inTEST Corporation
Q4 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

Published: 5 Mar 2021

[Operator:]

Welcome to the inTEST Corporation 2020 Fourth Quarter Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct the question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. A replay will be accessible at www.intest.com. I will now turn the call over to inTEST Investor Relations Consultant, Laura Guerrant. Please go ahead.

[Laura Guerrant:]

Thank you, operator, and thank you for joining us for inTEST's 2020 Fourth Quarter and Year-end Financial Results Conference call. With us today are Nick Grant, inTEST's President and CEO; and Hugh Regan, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer. Nick will briefly review the quarter's highlights, as well as current business trends, then spend some time describing the company's new strategic plan. Hugh will then review inTEST's detailed financial results for the quarter and discuss guidance for the 2021 first quarter. We'll then have time for any questions.

[Nick Grant:]

Thank you, Laura, and welcome everyone. Thanks for joining us for the fourth quarter and year-end 2020 financial results conference call. 2020 was a very challenging year as we all adapted to the changes brought about by the geopolitical environment and the global pandemic. I'm pleased to report that inTEST rose through the challenges managing through a number of logistical complexities and we ended the year with notable momentum.

[Hugh Regan:]

Thanks Nick. Our fourth quarter gross margin of 45% came in at the top of our guidance range and was consistent with the gross margin we reported for the third quarter. Q4 2020 component material costs were essentially unchanged at 35.1% compared to 34.8% in the third quarter. The slightly increased component material costs were more than fully offset by reduced charges for inventory excess and obsolete materials, as well as lower direct labor costs. Selling expense increased 12% sequentially to $2 million in the fourth quarter, driven primarily by higher commission expense and to a lesser extent to increase spending on advertising and third-party installations. Engineering and product development expense decreased 5% sequentially to $1.2 million, primarily as a result of lower levels of spending on product development materials. General and administrative expense increased 4% sequentially to $3 million, driven primarily by increased stock-based compensation costs related to our new CEO and to third-party recruitment costs related to the new GM in our EMS Products segment. These increases were partially offset by reduced spending on professional fees. During the fourth quarter, we incurred restructuring and other charges of $1.1 million, compared to $161,000 in the third quarter. The fourth quarter restructuring charges were primarily driven by costs associated with the recently completed restructuring and manufacturing consolidation of our EMS products segment, which totaled $889,000 during the quarter. We expect this restructuring and consolidation action will generate approximately $600,000 in annual savings. Also included in the fourth quarter restructuring charges was $189,000 accrued for costs associated with exiting the additional space in our Mansfield Massachusetts offices. We accrued an income tax benefit of $74,000 in the fourth quarter, reflecting a 16% effective tax rate. This compares to a $25,000 income tax benefit accrued in the third quarter, which reflected an effective tax rate of a negative 6%. We expect that our effective tax rate in 2021 will range from 16% to 18%. For the fourth quarter, we reported a net loss of $380,000 or $0.04 per diluted share compared to net earnings of $458,000 or $0.04 per diluted share for the third quarter. As previously guided, our fourth quarter results included $1.3 million in restructuring and other nonrecurring costs. And the tax effects these costs amounted to $1.1 million or $0.11 per diluted share. Excluding these restructuring and nonrecurring costs, our fourth quarter net earnings would have been $0.07 per diluted share non-GAAP. For 2020, we reported a net loss of $895,000 or $0.09 per diluted share compared to net earnings of $2.3 million or $0.22 per diluted share for 2019. Our 2020 results included $1.8 million in restructuring and other nonrecurring costs and when tax affected these costs amounted to $1.6 million or $0.16 per diluted share. Excluding these restructuring and other nonrecurring costs, our 2020 net earnings would have been $0.07 per diluted share non-GAAP. We have provided a summary of 2020 nonrecurring costs by quarter in the supplemental information posted to our website in connection with this call. Diluted average shares outstanding were 10.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2020 and during the quarter we did not issue any shares of restricted stock, nor had any forfeitures of restricted stock and did not repurchase any shares. EBITDA was $12000 for the fourth quarter down from $908,000 in the third quarter. And for 2020, our EBITDA was $665,000 down from $4.5 million in 2019. Consolidated headcount at December 31st, was 204, an increase of four staff from the level we had at September 30. I'll now turn to our balance sheet. Cash and cash equivalents grew by $804,000 sequentially to $10.3 million, and cash flow provided by operations was $848,000 for the fourth quarter and $3.2 million for 2020. Cash today stands at approximately $12 million. We expect cash and cash equivalents to decline slightly in the first quarter, as a result of the payment of 2020 annual bonuses and then increased throughout 2021. Accounts receivable declined $1.1 million sequentially, to $8.4 million at December 31st, with 52 DSO down from 61 at September 30. Inventories grew $552,000 or 8% sequentially to $7.5 million, driven by the increased semi-demand we are seeing. Capital expenditures during the fourth quarter were $138,000, down from $330,000 in the third quarter. Included in the third quarter capital expenditures was $202,000 for tenant improvements to our Mount Laurel New Jersey facility, related to the EMS consolidation. We currently expect to spend $230,000 in the first quarter to complete these tenant improvements. Our backlog at December 31st was $11.5 million, up $2.7 million or 31% sequentially, and up $6 million or 107% year-over-year. As to guidance, as noted in our earnings release, we expect that net revenues for the quarter ended March 31st 2021, will be in the range of $18.5 million to $19.5 million and that our GAAP financial results will range from net earnings of $0.18 to $0.22 per diluted share. And we currently expect that our first quarter gross margin will range from 49% to 51%. On a non-GAAP basis, we expect our adjusted net earnings per diluted share will range from $0.21 to $0.25 per diluted share. Our guidance is predicated on business trends we are currently seeing as well as our expectations for the balance of the quarter. Operator, that concludes our formal remarks, we can now take questions.

