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Sensus Healthcare, Inc. (SRTS)

Q2 2021 Earnings Call· Thu, May 6, 2021

$3.98

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Sensus Healthcare First Quarter 2021 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] At this time, it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Kim Golodetz. Ma'am, the floor is yours.

Kim Golodetz

Analyst

Thank you, operator. This is Kim Golodetz with LHA. Thank you all for participating in today's call. Joining me from Sensus Healthcare are Joe Sardano, Chief Executive Officer; and Javier Rampolla, Chief Financial Officer. As a reminder, some of the matters that will be discussed during today's call contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. All statements other than historical facts that address activities Sensus Healthcare assumes, plans, expects, believes, intends, or anticipates, and other similar expressions will, should, or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are management's beliefs based on currently available information. Sensus Healthcare undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements except as required by law. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including the continuation and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on sales and marketing as described in the Company's forms 10-Q and 10-K. During today's call, there will also be reference to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Sensus believes these measures provide useful information for investors, yet should not be considered as a substitute for GAAP nor should they be viewed as a substitute for operating results determined in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP results is included in today's financial results press release. With that said, I'd like to turn the call over to Joe Sardano. Joe?

Joseph Sardano

Analyst

Thank you, Kim and good afternoon, everybody. Thank you all for joining us. It's been quite a year and I hope that you all have continued to remain healthy. Now that fully half the country has had at least one COVID-19 vaccine perhaps before too long, we'll be able to move forward. Indeed, we are seeing significant improvements in economic activity, which is in stark contrast to when I spoke with you one year ago when Sensus was so negatively impacted by the complete shutdown of the U.S. economy. Our first quarter 2021 revenues of $3.1 million were significantly higher versus the prior year. More specifically, revenues were up 83% and reflect progress in our return to normalcy. Revenues featured both domestic and overseas sales. We are cautiously optimistic that the signs of market recovery will allow continued revenue growth as the year progresses noting our historical seasonally during the summer months. We were delighted to ship 7 SRT systems during the quarter, including 6 domestic direct sales and 1 to China. We're particularly pleased that the SRT systems installed at customer sites are operating with good volumes. This is likely reflecting not only the safety and efficacy of using SRT to treat non-melanoma skin cancer but also a fair reimbursement environment as of January 1, 2021. As of that also -- as of that date, the Centers for Medicare-Medicaid Services or CMS revalued our main procedure and other codes following years of lobbying by Sensus and a host of key opinion leaders who went to bat for us with CMS, highlighting the efficacy and safety of SRT. The American Cutaneous Oncology Society is particular -- in particular was most helpful working alongside Sensus with the American Academy of Dermatology. We have a lot of people to thank for believing…

Javier Rampolla

Analyst

Thanks, Joe. It's a pleasure to be speaking with all of you this afternoon. As Joe mentioned, revenues for the first quarter of 2021 were $3.1 million, and this compares with revenue of $1.7 million for the first quarter of 2020. Revenues for the 2021 quarter to reflect the sale of 7 SRT systems including 6 direct domestic sales and 1 system sold to China as well as service contracts and our new mobile laser business. The 2020 quarter was impacted by the start of this COVID-19 pandemics. Cost of sales for the first quarter of 2021 was $1.5 million compared with $1 million for the prior year quarter. The increase was commensurate with higher sales during the first quarter of 2021. Gross profit for the first quarter of 2021 was $1.6 million or 51.7% of revenue. And this compares with gross profit of $0.7 million or 42.2% of revenue for the prior year quarter. The increase in gross margin was primarily driven by the higher number of units sold in 2021. Service revenue on installed units and the impact of COVID-19 on the first 3 months of 2020. Selling and marketing expense for the first quarter of 2021 was $1.1 million, down from $1.8 million for the first quarter of 2020. The 40% decrease was primarily attributable to lower threshold expense due to cancellations related to COVID-19, reduced marketing activities including travel and lower salary and benefit expenses due to reduced head count. General and administrative expense for the first quarter of the 2021 was $1 million compared with $1.3 million for the first quarter of 2020. The 27% decrease primarily reflects lower salary and benefit expenses due to the reduced head count, partially offset by higher insurance premiums costs. Research and development expense for the first quarter of…

