Gregory R. Beecher
Analyst · Jim Covello with Goldman Sachs
Thanks, Mark, and good morning, everyone. I'll start with some brief comments on the start to the year, what we see looking ahead, and then cover the first quarter details and second quarter outlook. As Mark noted, first quarter bookings got off to a very strong start at $450 million. As we remarked last quarter, we expected an SOC snapback after a down year in 2013. That's why we moved into our inventory position late last year to keep first half 2014 lead times in check. This planning has worked well, as evidenced by our second quarter guidance, with sales expected to grow sequentially between 43% and 53%. Two of the SOC segments driving the strong start are principally digital centric: Apps processors used in mobile devices and microcontrollers used in ubiquitous applications, including mobile, automotive, industrial and consumer products. Do recall that the apps processor demand was essentially 0 last year after a record buying in 2012. As expected, it came back with a vengeance in the first quarter, bringing our UltraFLEX bookings to the highest point since the first quarter of 2012. The combination of high throughput and award-winning software tools has helped fuel our multiyear share gains in the SOC mobility segment. Customers increasingly rely on the UltraFLEX to achieve ever tighter quality standards, cost requirements and compressed time-to-market constraints. As Mark described, another long-term trend we see is more chip scale packaging. With wafer level devices mounted directly on circuit boards, or combined with other die in a single package for space, cost and power savings. This requires more robust testing at the wafer level, so customers confirm they have known good die before the next level of assembly. Outside of memory, these techniques are most often used for RF chips. When testing these high-performance devices at the wafer level, the ability to source and receive complex high-frequency signals to and from the chip is essential. The UltraFLEX with ultra wave RF excels at this task for 2 reasons: first, the system is architected to have the lowest phase noise and tightest power accuracy in the industry, equal to or better than some benchtop instruments. This capability provides headroom, which directly translates to higher wafer yield in production test. Second, we created an integration facility at Teradyne that replicates the production environment for wafer tests. Specifically, to work with probe interface suppliers and customers to ensure the extraordinary performance of the tester is actually realized in day-to-day production. This facility has allowed us to extend our lead in RF test and probe tests in general by helping customers solve some of the most challenging, mechanical, electrical and thermal issues facing semiconductor production testing today. Turning now to the microcontroller strength. The J750 continues to sell very well, with over 100 systems ordered in the quarter. In fact, it was the best consecutive fourth quarter run since 2010. The J750 is the clear industry standard for microcontrollers, mostly digital and image sensor testing. With the recent introduction of low-cost, LitePoint wireless capability, any of the thousands of systems sold to date can be easily upgraded to test [ph] controllers with RF connectivity, as well as a new silicon used in the emerging class of devices for the Internet of Things and wearables. And recall that last year, we notched up the J750 operating speed, channel density and cost performance, earning it a 2014 Best In Test award from Electronic Design News. So the future looks very bright here as well, both in end market trends and our product leadership. Shifting to Wireless Test, the first quarter demand of $57 million was down from last year's first quarter record start. Our Q1 demand this year was principally driven by new technology buys, such as 11ac and connectivity. While it is difficult to forecast wireless demand, we are expecting a slower first half start with customers squeezing more out of their installed base of testers. I will come back to LitePoint a little later to comment on the positive longer-term picture. Moving to the first quarter P&L. Our sales were $321 million, the non-GAAP operating profit rate was 9% and non-GAAP EPS was $0.11. The gross margin percentage was 52%, 2 points above expectations due to more favorable product mix. Our gross margin is most affected by mix and volume, and over the last 3 years, it's ranged from 49% to 59% in any quarterly period. We have not seen any meaningful changes to the overall pricing environment that would alter our traditional margin ranges. Stepping back, you can see that we operate in seasonal, annual cycles, with the first and fourth quarters as the low points. Our shipments have been peaking in the second and third quarters, and we expect this cycle to continue. Of course, there are also other trends that impact us that are beyond the seasonal biorhythms. Currently, we remain in a severely depressed storage test market, as PC demand is soft and the cloud build-out hasn't absorbed the test capacity in place. So in addition to the cost reduction actions taken last year, we are evaluating various options to minimize the financial impact to our P&L during this period of limited demand. We will update you mid year on our plans in this area. Shifting back to Wireless Test. LitePoint serves a market that is very difficult to predict, and will have periods of strong buying with the ongoing growth in smart devices, the proliferation of new standards and a host of new wireless applications. Volume buying will also be followed by the normal productivity squeezing and digestion periods. We're in the squeezing out and digestion phase now, after the last 2 years of sales of $538 million, well above our original 2-year plan of $350 million. Strategically, at LitePoint, we are doing very well with new technology buying, with our [indiscernible] chipset strategy and connectivity. This proven formula gets off production, optimizes testers to market with full test solutions well ahead of others with the right economics for production. Namely, we don't develop general purpose or R&D testers and then try to morph them into high-volume production systems. We design for the exact problem at hand, the need for low-cost, simple to use testers, with solutions