Earnings Labs

Inseego Corp. (INSG)

Q2 2017 Earnings Call· Mon, Aug 7, 2017

$14.72

-1.74%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Hello and welcome to Inseego Corp.'s Second Quarter 2017 Financial Results Conference Call. Please note that today’s event is being recorded. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] On the call today are Dan Mondor, President and Chief Executive Officer; Tom Allen, Interim Chief Financial Officer and Cobus Grove, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Company’s Ctrack unit. During this call, non-GAAP financial measures will be discussed. A reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included in the earnings release, which is available on the Investors section of the Company's website. An audio replay of this call will also be archived there. Please also be advised that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not historical facts, but rather are based on the Company's current expectations and beliefs. For a discussion on factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations, please refer to the risk factors described in our Form 10-K, 10-Q and other SEC filings, which are available on our website. Please also refer to the Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements section contained in today’s press release. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Dan Mondor, our President and Chief Executive Officer of Inseego.

Dan Mondor

President

Thank you. And good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining today’s call. I’m pleased to be with you today. Since joining Inseego as CEO in June, I can safely say it’s been a busy two months and a rapid learning curve. I’ve met with customers and channel partners and the majority of the Inseego team in our various locations. I spent a great deal of time with the Ctrack team in South Africa and the Inseego North America team in Eugene, Oregon and of course the MiFi and Inseego corporate team at our headquarters in San Diego. My travel plans over the next few weeks is to meet the Ctrack teams in the UK, Germany and Holland. So that’s been quite a learning curve. I’ve talked to many of our customers and channel partners and I can report to you that they are loyal and committed to a long-term partnership with Inseego. The entire Inseego team is very talented and are energized. We have great technology and the spirit of innovation. So it's clear to me we have a very solid platform to build upon. So I’ll start with the progress report in our cost savings and growth initiatives announced on June 7. And then I’ll provide some product highlights. We are on track to achieve our stated objective of $15 million per year in annualized expense reductions. We are implementing the underlying plans for all identified cost reduction initiatives and we expect the bulk of the OpEx cuts to be realized in the fourth quarter. In addition, we have taken steps to stabilize our supply chain and are working with our supply chain partners specifically to improve MiFi gross margins, which is a company priority. We expect to see a substantial portion of the gross margin improvement still…

Tom Allen

Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Dan. As noted, Q2 was a transitional quarter for us, and Q3 will be too. Just as a preamble although there was minimal impact on our Q2 operating results relating to our June 7 restructuring announcement. In Q3 will begin to see some meaningful reductions in operating expenses from that restructuring. And by the first quarter of 2018, we should see the full benefit of all of our cost saving initiatives. As noted in our release this afternoon, total revenues for Q2 were $59.9 million, up sequentially from the first quarter by 8%. On a year-over-year basis, total revenues were down by 5%. Hardware revenues in Q2 drove most of the sequential quarter gain and the year-over-year decline in total revenues. With a sequential gain of 9% in hardware revenues driven by the January and April launches of our latest MiFi hotspot and home telephone products and the year-over-year decline of 5% due primarily to the sales of our core products in Q2 a year ago and lower hardware sales at Ctrack and Inseego North America, and slightly lower year-over-year MiFi revenue. We generated $14.9 million in SaaS, software and service revenues in Q2, up 7% sequentially and 9% year-over-year as a result of increased subscribers at both our Ctrack and INA operations. Sales, software and services revenue as a percentage of total revenues held steady in Q2 at about 25% compared to Q1 and are up from 22% a year ago. Ctrack's total revenues, which include a mix of hardware and SaaS, software and service revenues were $15.3 million for the quarter about even with Q1 2017, but down about 3% compared to a year ago, primarily related to the contract restructuring in Q1 this year with a large usage-based insurance company that we discussed on last quarter's…

Operator

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Jaeson Schmidt with Lakestreet Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Jaeson Schmidt

Analyst · Lakestreet Capital Markets. Please go ahead

Hey, guys. Thank you for taking my questions. Just want to start with your earlier comment about dialing back, pursuing subscriber growth at all costs within the Ctrack business. Should we interpret that as you guys will look to get a bit more focused from a geographical perspective? Or how should we think about your geography expansion plans going forward within that business?