Joseph Sardano

Analyst

Thanks. Javier, I continue to voice my strong appreciation and admiration for our staff and the way they have maintained to focus on customers and patients throughout this pandemic. I believe we further strengthen those relationships and that we are poised to resume meaningful domestic growth with the worst of the pandemic behind us. We look forward to showcasing our SRT systems along with the Sentinel technology at the South Beach Symposium Aesthetic Laser Symposium in Miami and the Fall Clinical Dermatology Conference during October, which is another live show in Las Vegas. We're looking forward to that conference and especially to the prospect of seeing our industry colleagues once again in person. I'll remind you that our products have enormous room to grow, our SRT systems are well positioned in the large market consisting of some 14,000 dermatologists, 1,000 most surgeons in the U.S. representing more than 7500 offices ingrowing. Not to mention a further 6,500 plastic surgeons and 5,500 radiation oncologists. Our SRT systems provide a compelling alternative to surgery for millions of patients and arguably the only solution to prevent the recurrence of keloids following surgical excision. With those comments, I'd like to thank you for your time and attention and now our operator, we're ready to take questions.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from Yi Chen from H.C. Wainwright.

Yi Chen

Analyst

My first question is do you expect any seasonality in terms of sales SRT systems to try it?

Joseph Sardano

Analyst

That's hard to say because of the economic condition in China. I would have to say from our own viewpoint, because we have an upcoming licensing renewal coming up in November, we might see additional activity from customers or potential customers and wanting to order prior to that happening. We don't anticipate any problems with the renewal of the license, but in this political climate, we don't know. We can't answer that, but we're hoping to see some additional orders between now and November from the China market.

Yi Chen

Analyst

Got it. And second, could you give us an update on the capacity the dermatologist office in the U.S. are operating at currently.

Joseph Sardano

Analyst

I'm sorry, I didn't hear the end of the question.

Yi Chen

Analyst

The capacity of dermatologist office in the U.S. Are they operating at pre-COVID levels?

Joseph Sardano

Analyst

Yes, I don't I think that they are operating at pre-COVID levels, especially in certain states where they still might have some very strict guidelines on how they can see patients and when they can see patients. I think that for instance in the State of Florida and some of the other sunbelt states, I would see some very, very active conditions. So I see the market, they're back to what it was pre-COVID. So states like Florida, Texas, Arizona, I think those are very, very strong comeback states: I'm not seeing as much in California and in New York. So I don't think that we're 100%, but I would think that we're about 80% to 85%, 90% back to where we were pre-COVID.

Yi Chen

Analyst

Got it. And lastly, do you expect sales aesthetic lasers to make a significant contribution to the top line revenue this year.

Joseph Sardano

Analyst

I don't know if it will make a significant, but it will definitely give us a percentage of sales. And I think that it will have an impact for us. So we're looking forward to getting those products on the market and when I said that we went through Phase 1. We just completed Phase 1 with the Sentinel product being implemented into the lasers and so we are going to go on an aggressive marketing kick in the second quarter to talk about those lasers, but as in everything else. I think the biggest opportunity, we're going to have is that the South Beach Symposium, which is strictly aesthetic lasers and that's what we'll be able to display the products as well as to explain directly to customers, what the Sentinel package means to them.

Operator

Operator

And we'll take our next question from Anthony Vendetti from Maxim Group.

Anthony Vendetti

Analyst

I just wanted to see what specific steps obviously 01/01/21 is an important day for the company. It's been many years in the process of trying to increase reimbursement to put you on a level playing field. How have you gone about educating the market? What kind of steps have you taken or is that been a little bit difficult as we're trying to emerge from COVID-19?

Joseph Sardano

Analyst

Well, I mean, we're obviously got some tough road ahead in the marketing side since we don't have meetings and we don't have a lot of face-to-face meetings. But we have conducted 2 Zoom meetings where we've had a little over 100 physicians attend each time. One was an evening session around 8 o'clock at night on the Thursday, which is amenable to a lot of doctors working after hours versus during the day. And then on a Saturday morning at 11 o'clock for a couple of hours where we had ACOS or The American Cutaneous Oncology Society project or introduce the reimbursement codes as they are right now. So those are 2 of the of the events that we've had and we've had good turn out and some good interest as a result of that. Again getting back to the live shows where we've regularly done extremely well is going to be really helpful and we don't see any of those coming back until the fall clinical happens towards the end of the year, but we're going to continue to do the Zoom meetings on a regular basis. I think that will pick that up in the second quarter and I think the third quarter, all the way through to the end of the year, we'll be doing these on a regular basis. It's a matter of getting the proper doctors at the right time when they are able to present. So that's going to be the main thrust we want to do it face-to-face, heart-to-heart and doctor-to-doctor.

