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Super Micro Computer, Inc. (SMCI)

Q2 2016 Earnings Call· Thu, Jan 28, 2016

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Super Micro Computer Incorporated Second Quarter Fiscal 2016 Conference Call. The company's news release issued earlier today is available from its website at www.supermicro.com. In addition, during today's call, the company will refer to the 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 & Presentations tab. During the company's presentation, all parties 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 Thursday, January 28, 2016. A replay of the call will be accessible until midnight, Friday, February 11, by dialing 1-877-870-5176 and entering conference ID number 3488698. 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. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Hayes. Please go ahead, sir.

Perry G. Hayes - Senior Vice President-Investor Relations

Management

Good afternoon and thank you for attending Super Micro's conference call on financial results for the second quarter fiscal year 2016, which ended December 31, 2015. 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 event and presentations tab. Please turn to slide two. Before we start, I'll remind you that our 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 2015, and our other SEC filings. All of those documents are available from the Investor Relations page of Super Micro's website. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Most of today's presentation will refer to non-GAAP financial results and outlooks. 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 - Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Management

Thank you, Perry, and good afternoon, everyone. Please turn to slide four. First, let me provide you with the highlights of our fiscal second quarter. Second quarter revenue was $639 million, another record high for Super Micro. It's 23% higher quarter-over-quarter and 27% higher year-over-year. Super Micro is a long-term, very high growth company. We have grown five times since Q1 2009. We are on target for meeting our fiscal 2016 revenue and growth rate projection of greater than 20%. Our calendar quarter is above target, as well as our year-to-date fiscal first half performance. Non-GAAP net income was $38 million and was 13.4% higher, compared to last year. Super Micro's non-GAAP earnings per share was $0.73 per diluted share, compared to $0.32 last quarter, or $0.65 last year. In the seasonally strong second quarter, our growth rate was more than four times the industry's average, and we continue to strongly increase market share. Our growth was mainly driven by our Complete System Solutions, which account for 71% of our total revenue in the quarter. We also saw growth across our strategic verticals, with the cloud and Internet data center representing 30% of total revenue. Storage solutions, again, showed strong growth, up 58% from last year and now accounts for 21% of total revenue. These high-growth segments have contributed to our strong business growth. We have been securing new design-wins with superior first-to-market technology and application optimization. They are keys to our winning strategy for our Completed Systems and Solutions. A couple of strong examples of growing partnerships in this quarter include a Fortune 50 company that started to shift new private cloud and storage appliance with our high-storage density and NVMe supported twin architectures. Another Tier 1, also a new big customer, kind of big data Internet company who…

Howard Hideshima - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Thank you, Charles. And good afternoon, everyone. I will focus my remarks on earnings, gross margins, operating expenses, and similar items on a non-GAAP basis, which reflects adjustments to exclude stock compensation expenses. 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 the review of the second quarter income statement. Please turn to slide seven. Revenue was a record $639 million, up 27% from the same quarter a year ago, and up 23% sequentially. The increase in revenues from last year was primarily due to our increase in Server Solutions, which was up 50.1% led by our growth in cloud datacenter of 86.3% and storage of 58.4% year-over-year. On a geographic basis, we had strong growth in the U.S., up 41.9%, as well as growth in parts of Europe and Asia. Our Services and Software revenue have grown by over 100%. The sequential increase in revenues was primarily due to our continued execution of our business model and seasonal strength. Our direct customer business was up 45%, while our distributor revenue was up 8%. Complete Servers was up 50.1%, while subsystems and accessory business was down 7.7%. Our cloud datacenter business grew 48.3% as we grow our existing relationships and establish new relationships. Turning to product mix. The proportion of revenues from server systems was 71% of total revenues, which was up from 60.1% in the same quarter a year ago and up from 68.6% last quarter. ASPs per servers was $4,400 per unit, which is up from $3,900 last year and from $4,100 last quarter. We shipped approximately 102,000 servers in the quarter and 1,093,000 subsystems and accessories. It's the first time we…

Charles Liang - Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Operator

Thank you, Howard. 2016 is shaping up to be a year of robust growth for Super Micro. We see huge opportunities as the market shifts toward software-defined, big data, and cloud-based solutions where Super Micro had great track record of leveraging our solid engineering foundation to produce innovative products and services for those market. We are on target for meeting our fiscal 2016 revenue and growth rate projection of greater than 20%, and with that, I'm confident we will continue to outperform the market and grow multiple times faster than the rest on the industry, most short-term and long-term. Operator, at this time, we are ready for questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, sir. And we'll go first to Aaron Rakers with Stifel. Joseph Quatrochi - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Okay. Great. This is Joe Quatrochi on for Aaron. Just a couple of questions if I could. Maybe first start with what type of growth did you see in China? I noticed that you said the Taiwanese facility utilization was, I think, basically flat sequential basis. So maybe the growth in China and then how do we think about the Taiwanese facility utilization going forward?

