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Super Micro Computer, Inc. (SMCI)

Q3 2011 Earnings Call· Tue, Apr 26, 2011

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Super Micro Computer Incorporated Third Quarter Fiscal 2011 Conference Call. The company’s news release issued early today is available from its website at www.supermicro.com. In addition, during today’s call the company will refer to a slide presentation that is made available to participants, which can be accessed in a downloadable PDF format on its website at www.supermicro.com in the Investor Relations section under the Events and Presentations tab. During the company’s presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, securities analysts and institutional portfolio managers will be invited to participate in a question-and-answer session, but the entire call is open to all participants on a listen-only basis. As a reminder, this call is being recorded today, Tuesday, April 26, 2011. A replay of the call will be accessible until midnight May 10th by dialing 1-877-870-5176 and entering conference ID number 2371871. International callers should dial 1-858-384-5517. With us today are Charles Liang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Howard Hideshima, Chief Financial Officer; and Perry Hayes, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. And now I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Hayes. Mr. Hayes, please go ahead, sir.

Perry G. Hayes

Management

Good afternoon, and thank you for attending Super Micro’s conference call on financial results for the third quarter fiscal year 2011, which ended March 31, 2011. By now, you should have received a copy of today’s news release that was distributed at the close of regular trading and is available on the company’s website. As a reminder, during today’s call, the company will refer to a presentation that is available to participants in the Investor Relations section of the company’s website under the Events and Presentations tab. Please turn to slide two. Before we start, I’ll remind you that remarks include forward-looking statements. There are a number of risk factors that could cause Super Micro's future results to differ materially from our expectations. You can learn more about these risks in the press release we issued earlier this afternoon, our Form 10-K for fiscal 2010, and our other SEC filings. All of these documents are available from the Investor Relations page of Super Micro’s website at www.supermicro.com. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Most of today’s presentation will refer to non-GAAP financial results and outlook. For an explanation of our non-GAAP financial measures, please refer to slide three of this presentation or to our press release published earlier today. In addition, a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP results is contained in today’s press release and in the supplemental information attached to today’s presentation. I’ll now turn the call over to Charles Liang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Charles Liang

Chairman

Thank you, Perry, and good afternoon everyone. Please turn to slide four. First, let me provide you with highlights of our third quarter. We are pleased that our third quarter revenue was $234.3 million or 24% higher year-over-year and 2.7% lower quarter-over-quarter. Non-GAAP net income was $12.3 million or 37.2% higher year-over-year and 8.1% lower than last quarter. Super Micro’s non-GAAP earnings per share was $0.28 per diluted share compared to $0.21 last year and $0.31 last quarter. Slide five, please. Now, I would like to share with you some key points regarding our operating performance in the third quarter. We are pleased that we increased our revenue year-over-year by nearly 24% in the March quarter. The March quarter is seasonally our industry’s soft piece quarter, and our strong performance in this quarter indicates that the IT market remains robust and continues to have momentum for our remainder of this calendar year. In the March quarter, due to the delay of Intel new chip, new single processor reach product. We were impacted by the timing of some key products for complete system solutions, which was strong in the previous quarter. However, we were able to grow other sub systems provision to offset this softness. We expected this demand for system solutions to be bunk in the upcoming quarter due to the enhanced season performance. We also experienced a additional impact from earthquake in Japan on a limit number of components, which affected some availability and price. For those certain components, we had planned second source and had been working with the supply chain to ensure availability at a basic cost going forward. Also, to a minor extent, we see some reduced revenue from Japan, which impacts our retail during March, but should not be a major factor going forward. Super…

