Thank you, Sarah. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our conference call for the first quarter ended March 31. I am Jamie Simms, CFO; and with me here in Andover are Patrizio Vinciarelli, our CEO; and Dick Nagel, our Chief Accounting Officer.
Today, we issued a press release summarizing our financial results for the first quarter. This press release is available on the Investor page of our website, www.vicorpower.com. And we have filed a Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission in association with issuing this press release.
I remind listeners this conference call is being recorded and is the copyrighted property of Vicor Corporation. I also remind you various remarks we may make during this call may constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the Safe Harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Our forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those explicitly set forth or implied in our statements. Such risks and uncertainties are discussed in our most recent Forms 10-K and 10-Q filed with the SEC.
Please note the information provided during this conference call is accurate only as of the date of the call. Vicor undertakes no obligation to update statements made during this call and you should not rely upon them after the conclusion of the call.
A replay of the call will be available beginning at midnight tonight through May 7. The replay dial-in number is (888) 286-8010 and the listener pass code will be 30401713. In addition, a webcast replay of the conference call will be available on the Investor Relations page of our website, beginning shortly after its conclusion.
I'll start this afternoon's discussion with a review of our financial performance for the first quarter and Patrizio will follow with his comments after which we will take your questions.
Since it's less than 6 weeks ago that we last spoke with investors addressing Q4 and full year 2013 results, this evening's discussion will be something of an update on those remarks. As set forth in this afternoon's press release, Vicor reported a net loss for the first quarter of just under $5.4 million, representing a net loss of $0.14 a share on revenue of $53.2 million.
For the fourth quarter of 2013, we reported a net loss of $13.1 million or $0.34 a share on revenue of $55.3 million. For the first quarter of 2013, a year ago, we reported a net loss of just under $5 million or $0.12 a share on revenue of just under $42 million.
In calculating Q1 EPS we used total basic shares of 38,541,000; very close to the 38,539,000 total basic shares used to calculate Q4 EPS. We used 41,167,000 total basic shares to calculate EPS for Q1 2013 reflecting a higher share count prior to the completion of our 2 tender offers during Q2 2013.
While we do no report non-GAAP results; I remind listeners the reported results for the fourth quarter of 2013 included a non-cash increase in our provision for income tax of approximately $10.2 million representing a full reserve against our net deferred tax assets. This increased our reported Q4 loss per share by approximately $0.26. As such our first quarter loss per share of $0.14 is more approximately compared to a pro forma loss per share for the fourth quarter of approximately $0.08.
Legal fees were again a major contributor to our quarterly loss. We also suffered from the anticipated decline in VI Chip shipments associated with the transition by our major customer and data center space to its next generation motherboard.
Consolidated revenue for Q1 2014 declined 3.7% sequentially, reflecting a 30% decline in VI Chip shipments. However, we are encouraged by the recovery of shipments for the Brick Business Unit, which increased 3.3% off of a substantially larger base. The BBU saw improvement in North American volumes both in modules and custom solutions. Q1 2014 revenue of $53.2 million was 27% higher than revenue for the same quarter last year.
BBU quarter revenue increased 14.3% year-over-year while VI Chip revenue almost doubled year-over-year.
We are also pleased that recognized quarterly distribution revenue increased over 24% sequentially. As anticipated, given the recent booking trend, turns volume increased rising to just under 37% of total shipments for the quarter.
International revenue declined to just under 61% of total revenue, down from a record level of 64%, reflecting a broad range of circumstances. Notably, VI Chip shipped lower volumes to Asian contract manufactures working on behalf of our data center customer, while Vicor Japan also experienced an unexpected reversal in trend with a 30% decline in the dollar value of shipments in part a result of lower unit volumes and in part a result of the impact of the market rise in the relative value of the dollar to the yen during the fourth quarter.
These revenue declines were offset by growth in developing markets. European shipments were mixed reflecting continued uncertainty across Europe and adjustments we've made to our distribution partnerships.
Consolidated gross profit margin was essentially unchanged sequentially ending at 42.8% compared to 42.4% for the fourth quarter. Consolidated gross profit margin of 39.6% for Q1 of 2013. While recent variability in our quarterly consolidated gross profit margin has been attributable to VI Chip volume variances, the impact on margin from VI Chips volume decline was offset by improvement in the BBU's margins driven by higher volumes, better mix, and lower manufacturing variances.
