Earnings Labs

Proto Labs, Inc. (PRLB)

Q3 2016 Earnings Call· Thu, Oct 27, 2016

$63.93

+0.22%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

-5.12%

1 Week

-4.48%

1 Month

+10.99%

vs S&P

+7.36%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings and welcome to the Proto Labs Third Quarter 2016 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session 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, Mr. Jason Frankman. Thank you, Mr. Frankman. You may begin.

Jason Frankman - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Thank you, Tim, and good morning, everyone. This morning before the market opened, Proto Labs issued a press release announcing its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 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 operations, adjusted operating income and adjusted net income and basic and diluted net income per share information on a non-GAAP basis. The non-GAAP adjusted operating margin and non-GAAP adjusted net income, each exclude the costs of stock compensation, amortization of intangibles, impairment on assets associated with discontinued manufacturing processes, charges related to the exit of facilities and unrealized foreign currency activity. We believe that these non-GAAP metrics provide meaningful supplemental information are indicative of our core operating results and are helpful in assessing our historical and future performance. A table reconciling the GAAP information to the non-GAAP information is included in our financial release. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Vicki Holt, President and Chief Executive Officer of Proto Labs. Vicki.

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Thank you, Jason; good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on our third quarter conference call. With me today is John Way, our Chief Financial Officer. I will begin with my perspective on the current environment in which Proto Labs is operating followed by an overview of our third quarter financial performance and operational highlights. John will provide a more in-depth view of our financials and our outlook for the fourth quarter revenue and earnings. Then we will be happy to take your questions. But before I address the quarter I'd like to acknowledge the recent passing of Brad Cleveland, our former President and CEO. Brad joined Proto Labs in 2001 and was instrumental in building the business into the globally publically traded digital manufacturing company we are today. Brad was admired and respected by all our employees and everyone who knew him. Brad was an accomplished businessman but he was so much more. He was an outstanding member of the community, coach and mentor, husband, father and friend. We honor Brad and his contributions to Proto Labs. He will be missed. The environment in which Proto Labs' customers compete today is ripe with mega-trends that are favorable to our business model. Proto Labs is a business that helps companies and entrepreneurs get their products to market faster than their competition. We accomplish this with a highly differentiated technology enabled digital manufacturing platform. The current trends in the markets require companies to be more innovative and nimble as the internet-of-things, mass customizations and quickly changing demands from consumers require accelerated product development and result in shorter product life-cycle and shorter production runs. We are in a strong position to capitalize on this long-term trend. However, there is uncertainty in the market right now due to the election in the…

John A. Way - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Thank you, Vicky. Revenue in the third quarter was $78.2 million, an increase of $10.4 million or 15% over the same quarter in 2015. Foreign currency was a 40 basis point headwind for the quarter, as the unfavorable impact of the weak British pound was offset by benefits related to the yen and the euro. The quarter also included $1.1 million in revenue from our discontinued businesses that will not recur. Revenue in the Americas increased 9.5%. Revenue in Europe, excluding Alphaform, grew 9.4% on a constant currency basis. Revenue from Japan, was up 17% in constant currency. Turning to revenue by service, injection molding totaled $46.4 million in the third quarter, an increase of 11% over the prior year. CNC machining revenue totaled $21.8 million and grew 10% year-over-year. Revenue from 3D printing was $9.9 million up 63% or 30% growth excluding Alphaform. Legacy revenue in the third quarter came from 14,271 unique product developers. This represented a 14% increase over the third quarter of 2015. Our unique product developer account does not include legacy Alphaform data as this information is not yet available in a comparable format. Average revenue per product developer decreased 3.9% compared to the third quarter last year, reflecting a slight shift in the mix of our business. Gross profit for the quarter was $44.7 million, an increase of $4.4 million over the comparable quarter of the prior year. Gross margin was 57.2%. Alphaform represented a negative 190 basis point impact on our gross margins in the quarter, an improvement from the 310 basis point dilution in the prior quarter. Excluding Alphaform, gross margin on the legacy business was 59.1%, compared with 59.5% in the second quarter and 59.4% in the third quarter of 2015. As anticipated, we saw improvement in the gross margins at…

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Thanks, John. As you can see in the fourth quarter guidance, economic and other external factors will impact the rate at which we grow. Our goal is to help our customers get their products to market efficiently and cost effectively. We remain focused on the needs of our customers and are committed to managing our costs appropriately to meet those customer needs. We're confident in our ability to drive growth over the long-term, which will deliver greater shareholder value. That concludes our formal remarks. Now, John and I would be happy to take your questions. Operator, can you please open the line for Q&A?

