Earnings Labs

Axcelis Technologies, Inc. (ACLS)

Q1 2013 Earnings Call· Fri, May 3, 2013

$133.19

-0.29%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Axcelis Technologies First Quarter 2013 Conference Call. My name is Cathy and I will be your coordinator for today. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the presentation over to your host for today's call, Amy Rasimas, Director of Investor Relations of Axcelis Technologies. Please proceed.

Amy Rasimas

Analyst

Thank you, Cathy. This is Amy Rasimas, Director of Investor Relations. Welcome to our conference call to discuss our first quarter 2013 results. With me today is Mary Puma, Chairman and CEO; Jay Zager, Executive Vice President and CFO; and Doug Lawson, Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives. If you have not seen a copy of our press release issued earlier today, it is available on our website. Playback service will also be available on our website as described in our press release. Please note that comments made today about our expectations for future revenues, profits and other results are forward-looking statements under the SEC's Safe Harbor provision. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to the risks inherent in our business. These risks are described in detail in our Form 10-K annual report and other SEC filings, which we urge you to review. Our actual results may differ materially from our current expectations. We do not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. I'd now like to turn the call over to Mary Puma.

Mary G. Puma

Analyst

Thank you, Amy. First quarter results came in generally as expected. Revenues were at the low end of guidance, impacted by ongoing industry weakness. Systems and GSS sales remained soft as fab utilization was low, and customers continued to be cautious in making CapEx investments. Despite these tempered results, our cash balance at the end of the quarter was significantly above guidance due to strong expense and cash management. Earlier this week, we introduced the Purion XE, the second tool in our expanding family of benchmark ion-implant products. Each member of the Purion family shares the powerful 500 wafer per hour single wafer end station, shared software, industry-leading source technology and an innovative and productive ultra-pure beam line. Single wafer LINAC technology is the industry benchmark for high-energy productivity and lowest cost of ownership, while providing the purest, most-precise dopant placement required for today's most challenging high-energy applications in the memory and image sensor market segments. Axcelis is the market leader in high energy, and the Purion XE assures that we will maintain that position. The introduction of the Purion XE also provides advantages associated with a common platform, including a common end station and shared software controls with the Purion M, our newest medium-current offering. From a customer perspective, the common elements of the Purion platform were designed to drive manufacturing flexibility and lower the total cost of fab operations. Common platform architecture and systems options enable either process transfer between system, simplified maintenance and improved reliability. From an Axcelis perspective, a common platform drives benefits from reduced inventory requirement and margin enhancement opportunity. We will recognize these financial improvement as volume associated with the sale of products based on the Purion platform increases. In addition to the Purion XE, we anticipate that the Purion M will be a…

Jay Zager

Analyst

Thank you, Mary, and good afternoon, everyone. Q1 revenues were $40.7 million at the low end of our guidance and about 9% below Q4 levels. In the quarter, the industry continued to experience low fab utilization rates, which negatively affected our system sales and aftermarket business. System sales in the quarter were $12.7 million, down 27% sequentially, while sales for the GSS aftermarket business were $28 million, up 3% sequentially. System shipments were $11.8 million in the quarter, down about 1/3 from the Q4 levels. Within these totals, high-end implant shipments were $8.4 million or about 71% of the total, while shipments for our cleaning and curing systems, which reflect primarily our dry strip business, were $3.4 million or about 29% of the total. Under our agreement with Lam Research, we will ship the last Integras later this year. During the quarter, approximately 30% of our sales were to memory customers, primarily DRAM, while about 70% of our sales were to logic and foundry customers. Sales to our top 10 customers accounted for about 60% of our total sales with only 1 customer above 10%. Systems bookings for the quarter were $7.6 million, down 56% sequentially. Our book-to-bill ratio was 0.64 compared with 0.98 in Q4, and we ended the quarter with a systems backlog, including deferred revenue of $13.6 million compared with $18.5 million at the end of the year. GSS revenues were $28 million, a $700,000 increase over Q4. This increase was primarily driven by upgrades, as our spares and service revenues showed a modest decline. Utilization rates were essentially flat to Q4, up slightly in Asia and down slightly in the U.S. and Europe. Our gross margin in Q1 was 31.8%. Included in this margin was a $2.1 million inventory reserve adjustment related to our Integra product…

Mary G. Puma

Analyst

Thank you, Jay. We are gaining confidence in a market recovery and in Axcelis' ability to grow in an improving industry environment. Our competitive implant portfolio, led by our Purion platform products and our Optima HDx, provides strong positioning. And we see real promise in creating potential customer value and competitive advantage from our partnership with Lam. As Axcelis grows, we remain committed to our focus on strong fiscal management, which will accelerate our return to profitability and will drive higher shareholder value. With that I'd like to open it up for questions.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

Mary G. Puma

Analyst

Okay. Well, if there are no questions, I'd like to thank you for joining us today. We will be attending the Craig-Hallum Conference on May 29 and we also plan to be at SEMICON West in San Francisco in July. We hope to see many of you at these events. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

This concludes the presentation. Thank you for your participation in today's conference. You may now disconnect. Good day.