Earnings Labs

LifeVantage Corporation (LFVN)

Q3 2018 Earnings Call· Wed, May 9, 2018

$4.99

-3.85%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

+14.00%

1 Week

+14.50%

1 Month

+33.75%

vs S&P

+30.39%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to today's conference call to discuss LifeVantage's Third Quarter Fiscal 2018 Financial Results. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the formal remarks, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will be provided at that time for you to queue up. Hosting today's conference will be Scott Van Winkle with ICR. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. And now, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Van Winkle. Please go ahead, sir.

Scott Van Winkle

Management

Thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to LifeVantage Corporation's conference call to discuss results for the third quarter of fiscal 2018. On the call today from LifeVantage with prepared remarks are Darren Jensen, Chief Executive Officer; and Steve Fife, Chief Financial Officer. By now everyone should have accessed to the earnings release that went up this afternoon at approximately 4.05 PM Eastern Time. If you did not have received release, the release it’s available on the Investor Relations portion of LifeVantage’s at www.lifevantage.com. This call is being webcast; a replay will be available on the Company’s website as well. Before we begin, we'd like to remind everyone that our prepared remarks contain forward-looking statements and management may make additional forward-looking statements in response to your questions. These statements do not guarantee future performance and therefore undue reliance should not be placed upon them. These statements are based on the Company’s, current expectations of the Company's management and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including those identified in the Risk Factors section of LifeVantage's most recently filed Forms 10-Q and 10-K. Please note that during today's call, we'll discuss non-GAAP financial measures, including results on an adjusted basis. Management believes these financial measures can facilitate a more complete analysis and greater transparency into LifeVantage's ongoing results of operations, particularly when comparing underlying operating results from period-to-period. We've included a reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures with today's release. This call also contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of the date of this live broadcast, May 9, 2018. LifeVantage assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking projections that may be made in today's release or call. Now I would like to turn the call over to the Company's CEO, Darren Jensen.

Darren Jensen

Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Scott, and good afternoon everyone. I’m pleased to join you today and share our third quarter results and update you on the progress of our fiscal 2018 initiatives. During the third quarter, we generated $50.6 million of revenue, representing both 12.3% growth over last year and a 2.2% increase from the second quarter. The growth was broad-based with all geographies posting sequential growth with the exception of Japan, which was following its typical seasonal pattern. Additionally, revenue built month-over-month throughout the quarter, and we had a good start to the fourth quarter with April relatively consistent with March. We generated adjusted earnings per share of $0.12, up significantly from $0.03 a year ago and up 9% from the second quarter. As Steve will discuss, we're now anticipating 2018 EPS to be at the high end of our prior guidance. We're encouraged by the improved momentum and have begun to see our recent initiatives contribute favorably to our results during the third quarter. March represented our largest recruitment month since May of 2016, and first-year retention continues to improve. Distributor retention measured by first-year activity during the quarter increased to 51% up from 38% a year ago. And preferred customer retention increased to 49%, up from 46%. We're seeing higher average basket sizes, and we have already exceeded our targets for our stacking product initiative. While our initiatives are already contributing, we believe we're still in the early stages of realizing these benefits and look for incremental contribution to our growth goals over the coming quarters and years. Let me run through our recent progress to date. As we've discussed on previous calls, our key initiatives are focused on three goals. Increasing average order size, geographical expansion and distributor and customer acquisition. First, let me begin with increased average…