[Question-and:]

[Operator:]

Thank you. We can now take our first question from Jaeson Schmidt from Lake Street. Please go ahead.

[Jaeson Schmidt:]

Hey guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Just curious, if you are seeing any component or supply constraints out there. And I guess, relatedly, can you remind us what sort of capacity you guys can handle from a revenue standpoint with all the recent changes?

[Nick Grant:]

Yeah. Hi. Jaeson, excellent question, so from the supply constraints, we're working diligently and started to in Q4, as we saw the orders start to increase there to ensure we have a pipeline of material available for us. And so for, I'd say, we've done a good job as a group to ensure this now. It certainly is a lot more focus and effort, given the growth we're seeing here. But so far we've been able to meet demand here from our supply side. And the second part of your question was relative to capacity. As you know, we did a manufacturing consolidation in Q4. And we've got that up and running right at the end of the year. So that was our objective to be able to have a more streamlined operation heading into 2021. And I'm very pleased to have that executed in line with our plans there. So we -- from a capacity perspective, I believe, we've got the footprint we need. And we'll be looking to potentially add some additional testing capability or capacity, if you will. But outside of that, we've got the capacity to support our growth for years to come we believe.

[Jaeson Schmidt:]

Okay. That's really helpful. And then, obviously, a really strong Q1 outlook. Are you at all concerned about potential pull-ins into Q1? Not looking for full year guidance by any means, but just curious how you're thinking about the split this year. Just because they're tends to be some differing views out there, especially in the semi space on, if this is going to be more of a first half or second half weighted type year.

[Nick Grant:]

Yes. I can tell you, as we've communicated that, obviously, the first half is looking very strong. And unfortunately, we don't have a whole lot of visibility on Q3 and the second half right now, but I believe there's strong underlying trends in this industry around the automotive technology advancements and build-up on the capacity side of the 5G, mobility, PC build-out and the Internet of Things -- or the connected world will continue to drive this. So, it's tough to say, but, clearly, Q1 and the first half will be strong quarters for us.

[Jaeson Schmidt:]

Okay. Perfect. And then, just the last one from me and I'll jump back in the queue. Hugh, a really nice expected step-up in gross margin here in Q1. I assume a lot of that's a function of higher revenue. But how should we think about gross margin trending the remainder of 2021?

[Hugh Regan:]

Jaeson, yes, you're correct about that. The improvement in the revenues is driving the improvement in the margin. As Nick said, we don't know where the second half of the year is heading at this point, but we would tend to believe that, it could be reasonably strong, based upon the trends that we're seeing. For the first half, we expect the margin to be in the ranges that we've guided today for Q1. In the second half, we'll have to see where revenues go, but we're optimistic that we will be able to hold the 50% or better margins.

[Jaeson Schmidt:]

Okay. Thanks a lot, guys.

[Nick Grant:]

Hey, thanks, Jaeson.

[Operator:]

We can now take our next question from Peter Wright from Intro-act. Please go ahead.