Charles Liang - Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Operator

Yes. I mean, indeed, we had a very aggressive improvement in our sales and support force in Europe. And now, with global operation, we will support Europe partially from Asia. So, the Asia facility integration will improve. And at the same time, we also started to support some strategic cuts more in Asia, including China. So our utilization rate for Taiwan facility should start to grow gradually. Joseph Quatrochi - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Okay. And then maybe as a follow-up, can we talk a little bit about the OpEx? I think sales and marketing as well as G&A were up quite a bit sequentially. I was hoping you could talk about the drivers there and how we think about that going forward?

Howard Hideshima - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Yeah. Joseph, one of the larger changes between the G&A incline will be the foreign ex that you saw that I mentioned on the call. It's about $2.4 million of delta between the quarters. In September, we had a $1.8 million of foreign exchange, and in the December quarter, we had a loss of about $600,000. So, that – you can see about a $2.4 million delta with regards to the expenses in that period. Joseph Quatrochi - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Okay. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Mark Kelleher with D.A. Davidson. Mark D. Kelleher - D.A. Davidson & Co.: Great. Thanks for taking the questions. Congratulations on a strong quarter. Could you just kind of lay out what you're expecting from the Broadwell transition? Are we expecting an upgrade cycle? And it sounded like you're expecting that to kind of come into play in the June quarter. What are you looking for there?

Charles Liang - Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Operator

Okay. Indeed, we have a very strong Broadwell product line. And it's pretty much all available now. And we already sent a sample to lots of customers. However, as Intel obviously announced it won't be available every date this quarter. That's why we do not expect a lot of revenue contribution to this quarter, but that will happen in June quarter for sure. Mark D. Kelleher - D.A. Davidson & Co.: Okay. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Matt Dhane with Tieton Capital Management.

Matthew Walter Dhane - Tieton Capital Management LLC

Analyst · Tieton Capital Management

Great. Thank you. I was curious. Are you gaining traction like wins with some of the larger cloud customer that you heard, previously weren't able to penetrate? I heard you call out a couple of bigger wins and it sounds like that you're gaining traction there? Was I hearing correctly?

Charles Liang - Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Operator

Yes. Indeed. For our cloud based and big data driven company, we recently won favor of them and that high volume deployment is happening I believe is done now and much more will happen again June quarter.

Howard Hideshima - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Just to reiterate we did grow about 86% year-over-year so we are gaining as I mentioned, I think, more customers and growing with our existing customers as well.

Matthew Walter Dhane - Tieton Capital Management LLC

Analyst · Tieton Capital Management

Okay. Great. And the customer that you did finally penetrate what led to them finally to choosing to work with you? What was the final item that pushed them over and won them into your camp.

Charles Liang - Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Operator

Indeed. Some of them have been using our platform before. And now they find that hey, our computer system is even much better. And at the time is brand new. So we won from both segment.

Matthew Walter Dhane - Tieton Capital Management LLC

Analyst · Tieton Capital Management

And is there some of the other larger cloud players that haven't previously used you that are on the cusp from your perspective and maybe getting close to finally moving forward and using you in a meaningful way.

Howard Hideshima - Chief Financial Officer

Management

I think we have opportunities in a number of different customers, I think, in the cloud. And like I said, our applications and our solutions play very well. So I think there's great opportunities for us in a variety of different verticals of our servicing.

Matthew Walter Dhane - Tieton Capital Management LLC

Analyst · Tieton Capital Management

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Rich Kugele with Needham. Kimberly C. Donovan - Needham & Co. LLC: Hi, this is actually Kim Donovan for Rich Kugele. Thanks for taking my questions. What phase of buildout are you in for the San Jose facility?

Howard Hideshima - Chief Financial Officer

Management

We're in phase two. Kim, we completed phase one of a five phase program and now we're on phase two.

Charles Liang - Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Operator

Phase one just starting (28:23). And that's an another reason why we are able to enable another couple of big customer. And phase two we just begun two months ago. We'll be done by end of this year. Kimberly C. Donovan - Needham & Co. LLC: Okay. Great. And can you speak to your confidence in hitting $3 billion in revenue in 2017?

Charles Liang - Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Operator

Should be pretty positive. Kimberly C. Donovan - Needham & Co. LLC: Great. Thank you.

Howard Hideshima - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we'll go next to Nehal Chokshi with Maxim Group.