Operator

Operator

Our first question comes from the line of Troy Jensen of Piper Jaffray. Please proceed with your question. Troy D. Jensen - Piper Jaffray & Co.: Hi, Vicki. Hi, John. Thanks for taking my questions here.

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Troy.

John A. Way - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Sure Troy. Troy D. Jensen - Piper Jaffray & Co.: Hey, so John help me out with some math here, 3D printing you said was about $10 million and Alphaform was $4 million, if I strip that out I get $6 million and that's what I'm showing you guys did last year.

John A. Way - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

No. So, Alphaform, that revenue is about 50% injection molding and 50% 3D printing. Troy D. Jensen - Piper Jaffray & Co.: Oh, yeah.

John A. Way - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

It's $2 million in 3D printing revenue at Alphaform. Troy D. Jensen - Piper Jaffray & Co.: Yes, perfect, okay, understood that. So again, I guess for Vicki or John here, if I look back you guys haven't had a down sequential Q4, since I would say 2011, might have been disguised last year with the Alphaform acquisition, but how much of this is macro versus you know may be the sale hires that aren't in place or I'd just love to get a little bit more color on the guide here, so it's a little bit surprising.

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Yeah, it's always difficult to tell if there is – how much of the impact is coming from the economy versus some of the changes that we've got going on with sales. I'll say that the sales hires we do have a lot of new hires, so you've got new sales reps that are ramping as opposed to fully ramped, which has an impact. But we also look at the economic impact. We've got the industrial production down 1.5% since the – we follow that consumption of machine tools, those were down 8.3% in August, so there is still some softness in the economy that we think is impacting the overall uploads in the demand. Troy D. Jensen - Piper Jaffray & Co.: That's fair. And then if I ask, just one more here on the overmolding, full launch scheduled soon here, you said it's going to kind of track what we saw with liquid silicone rubber, am I right to think of liquid silicone rubber was $2 million to $3 million in the first year and maybe kind of double the year after or do you think overmolding could grow faster than we sell with this LSR.

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Yes. So I'd say LSR kind of track that over a two-year period of time and so I think we can see something – we'll see something similar to that with overmolding, and overmolding did go into full launch in September. So we're now out there and getting some really nice upload interest there and expect that continue to ramp into 2017 and 2018. Troy D. Jensen - Piper Jaffray & Co.: And is that full launch in all three geographies?

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Full launch in U.S. and Europe. And it will be launching here in Japan in the fourth quarter. Troy D. Jensen - Piper Jaffray & Co.: All right. I appreciate it. Good luck in Q4.

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Thanks.

John A. Way - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Brian Drab of William Blair. Please proceed with your question. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Good morning, Vicki and John.

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Hey, Brian.

John A. Way - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Good morning. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Hey John, can you at all quantify what you're seeing in October in terms of orders, compared with last year or of September or with any peak relevant period?

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Well, I will say is there, it's coming out softer than we had anticipated. And we had a fairly strong August and September, and we're seeing October starting-off softer than where we were in August and September. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Okay.

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

And again with the max visibility and seven day back log of orders and unpredictability of December our conclusion was to be a little cautious with revenue guidance. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Got it. On Alphaform, if my notes are correct, Alphaform did about $2.5 million in 3D printing in the first quarter of this year. And then plugged into your software infrastructure in May of this year and now you've got $2 million in 3D printing in the third quarter. I'm just wondering is this the typical European seasonality with August being close to zero or are there other issues?

John A. Way - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Yes. I think the other thing to remember there is – there is unprofitable contracts we carried them in Q4 and as well as Q1. So it took us some time to run those off. So it's – that clouds the information a little bit and you are seeing the Q3 European effect of – there's a lot of holidays taken in the month of August. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Okay, that's helpful. And then, what's – did you say what the mix is now at Alphaform? You got $2 million in 3D printing. What's the other $2 million composed of?

John A. Way - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Yes.

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

It's injection ...

John A. Way - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

It's injection molding. There's a $100,000 of other stuff this quarter, but the majority is injection molding. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Okay. And then resin business is gone at this point.

John A. Way - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

It's gone.

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Yes, it's gone. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Okay. And then John, did you say specifically what the gross margin headwind is related to Alpha in the third quarter?