[Peter Wright:]

Great. Congratulations guys on a wonderful quarter, outlook and plan that you shared. Nick, two questions for you. Well, wonderful. Two questions for you, Nick. My first one is, you -- I understand visibility is somewhat limited beyond the first half of the year. But if you could help us understand what would have to happen with what you see for a book-to-bill ratio to remain above 1 through the course of 2021? And where do you see kind of the potential of that occurring? The second question I had is related to your plan, which was very detailed. Thank you very much. I'll just focus on one part which is your innovation component. And two questions there. The part that really stood out to me is the idea around standardization. And my question there is, kind of, what is the key economic metric that you're focused on to prove that out? Is it more of a SKU reduction or cross learning a product across technology, across different markets? Where is the opportunity in standardization? And I guess also, taking a step back on kind of how you think of innovation, how should we think of the lowest hanging fruit and biggest opportunities there? Is it better, faster, cheaper products for existing customers? Adjacent products to existing customers? New customers in the same markets? New markets? I know it's a little bit of all the above, but what is the -- what sticks out to you as the lowest hanging fruit most immediately? And then I have one follow-up for Hugh.

[Nick Grant:]

Excellent questions there, Peter. Thanks a lot there. As we said, the visibility, we do see the first half being relatively strong. And beyond that we really don't have a whole lot in the second half. But what I can tell you is that, we are making investments now, as I highlighted in the communications there, to help us diversify even further and position us for growth in other markets. So as things in the second half start improving in other areas we could either supplement or mitigate any potential slowdown in that. So we're going to do what we can to keep 2021 being a really a breakout year for us. And then the second piece on innovation, and thanks for the questions there as well. As I said this is an area that I really have a passion for. And clearly standardization is one area that I started discussing on the calls last year and one area that is really low-hanging fruit for us if you will. The company operates in the past largely as engineered to order different customers, different solutions what have you. So we're basically looking and leveraging our knowledge and know-how to say, how do we build these into platforms that will drive better cost, more streamlined operations and better applicability to -- across multiple customers versus individual customers. So it is looking in what we're doing now, what's in the pipeline, how can we build this platforming portfolio if you will? And as for the targeted areas it is really all of the above that you commented. How do we make sure we've got the lower end better -- best positioned there as well, going after new markets as we design these platforms, which markets can we target and go into? So it really is right now looking across a broad spectrum.

[Peter Wright:]

Wonderful. And Hugh one follow-up. If we look out the couple of years to kind of what the target model would look like on sales doubling from current rates $100 million to $120-ish million, what would the margins look like there? And maybe if you can help us understand what the drivers are. So a couple of positive ones the standardization and the service model getting layered in there, the offsets maybe in the short-term the global expansion and the increase expense on talent. What metrics are most important to you in kind of the margin and cash metrics on the target product?

[Hugh Regan:]

Good question Peter. Clearly, as we drive further growth in the businesses, we would expect the gross margin to continue to improve as we drive further utilization of our fixed cost base as revenues grow. I think as the company grows both organically and inorganically what we don't know yet is what the composition of our margin will look like on newly acquired products. But clearly, we're looking at strong technologies that have strong margins associated with them similar to the products that we have in our portfolio today. So we would hope that we would continue to be able to support a strong margin and growth ultimately in the margin in the long-term. One thing I want to emphasize is, Nick's desire to grow the business does mean that we would be making investments in the future, and that is critically important for sustained growth over time. So, investors may see that, we will see some trends up in the R&D line, the selling line, as we make investments on feet on the street and additional engineering staff to further drive innovation, which is clearly at the heart of everything that we are doing here at inTEST. So, I think, we look forward to speaking to a longer-term model later in the year, as we build out our strategic plan and talk to the marketplace, but I'm optimistic that we're going to see strong results from the company. But it is important to note that we will be making investments for the future. So, hopefully that responded to your question Peter.

[Peter Wright:]

Wonderful. Congratulations again.

[Hugh Regan:]

Thank you.

[Nick Grant:]

Thanks.

[Operator:]

We can now take our next question from Dick Ryan from Colliers. Please go ahead.

[Dick Ryan:]

Thank you. So, Nick, question -- a couple of questions around the semi side. You talked about breaking into the memory side of the market. Can you put some perspectives around that? Is this a result of bringing some new technology to the market or just internalizing getting a little better strategy to expand the market opportunities? And in addition to that if you could kind of talk about what that could do to the served market on the EMS side?

[Nick Grant:]

Sure. So the memory is -- penetration there is really started working with a customer and working more so on their R&D side of things as they're designing the next memory solutions in the marketplace there which is how we want to get in and open the door for us. And we've been making some really good inroads on that side for the R&D space. And I believe as we look at this space because memory is very much high-volume dedicated lines once it's in place our opportunity really is more on that development piece there with multiple customers and we've made inroads in one. So I think -- I believe it's an area that will provide us further diversification in the semi market there, but isn't going to be a production-type solution more of a development R&D type solutions that we're pursuing there. I hope that answered that piece of it.

