Earnings Labs

LifeVantage Corporation (LFVN)

Q4 2018 Earnings Call· Wed, Aug 15, 2018

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to today's conference call to discuss LifeVantage's Fourth Quarter and Full Year Fiscal 2018 Financial Results. [Operator Instructions] Hosting today's conference will be Scott Van Winkle with ICR. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. And now, I'd like to turn the conference over to Mr. Van Winkle. Please go ahead, sir.

Scott Van Winkle

Analyst

Great. Thank you, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to LifeVantage Corporation's conference call to discuss results for the fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2018. On the call today from LifeVantage will be -- with prepared remarks are Darren Jensen, Chief Executive Officer; and Steve Fife, Chief Financial Officer. By now, everyone should have access to the earnings release, which went out this afternoon at approximately 4:05 p.m. Eastern time. If you've not received the release, it's available on the Investor Relations portion of Lifevantage's website at www.lifevantage.com. The call is being webcast, and 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 current expectations of the company's management and involve inherent risk 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, August 15, 2018. LifeVantage assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking projection that may be made in today's release or call. Now I will turn the call over to the company's CEO, Darren Jensen.

Darren Jensen

Analyst · Slater Capital

Thank you, Scott, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm pleased to join you today to discuss our fourth quarter results. We ended the fiscal year on a strong note with accelerated sales growth, improved profits and most importantly, what I believe is sustainable momentum. The fourth quarter was our strongest quarter of the year in terms of sales, earnings, active member counts and revenue growth. We also increased retention rates, average order size and subscription rates. We had a very strong response to our most recent digital rollout, and there is still more to come. Everyone at LifeVantage worked hard over the last year to implement the 8 key initiatives that we believe are driving and transforming our business. I would like to thank everyone in the LifeVantage family who has worked diligently towards the transformation we have undertaken and contributed to our improved financial performance. With that said, we are not done yet. We have a plan in place for fiscal 2019 to further build upon the recent momentum, doubling down on key initiatives and further strengthening our foundation. Before I discuss our goals for 2019, let me recap what we've accomplished thus far, which is evident in our fourth quarter results. During the quarter, we generated $54 million of revenue, up 6.7% year-over-year and up 6.9% sequentially. We produced good growth domestically and across our international markets. We reported $0.20 of adjusted EPS in the fourth quarter and exceeded the high end of our full year earnings guidance range. Recall that our key initiatives in 2018 were focused on increasing average order size, geographical expansion and distributor and customer acquisition. During the fourth quarter, our average order size increased 11.9% from the prior year, driven by the success of our stacking initiative. Stacks represented 17% of sales during the…

Steven Fife

Analyst · Slater Capital

Thank you, Darren and good afternoon, everyone. I am pleased to report our fourth quarter results. We generated another quarter of an improved revenue growth and good margin performance that is driving stronger earnings, EBITDA and cash flow. Let me run through the results for you, and please note that I will be addressing and discussing our non-GAAP adjusted results. You can refer to the GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation in today's press release for additional detail. Fourth quarter revenue was $54 million, representing a 6.7% increase year-over-year and a 6.9% sequential increase when compared to the third quarter of 2018. Revenue in the Americas increased 4.7% to $40.5 million, and revenue in Asia/Pacific and Europe increased 13.3% to $13.5 million, all year-over-year. Both regions also reported growth on a sequential basis, with revenue in the Americas increasing 6.6% and revenue in Asia/Pacific and Europe increased 7.8%. Adjusted gross margin was 38 -- sorry, 83.5%, which includes the benefit of a change in estimated accrued import liabilities. This compares to 82.4% for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017 where there were no adjustments to gross margin. The increase was driven by reduced costs associated with inventory obsolescence, the benefit of a price increase and changes to product and market mix. Commissions and incentive expenses as a percent of sales increased 274 basis points to 50.1% compared to 47.4% in the prior year period. Commission and incentives expense was higher this quarter due to the success of our Red Carpet program and Pacesetter promotion during the fourth quarter as well as the typical variations that occur based on revenue mix each period. Our target for commissions and incentive remains 48%, which can fluctuate based on the timing of promotion and incentive programs. Adjusted SG&A as a percent of sales were 26.6%, compared…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And we'll take our first question from Steven Martin with Slater Capital.