John A. Way - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Yeah, I did, it's 190 basis points. So it saw nice improvement in the gross margins this quarter. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Okay, okay. I think that's all from me for now. Thanks very much.

John A. Way - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Thanks.

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Jim Ricchiuti of Needham & Company. Please proceed with your question. Jim Ricchiuti - Needham & Co. LLC: Hi, thank you. Good morning. John, how should we think about this headwind on gross margin from Alpha in Q4. It sounds like you're making steady progress but I'm just wondering could we see further improvement of this magnitude in Q4?

John A. Way - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

I think, as I look at Q4, just with what we're seeing from a revenue perspective and the uncertainty of the holiday season. I'm anticipating relatively flat in Q4 with then steady improvement as we go into next year. Jim Ricchiuti - Needham & Co. LLC: Got it, okay. And any unusual costs we should be aware of in Q4? I mean you broke out the costs, I think related to Japan, but is there anything else we should be mindful of in Q4?

John A. Way - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

No, I think there's a little bit related to Japan. I think the other thing impacting us that I mentioned is we've got the paid holidays for our manufacturing staff; happens every year but this year we will be experiencing that as well. Other than that, nothing unusual. We'll continue to manage those costs. Jim Ricchiuti - Needham & Co. LLC: Okay, and Vicki maybe a question for you. I wonder if you could just give us an update on where you are in terms of the search for a CRO. And just in general maybe talk a little bit about some of the processes and changes you are already implementing within the sales organization that might begin to have some benefit going forward as the economy picks up a little bit.

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Yeah, great. Yes, actually the CRO search is going really well; I'm really pleased with the level of talent we've been able to attract. And I think as you know it's a really exciting business model that we have, great growth story, so it's going well. And we're in those final kind of stages of whittling it down to the candidate and we hope to be announcing something in early 2017. And as far as the changes that we made, we've done a couple of things. We changed the profile of the sales rep that we're hiring, really trying to position ourselves with people who are going to have the skills set to ramp more rapidly, but also ramp more rapidly with the business acumen to have a strategic conversation with customers. So that's – it's going to take time because they're going to have to learn our business and build customer relationships, but that's going to give us a better foundation to drive more strategic relationships with customers. We've also identified a more disciplined sales process, got that put into salesforce.com, and we're really tracking how our customers are moving the prospects throughout that sales process to hold them more accountable for driving the results day-to-day. And then we put a lot of training in place. We got a 7-module training program, we are through three modules so far this year, started this in the middle of the year so three – half way through the fourth module now. And that kind of sales training is also going to give a relatively new sales force the foundation they need for growth as we move into 2017. So, lot of foundational work being done right now. Jim Ricchiuti - Needham & Co. LLC: Great, okay. Thanks, that's helpful.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Ben Hearnsberger of Stephens. Please proceed with your question.

Ben Hearnsberger - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · your question.

Thanks for taking my question. It sounds like October orders have been slow kind of across the board; is there any specific end market you'd call out?

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

No, it's just generally the same end markets that you've seen and we've talked about before. We're seeing some softness across industrial machinery, across machine shops or any other kind of injection molding that might have been using us for overflow. And some of those end markets like oil and gas and ag equipment that have been slow in the economy. So it's basically the same theme that we've seen over the last couple of quarters.

Ben Hearnsberger - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · your question.

Okay. And your 3D printing business is outpacing molding and milling, I'm curious if you see any sign of customers trading down to a 3D printed prototype, versus your legacy services.

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

I think that's happening a little bit in CNC plastic. So our growth in CNC plastic is not as strong as it is in CNC metal parts. So I think you're seeing a little bit of trade down there to 3D printing. Again as we said we really focused on delivering the customer with the manufacturing service that best meets their needs to accelerate growth. So we'll adjust accordingly to meet those needs.

Ben Hearnsberger - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · your question.

Can you tell us the plastic versus metal mix in CNC.

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

It's skewed more heavily to metal than plastics. So metal is going to be two-thirds of it.

Ben Hearnsberger - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · your question.

Okay. And then one last question, I know it's early and you don't have a lot of visibility, but as you think out to 2017, obviously the macro-economic picture remains tough. I guess how aggressively do you expect to re-budget expenses for the macro environment to try to hold some of this margin.