Steve Fife

Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Darren, and good afternoon, everyone. I am pleased to report our third quarter results. We generated improved revenue growth and good margin performance that is driving stronger earnings, EBITDA and cash. We feel good about where our global business is today and are optimistic about our opportunities for continued growth. Let me run through the numbers for you. Third quarter revenue was $50.6 million, representing a 12.3% increase year-over-year and a 2.2% sequential increase. Revenue in the Americas increased 10.6% to $38 million, and revenue in Asia Pacific and Europe increased 18% to $12.6 million, including 10.1% increase in Japan all year-over-year. On a sequential basis, revenue in the Americas increased 3%, while revenue in Asia Pacific and Europe decreased 0.3%, as Japan followed its typical seasonal pattern. The gross margin during the third quarter was 82.4%, up from 81.7% a year-ago. This increase is primarily a function of decreased costs associated with inventory obsolescence and changes to product and market mixes. Commissions and incentive expenses as a percentage of sales decreased 265 basis points to 48.1% compared to 50.8% in the prior year period. This quarter's commission and incentive rate is in line with our target and recent trends. SG&A expenses as a percent of sales were 29.7%, compared to 30.5% a year ago. On a non-GAAP adjusted basis, SG&A expense as a percent of sales were consistent with the prior year at 29.3%. Operating income for the third quarter of fiscal 2018 was $2.3 million, up from $0.2 million, last year. On an adjusted basis, non-GAAP operating income was $2.5 million compared to $0.7 million in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter was $3.4 million compared to $1.6 million in the prior year. Third quarter net income on a GAAP basis was…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Frank Faiella with Sidoti. Please go ahead.

Frank Faiella

Analyst · Sidoti. Please go ahead

Hi, guys. I had a question on the stack packets. You mentioned that, that's helped drive the average order size up. I was wondering if there was any particular success or traction with that on a region-by-region basis that you could talk about?

Darren Jensen

Chief Executive Officer

Frank, this is Darren. Thank you for the question. Right now, where we have a rolled that product out, specifically, the Vitality Stack that you're talking about, the one with improved portability is primarily in the United States. As we get additional products that are part of that package or that sachet approved in international markets, we'll continue our global rollout with it. But we've been able to make the success that we've had, it's 16% of our global revenue, primarily off of just the United States, so it's been quite successful here. And we anticipate that we'll be successful in the other markets due to other stacking strategies that we've used that are not quite to the same extent that the Vitality Stack is.

Frank Faiella

Analyst · Sidoti. Please go ahead

Thanks. That’s all I have for now. Thanks.

Darren Jensen

Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Steven Martin with Slater. Please go ahead.

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater. Please go ahead

Hi, guys and congratulations.

Steve Fife

Chief Financial Officer

Thank you.

Darren Jensen

Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Steve.

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater. Please go ahead

You were just commenting on inventory. How much more room now that you're sort of – you had a go at it for a while? How much more room do you think there is to reduce it?

Darren Jensen

Chief Executive Officer

Yes. I think it really is tied back. Steve, to as we continue to expand our product lines internationally. We're fighting the build of inventory that naturally comes with that, but we still have – I'd say, our raw material are at a level that is higher than it ultimately needs to be. So I would anticipate our mix of raws and finished goods still continuing to transition over the next several quarters and ultimately probably be down on a net basis but not as much as you might anticipate because of our international expansion and the build of finished goods that will occur with that.

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater. Please go ahead

Right. And I assume because of – you have a broader – the combination of the broader product line and the international expansion makes it tougher and tougher.

Darren Jensen

Chief Executive Officer

That's right. That's right.

Steve Fife

Chief Financial Officer

And different regulatory requirements from country to country and different blends we may have to create, yes.

Darren Jensen

Chief Executive Officer

Our raws – like I said, our raws are still higher than I think they ultimately will be, but that will be traded off as we expand a little bit internationally.

Steve Fife

Chief Financial Officer

Okay. It looks like you've stabilized the distributor accounts? Can you talk about that?

Darren Jensen

Chief Executive Officer

Yes, I mean from a distributor's standpoint – our business basically is roughly the same size as it was this time last year, so our distributor accounts, as you can see, are fairly stable at that. What we have seen, and what is positive leading indicator for us, has been our retention rate is going up. That's been a great leading indicator, we've – that's primarily based on the first year. But also we've seen sequentially over the quarter, a 3000-distributor increase from last quarter or from the last couple of quarters, so it's been very positive for us.

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater. Please go ahead

And would you expect that trend to continue so might – when you report the fourth quarter, might distributor accounts actually be up on a year-over-year basis?

Darren Jensen

Chief Executive Officer

Yes. Right now, the leading indicators primarily with retention rate and from what we're seeing between last quarter, I would say that yes, the leading indicators are pointing in that direction as well as the other programs that I mentioned in my prepared remarks are all geared toward driving increased distributor accounts.

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater. Please go ahead

Okay.