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater Capital

Your revenue guidance, given your current quarter, is a -- seems a little conservative. Is there something about the next couple of quarters and sales that you need to disclose or talk to us about? And related to that, can you talk about China and how it's progressing?

Steven Fife

Analyst · Slater Capital

Yes. Let me take the guidance question first. Yes. So we are happy with how the fourth quarter ended for sure, and historically, the fourth quarter is a seasonally strong quarter for us. We -- as we looked at guidance, we looked at the trends that we're on, we looked at -- historically, our record high for the company is roughly $214 million, and so the guidance that we've provided is -- the midpoint of our guidance is above our record for the company and we're trying to set some realistic expectations here coming out at the beginning of the year. We hope to be able to provide guidance during the year where that increases, but we also want to just level set and make sure that we don't get carried away with ourselves here at the beginning of the year.

Darren Jensen

Analyst · Slater Capital

Steve, this is Darren. I'll answer your second question, dealing with China. I think I've said on previous calls that Mainland China is a brand-new model for us, and we're about 5 months into it and it's really a slower build until we get the new model dialed in, and we attract the right mix of social marketers. We are very excited about finishing the roll out of our Greater China launch, which includes Taiwan, so when we look at Greater China, it's Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland. And we launched Taiwan in late June, and these 3 markets really work together synergistically. And from what we're seeing, the initial responses coming out of Taiwan, I have hopes that by the end of fiscal '19 that, that market specifically will be tracking as probably our third largest market. So as a region, we're seeing good movement but we're still trying to dial in that Mainland China piece right now.

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater Capital

As a follow-up on the first quarter, you're having 3 events. Does that mean revenues will be skewed up and expenses, likewise?

Steven Fife

Analyst · Slater Capital

Yes. I mean, we do generate revenue from our events. I'd say offsetting that is that our first quarter is also a seasonally low quarter for us. So we've got benefit from the events offset a little bit by seasonality, and expenses will clearly be up because of the events.

Darren Jensen

Analyst · Slater Capital

We also on our -- also on that -- on our Japan event, it was also during the middle of a national disaster with the heavy rain storms that they were having. So that did affect attendance a little bit.

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater Capital

Okay. Now if you have 3 in the first quarter, is there a flip comparison in the second quarter?

Steven Fife

Analyst · Slater Capital

A what comparison? Sorry. Flip -- well, in the second quarter, we actually will be having our global convention. Our convention cycle right now, we are on a 18-month cycle. So during fiscal '18, we did not have a global convention. We had 3 Elite Academies. But in fiscal '19, we have added -- we will have a Global Convention, which has a higher cost to us and also a higher revenue, typically. But -- and also, a couple of other events during fiscal '19 that were not held in fiscal '18.

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater Capital

Okay. You don't say specifically how many shares you bought back or if you bought back shares. Do you think possibly you could include that in your -- in the press release going forward?

Steven Fife

Analyst · Slater Capital

Yes. So we purchased just over -- right around the $1 million of shares during the quarter, $1.5 million for the year. And we've disclosed that in our 10-K, I think it was about 300,000 shares for the year.

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater Capital

Okay. And now that you've had some more time, and you know I ask this question on a regular basis, what do you think -- given your guidance for the year, what do you think your target level inventory would be?

Steven Fife

Analyst · Slater Capital

Yes. I -- we've got some new product launches. I mentioned that our target for inventory turns is 3x, which takes us back several years to where we were kind of rocking and rolling. We've got some headwinds to hit that number because we are launching some new products during the year, and we are also expanding our current product line geographically. So we fully expect that by the end of the year, we'll be tracking close to that 3x turn.

