Meera Rao
Analyst · Needham & Company
Thank you. Good afternoon, and welcome to the first quarter 2012 Monolithic Power Systems conference call. Michael Hsing, CEO and Founder of MPS, is with me on today’s call.
In the course of today’s conference call, we will make forward-looking statements and projections that involve risk and uncertainty. These statements will cover a number of areas concerning our business outlook, including: our business and financial outlook for the second quarter of 2012,
Our expectations for second quarter litigation, stock-based compensation, and GAAP, and non-GAAP operating expenses projected second quarter revenues and gross margins. Our target operating ranges for gross margins and inventory, our expectations for revenue growth and gross margins beyond Q2, 2012, our expected average tax rate for 2012,
Our belief regarding the outcome of a pending IRS audit, our belief that MPS is well positioned for future growth. The expected seasonality of our business, our expectations for future product cost reductions, and new product introductions, potential customer acceptance of our products and opportunities these present and the prospects of diversification and expanding our market share.
Forward-looking statements are not historical facts, or guarantees of future performance or events, and are based on current expectations, estimates, beliefs, assumptions, goals, and objectives, and involve significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from the results expressed or implied by these statements.
Risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ are identified in our SEC filings, including, but not limited to our Form 10-K filed on March 12, 2012, which is accessible through our website, www.monolithicpower.com. MPS assumes no obligation to update the information provided on today’s call.
We will be discussing operating expense, net income, and earnings on both a GAAP and a non-GAAP basis. These non-GAAP financial measures are not prepared in accordance with GAAP, and should not be considered as a substitute for, or superior to, measure the financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.
A table that outlines the reconciliation between the non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures is included in our earnings release, which we have filed with the SEC. I would refer investors to the Q1, 2011, Q4, 2011 and Q1, 2012 releases. As well as to the reconciling tables, that are posted on our website.
I’d also like to remind you that today’s conference call is being webcast live over the Internet, and will be available for replay on our website for one year along with the earnings release filed with the SEC earlier today.
We would like to start this call by reviewing our first quarter highlights. Following this update, we will discuss our operating results. We will conclude by discussing our expectations for the second fiscal quarter of 2012. We will then open up the call to your questions.
Let’s start with the highlights. MPS had a stellar first quarter with revenues of $50.5 million. This is a record first quarter for MPS. It represents a 6.4% increase from the previous quarter instead of a typical seasonal drop of 5% to 10%.
MPS saw a strong demand fueled by our new design wins and market share gains in the communications, computing and industrial markets. The engineering and marketing initiatives that we have been executing for over a year continue to pay off and are driving further product innovation and design wins.
MPS has unique technology capabilities, product innovation and market focus has increased our served available market. Some of the more exciting developments are in the networking server and storage space. For the first time, MPS has been approved by Intel as a qualified vendor for their core power.
The MPS Intelli-Phase offering for the upcoming VR12.5 [indiscernible] platform is one of the few Monolithic Vcore solutions on the approved vendor list. We provide unmatched performance in efficiency, size and cost. Additionally, this has opened the door to work on future reference designs using other Monolithic high-power density product offerings.
We introduced our first digital Intelli-Phase in our Digi-Phase family of products targeted at server and networking applications. For the SSD and HDD markets, we are sampling a new generation of DC/DC products based on BCD-3 technology. We improved the product features and efficiencies, while reducing the cost and size. Some of these products have built in features requested by leading storage companies.
In the Industrial and Automotive market, we have increased our industrial application base to include the solar power market. Our automotive product portfolio has expanded with additional ACQ100 product offerings. We have another white goods design win in Europe. This was due to the low power green energy capability of a high voltage DC/DC product.
In lighting an AC/DC market, we have scored multiple design wins for our flicker free white LED dimming product and have started ramping production.
MPS is sampling a new generation of low power AC/DC products called Easy-Power family. These products simplify designs and save space for high volume, low-power applications.
Finally, in high volume consumer markets, our new generation of DC/DC products the Cool-Power family, continue to gain traction and increased market share in the legacy high-volume BCD Plus market.
Turning to the financial summary, we have record first quarter revenues, strong turns business boosted net sales to $50.5 million, above the high end of our guidance range. Revenue from industrial markets grew sharply in the first quarter by 37% over the prior quarter and 90% over the same quarter a year ago.
First quarter gross margin was 52.3% compared to gross margin of 52.5% in the prior quarter and up from 50.2% in the same quarter a year ago. Bottom line, non-GAAP net income was $6.1 million or $0.17 per fully diluted share.
Moving to the profit and loss statement, in the first quarter of 2012, net sales were $50.5 million. Q1 revenues increased $3 million or 6.4% from the prior quarter and were $6 million or 13.5% higher compared to the first quarter of the prior year.
Looking at our revenue by end market. Revenues from communications, industrial and computing markets grew both in dollars and as a percentage of total revenue. Sales breakdown as a percentage of total revenues by market was as follows: Communications was 25% of revenues, an increase from 23% and 22% in the fourth quarter and first quarter of 2011.
Computing represented 19% of revenues, an increase from 18% in the prior quarter and 13% in the first quarter of 2011. Industrial revenues totaled 9% of revenues, an increase from 7% and 6% in the fourth quarter and first quarter of 2011. Consumer sales represented 47% of revenues and decreased from 52% in the prior quarter and 60% in Q1 2011.
Communication market revenues grew to $12.5 million in the first quarter of 2012 from $11.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2011 and $9.9 million in the same quarter a year ago. Sales to gateway systems drove the increase in the communication market. The largest end markets in the communication space for MPS are gateways, networking, and telecom.