Anthony Vendetti

Analyst

Sure. Understood. Obviously, that's always the desirable and more effective way to do it. Are you looking Joe right now to increase the sales force, are you taking it slow right now as each -- like you said each geographical area is a little bit different in terms of how quickly they are opening up, but I was just curious, what's the sales force or territory goal by the end of the year versus where you are right now?

Joseph Sardano

Analyst

We've been very, very aggressive in building back up our sales force. I would tell you we're back to about 95% of where we were prior to COVID and I believe that by the end of the second quarter, we will probably be over that amount where we ended up prior to COVID. So we're aggressively adding more people on board, because the more people we are -- that we have on board, the more training that they're going to get and then the more education and training that we'll be able to get out to the field face-to-face and that's where we prefer to do our business. So we want to have a very strong sales force bigger and better than we've ever had before to launch into the second half of the year.

Anthony Vendetti

Analyst

And Joe, you mentioned sales force. I know you mentioned the Mobile Aesthetic business you're looking to expand outside of Florida. Have you identified certain territories where that makes sense to go next. And then just a little more color on your proprietary Laser -- Aesthetic Laser launch.

Joseph Sardano

Analyst

We've identified 3 cities that we want to go to with the growth in that area Dallas, Atlanta and Scottsdale, Arizona, Phoenix area. Those are the big markets that we want to attack. We've even looked at various opportunities, 2 to 3 different opportunities in those areas and I will say, we're not looking for the biggest group in those areas, we're looking for the best group, the ones that have the longest and best relationships with their customer base as well as the ones that are best operated. So that's what we're targeting in there. And the second half of your question, I'm sorry, was...

Anthony Vendetti

Analyst

On your proprietary aesthetic lasers that you're launching.

Joseph Sardano

Analyst

Yes. The smart laser is something that we're bringing to the market that doesn't exist any -- with anybody else or with any other aesthetic laser manufacturer. So we've developed a system that can provide our customers as well as ourselves an asset management program that allows us to see where this product is in its daily utilization with the number of patients, the protocols that are being used, the patient data for the customers use only because it is a HIPPA compliant. It will be -- they'll be able to store all that data and information on the cloud, there is building capabilities, where we can direct build the accounts of the patients or their credit card, their bank account, all of those things can be pretty put and one of the first steps that we have and we already have a couple of our units already in motion in Central Florida. They're in a van and they're being used to service some of the customers that we have in Central Florida with the Sensus name on the laser. So we're adapting it one scanner at a time and we're going to implement it in that vein and hopefully we'll start selling them directly as well, just -- not just on the rental side but also on the sales side.

Anthony Vendetti

Analyst

Okay, great and then just one last question on Sculptura. I know that sales cycles obviously longer since the ASP is much larger than on an SRT system, but any color on how those discussions are going, any expectation at this point of maybe selling one of those before the end of the year? What can you say about that?

Joseph Sardano

Analyst

Yes. I think that it's hard to say that we're disappointed, although we are, but with the pandemic -- the pandemic has really put a lot of our major hospitals on their backside. I mean I don't think that we really realize how this has impacted our overall healthcare system and what it does. I know what it's done to a lot of the hospitals in the area here in the State of Florida that surrounds our offices, but I also know what the hospitals that we're dealing with are going through and how it's impacted them. So we continue to push forward, we have good relationships, as a matter of fact, we're looking at even extending those relationships for the time being, but the protocols are being put together and we fully expect that the patients will be treated and that sometime before the end of the year, we will have a bunch of patients that have been treated with results be better known to our market and to the rest of the world. How that impacts potential opportunities? We do have a nice list of prospects that continue to -- that we interact with on a regular basis. They're all involved and in contact with our installation bases wanting to know where things go, but quite frankly, they all have a great understanding of what this COVID stuff has done to those hospitals. So they're not pressing it, they understand and they are anxious to get the results as well.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And there appear to be no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Sardano for closing remarks.

Joseph Sardano

Analyst

Thank you, Karen. So in closing, I want to thank you once again for your time this afternoon and for your interest in Sensus. We continue to move forward on multiple fronts and are optimistic about our prospects as we drive towards a more typical business pattern and hopefully begin to put the COVID-19 pandemic in the real view mirror. Please stay safe everyone. I look forward to talking to you. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. We thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a great day.