Operator

Operator

We'll now take our next question from [ Jim Galloway ], private investor.

Unknown Attendee

Analyst

My question regards, if we see anything on the horizon that is going to help people understand what we're doing, in that our products are different and so we're educating people. I mean, I don't see any other product out there, Nrf2. I don't see another [indiscernible] type thing. Is there anything that's going to help us with the general public recognizing the benefit of our products?

Darren Jensen

Analyst · Slater Capital

Jim, this is Darren. Let me answer that for you. Over the last, I'd probably 5 months or 6 months, we've been working with our distributor leadership councils and -- in looking for ways to better tell the story in a quick, efficient way. Much of our business now, in the way that our distributors are prospecting, is through social media, using attraction marketing through digital forms. And so they've been asking for an easy way to prospect and to explain about not just about Nrf2 technology but all of our technology. And I think just recently at one of our major events in Anaheim, I don't know if it was a month ago or so, we released a brand-new video, an animated video that we worked with in conjunction with the build. And so far, at least a lot of the test marketing we've had and initial response from that has been very positive, and we've seen some good results with it. So what you're asking for -- we already released that as well as the continued rollout of our digital program that also offers additional tools to people, the prospect and to communicate with people. So that's where we're at.

Unknown Attendee

Analyst

Okay. One last question is, what has the success been on the new customers we're getting through the conversion of the RSL type of call ins?

Darren Jensen

Analyst · Slater Capital

It's been very good, as a matter of fact. The success has been great. The main focus on that was not necessarily the customers per se, it was the directing of where those customers go in that they are sent to newer people in our business that are actively engaged and are growing their business, because we know that through doing statistical analysis of our distributor force that if somebody can get a customer early on in their business, the retention rate and the lifetime value of that distributorship as well as their potential to rank advance increases tremendously. And so that's where this program becomes so effective at bringing in new customers and then as we reroute those to new emerging distributors and leaders within the build, that has been very successful for us.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And we'll take a follow-up from Steven Martin with Slater Capital.

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater Capital

Yes. Guys, with respect to China and the methodology you're using for product distribution, how will that affect your active independent distributor count and your active customer count? Since you don't really have distributor today.

Darren Jensen

Analyst · Slater Capital

Well -- Steve, this is Darren. Initially, they would be included in our general usage numbers -- active consumer numbers. And in time as that area becomes more mature, we break those out and give separate numbers for them.

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater Capital

Right. But if you've got an opinion leader who's driving people, customers to your website, okay, is the opinion leader going to be a distributor and the individuals be customers? Or there won't be a distributor, you'll just have more customers?

Darren Jensen

Analyst · Slater Capital

We don't have any distributors within China. There are social influencers, social marketers. So they would be considered more of a customer.

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater Capital

Right. But again, Let me -- I'm trying to understand how I should expect these numbers to change over time. The social marketers aren't going to be the customers, the customers are going to be the people who come directly to you for product.

Darren Jensen

Analyst · Slater Capital

Correct. So what you'll see is higher customer numbers.

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater Capital

Right. That's what I was getting at. So you -- but in Hong Kong and Taiwan, you'll actually have distributors. But in Mainland China, you won't have any distributors?

Darren Jensen

Analyst · Slater Capital

Correct. Hong Kong and Taiwan are on our standard network marketing model. China is on a cross-border e-commerce model. So they will be reflected as customers.

Steven Martin

Analyst · Slater Capital

Okay. That's what I was trying to get at. So like looking at these numbers, it will skew your -- it will mute your independent distributor growth even though China will grow in revenues?

Darren Jensen

Analyst · Slater Capital

Correct. You'll see higher customer numbers.

Operator

Operator

And that does conclude today's question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Darren Jensen for any additional or closing remarks.

Darren Jensen

Analyst · Slater Capital

Thank you. I want to thank everyone for joining us today. As you have probably recognized, we're pleased with the business trends and are looking forward to an even stronger year in 2019, and we wish you all a great day. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And that does conclude today's conference. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.