Howard Hideshima

Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Charles, and good afternoon everyone. I will focus my remarks on earnings, gross margin, operating expenses and similar items on a non-GAAP basis, which reflects adjustments to exclude stock compensation expense. Reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP is included in the financial statements of the company in today’s earnings release and in the supplemental detail in the slide presentation accompanying this conference call. Let me begin with a review of the third quarter income statement. Please turn to slide eight. Revenue was $234.3 million, up 23.8% from the same quarter a year ago and down 2.7% sequentially. The increase in revenue from last year was due to the continuation of the server refresh cycle and the continuing ramping of our optimized products. The growth on a percentage basis was primarily in blades and GPU solutions. The sequential decrease in revenue was primarily due to seasonal weakness in the industry and a reduction in OEM and end customer orders from the December quarter. We expect some of the customers to increase orders during the seasonally strong June quarter. On a percentage basis, storage solutions was the highest increase from the prior quarter. Slide nine. Turning to product mix, the proportion of revenues from server systems was 31.8%, which was a decrease from 33.6% a year ago and 40.5% last quarter. ASP for servers was about $1400 per unit, which is down from about $1500, and $1600 per unit last year and last quarter respectively. The decrease in ASP during the quarter was primarily due to a decrease in volumes with some higher ASP projects from our OEM and end customers. We do expect some of these to return this quarter. The increase in absolute dollars on our server products from a year ago was primarily due to the increase in…

Charles Liang

Chairman

Thank you, Howard. As we entered the first quarter of our fiscal year, we’re confident that we have a strong quarter to complete the best year in our history. With our strong product line in storage, CPU, and server we’re well positioned to take advantage over the current IT market trends. In addition, we’re growing in all our geography market and especially in Asia. And finally we’re well prepared for upcoming technology change with innovation that will generate a new demand for Super Micro product. Operator, at this time we’re ready for questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, sir. (Operator Instructions) And we’ll take our first question from Aaron Rakers with Stifel Nicolaus. Aaron Rakers – Stifel Nicolaus: Yeah, thanks guys. Couple – one question and one follow up, I guess. As far as the effects that you guys had cites in this last quarter, I think it was and the timing of some refreshes or some launches from some of your partners and then also the effect both from Japan component supply as well as Japan as a contribution to revenue. Can you help us bridge the effects there quantitatively, how meaningful those items were?

Charles Liang

Chairman

Okay, I mean, yes, (inaudible) CPU around today, although that did almost one month. So there is a shift based on the (inaudible). And as for Japan earthquake, yes, we have some component regarding that impact. However, we have (inaudible) resource and also preparing more safety inventory. So pretty much we had no concerns about Japan earthquake anymore but we say that we for sure have a higher inventory that’s trying make sure to no other impact. Aaron Rakers – Stifel Nicolaus: Okay. And a follow-up from me is on the gross margin line, it would appear that given what you guys are saying about the guidance going into the next quarter, we’re not to assume any kind of real meaningful change in the gross margin line. So first of all, if that’s true – is that true? And then secondly, how should we anticipate the trajectory of gross margin here as you look to continue to ramp your international facilities and importantly looking into 2012 with the Taiwan facility ramp?

Charles Liang

Chairman

Okay. Like, in last couple of quarters, we share with you our Taiwan investment, right, in facility, in R&D, logistic. That for sure we have created some expense for us in short-term. And however, since improving quarter-after-quarter and now the Asia business have been growing, but in the economies of scale in Asia is very small relatively. So I believe we may need another two to three quarter to get a better economies of scale for Asia. Aaron Rakers – Stifel Nicolaus: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And next we will hear from Mark Kelleher with Dougherty & Company. Mark Kelleher – Dougherty & Company: Great, thanks for taking the question. You mentioned that you have some strength in the GPU systems in the quarter, the ASPs on servers came down a bit sequentially. Can you talk about which products drives that ASP up and which drive it down and what were some other dynamics there? I would see some of the Blade servers might have pulled it down a bit.

Howard Hideshima

Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, Mark, this is Howard. Like I say we had some projects that Charles alluded to a bit. We also have some customers from OEMs and end customers that delayed. So again we do expect some of those projects come back. I mean we are – the systems can vary from multiple thousands of dollars to less. So, the mix really just change for us from some of those customers. Mark Kelleher – Dougherty & Company: Okay and here is my follow-up question to you. I ask the inventory built it’s fairly substantial. Can you be more specific on what’s in there? Is that DRAM? What’s in there?

Charles Liang

Chairman

You are very familiar with these markets. Yes, I mean, there is a tremendous shortage from that Japan earthquake. We are keeping more memory, more hard drive and also more capacitor unless basically a high voltage capacitor to make sure we won’t have a shortage in Q2, I mean June quarter and even in September quarter. Mark Kelleher – Dougherty & Company: Okay, great. Thanks.