[Dick Ryan:]

Yes, yes exactly. Now on the front end with Ambrell what have you seen from them wrapping up 2020 and the kind of outlook going into 2021?

[Nick Grant:]

Yes. No Ambrell is -- wrapping up 2020 I would say they were -- they had a number of big opportunities that actually slipped into 2021 here. But the momentum with that business is good and 2021 it's really just taken off. And as new budgets became in place for a lot of customers as this capacity build-out on the semi side of things continue customers really going all-in on some product expansions and our further penetration efforts with integrators to position ourselves across multiple end users we're making really strong inroads at Ambrell there. And really pleased with the progress as we ended 2020, but more so is what we're seeing here in 2021.

[Dick Ryan:]

Okay. When you look at your Q1 guidance and maybe commentary for the first half how do you see the mix -- top line mix between multi market and semi? It was kind of in Q4 was 49%, 51% but how does that shift going into the first half?

[Nick Grant:]

Yes. Obviously semi being so hot right now is going to be a much -- well a larger piece of our mix going forward. And then as I mentioned just with the Ambrell, it's not only on the EMS side of things, but also in CBD, front end applications at Ambrell and then we continue to see that semi strengthening in our back-end test at iTS. So semi orders, we're I believe roughly 2/3, 1/3 of the -- from a booking's perspective relative to multi market in Q4 and that's going to drive revenue in Q1. But as I mentioned Ambrell also making inroads in a number of other areas. And Q1 multi-market bookings are looking extremely strong as well. So -- but I would expect semi to be a bigger piece of our Q1 mix. Hugh any comments there?

[Hugh Regan:]

Yes. Consistent with you, Nick. I think it's going to look a lot like it did this quarter from a bookings perspective where multi market where home was only about a 13% of total bookings I think you'll see semi dominant in Q1 revenues at between 55% and 60%.

[Dick Ryan:]

Okay. One last one from me. How -- what was the level of EV revenue in 2020 if you can ballpark that?

[Nick Grant:]

Sure Dick. EV revenue for us in 2020, bear with me one moment as I pull to that. EV revenue for us in 2020 was about $1.35 million approximately.

[Hugh Regan:]

As I mentioned, Ambrell really started developing solutions in this space in 2018. And so we really do believe we're at the early, early stages and talking with a lot of the right players and getting in with them and committed. So expecting to grow for us.

[Dick Ryan:]

Okay. Great, thank you and congratulations on the strong outlook and the nice strategy going forward Nick.

[Nick Grant:]

Thanks Dick. Thanks a lot.

[Operator:]

We can now take our next question from Arnie Ursaner from Ursaner Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

Good morning. And first of all congratulations on a very thorough review, but I do have a number of questions and I apologize I'm somewhat new to your story. The $600,000 of benefit you're hoping to get in 2021 from the restructuring what will be the breakdown of that between gross margin and SG&A please?

[Hugh Regan:]

Aria the...

[Nick Grant:]

Thank you for your interest and enthusiasm here and we were very happy where we finished. But I'll let Hugh address that.

[Hugh Regan:]

Thanks, Nick. Arnie, we would expect the bulk of that -- the bulk of the savings are related to the savings that will be created by the reduction in lease costs. And those costs had been -- because it was a manufacturing facility were included in our COGS numbers. So you'll see the bulk of it above the line, but there is some of it below the line as a result of reduced staffing levels as a result of the elimination of the California operation.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

Okay. My second question is a very simpler general one. Obviously, your outlook for Q1 is very favorable and Q4 was pretty good. Can you just remind me or educate me on the seasonality, if any in your business?

[Nick Grant:]

Yeah, I'll let Hugh comment on that one as well, since he's been around quite a bit longer than I have.

[Hugh Regan:]

Thanks, Nick. Yes, our business -- the seasonality historically over the last several years has been where Qs two and three will be our peak of demand and Qs one and four will be our troughs of demand. But that changes and clearly this is a year where that's not following suit, because you can see the strong demand we had in Q4 leading into Q1 I can tell you we look forward to reporting Q1 results and demand has been very strong in Q1. So that curve can move. And clearly as we enter 2021, it is as a result of significant pent-up automotive demand that's really driving a lot of the semi business that we see at this time. But I would expect you'll see in another several years that it could go back to the middle of the year. But that's what we've seen historically.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

Okay a few more quick questions. The earnings guidance you're providing versus the Street expectations going into Q1 into the current quarter were roughly 10 times the number that the Street had. What changed so fast that the Street just didn't catch this enormous change? And I guess the broader question of many of the other analysts have is how sustainable is it?