in place, right out-of-the-box. In cellular, as you know, we broke into the market last year in a very major way and look to further gain share, albeit in smaller increments over a multiyear period. So while the 2014 market size is tough to call and may very well be down from -- for the year, we remain very positive about the long-term prospects of Wireless Test. Now back at the company level. Looking over the last 3 years, we've averaged annual sales of just over $1.5 billion and a non-GAAP operating profit rate of 21%. Our first quarter 2014 start with sales of $321 million and an operating profit rate of 9% fits with these prior year starts. You will see that our multiyear performance continues to place us among the best-performing semi-cap suppliers. Now looking ahead, we'll continue to focus on selectively gaining market share through offering differentiated solutions to the right customers, greater throughput and enable them to get their products to market faster with the best programming tools. We accomplish this by carefully targeting R&D to where the hockey puck is going and ensuring that our solutions are as far as possible from a need to solution. A quick example of this is in Memory Test, where we are greatly outspent by our largest competitor, yet our solutions matched with the customer needs now, higher frequency and throughput. This is how we gained about 10 points of share in Memory Test last year alone, and we expect to gain more share in 2014. When profitability is hard earned as it is in ATE, we long ago learned that we need to be very judicious in how we invest, both in R&D and in nonorganic growth. This mindset will continue to guide us as we evaluate growth opportunities. Moving to capital allocation. Our operating model has shown us cash generation strength across multiple industry cycles. Since 2011, we've generated free cash flow of about $210 million a year. This led to our announcement of an initial dividend last quarter. We will also remain opportunistic with the timing of stock buybacks, and of course, maintain sufficient dry powder for highly selective M&A. While we may not find another LitePoint-type asset, we will continue to revisit capital allocation. As planned, we settled the convertible note with a face value of $190 million on March 17. The option component will settle over the 65-day trading period, beginning June 17 and ending September 17. At $20 per share, this would amount to about 21 million shares, which we've included in our non-GAAP EPS guidance for the second quarter. We've once again included a slide in the presentation on our website, which describes this further. Now moving to the key details of the first quarter. We had total company bookings of $450 million, SemiTest bookings were $366 million. SOC test orders were $349 million and Memory Test orders were $17 million in the first quarter. SemiTest service orders were $53 million. Wireless Test orders were $57 million. System Test orders were $27 million, with $12 million of service orders. In the first quarter, semiconductor test sales were 81% of the total, Wireless Test 7% and System Test 12%. Our book-to-bill ratio for the first quarter was 1.4 for the overall company, 1.4 for Semiconductor Test, 2.7 for Wireless Test and 0.7 for System Test. At the end of the quarter, our backlog stood at $490 million, of which 84% is scheduled to ship and be recognized as revenue within the next 6 months. The top line of $321 million is up $36 million or 13% sequentially from the fourth quarter, in line with seasonal patterns. SemiTest was $262 million, up $47 million. Wireless Test was $21 million, down $5 million. And System Test group was $38 million, down $6 million. We had no customer that was more than 10% of company revenues in the quarter. Within the $321 million of the first quarter revenue, service was $66 million, down $8 million from Q4's record level, SemiTest service revenue was $49 million. Total company product turns business was 55% versus 41% a quarter ago. SemiTest product turns business was 57% versus 45% a quarter ago. Memory revenue was $28 million. Moving down the P&L, non-GAAP gross margins decreased to 52% from 55% in the fourth quarter due to product mix. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $138 million, compared to $140 million in the fourth quarter. At the operating line, we posted a 9% profit. Our non-GAAP net interest and other expense was $11 million -- was $1 million. Non-GAAP tax expense for the quarter was $5 million and our full year non-GAAP tax rate is expected to be 18% for 2014. Cash from operations consumed $57 million after capital additions in the first quarter. We ended the quarter with a cash balance and marketable securities of $967 million. In the second quarter, we expect to generate about $75 million of cash after deploying about $55 million into fixed assets and paying about $12 million in dividends. For the full year, we expect to deploy about $75 million of capital into UltraFLEX testers for leases, bringing our gross total capital additions for the year to $145 million. This is above our January estimate by about $20 million. The higher projected fixed asset additions are attributed to greater than forecast demand for UltraFLEX system leases. Our strong operating model and balance sheet gives us the flexibility to lease testers when it makes commercial sense. Our first quarter DSO was 60 days, up from 50 days in the fourth quarter, due to shipment patterns. As noted in the press release, sales for the second quarter are expected to be between $460 million and $490 million and non-GAAP EPS range is $0.36 to $0.43, on 217 million diluted shares. Q2 guidance excludes the amortization of acquired intangibles and the related tax impact. Our GAAP EPS range is $0.29 to $0.36. The operating profit rate at the midpoint of our second quarter guidance is about 22%. Now moving to the P&L percentages in the second quarter. We expect non-GAAP gross margins to be about 53% to 54%, R&D should be 15% to 16%, and G&A should be about 16%. Non-GAAP net interest income is expected to be about $1 million. As we have seen for the first quarter, we are well-positioned in 2014, with our strong market share momentum, new product offerings and extremely resilient model and an capital allocation strategy that rewards shareholders and supports our growth strategy. I'll now turn the call over to Andy.