Charles Liang

Chairman

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Next we will hear from Rajesh Ghai with Thinkequity. Rajesh Ghai – Thinkequity: Yes, thanks and good afternoon. You mentioned that you expect your systems revenue as a percentage of total revenue to snap back next quarter. Can you just give me the factors that give you the confidence that it will snap back next quarter?

Charles Liang

Chairman

Okay. I mean again last quarter we have a couple of product line including our 2U storage product and there had been a six in last couple of weeks. So this quarter, I mean June quarter system shipments should be better than last quarter as to how many of it, Howard, do you have an idea?

Howard Hideshima

Chief Financial Officer

Rajesh, we stated our long-term goals to be about 50-50 and will be working our way through there. But again as June is a seasonally strong quarter for us. So again last quarter it was a weak quarter, some of the projects that we usually have full service solutions into were not there, they are coming back this quarter. Rajesh Ghai – Thinkequity: Okay. And as the list of pricing, can you talk about the pricing dynamics that you see at this point of time both for your product as well for components specifically memory and hard disk drives? Thank you.

Charles Liang

Chairman

Not much, but again to prevent shortage may happen right. So, we keep a higher inventory level and therefore sure we pay a little higher, again not too much higher. Rajesh Ghai – Thinkequity: And in terms of pricing comparatively, compared to your competitors?

Charles Liang

Chairman

I believe our economical scale, still relatively are smaller than our main competitor and that’s why we have been consistently growing our share. And last year, we grew 43%, this year which we foresee a good year in much share growth as well, including our investment in Asia, not only try to grow our market share. So that long-term we would be stronger in purchase and buying power. Rajesh Ghai – Thinkequity: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And next we’ll hear from Glenn Hanus with Needham & Company. Glenn Hanus – Needham & Company: Hi, guys. Let me just take another crack at the – can you give us a sense of the – I mean, data center spending is pretty strong, you came in at the low-end of the range, should we assume that absent the delays in Sandy Bridge that you might have been towards the upper end of your range based on demand or is that too positive?

Howard Hideshima

Chief Financial Officer

No, I don’t think that’s too positive at all. I think some of the things that Charles reiterated here, and we reiterate it with regards to delays caused. Again, we’re talking, our range is about – we’re at 134, we’re at 135 to 145, I mean, take a look at that, that’s not far off. So some of these delays obviously would have put us right in there. Glenn Hanus – Needham & Company: And then the delays to date more impact the complete system solutions rather than the components, did the delay impact the mix in effect between solutions and components? Can you just help me understand that better?

Howard Hideshima

Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, if you look at our mix again, you saw that our systems revenues as a percent of our overall business went down from the December quarter to the March quarter. So again, I would put the impact more on that side of the fence. Glenn Hanus – Needham & Company: Yeah. I understand that. What I’m asking is did the Intel delay create that change in mix?

Charles Liang

Chairman

No. Indeed the major reason our ASP dropped because some key (inaudible) and we believe we will be purchasing in June quarter again. So March quarter somehow, yes, have a minimal order. Glenn Hanus – Needham & Company: Okay. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) And we’ll take a follow-up question from Aaron Rakers with Stifel Nicolas. Aaron Rakers – Stifel Nicolaus: Yeah, can you guys – just a follow-up on the Sandy Bridge stuff, can you talk a little bit about how we should think about the [DRAM] transition as we look out over the next couple of quarters from a timing perspective and any thoughts of how we should think about that from a margin profile perspective?

Charles Liang

Chairman

Yeah, I mean, our Intel Sandy Bridge by virtue is a big product line and whenever there are big product launch from our partner Nexenta, we have good chance for Super Micro to grow, because we’re now in new product trend to market. So, basically Sandy Bridge would be in production by Q4, I mean December quarter, but we’re kind of aggressively preparing for a product. So, basically maybe what I’ll say June is our traditional strong quarter and then second half of this year with Sandy Bridge launch for sure will be a good quarter for us. Aaron Rakers – Stifel Nicolaus: And then another question on the storage side of the business, obviously you’ve been talking about that and that growing quite rapidly. Are we a quarter or two away before you start to actually breaking that out? And on that topic, have you seen any effect from some of recent consolidation things going on in the storage industry, in particular NetApp buying LSI, have you engaged in new customer opportunities as it relates to that?