Dan Mondor

President

Yes, thanks for the questions. Dan here, I'll provide a few comments and I'll ask Cobus here too, if he has any additional comments. But what we're specifically referring to there is what we call the consumer segment of the Ctrack, if you will subscriber base or market vertical. And the characterization of that segment is pretty low ARPU. It's typically high single-digit or low double-digits, think in the neighborhood of $10 per month, if you think the fleet that's more on the neighborhood of $30. The other point we referenced to is the payback period, typically relatively short-term contracts, maybe two years. And our calculations show the payback period happens pretty well near the end of that contract term. So it's very difficult to recover on that basis. And it also as a cash upfront from the standpoint of the initial starting the SaaS deployment off. So there's a number of things in combination that makes the consumer segment problematic. And so what I meant by that comment is that, we're going to focus on the higher ROI cash upfront, if you will segments, and defocus those that are financially less rewarding. And with that, we're pointing to the consumer segment, meaning that. So subscriber growth will continue. We're going to focus, as I said, on fleet and SMB. As far as market expansion, we see a very good opportunity in North America, we – household name in airports and carriers in Europe and other parts, KLM, Schiphol, Lufthansa and there are several others in there. So we see starting off in North America with an airport focus strategies that is the logical starting point for North America. And I referenced in my remarks, an engagement we have underway. Cobus, if you have any other comments you have.

Cobus Grove

Analyst · Lakestreet Capital Markets. Please go ahead

Nothing, did you get it?

Jaeson Schmidt

Analyst · Lakestreet Capital Markets. Please go ahead

Okay, that’s helpful. And then I know it's a fragmented market, but just looking at the telematics phase with all the holdup with selling the MiFi business, do you think your share within the space has seen a significant decline over the past six to nine months?

Dan Mondor

President

Cobus, you want to take that?

Cobus Grove

Analyst · Lakestreet Capital Markets. Please go ahead

I can answer that and definitely not. As you look at our subscribers numbers that has been provided, there has been specifically on the field subscribers we have seen a 4.8% increase so it definitely not seen a decrease. What you've seen as you probably asking the question on the back of the reduction in our revenue number from quarter two this year compared to last year and maybe just something to highlight there is the biggest implication there or the biggest reason for that was on mix between hardware sales and annuity. If you really have a look at our annuity revenue, as Tom indicated, our subscriber growth as well as our annuity revenue has increased with double-digit numbers. More specifically, our annuity revenue has grown with 13% year-on-year in the fleet space. So actually, as a matter of fact, at this point we're actually in a growth point and we actually pick up clients that we growing our market share within this space.

Jaeson Schmidt

Analyst · Lakestreet Capital Markets. Please go ahead

Okay. Thank you. And then just shifting to the hardware gross margin, understanding what's going on from a manufacturing side. Should we look for hardware gross margin to increase in Q3 or is it going to be down again?

Tom Allen

Chief Financial Officer

Let me take it. This is Tom. I think in Q3, will be challenge because of the referenced kind of one-time sale of our older MiFi business. That obviously will be at a very slim, if any margin. And the improvements on our costs and conversion rates from our contract manufacturers is probably not kicking in until Q4 and not fully in Q4 either I think the full kicking in of those benefits will be by Q1. So I would say we probably a little bit more under pressure in Q3 than we actually have seen in Q2.

Dan Mondor

President

What I would say, adding to that, it was a conscious decision to move older inventory rather than hang on to it and trickle it out over time, which is obviously a cash infusion. So that was a conscience trade-off we made and relative to a lot of the cost reduction initiatives from supply chain, cost of goods sold et cetera. As Tom said is a contract manufacturer and key component supplier discussion that are ongoing. And that the client will launch a new contract manufacturer in the fourth quarter as Tom referenced. So we'll see those as a general and continue trend as we move forward Q1 2018 and onward.

Jaeson Schmidt

Analyst · Lakestreet Capital Markets. Please go ahead

Okay, thanks a lot guys.

Dan Mondor

President

Yes, thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Rob Stone with Cowen and Company. Please go ahead.

Rob Stone

Analyst · Cowen and Company. Please go ahead

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. So you commented Dan, in your prepared remarks that getting to your adjusted EBITDA target isn’t predicated on the revenue growth but you pointed out a number of opportunities to achieve that. And one I was curious about if you could provide any color is, what impact you see and what timeframe from signing up new customers and projects for the MiFi business?

Dan Mondor

President

Yes. Well, yes, great question. Thanks for it. The journey over the – since I’ve joined, is a little bit of discussions around the post TCL acquisition termination. And so we spend a lot of time, I spent a lot of time meeting with customers. And I'm pleased to report that we've been able to essentially stabilize any ripples in relationships or uncertainties or concerns. So we've been able to work at that and move that forward. And so from a standpoint of existing customers, principally Verizon for that product line as you know. We feel we're in good shape now and have a lot of confidence going forward working with them and speaking with them. I met with them a number of times. And then in general that the sales team are put to work on a new count capture strategy and they are solely incented to do so. So we have been having a lot of conversation about expanding our customer base, which is I think well-known as a need for MiFi. I made references to a couple of opportunities that we landed in a couple of works. So when we look at all of that, and based on our plan on not relying on revenue growth, I look at that as you secure the downside and then protect and then have the opportunity to benefit from the upside. So my expectations on that will be discussions on the next couple of quarters about our progress there. But we're I think pointed in the right direction.