Nehal Sushil Chokshi - Maxim Group LLC

Analyst · Maxim Group

Thank you. Very impressive on your free cash flow generation, looks like it was driven by a tightening of the cash conversion cycle that you talked about, despite the 500 basis point Q-on-Q increase (29:07) customer exposure. So can you talk a little bit about more – about what you did to accomplish this and are the changes sustainable? I.e. is this a new cash conversion cycle that we should be modeling going forward?

Howard Hideshima - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Nehal, this is Howard. I mean cash conversion cycle again is somewhat seasonally driven at times too we are obviously continuing to focus on our cash conversion cycle, but we are as we continue to remind folks a very high growth company, so again, it will vary from time to time.

Nehal Sushil Chokshi - Maxim Group LLC

Analyst · Maxim Group

Okay. If you look at over the course of the year though on a year-over-year basis, the cash conversion cycle has been increasing, but I think this is a first time in a while that actually not increasing, I think, it's actually come down a bit here. So do you feel like on a year-over-year basis, it can be stable?

Howard Hideshima - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Certainly, on an annual basis. I think you'll see a little bit more stability in that. Part of that has to do with – also though the growth in our business. We're seeing great opportunities out there to actually invest as Charles mentioned here to invest in our facilities but I think we have great opportunity there and keep catching (30:29).

Nehal Sushil Chokshi - Maxim Group LLC

Analyst · Maxim Group

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we'll go next to Alex Kurtz with Sterne Agee.

Alex Kurtz - Sterne Agee CRT

Analyst · Sterne Agee

Hey, guys? How are you doing?

Charles Liang - Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Operator

Good Alex.

Howard Hideshima - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Pretty Good.

Alex Kurtz - Sterne Agee CRT

Analyst · Sterne Agee

Howard just want to dial-in on the OpEx here for the March quarter. I'm trying to understand is FX impact. I mean we should be modeling down sequentially on OpEx into March. Obviously, on the seasonal weakness in your revenue. But there's some other factor that would also compound the decline in OpEx from December to March.

Howard Hideshima - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Well, actually there's two factors that we talked about. The FX, we took a loss of about $600,000 in the December quarter. It depends upon what the FX rate will be at the end of the quarter.

Alex Kurtz - Sterne Agee CRT

Analyst · Sterne Agee

Great.

Howard Hideshima - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Right now it looks positive, but it depends on that. The other thing, I'll remind you guys is again employment tax and those things get reset as of December 31. So they come back into play in the March quarter. So that will add a bit to the OpEx.

Alex Kurtz - Sterne Agee CRT

Analyst · Sterne Agee

Okay. Should we be thinking about OpEx somewhere between what you did in September and what you did in December just looking at the midpoint of revenue?

Howard Hideshima - Chief Financial Officer

Management

I think we haven't given guidance there. But at the end of the day, like I said, I think it's about – I take out the lease look at the foreign ex and you can model that whichever way you like it.

Alex Kurtz - Sterne Agee CRT

Analyst · Sterne Agee

Right.

Howard Hideshima - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Okay.

Alex Kurtz - Sterne Agee CRT

Analyst · Sterne Agee

Okay. And then on the gross margin, I mean obviously very strong in December here because of the higher revenue, I expect obviously margin to come down on the lower revenue for March or is it something else going on with the mix where you could be above 16%?

Howard Hideshima - Chief Financial Officer

Management

For the March quarter are you talking about.

Alex Kurtz - Sterne Agee CRT

Analyst · Sterne Agee

Yeah. I'm just saying given the strength you had in December, right. Should we – is there a chance that it could be flat on margin sequentially or how are you thinking about that at least?

Howard Hideshima - Chief Financial Officer

Management

I think as we look at the drivers for our margin, there's a couple of things I've mentioned on the call. One is the scale of our business growing, the scale of our business per se (32:47) queue us and the first in power that we came from that utilization as we've always talked is one of those other things too that as we utilized our facilities a bit more, we get benefits from that. Certainly, there's opportunities, but also March is usually a very seasonally weak quarter for the industry as I've modeled that. So, looking back at our history, you'll see some perturbations in our margins between quarters. I think if you look back in December last year comparatively to March, I think you'll see about 50 basis point swing between the two quarters.

Alex Kurtz - Sterne Agee CRT

Analyst · Sterne Agee

Okay. All right. That's helpful. Thanks, guys.

Howard Hideshima - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Okay.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. 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 comments.

Charles Liang - Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Operator

Thank you for joined us today, and we look forward to talking to you again at the end of this quarter. Thank you, everyone. Have a great day.