Earnings Labs

NVE Corporation (NVEC)

Q1 2015 Earnings Call· Wed, Jul 23, 2014

$77.60

-1.90%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the NVE Conference Call on First Quarter Results. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we’ll conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at the time. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today’s conference, President and CEO, Dan Baker. Sir, you may now begin the conference.

Dan Baker

President and CEO

Thank you, and good afternoon. Welcome to our conference call for the quarter ended June 30, 2014 which was the first quarter of fiscal 2015. As always, I am joined by Curt Reynders, our Chief Financial Officer. This call is being webcast live and being recorded. A replay will be available through our Web site, nve.com. After my opening comments, Curt will present a financial review of the quarter, I’ll cover business and governance items, and we’ll open the call to any questions. In the past hour following the close of market, we filed our press release with the quarterly results and our quarterly report on Form 10-Q with the SEC. The filings are available through our Web site or the SEC’s Web site. Comments we may make that relate to future plans, events, financial results, or performance are forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including, among others, such factors as uncertainties related to the economic environments in the industries we serve, uncertainties relating to future revenue and growth, uncertainties related to future R&D contracts, risks related to developing marketable products, uncertainties relating to the revenue potential of new products, as well as the risk factors listed from time-to-time in our filings with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2014. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements we may make. We’re pleased to report by far the best quarter in our 25 year history with record revenue, product sales and earnings. Net income increased 57% to $0.83 per diluted share driven by a 40% increase in product sales. I’ll turn the call over to Curt to cover details of the financial results.

Curt Reynders

Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Dan. Total revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2015 increased 37% due to a 40% increase in product sales, partially offset by a 48% decrease in contract R&D revenue. The increase in product sales from the prior year quarter was due to new customers, increased purchase volume by existing customers and favorable order timing. We’re also seeing evidence of an improving semiconductor industry market. The decrease in research and development revenue was due to the completion of a contract and a continued challenging environment for new U.S. government contract funding. Gross margin increased to a record 82% of revenue compared to 78% last year, due to a more favorable revenue mix and a more favorable product sales mix. Total expenses decreased 5% for the first quarter of fiscal 2015 compared to the prior year quarter due to a 17% decrease in R&D expense, partially offset by a 14% increase in selling, general and administrative expense. The increase in SG&A was primarily due to increased sales commissions and performance-based compensation. The decrease in R&D expense was due to the completion of certain product development activities. Some R&D personnel were deployed in process engineering and their efforts can help improve yields and reduce product costs. Our non-operating income consisted of interest income which increased 4% for the first quarter due to an increase in interest bearing marketable securities, partially offset by a decrease in interest rates earned on reinvested funds. Net income for the first quarter increased 57% to a record $4.04 million, or $0.83 per diluted share, compared to $2.57 million or $0.53 last year. Margins were the best in our history. Gross profit margin was 82% of total revenue. Operating margin was 65%, pre-tax margin was 71 % and net margin was 48%. Our operations generated cash flow of $4.48 million for the quarter and as of June 30th, cash plus marketable securities increased to $100.2 million. Fixed asset purchases were $28,000 for the quarter and none for the prior year quarter. Investments both quarters were lower than most quarters in our history because we completed an upgrade of our production capabilities in 2013. Now I’ll turn it over to Dan for his perspective on our business. Dan?

Dan Baker

President and CEO

Thanks, Curt. I’ll cover R&D contracts, patents, product development, distribution and governance. As we’ve discussed before our growth strategy is new and improved products in the near-term and game changing extensions for the long-term. We have significantly increased R&D expenses the past three fiscal years to invest in the future. Contract R&D supports long-term growth with both new ideas such as biosensors. We continue to work on our National Science Foundation project grant titled “Real Time Detection for Salmonella” which has been extended into the current quarter. The project is to develop biosensors for enhanced food safety in cooperation with the University of Minnesota and the University of Florida. The goal of the project is to develop sensors for faster detection of food-borne pathogens compared to existing techniques while retaining sensitivity. We’re in discussions about commercial deployment with leading companies in the food industry, and we’re also considering applying for a Phase II NSF grant to help commercialize the technology. We are close to completing a Missile Defense Agency small business innovation research Phase I contract titled “Spintronics-based Physical Unclonable Functions” Our goal is to complete the contract this quarter. Physical Unclonable Functions, PUF or PUF is a function that’s embodied in a physical structure and is easy to evaluate but hard to predict and replicate. The proposal for spin PUFs is based on existing and future PUFs in spintronic devices. Possible commercial applications include high-speed encryption and security for consumer electronics. There is a link to an abstract approved by the MDA for public release from the, In The News page of our Web site. In the past quarter we continued R&D under our cooperative research and development agreement with the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane division for assessment of anti-tamper sensor technologies. Although the work is at…

Question

Management

and:

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) We’re showing no questions in the queue at this time.

Dan Baker

President and CEO

Well, if there are no questions, I’ll recap, that we were pleased to report the highest revenue, sales and earnings in our 25 year history. We look forward to seeing some of you at our Annual Meeting in a couple of weeks. And we plan to speak with you again in October to report second-quarter results. Thank you for participating in the call.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for attending today’s conference. This does conclude today’s program. You may now all disconnect, and have a wonderful day.