Financial Officer

Management

And I think I would add to that that as you look at our revenue across industries, it's more than just those three, a good portion of our revenue is from industries outside those that you just named.

Michael Roy Weisberg - Crestwood Capital Management LP

Analyst · Crestwood Capital. Please proceed with your question.

Okay. And did you see it more in the United States than in Europe where the revenue growth was faster? Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes.

Michael Roy Weisberg - Crestwood Capital Management LP

Analyst · Crestwood Capital. Please proceed with your question.

Interestingly, because I'm thinking back, didn't you have a real parts slowdown in Europe like third and fourth quarter of 2014? Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes.

John A. Way - Chief Financial Officer

Management

That one was a – maybe a similar type situation, but really was a year-over-year comp challenge as well, and as we look back to 2013, we had really large orders coming through. So the growth in Europe at that time had as much to do with the year-over-year comp as the economy.

Michael Roy Weisberg - Crestwood Capital Management LP

Analyst · Crestwood Capital. Please proceed with your question.

And I guess, you threw out semiconductors and gas, is that – company is making industrial equipment for the gas end market, is that how we're supposed to read that? Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes. I mean, again I can say, we took a look at these top few hundred customer companies and try to understand and it was a theme around when you really looked at boy, this company is down a little bit, why you look as well boy they serviced oil and gas, this one serviced semiconductor. This is a 3D printing company. So you can kind of see a theme with some of these industries that are impacted. Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: And we match that analysis up with companies whether going through financial challenges and reporting like revenue declines year-over-year or layoff or other things like that. When you look at those customers, our company is that our customers were seeing impacts of those businesses on that.

Michael Roy Weisberg - Crestwood Capital Management LP

Analyst · Crestwood Capital. Please proceed with your question.

Yes. Because you don't do much direct to oil and gas, it's just industrial companies that have end customers there that might have been slowing as a result. Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Correct.

John A. Way - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Correct.

Michael Roy Weisberg - Crestwood Capital Management LP

Analyst · Crestwood Capital. Please proceed with your question.

All right. Got it. Small... Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Sorry, just wanted to keep adding with it, despite those things we still grew the business by 16%. So I think, yes, you got a look at these little headwinds in a few areas, but there are enough tailwinds and the growth in our business model to still grow that 16%.

Michael Roy Weisberg - Crestwood Capital Management LP

Analyst · Crestwood Capital. Please proceed with your question.

Right. And then Alphaform there was the resins that were in the others business, and presumably that's goes away? Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes.

John A. Way - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Yes.

Michael Roy Weisberg - Crestwood Capital Management LP

Analyst · Crestwood Capital. Please proceed with your question.

And then it looks like there was maybe $1 million non-3D from Alphaform and I don't know where you put that and does that stay or go away also? Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: That will stay. That is injection molding and fits in that category.

Michael Roy Weisberg - Crestwood Capital Management LP

Analyst · Crestwood Capital. Please proceed with your question.

So that part will stay. Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes.

Michael Roy Weisberg - Crestwood Capital Management LP

Analyst · Crestwood Capital. Please proceed with your question.

And is the thought on out the same, you expect to make money there second half this year? Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes. So we're now six months into the integration process and we've learned a lot about the trajectory that we're going to be able to move our margins. They will steadily improve and we do believe that we will be breakeven by the end of the year. We – so it's a little bit slower than what we had expected. We see no reasons why we won't be able to over time move the Alphaform 3D printing business to margins that are comparable to what we have in our legacy 3D printing business. So no reason, why we can't get there but as we look at the trajectory after six months into integration, we think it will be pushed out maybe a quarter or so to really get to that.

Michael Roy Weisberg - Crestwood Capital Management LP

Analyst · Crestwood Capital. Please proceed with your question.

So, you will lose money, but at a lesser rate in the second half? Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Correct, correct.

Michael Roy Weisberg - Crestwood Capital Management LP

Analyst · Crestwood Capital. Please proceed with your question.

And then what... Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: There will be steady improvement in margin.

Michael Roy Weisberg - Crestwood Capital Management LP

Analyst · Crestwood Capital. Please proceed with your question.

And then presumably be profitable in 2017? Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes.

John A. Way - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Correct.

Michael Roy Weisberg - Crestwood Capital Management LP

Analyst · Crestwood Capital. Please proceed with your question.

And so the core level of revenues at Alpha is going to be what like $3 million or $4 million a quarter?

John A. Way - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Yes. About $4 million and then growing with as we turn on the 3D printing marketing and sales.

Michael Roy Weisberg - Crestwood Capital Management LP

Analyst · Crestwood Capital. Please proceed with your question.

That's great. Thanks a lot. Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. At this time, I would like to turn the call back over to management for closing comments. Victoria M. Holt - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you again for joining us today. I want to thank our employee around the world for their continued passion and executing our strategy. We remain very confident about our outlook for enhanced revenue growth and profitability during 2016 and beyond and we look forward to updating you next quarter. Thanks very much.