Steve Fife

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, and I'll just add – I'll just add onto that, Steve, that in Darren's remarks, we talked about monthly – our monthly trend actually is improving, and so we ended the quarter quite high and April, we were fairly consistent in April as well, so these trends we're seeing within this continued growth.

Darren Jensen

Chief Executive Officer

Yes, I've mentioned in my remarks that March was our best recruitment month since May of 2016, and April was consistent with that.

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater. Please go ahead

Okay. Gross profit looked good, and commissions and incentives looked good. SG&A was one of the line items was a little higher. When you – when we go, I ask you this every quarter as we model out, so when we model fourth quarter, how should we look at those line items?

Darren Jensen

Chief Executive Officer

Yes. So our SG&A, it was flat year-over-year, and one of the things, when you're just looking at our quarters, that becomes a challenge is that in the quarters where we have an event, our SG&A is higher, because all of the cost of that event is within the quarter that it occurs. And for – as an example, in the fourth quarter this year, we do not have any event, and you should anticipate that our SG&A will be down as a result of that in comparison to our Q3 SG&A. And now if you look back over…

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater. Please go ahead

Okay. That's what I was getting at.

Darren Jensen

Chief Executive Officer

Yes. If you look back over the last several quarters, you'll see that pattern very consistently.

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater. Please go ahead

Okay. On your guidance, would you – you've sort of given us some idea on the revenue and you've given us some idea on the revenue and you've given us some idea on EPS. Could you hazard a guess as to some EBITDA – an EBITDA number or range for the fourth quarter?

Darren Jensen

Chief Executive Officer

Yes. I could probably hazard a guess. Year-to-date, our EBITDA is – adjusted EBITDA is right around $10 million, about $3.4 million of that came in Q3, I think just based on our EPS guidance. You could easily anticipate that our – we're expecting our EBITDA to be higher than $3.4 million that we did in Q3, maybe in the $5 million plus or minus range.

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater. Please go ahead

Okay. That's what I was hoping for, and last but not least, buyback. You didn't buy back a whole lot of stock. Your cash balance is actually building, so I was just wondering, if you had any thoughts or what you're thinking was about when the stock was in the 3.5 range?

Darren Jensen

Chief Executive Officer

We actually, as you are well aware there are some limitations around how much we can buy back based on the average trading volume in our stock. And based on where that volume is currently, we're limited as to how much we can buy back. We're focusing on doing as much as we can right now down, and you know we believe that our shares are undervalued.

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater. Please go ahead

Okay. Keep in mind, if I'm not mistaken, negotiated blocks don't count against those various calculations.

Darren Jensen

Chief Executive Officer

Yes. We have not yet entered into 10b-5 plan, so we're limited to what we can do in an open trading window.

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater. Please go ahead

Okay, thanks a lot, guys. Look forward to next quarter.

Darren Jensen

Chief Executive Officer

Thanks Steve.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Ron Lyman who's a Private Investor. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Hi, good afternoon. I was just curious to see what the philosophy for the company as far as paying dividends.

Steve Fife

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, I'm sorry, I missed your first name?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Ron. R-O-N.

Steve Fife

Chief Financial Officer

Okay, hi, Ron. This is Steve Fife. Sorry about that. We – I think, as a company we are looking at that. Right now, we're focusing our attention really on – our excess cash on our share repurchase program. And if you look at our EBITDA and the multiple of 3.7 that EBITDA, we think the best use of our cash is on our share repurchase, but we'll continue to evaluate dividend as time passes.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay, very good. Thank you for your time. Appreciate it.

Steve Fife

Chief Financial Officer

Thanks Ron.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Henry List who is a Private Investor. Please go ahead. And Mr. List, your line is open. Please check your mute button. And Mr. List, if you can hear me your line is open. Please check your mute button. Okay. And it appears we have no further questions, so I would like to turn the call to Mr. Darren Jensen for any additional or closing remarks.

Darren Jensen

Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. This is an exciting time at LifeVantage. And as we continue to progress through this transformative year making strides with our 2018 initiatives, we're beginning to see the fruits of our labor and are encouraged as a better position the company for the future. We look forward to updating you on our next call. Have a wonderful day.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call, and we thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.