Rahul Mathur
Analyst · ROTH Capital. Your line is open
Thanks Luc. I'd like to begin with our financial results for the quarter. Let me start with some highlights on Slide 6. As Luc mentioned, we continue to make progress in our product businesses and delivered solid financial results in line with our revenue and earnings expectations. As you know, we've chosen to adopt ASC 606 using the modified retrospective method, which does not restate prior periods, but rather runs the cumulative effect of the adoption through retained earnings as a beginning balance sheet adjustment. Our [Technical Difficulty] revenue amounts discussed herein are reflected under ASC 606. As a result, any comparison between first quarter 2019 was under ASC 606 and prior results under ASC 605 is not the best way to track the company's progress. Now that we are through our transition period, we will no longer be presenting results as if we continue to recognize revenue under the old standard. However, we will continue to provide additional operational metrics such as licensing billings to give our investors better insight into our operational performance. We delivered revenue of $48.4 million and non-GAAP diluted and net loss per share of $0.08. We also delivered licensing billing of $75.4 million in line with our expectations. We ended the quarter with cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $305.9 million up $28.1 million from the previous quarter due primarily to cash from operations of $28.8 million. We delivered solid results while continuing to leverage our high margin historic businesses to fuel growth in adjacent areas where we have strong technical and market expertise with a focus on memory and security. Now let me talk you through some revenue details on Slide 7. Revenue for the first quarter was $48.4 million higher than our expected range of $41 million to $47 million due to the structure of licensing agreements signed in the quarter. As we've mentioned previously ASC 606 has a material difference in the timing of revenue recognition for our fixed fee ASC 606 has a material difference in the timing of revenue recognition for our fixed fee licensing arrangements. Our licensing business continues to perform well. It is the foundation of our success and remains core to our initiatives in both our memory and security businesses and will continue to generate cash in years to come. Royalty revenue for the first quarter was $24.8 million, while licensing billings was $75.4 million. The difference between licensing billings and royalty revenue primarily relates to timing as we don't always recognize revenue the same quarter we bill our customers. Going into additional details, our memory and interface revenue with $34.5 million and our security business revenue was $13.9 million. As expected revenue for our payments and ticketing business was roughly $7 million for the quarter. We continue to expect that business to grow at $35 million to $40 million in 2019. As we announced last year, we're evaluating strategic options for that business, but is still currently part of our operating results. We expect this business to be roughly breakeven even in 2019 regardless of which strategic options we choose if any, I don't expect a significant impact to the company's overall profitability in 2019. Let me walk you through our non-GAAP income statement on Slide 8. Along with our solid revenue performance in Q4, we met our profitability targets on an non-GAAP basis. Cost of revenue plus operating expenses or what we refer to as total operating expenses for the quarter came in at $67.3 million slightly above our expectations primarily related to increased facilities costs directly offset by a corresponding decrease in interest expense as a result of the adoption of ASC 842. We ended the quarter with headcount of 785, but roughly flat from 796 in the previous quarter. We recorded $5.7 million of interest income related to the significant financing component from our fixed fee patent and technology licensing arrangements for which we have not yet received payment, but recognized revenue under the new accounting standards. We incurred $0.6 million of interest expense primarily related to the convertible notes we issued in Q4 2017. This was offset by incremental interest income related to the return on our cash portfolio. After adjusting for non-cash interest expense on our convertible notes, this resulted in non-GAAP interest and other income for the first quarter of $6.8 million, excluding the interest income related to the significant financing component related to ASC 606, this would have been $1.1 million. We are using an assumed flat rate of 24% for non-GAAP pre-tax loss, non-GAAP net loss for the quarter was $9.2 million for a diluted net loss of $0.08 a share. Now let me turn to the balance sheet details on Slide 9. We're very pleased with the strength of our balance sheet. Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $305.9 million up $28.1 million from the previous quarter due primarily to cash from operations of $28.8 million. We expect to maintain our ability to generate substantial cash from operations in 2019. This will be an important metric to monitor under ASC 606. At the end of Q1, we had contract assets worth $629.4 million which reflects the net present value of unbilled AR related to licensing arrangements for which the company has no future performance obligations. I expect this number to continue to trend down as we bill and collect for these contracts. It's important to note that this metric doesn't represent the entire value of our existing licensing agreements as several customers have royalty-based agreements that allow us to recognize revenue each quarter under ASC 606. As a reminder, Rambus has invested in technology R&D throughout its history and our patent portfolio is foundational to our industry. As part of our strategic planning cycle, we've renewed our focus and investment on patent generation with an emphasis on key technology