Rob Stone

Analyst · Cowen and Company. Please go ahead

Great. Are you able or willing to breakout the revenue and non-GAAP gross margin from MiFi in Q2?

Dan Mondor

President

We are not yet.

Rob Stone

Analyst · Cowen and Company. Please go ahead

Okay.

Dan Mondor

President

I think that is something we're going to considering going forward because we know at some interest. But if we do that, that will be of Q3 metric that will start disclosing.

Rob Stone

Analyst · Cowen and Company. Please go ahead

Okay.

Dan Mondor

President

There’s no problem with doing that we understand the nature of the need. We have to just change our reporting mechanism. So that's a little prep work I’m doing that. But I expect that we'll be doing that in the near future.

Rob Stone

Analyst · Cowen and Company. Please go ahead

Okay, a couple of questions for Tom. You talked about the timing of expense reductions that the run rate EBITDA target was going to take a little longer to get you. I had the impression that that shift in timing is more to do with the gross margin impact than an OpEx impact. So that was some color there was one question. And then how should we think about sort of the quarterly cadence of non-GAAP operating expenses? Obviously, they're going to be trending lower, but if you could give us the sense of, is that a gradual line or is there's particular step function where you should be looking for in a given period?

Tom Allen

Chief Financial Officer

Okay. You have that generally correct, Rob. I mean clearly the expense cut, if you will, that requires the longest lead time is kind of the manufacturing side, the other two buckets, if you will, of expense cuts are headcount-related and other operating expenses that aren't headcount related. We really will see a pretty good size impact on the headcount-related expenses in Q3, but that won't be all it because we faced even though we let people know in June, obviously a lot of those employees are phased out over the third quarter. So in some cases people where let go immediately, others were kept 30 or 60 days. So Q4 on the headcount related to expenses at least with respect to the June announcements we made, it should be fully baked in by Q4. As I think we both said, pretty clearly at least between the lines the GM, the gross margin improvements will start to show in Q4 but we’ll be really fully realized in the early part of 2018. And in terms of trends, you have it exactly right that obviously you should expect to see a declining non-GAAP OpEx number quarter-over-quarter here for the next, certainly the next two quarters, maybe even into Q1 of next year if we find other areas to become more efficient. And the only caveat to that, of course, is what we’ve seen in the past if we have any real spikes in legal cost that kind of offset some of those expense savings. We're very focused on trying to manage better our legal expense. Clearly, a lot of it historically comes in the way of IP infringement cases. But there is obviously corporate cases as well, including the Ralston second half an impact on our legal expense and to a certain extent those are obviously less controllable than other expenses. That’s really I mean we are trying to make legal cost, a very controllable expense to the extent we can.

Rob Stone

Analyst · Cowen and Company. Please go ahead

Okay. And my final question is on cash. It was nice to see the cash balance up a little sequentially, and you talked about the sale of the older MiFi product as negatively impacting the gross margin to some degree, but should generate cash in this quarter. So not looking for a specific target, but would you expect to see cash increase sequentially in Q3 as well. And how much – more or less there is an increased sales contributed.

Tom Allen

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, hard to want to quantify that. But I think just directionally, a part from our financing which obviously would have a much different impact on our cash, but apart from it, a transaction therefore kind of on a status quo basis we would expect a build of cash during Q3. It's a quarter that we don't have a payment on our convertible notes. And as we've said kind of both in the June release and referenced in today's call, we're clearly focused on improving our cash flow and expect to get to kind of positive free cash flow by the first part of 2018. That implies that we won't quite get there back half of the year in total. But I think you take out the semiannual payment of interest, which will happen next in December that we would expect Q3 ending cash balances to bounce up a little bit.

Rob Stone

Analyst · Cowen and Company. Please go ahead

Great. I’ll jump back in the queue. Thanks.

Tom Allen

Chief Financial Officer

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer. I would like to turn the conference back over to Dan Mondor for any closing remarks.

Dan Mondor

President

Yes, thanks. So just a couple of remarks, first, I want to thank everyone for joining today's call and for your ongoing support of Inseego. As we've discussed today, we've embarked upon a new direction for the company that is laser-focused on increasing shareholder value and value for all stakeholders in the company in both the near-term and obviously for the future. The strategy creates a more efficient company, which will allow us to more opportunity for technology innovation to drive growth than in recent past. Lastly, I want to thank every employee of Inseego for your tireless efforts and commitment to achieve success. I look forward to providing you progress reports on future earnings calls and since I new at the helm of meeting you all in person. Thanks again.

Operator

Operator

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.