Computing market revenues were $9.4 million in Q1 2012 increasing from $8.4 million in the prior quarter and $5.6 million in Q1 2011. Strong growth in storage sales contributed to the increase in computing revenue. The largest end markets for MPS in the computing space are storage, notebooks, tablets and printers.
First quarter industrial and automotive revenues were $4.7 million compared to $3.5 million in the prior quarter and $2.5 million recorded in the first quarter of 2011. Industrial and automotive sales growth was fueled by industrial AMR meters, lighting, security, and automotive applications. The largest end markets in the industrial and automotive space for MPS are meters, automotive, lighting, and security.
Consumer sales were $23.9 million in the first quarter of 2012 compared to $24.5 million in the fourth quarter and $26.5 million in Q1 2011. The decline was attributed to lower TV sales, however, set top box revenues continue to hold strong and grow. The largest end market for MPS in the consumer space are set top boxes, TVs, monitors, handsets, and other general purpose consumer market.
Let’s move now to the gross margin line. Our first quarter gross margin was 52.3% compared to gross margin of 52.5% in the prior quarter. The slight gross margin fluctuation is tied to product mix change. First quarter gross margin is up from the 50.2% in the same quarter a year ago, largely due to higher absorption of in-house manufacturing overhead on higher revenues in Q1 2012.
Let’s review our non-GAAP operating expense. Excluding stock compensation, our non-GAAP operating expenses for the first quarter of 2012 were $20 million, up $500,000 from the $19.5 million we spent in the fourth quarter of 2011. First quarter non-GAAP R&D and SG&A spending increased $1.3 million from the prior quarter, mainly due to higher expenses related to sales and marketing hires, commissions on higher sales and higher audit and tax expenses. This increase was partially offset by about $800,000 lower litigation expenses in the first quarter, which included the benefit from the first payment received of $300,000 under a settlement and license agreement of $2 million.
Non-GAAP operating expenses for Q1 2012 were up $2.5 million from the $17.5 million we spent in the first quarter of 2011. The increase year-over-year was primarily driven by higher R&D spending in support of new product initiative. Sales and marketing hires, commissions on higher sales, and partially offset by lower litigation expenses. Our non-GAAP operating margin was 12.9% in the first quarter of 2012 compared with 11.6% in the prior quarter and 11% in the first quarter of 2011.
Moving on to our reported expenses and operating margins. Our GAAP operating expenses were $23.2 million in the first quarter compared to $22.5 million in the prior quarter and $20.4 million in the same quarter a year ago. Since the only difference between non-GAAP operating expenses and GAAP operating expenses for these quarters is stock compensation expense. Let’s look at the stock compensation expense.
The stock compensation expense was $3.2 million in the first quarter compared to $3 million in the prior quarter and $2.9 million in Q1 2011. Our GAAP operating profit was 6.3% in the first quarter of 2012 compared to our GAAP operating profit of 5.1% in the prior quarter.
Switching to the bottom line. On a GAAP basis, our Q1 2012 net income was $3 million or $0.08 per fully diluted share. On a non-GAAP basis, our Q1 2012 net income was $6.1 million or $0.17 per fully diluted share. This result is computed with an estimated tax rate of 7.5%. Fully diluted shares increased by 1.3 million shares from the 34.4 million shares in the prior quarter to 35.7 million shares in the first quarter of 2012. The increase in the fully diluted shares was largely driven by the increase in the average quarterly share price from $12.52 in Q4 2011 to $17.53 in Q1 2012. The increase in fully diluted shares was also due to refresh grants awarded in the quarter.
Now let’s look at the balance sheet. Cash, cash equivalents and investments were $194.6 million at the end of the first quarter 2012, up from $187.9 million at the end of 2011 and $193.3 million we had on the books at the end of the first quarter 2011.
In Q1, MPS had operating cash flow of about $8.5 million and cash proceeds of $4.1 million from option exercises by employees and employee stock plan purchases. We spent $5.9 million on headquarter building improvement, capital equipment and software in the first quarter.
Accounts receivable ended the first quarter at $19.9 million compared with $15.1 million at the end of the prior quarter and $17.6 million at the end of the first quarter of 2011. The increase in accounts receivables from Q4 2011 was largely due to the timing of revenues in the 2 quarters.
Days of sales outstanding were 36 days both in Q1 2012 and Q1 2011, and 29 days in Q4 2011. Our internal inventories at the end of the first quarter were $21.5 million or about 81 days of inventory on a historical basis, which is lower than our inventory model of 100 days to 110 days. This compares with $20.1 million or 81 days of inventory at the end of 2011. Inventory in our distribution channels stayed at about the same level as of prior quarter both in dollars and days and total days of distributor inventory was in the target range of 30 to 45 days.
Let’s turn to a discussion of general business conditions. Inventory in the channel continues to be lean. Order momentum that started in December continues, design wins and market share gains continue to contribute to revenue growth.
I would now like to turn to outlook for the second quarter of 2012. Our revenue guidance is in the range of $56 million to $60 million for the second quarter of 2012. We expect gross margin to be in the range of 52.5% to 54%. We expect stock-based compensation expense in the range of $4 million to $4.5 million.
In 2012, we implemented pay-for-performance equity compensation program for our key employees. As a result, we are required under the accounting rules to access the probability of hitting the performance metrics on a quarterly basis. This will add volatility to stock comp compared to the typical straight line approach associated with time-based grants.
We expect non-GAAP R&D and SG&A expense to be in the range of $20.5 million to $21.5 million. This estimate excludes the stock compensation estimate mentioned above. We expect litigation expense in the range of $100,000 to $300,000.
In conclusion, in 2012 we will further expand our technology leadership, expand the product roadmap and gain market share in targeted high-value growth markets. This will set MPS on track for sustainable growth in 2013 and beyond.
I’ll now open the microphone for questions.