challenges facing the industry in the years to come. Our patents provide a strong platform for our investments in product development and innovation and we believe investing strategically in this area positions us to deliver long-term profitable growth. As we look ahead to our significant patent renewals in the future, we should note that while our typical licensing agreements last 5 to 10 years, our patents are valid for 20 years. Based on our strong track record, we remain confident in our ability to continue to renew with our partners favorable economic terms to [indiscernible]. First quarter CapEx was $1.9 million and depreciation was $2.8 million. Looking forward I expect roughly $3 million of CapEx for the second quarter and roughly $11 million for thefull year of 2019. I also expect depreciation of roughly $3 million for the second quarter and roughly $12 million for the full year of 2019. Overall, we have a strong balance sheet with limited debt and expect to continue to generate strong cash from operations in the future. Now let me turn to our guidance for the second quarter on Slide 10. As a reminder, our forward-looking guidance reflects our current best estimates and our actual results could differ materially from what I'm about to review. Going forward, we'll only provide financial outlook under ASC 606. Future revenue under ASC 606 will be volatile from financial period to period due to the timing and structure of our licensing arrangements. We will continue to focus on leveraging our vast patent portfolio to maximize the value of our business as well as to provide the best economic structure. To offer additional transparency, we've also been providing information on licensing billings, which is an operational metric that reflects amounts in both to our licensing customers during the period adjusted for certain differences. As you see in the supplemental information we provided on Slide 17 of our earnings deck, licensing billings closely correlates with what we had historically reported as royalty revenue under ASC 605. We'll continue to provide licensing billing as another operational metric to help our investors understand the underlying performance of our company. With that said under ASC 606, we expect revenue in the second quarter between $57 million and $63 million. We expect royalty revenue between $25 million and $31 million. We also expect licensing billings between $61 million and $67 million. We expect Q2 nonGAAP total operating expenses which includes COGS to be between $59 million and $65 million flat to Q1's [indiscernible]. Over the course of 2018, we've kept operating expenses roughly flat as revenue grew providing leverage to our financial model. I expect total operating expenses which includes COGS related to our buffer chip business to grow through 2019 as we ship more product. We continue to expect that our buffer chip business will grow to $50 million to $70 million in 2019. However, as we've mentioned in prior earnings calls, we have limited visibility to each macroeconomic issues in between the supply chain and trade concerns with China. These factors could cause softness in buffer chip shipments. While we cannot control the macroeconomic environment, we remain focused on our execution and are very pleased with our continued market share gain in our buffer chip business. Under ASC 606 non-GAAP operating results for the second quarter is expected to be between a loss of $12 million and $2 million. The non-GAAP interest in other income and expense which excludes interest income related to ASC 606. We would have expected $0.8 million in income which includes $0.6 million of interest expense related to the notes due in 2023. Based on the new tax legislation passed at the end of 2017, we expect our pro forma tax rate in 2019 to remain consistent with our 2018 pro forma tax rate of roughly 24%. The 24% is higher than the new statutory rate of 21% primarily due to higher taxes in our foreign jurisdictions. As a reminder, we pay roughly $20 million of cash taxes each year driven primarily by our licensing agreements with our partners in Korea. We expect nonGAAP taxes to be between a benefit of $3 million and $1 million in Q2. We expect our Q2 share count to be roughly 111 million basic and diluted shares outstanding. This leads you to between a non-GAAP loss per share of $0.08 and $0.01 for the quarter. While we do not issue annual guidance as we have disclosed previously this year we have structural step downs in several of our long-term licensing agreements that will impact our 2019 revenue. In balance, we expect the growth we see in our product programs to offset these structural acceptances. Therefore, we remain comfortable with current consensus to analyst expectations on the top and bottom line for each quarter of 2019. As previously disclosed we are reviewing our strategic options for our payments and ticketing business and may make a financial update in the future depending on the option we choose if any. Through our focus on our core business, we also expect roughly flat cash flow in 2019, while continuing to invest strategically in our growing product programs. We are proud of the solid performance by our team and the progress we continue to make against our strategic initiatives. While we understand that ASC 606 added a level of complexity to our financial reporting it's important to reiterate that the underlying financial strength of our business remains strong reflected in our demonstrated ability to generate cash. In closing, we are refocusing our product portfolio around Rambus' core strengths in the semiconductor industry improving our operational efficiency and profitability, generating solid cash from operations and using our strong balance sheet to support our strategic initiatives. We continue to focus on our growth drivers and are well positioned for long-term profitable growth. With that, I'll turn the call back to our operator. Operator Jesse to begin Q&A, so we could have our first question.