Earnings Labs

HeartBeam, Inc. (BEAT)

Q1 2013 Earnings Call· Tue, Apr 23, 2013

$0.88

-0.07%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us for the CardioNet First Quarter 2013 Earnings Conference Call. Certain statements during the conference call and question-and-answer period to follow may relate to future events and expectations, and as such constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities and Litigation Act of 1995. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company in the future to be materially different from the statements that the company’s executives may make today. These risks are described in detail in our public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our latest periodic report on Form 10-K or 10-Q. We assume no duty to update these statements. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Mr. Joseph Capper. Sir, you may begin.

Joseph H. Capper

Analyst

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. I'm Joe Capper, President and CEO of CardioNet. Today, I will provide commentary on our first quarter 2013 performance and specifics around the corporate realignment we announced yesterday. I hope the rescheduling of our call did not cause any inconvenience, however, we felt that it made more sense to share our first quarter earnings results at the same time we announce our plan to realign the company. I'm joined by Heather Getz, our CFO, who'll provide more detail on our operating results. After our prepared remarks, we will open up the floor to your questions. I am pleased to report today not only strong first quarter results, but other developments, which we expect to further support our future growth. As you will hear, our first quarter was filled with considerable activity and success. Revenue was $32.4 million, up 20% over the prior year quarter and 8% sequentially. This is the third consecutive quarter we have seen year-over-year revenue growth. EBITDA was $2.4 million compared to a $400,000 loss in Q1 2012 and a $700,000 gain last quarter. Patient services exceeded our expectations, with volume growth of 8% versus Q1 2012 marking an all-time high for the company. In addition to these strong results, we saw new key strategic partnerships, commenced the process to realign the company, selected a new name to better reflect our business focus, all while launching our new comprehensive sales strategy. I would like to thank all of our employees for delivering strong operating results despite the extraordinary demand for the quarter. Q1 was in many ways a new beginning for CardioNet, as it was the first full quarter with our new sales strategy in place. To understand best the rationale behind the developments in Q1, I would like to reiterate…

Heather C. Getz

Analyst

Thank you, Joe, and good morning, everyone. As Joe mentioned, revenue in the first quarter was $32.4 million, a 20% increase over the first quarter of 2012. While this increase was largely attributable to the acquisition of Cardiocore, we also posted increased revenue in our patient services business of over $1 million and saw an 8% increase in total patient volume. All products contributed to the patient services growth, but it was largely driven by event and Holter with the launch of our CardioNet Comprehensive strategy. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2012, revenue increased 8%. The sequential growth was almost entirely a result of higher revenue in our patient services segment due to volume growth across all products, coupled with a stable average selling prices. As we anticipated, our product and research services segments were flat sequentially. Turning to gross margin. As a percent of revenue, our margin increased 120 basis points to 60.3% compared to the prior year. Efficiencies in the patient services business and favorable price mix led to a 420-basis-point increase in margin. This was partially offset by growth in the research services segment due to the acquisition of Cardiocore, which carries a lower gross profit margin. The inclusion of Cardiocore reduced margin by approximately 300 basis points. For the first quarter, our adjusted operating expense increased $1.8 million to $20.2 million, largely due to the addition of Cardiocore. Excluding Cardiocore, our adjusted operating expense was lower, reflecting the operational improvements, which led to a reduction in headcount-related expenses and bad debt. On a sequential basis, our expenses increased as a result of period expenses that typically occur in the first quarter, including higher payroll taxes and sales and marketing expense. With the increased margin dollars stemming from the higher revenue helping to offset the increased…

Joseph H. Capper

Analyst

Thank you, Heather. For those of you who have been following CardioNet over the last few quarters, you've witnessed several significant changes in the composition of the company as we have put the business on more solid footing and established it as a healthcare technology and services platform, capable of sustained value creation. To review, our acquisition of Cardiocore late last year provided us entry into the large and growing research services business. This was a watershed transaction for CardioNet as we're able to acquire a high-quality asset that is well regarded in the clinical research field. Additionally, Cardiocore provided us with much-needed revenue and payor diversification and a $1 billion market opportunity. Furthermore, as I've discussed earlier, we launched our comprehensive sales strategy for the patient services business and are seeing positive early results. On the partnership front, we formed an alliance with AirStrip Technologies, with the intention of extending the application and utilization of MCOT by interfacing our 2 systems to enhance the data package being delivered to clinicians in a point-of-care setting. We expect to have a working interface by mid summer. For the creation of our next-generation systems, we formed a multiyear research and development partnership with the Belgium-based nanolectronics research organization, IMEC, and Denmark-based Delta Technologies. Consistent with our desire to more rapidly commercialize an expanded line of state-of-the-art mobile health solutions, this collaboration will couple CardioNet's market-leading software and algorithm set with IMEC's world-class component and system design capabilities. Last, we have recently allocated more resources toward the analysis and development of potential new mobile health markets. In just a few quarters, we have been able to affect positive change to our business and our future outlook. Clearly, we have emerged as a much different company. We just reported our third consecutive quarter of…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

Joseph H. Capper

Analyst

Operator, if there's no questions in the queue, we'll go ahead and wrap up for the day. I just want to close by thanking everybody for your continued support and interest in the company. We'll speak to everyone next quarter. Operator, that concludes today's call.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. If you joined the conference late today, you may listen to the conference on digital replay which will be available from April 23 to May 7, 2013, on (888) 286-8010 or (617) 801-6888, with passcode 17607986. Thank you for joining.