Gregory R. Beecher
Analyst · Goldman Sachs
Thanks, Mike, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to first offer some perspective on our strong start to the year, including some comments on our model. Then I'll cover the more detailed first quarter highlights and second quarter guidance, and close with some summary comments. Looking at the strong start to the year. We're on course to have first half sales ranging from $890 million to $930 million. Recall that our sales over the last 2 years have averaged $1.5 billion a year. It wasn't too long ago in 2007 and '08 when using similar SOC test market sizes, we average annual sales closer to $1.1 billion. As you know, Eagle and Nextest played key roles in this earlier growth, along with our expansion into hard disk drive testing. Most recently, we added LitePoint into the fold in late 2011. LitePoint's contribution is expected to kick into a higher gear in the second quarter, along with a strong SOC test mobility demand on the UltraFLEX. So as Mike talked about, mobility is the key driver, which brings along wireless, power management, baseband and FLASH memory. We estimate that we have over 60% of the SOC test mobility buying and expect to gain additional mobility share with our UltraFLEX platform, and some of our recent mobility design wins have a considerable lag before they hit production. UltraFLEX, which is now coming back into the spotlight with a strong growth in mobility, was designed from the ground up to enable complex devices to get to market faster with easier to program software and deliver the highest throughput for these devices. We also have strong share in segments that are well below their average buying of the last 2 years, such as microcontroller, performance analog and automotive. So there is other SemiTest demand that has not kicked in yet, but we expect will pick up as the year unfolds. On the model front, recall in our October call, we update the model to include some additional engineering investment and distribution coverage in order to drive the next round of share growth. We said that at $350 million of quarterly sales, we'd expect a 15% non-GAAP EBIT and a healthy drop through beyond that level. We continue to operate on that model. And depending upon revenue level and product mix, the drop through can vary significantly. So the key take away is that, while we're maintaining strict financial discipline, the model does support our investments for additional growth, particularly in LitePoint. As a quick reminder, the primary swing factor in any one period against the model is the mix of business, given we have both large program buying and a wide range of products with different margins. In Q1, for example, the mix was heavy with storage test shipments, which weighed on gross margins. As you'd expect, there is a direct connection with the level of operating expenses that the different margin businesses consume. Namely, the lower margin businesses consume less than operating expenses. As you will recall, the standout growth business last year was storage test, delivering revenues of over $150 million. Before that, SemiTest share gains via Eagle and Nextest products with our distribution muscle were the main show. While storage test and semi continue to deliver quite nicely, we expect LitePoint to take some of the center stage. LitePoint gained about 4 points of share last year in a $1 billion test market that is growing about 10% a year. We expect LitePoint to continue to grow share this year from their current level in the low teens. LitePoint offers production-optimized solutions that enable brands and chipset companies to get their products the volume faster. In addition to gaining share, longer-term outlook is driven by 2 important trends. First, the number of wireless devices continues to grow at a midteens or higher rate. These devices range from the familiar smartphones, tablets and PC networks, to the perhaps less familiar networks connecting industrial equipment, household appliances and smart grids. Second, expanding demand for more information across many different forms of devices, like tablets, smartphones, laptops, eReaders, to name a few, is driving a need for new standards to deliver this growing data volume. In Wi-Fi, it's 802.11ac where the first wave of adoption will be in products that have higher power, such as PCs. In server, it's LTE. Both these new standards cannot be tested on the installed base testers. The higher performance requires new testers and the volume of data will also drive test times higher. So we have the combination of unit growth and technology refresh that extends over a few years, coupled with LitePoint's unique product lineup driving this business forward. Last year, LitePoint had sales of $130 million. And inside of Teradyne, its sales were $28 million, as we acquired them in the fourth quarter. This year, we're on track to meet our LitePoint sales target of $160 million or more. Now moving to the key highlights of the first quarter. We met our sales and earnings guidance with a top line of $397 million and non-GAAP EPS of $0.30. Storage test had a very strong start to the year, with its second-highest quarterly revenue in history. Moving to the demand side, SemiTest bookings grew $130 million, or 55%, to $363 million. SOC test orders were $335 million and Memory Test orders were $28 million in the first quarter. SemiTest service orders were $62 million, system test servers orders were $14 million. And overall, system test group orders came in at $53 million. Wireless test orders were $42 million in the quarter. In the first quarter, Semitest sales were 