[Nick Grant:]

Yeah. And it's an excellent question there. And I would say last year semi for a lot of folks was pretty strong. But as parts of semi was others were up with automotive real so in the first part of the year and then the PC mobility piece picking up with COVID and people working from home in that. But what it meant overall was with the lock down and those picking up the capacity in place as efficient to support the need for semiconductor devices, chips et cetera. So what we see now is everything kind of coming back online automotive research et cetera. That now that capacity that was in place before is not sufficient and so there's a build-out on capacity going on right now. That really started for us in Q4 from what we see our customer base there and continuing strongly into Q1. And our visibility into Q2 is that it will be strong as well. So we're optimistic that the investments we're making in other areas will also kick in in the second half and could be a -- it could help to offset some slowness in the other -- in semi it does slowdown in the second half.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

Okay. My final question is you mentioned two buzzwords that Wall Street loves, EV and cannabis. And you mentioned in EV you had $1.3 million of revenue. At what point do you see meaningful or impactful revenue and earnings contributions from these two segments?

[Nick Grant:]

Yeah I think the comment that we highlighted in the message today is it's been doubling since 2018. And we -- with the activity picking up around EV and cannabis -- and it's a similar story there for cannabis that we also would expect that to continue to accelerate going forward. So – and really has a runway that will last for quite some time as this market moves towards these growth applications out. And so yes, it will just for us. Is it going to be 10x next year or something like that? I hope so, but I can't tell you that's the case. We're going to capture everything we can.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

Okay. Thank you very much for taking my question.

[Nick Grant:]

You bet. Thanks, Arnie.

[Operator:]

Thank you. Our next question comes from George Melas from MKH Management. Please go ahead.

[George Melas:]

Hi. Thank you, operator. Good morning, Nick. Good morning, Hugh. Good morning, Laura.

[Nick Grant:]

Good morning, George.

[Hugh Regan:]

Good morning, George.

[George Melas:]

I have a couple of questions. The first question relates to EMS. EMS had very strong bookings. And their bookings are strong. I mean, the strongest we've seen in three or four years. I think since 2017. So I'm trying to see, how the mix has changed there within the EMS portfolio. And to what extent has innovation driven the continued success of that business? And I'll just give you my second question right now. It relates to Ambrell. I think Ambrell had a couple partnership with Ambrell's technology was embedded into third party applications, and I think especially on the semi side. And how has that fared? And is that still – are you looking for more such partnerships where you ended your technology in them?

[Nick Grant:]

Let me address the first one. The EMS bookings, as we indicated are strong and continue to be strong. And right now, we expect them to surpass the 2017 rates that we saw out there back during that buildup that occurred during that time frame. As for the mix, we're seeing the growth across the board on the product lines that we have, although I would say, our manipulators are growing probably a little faster than we anticipated, and I believe that's just the accelerated adoption of the newer technologies that we have in those products in that. So we are seeing more mix on manipulator side of the EMS business there. And the second part of your question, I'm sorry, I didn't quite capture it.

[George Melas:]

Sorry, sorry on the Ambrell side. I think that Ambrell's technology has been embedded into a number of third-party applications. And I'm trying to see, how that's doing. And to what extent are you looking to replicate that or the strategy of those partnerships in the future?

[Nick Grant:]

No, absolutely right. The Ambrell is laser-focused on OEM integrator opportunities, where we can sell multiple systems to multiple end users as they set-up their equipment and there's various sites and all that kind of stuff versus just the end users. But it's also important that we get specced in, and qualified by end users. So we're attacking both sides of it. But these third-party integrators and OEMs are very important to Ambrell, and areas that we're making really good inroads in fact later this quarter – well, I believe, it's in Q2 apologies for that, that don't have a an integrator program that's dedicated to again providing some benefits to integrators that will help to make us even more attractive out there. So it's an area that we're going after strong.

[George Melas:]

Great. Okay. Thank you very much.

[Nick Grant:]

Absolutely. Thanks, George.

[Operator:]

We have no further questions on the call right now. I would now like to turn the call back to Mr. Grant for any concluding remarks.

[Nick Grant:]

All right. Thank you. And thanks everyone for the interest in inTEST. We really appreciate you listening in. If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to reach out to me, Hugh or Laura. We look forward to updating you on our progress, when we report our results for the first quarter in early May. And until then, I wish everyone a safe and healthy first quarter. Thanks everyone.

[Operator:]

Thank you. That concludes today's inTEST Corporation 2020 fourth quarter financial results call. You may now disconnect.