Charles Liang

Chairman

We have a very broad customer base for storage product. So basically the acquisition activity a couple – a few company in last two quarters, basically I would say no impact to us. Aaron Rakers – Stifel Nicolaus: Okay.

Charles Liang

Chairman

Our growth pretty much depends on our strong product line. Aaron Rakers – Stifel Nicolaus: Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And next we’ll have a follow-up question from Rajesh Ghai with Thinkequity. Rajesh Ghai – Thinkequity: Yes, thanks. So turning to your guidance, Howard, if I take the midpoint of your revenue and your midpoint of the EPS and back out operating margin, it comes to almost flat with last quarter. Can you kind of spread out the operating margin – operating expenses and gross margin assumptions for next quarter? If I understand, systems doesn’t – in your mix is going to go up and how does that kind of – how do you get to a flat operating margin with higher gross margin potentially?

Howard Hideshima

Chief Financial Officer

I believe, again, June quarter should be stronger to us, that’s tradition, all right. However, because of the earthquake in Japan, we still try to be conservative in case any shortage may happen. Otherwise, June quarter should be stronger than March quarter to us for sure. Rajesh Ghai – Thinkequity: Okay. And on the Netherlands facility, you mentioned Europe was strong. I’m just wondering what the utilization rate is at this point of time for your Netherlands facility? Is it 50% or more and have you seen any impact on – positive impact on gross margin as a result of the elimination of freight cost to Europe?

Howard Hideshima

Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, they’re both, Netherlands and Taiwan facility still under economies of scale and that’s why our Q1, we got some impact and the good thing is those utilization will consistently improve quarter-over-quarter. Rajesh Ghai – Thinkequity: And the Taiwan facility should be ramping by the end of June this year, is that the right information that I have?

Howard Hideshima

Chief Financial Officer

Taiwan, it is – also need to be more patient because our investment in Taiwan is very huge and long-term. I would rather say (inaudible) will be completed by December quarter and then next year we would see a better economies of scale for sure. Rajesh Ghai – Thinkequity: Okay. And when does Intel start its Sandy Ridge DP allocation, is it September quarter or could it be – it’s in the September quarter, but is it going to be end of September or is it going to be earlier in that quarter?

Charles Liang

Chairman

I believe the high volume will be Q4. Rajesh Ghai – Thinkequity: Q4, okay. Thank you so much.

Charles Liang

Chairman

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll take our next follow-up question from Glenn Hanus with Needham & Company. Glenn Hanus – Needham & Company: As you look at your Internet data center business, would you foresee that (inaudible) this 9% range for couple of quarters, would you – as we look out into next fiscal year, would you foresee that growing into double-digits?

Howard Hideshima

Chief Financial Officer

I believe we will be consistently growing (inaudible). Glenn Hanus – Needham & Company: I’m sorry. I just – I didn’t understand.

Howard Hideshima

Chief Financial Officer

I guess will be double-digit very soon. Glenn Hanus – Needham & Company: Okay, okay. Howard, back on operating expenses, I mean, I had modeled up this quarter sequentially in OpEx, it looks like you came in under in all my categories, did – was that just a function of revenues or was – is there something that changed during the quarter in your operating expense expansion?

Howard Hideshima

Chief Financial Officer

Again, two areas. One is we spend a lot of AFO and resource in developing Sandy Bridge for the big launch that will happen in Q4. And secondly, our growing expense in Asia to make sure our foundation in Asia is strong enough. Glenn Hanus – Needham & Company: Okay, thank you.

Operator

Operator

And it appears at this time, we have no further questions. I’d like to turn the call back over to Mr. Liang for any additional or closing remarks.

Charles Liang

Chairman

Thank you for joining us today and we’re looking forward to talking to you again at the end of this quarter. Thank you everyone. Have a great day.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. That does conclude the Super Micro third quarter fiscal year 2011 conference call. We do appreciate your participation. You may now disconnect at this time. Thank you.