Consolidated operating expenses rose 4.3% sequentially but when legal fees are excluded from both quarters' expenses, such expenses actually fell 1.5% sequentially.
General administrative expenses declined 4.5% sequentially when legal fees are excluded, even though we recorded approximately $250,000 of Q1 expenses associated with our annual financial audit.
Marketing and sale expenses increased 5.3% sequentially largely due to higher headcount, higher commissions paid due to shifts in mix, and a higher recruiting expenses.
Research and development expenses were flat quarter-to-quarter.
Total headcount stood at 1,009 as of March 31, up from 1,002 as of December 31, 2013. At the end of the first quarter of 2013, a year ago, total head count was 989.
Turning to new orders first quarter bookings reflected first quarter shipments in that the expected temporary decline in VI Chip bookings was more than offset by robust rebound in BBU order volume. BBU order flow increased over 17% with our legacy module business up over 21% sequentially.
Increased activity in other areas offset the decline in the dollar value of Japanese orders. Booking patterns in April for the BBU continue to follow recent trends. Q1 VI Chip bookings declined more than anticipated falling 43%, but expected new orders for the production runs at the current generation of Sandy Bridge 48 volt processor solutions began coming in just last week in addition to a first significant production order for our next generation solution.
We now expect to receive additional order flow for the VTM and PRM based solutions to satisfy production requirements into the third quarter overlapping with a production ramp of the Chip VTM and SiP PRM system for new Haswell based motherboards which we expect to begin shipping later this quarter.
Vicor continues to gain momentum with its expending line of Cool-Power SiP point-of-load regulators with design activity leading to encouraging sizable orders.
These early orders have been percept in standalone applications but we are actively expanding our cross selling efforts with solutions incorporating our chip current multipliers similar to the solution we will be shipping to our data center customers starting in a few months. During the coming months look for Picor to introduce several new products including an expansion of its ZVS Buck Line to include 48 volt input models thereby broadening the range of applications served.
To conclude on order activity total one year backlog stood at $41.6 million at the end of Q1, down 7% sequentially, with 76% of this backlog scheduled for shipment during current quarter.
Cash flow from operations for Q1 fell to a deficit of $4.5 million largely due to the quarter's net loss. Capital expenditures for the quarter declined to $1.6 million as much of the additional investment for the expansion of our chip production capability as yet to be incurred. As stated last quarter, we had refined our budgets for 2014 expansion. And currently expect the actual dollar investment for the year will be lower than original expected in the range of $4 million. We have been successful in repurposing existing resources to meet expected 2014 chip capacity units.
Turning to our consolidated balance sheet our receivables portfolio remains in excellent shape, although day sales uncharacteristically increased to 50 days at quarter end. However, a substantial dollar volume plus past due accounts were collected after the quarter flows and our DSOs have now fallen back to their usual quarterly level.
Consolidated inventories quarter-to-quarter were essentially unchanged with an annualized turnover climbing slightly to 4.2 times representing a new high. There was no meaningful change to our reserves.
Cash and equivalents stood at $50.3 million at the end of the quarter, down from $56.3 million at year-end. This figure excludes investment securities for the par value of $6 million carried on our balance sheet at an estimated fair value of $4.9 million, representing roughly 81% of our value.
Turning to expectations for the second quarter, we expect bookings will end the second quarter ahead of the first quarter, assuming the recent trend for the BBU and the receipt of additional bookings for VI Chips first generation data center solution, which as I stated earlier, have started to arrive. Keep in mind the lead times for VI Chip orders are currently running 12 weeks, which would imply that any new orders received would be shipped in Q3. We are targeting Q2 revenue of approximately $52 million, which should be sequentially slightly lower reflecting the Q1 gap in the VI Chip order flow.
While BBU revenue is expected to increase based on backlog and assumed terms, we expect VI Chip revenue to experience a temporary further decline from the Q1 level. Accordingly we expect reduced efficiencies and overhead absorption in VI Chip, which will likely be offset by any improvement in BBU results contributing to a Q2 quarterly loss.
As I stated last quarter any improvement in our operating performance will likely be offset by legal fees for the foreseeable future.
Now, I will turn the call over to Patrizio.