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Yeah. I think we need to make sure that we've got the structure in place to drive the long-term growth. But I think what you are going to see us doing is being much more cautious on adding expense to manage the growth. We're going to be looking to grow what we've got in place today.

Ben Hearnsberger - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst · your question.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Jon Fisher of Dougherty & Company. Please proceed with your question. Jon Fisher - Dougherty & Co. LLC: Hi. Good morning, and thank you for taking the questions. First question, just given the current trends in October and the guidance on Q4, how much of a leading indicator for Q4 business trends does that portend for Q1? What kind of a start of a new calendar year is customer behavior – if it's bullish towards the end of the year? Does that sustain itself in Q1 or if it's cautious at the end of the year? Does that sustain itself? And then the second question would be, just kind of a follow on to the prior OpEx question. On R&D spend and G&A spend, how close to kind of year-over-year flat can you hold that spending without disrupting the growth potential of the business? Thank you.

John A. Way - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Sure. So, the first question as we look at Q4 and what does that portray to Q1, we can't really tell. I think as we saw this year Q1 caught us a little by surprise and we think that's related to budgetary cycles and with something that we'll definitely be watching as we enter the new year. But I don't think Q4 is a predictor of Q1, but it is definitely something we will be watching. As it relates to operating expense, we're going through our annual budgeting process right now and I think, the way I would answer it is we will be managing those expenses tightly as you know trying to adjust our expense levels to what we're seeing from a revenue perspective on a real-time basis. So going through budgeting process now and we will manage those expense appropriately. Jon Fisher - Dougherty & Co. LLC: Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Brian Drab of William Blair. Please proceed with that question. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Hey, just a couple more questions, what are you expecting for selling and marketing expenses at percentage of sales in the near-term in 4Q and any other color on that mine item?

John A. Way - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Yeah, so we are continuing to investing in sales and marketing efforts to drive growth. A little bit of that's going to be dependent upon the timing of when we bring people in. But I would anticipate it, increasing here over the next couple of quarters, as we are – we add the resources and add to spend to drive-back growth. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Is there an upper limit that you see, if you could give us John, could it go to 2017, could it go to 2016?

John A. Way - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

So we're going through budgeting process right now and trying to figure it out for 2017. I think what I would say is that range that you just gave is probably the right range, we'll probably land somewhere between those two numbers. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Between 2016 and 2017?

John A. Way - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Yes.

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Yes, that where I would target. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: For fiscal 2017?

John A. Way - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Yes.

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Yes. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Okay. And then since you're rethinking that guidance, have you – you have any comments on following a year were you're going to do high single-digit organic revenue growth, your long-term guide for 20% to 25% growth?

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

I think with the – we have remained very, very confident in the long-term growth of the business model, particularly with the environment in which our customers are operating in. But right now, given the lack of visibility that we have and the impact that we seem to be seeing with the economy we're really going to be sticking to quarterly guidance for now. Brian P. Drab - William Blair & Co. LLC: Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

We have a follow-up question from the line of Jon Fisher of Dougherty & Company. Please proceed with your question. Jon Fisher - Dougherty & Co. LLC: Hey, just a follow-up to that question as far as the long-term business model. When you look at the margin profile overall of the business both from a gross margin standpoint and an operating margin standpoint. Do you think the business over the long-term is sustainable low 60s gross margin mid-20s operating margin or just given the dynamics that you are seeing or as you take the business model up market into larger enterprises, would you expect the natural margin sustainability of the business to be out lower run rate levels?

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Yes. The way we're currently looking at it, gross margins I would expect in the high 50s to low 60s and continuing to drive those results. So I think that's the right place to be looking at that, from the operating expense I think that's an area we'll be looking very closely at it. I think we might have a little short-term uptick in the sales and marketing as a percent of revenue to drive that growth and we will be looking to leverage that spend over the long-term, but we'll also be looking at controlling the cost from an R&D and G&A perspective to keep those operating margins where we want them to be and see improvements from where we are today. Jon Fisher - Dougherty & Co. LLC: Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

There are no further questions at this time, over the audio portion of the conference. I'll now like to turn the conference back over to management for closing remarks.

Victoria Holt - Proto Labs, Inc.

Management

Thank you again for joining us today. We are optimistic about the outlook for Proto Labs as we continue to make progress in expanding our operation and positioning the company for future revenue growth. I want to thank all of our employees for their continued efforts and dedication to Proto Labs. And I look forward to providing an update on our efforts during the next call. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time. And have a wonderful rest of your day.