67% of the total, Systems Test group was 25% and wireless test was 8%. Our book-to-bill ratio for the first quarter was 1.2 to for the overall company, 1.4 for SemiTest, 0.5 for the system test group, and 1.3 for wireless test. At the end of the quarter, our backlog stood at $519 million, of which 85% is scheduled to ship and be recognized as revenue within the next 6 months. The top line of $397 million was up $100 million or 34% sequentially from the fourth quarter, SemiTest was $268 million, up $65 million or 32%, and Systems Test group was $98 million, up $32 million or 48%. Wireless test was $31 million, up 10%. We had 2 10% customers in the quarter, and our top 5 customers accounted for 42% of our first quarter sales. This level of concentration is unusual for us and reflects the strength in the mobility area. In the fourth quarter, for example, we had no 10% customers and the top 5 were 30% of our sales. Looking over a broader time period, in the last 8 quarters, we had 28 different customers among our top 10. So you can see we don't encounter the dense concentration that some equipment markets see. SemiTest product shipments increased 46% from a quarter ago. Within that $397 million, service revenue was $66 million, a $3 million decrease compared to the fourth quarter, due to a reduction in application demand. SemiTest service revenue was $51 million. Total company product turns business was 33% versus 38% a quarter ago. SemiTest product turns business was 37% versus 40% a quarter ago. Memory revenue was $22 million. Before I take you through some of the P&L details, I should quickly add that we've made a change in our accounting to mark our pension gains and losses to market versus spreading them into future periods. This has the impact of changing some of our historical results, and overall, will lower our quarterly cost about $2 million a quarter. In the fourth quarter, on the GAAP, there will also be an annual mark-to-market adjustment that will show up in the GAAP results only. We've added a reconciliation table to our website and more footnote disclosure in our release on the impact of this change. The fourth quarter comparison numbers that follow reflect this change and we've excluded the annual mark-to-market adjustment in our non-GAAP results for better comparability. Now moving down the P&L. Non-GAAP gross margins decreased from 50% in the fourth quarter to 49% in the first quarter due primarily to mix. The primary mix shift was a much greater percentage of hard disk drives sales, as customers accelerate purchases in part as a result of the Thailand flooding. R&D expenses were $60 million or 15% of sales compared to $53 million or 18% of sales in the fourth quarter. SG&A expenses were $68 million, or 17% of sales, compared to $62 million or 21% of sales in the fourth quarter. Operating expenses in total of $128 million were up $13 million from the fourth quarter non-GAAP numbers, driven by higher variable compensation and primarily, LitePoint growth investments. Our net non-GAAP interest and other expense was $2 million. We had a cash tax provision of $6 million or 9% in the first quarter. We expect a full year cash tax rate closer to 9%, down from our earlier estimate of 10% to 12%. Cash from operations used $16 million after capital additions. Recall that in the first quarter, we pay out the majority of employee variable compensation, and we had very low DSO at year-end of 40 days. On the capital allocation front, we have $169 million remaining under our authorized buyback, and we will remain opportunistic in the timing of buybacks to ensure that long-term shareholders are rewarded. We'll also continue to relook at our capital strategy to ensure we provide the best possible returns. On the M&A front, I want to first say that we very much like the portfolio of businesses that we have. There is nothing that is missing from a strategic perspective or any hole that we need to fill. We also recall that each business contributed model or better progress in 2011. So on the M&A front, apart from telling you we'll maintain our strict and disciplined criteria when evaluating opportunities, there is simply no predicting whether we find another good fit over the next few years. We expect to grow cash and marketable securities by about $90 million in the second quarter and end with a gross balance of $833 million. As noted in the press release, sales for the second quarter are expected to be between $490 million and $530 million, and the non-GAAP EPS range is $0.53 to $0.62 on $210 million diluted shares. I should point out that this guidance excludes the amortization of acquired intangibles, the non-cash imputed interest on the convertible debt and the inventory step-up charge related to the acquisition of LitePoint. Our GAAP EPS range is $0.31 to $0.37. The operating profit rate at the midpoint of our second quarter guidance is about 26%. Now moving to the P&L percentages in the second quarter. We expect non-GAAP gross margins to be 54%. R&D should be 14% to 13%, and SG&A should be 15% to 14%. Non-GAAP net interest expense is expected to be about $2 million. The cash tax provision should be $10 million to $12 million. In summary, 2012 is off to a great start, with our second highest HDD revenue in history per quarter, a very strong mobility market driving our SOC and LitePoint orders, and the potential for other market segments to pick up as the year unfolds. In this environment we'll stay focused on gaining share and maintaining financial discipline while also very selectively investing to drive our above industry rate of growth. Now I'll turn the call back over to Andy.