Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc (BIO) — Q1 2019 Earnings Call Transcript

Thank you, Jimmy. Before we begin the call, I would like to caution everyone that we will be making forward-looking statements about management's goals, plans, and expectations, our future financial performance, and other matters because our actual results may differ materially from our plans and expectations. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, and I encourage you to review our filings with the SEC, where we discuss in detail our risk factors in our business. The Company does not intend to update any forward-looking statements made during the call today. Our remarks today will also include references to non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP diluted income per share, which are financial measures that are not defined under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Investors should review the reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP results contained in our earnings release. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Ilan Daskal, EVP and CFO.

Thank you, Ron. Good afternoon and thank you all for joining us. Today we will review the first quarter financial results for 2019. With me today are Norman Schwartz, our CEO; Andy Last, Chief Operating Officer; Annette Tumolo, President of the Life Science Group; and John Hertia, President of our Clinical Diagnostics Group. We will review the results on a GAAP basis as well as commentary on a non-GAAP basis. Net sales for the first quarter of 2019 were $554 million, which is a 0.4% growth on a reported basis versus $551.5 million in Q1 of 2018. On a currency-neutral basis, sales increased by 4%. During the quarter, we experienced good demand across many of our key product areas and growth in all three regions, with particular strength noted in the Americas. When comparing to Q1 of last year, remember that Q1 of 2018 sales included a royalty settlement of approximately $6 million within the Diagnostics segment. Also included in Q1 of 2018 is about $6 million of RainDance sales compared to about $1 million in Q1 of 2019. If we exclude the RainDance reduction of sales and the royalty settlement in Q1 of 2018, we estimate that the currency-neutral sales growth for Q1 of 2019 was about 6%. Life science in the first quarter of 2019, the revenue was $215.7 million compared to $197.8 million in Q1 of 2018, which is an increase of 9.1% on a reported basis and year-over-year growth of 12% on a currency-neutral basis. The growth in the first quarter was across all product areas, with particular strength within cell biology and food safety. Digital PCR also had a nice growth when excluding the RainDance sales, and our process media product line, which can fluctuate on a quarterly basis, had a very strong quarter. Excluding process media sales, the Life Science business grew about 5.5% year-over-year on a currency-neutral basis. On a geographic basis, Life Science currency-neutral sales were strong across all three regions, notably in the Americas. Sales of Clinical Diagnostics products in the quarter were $334.1 million compared to $350.8 million in Q1 of 2018, which is a 4.8% decline on a reported basis and less than a 1% decline on a currency-neutral basis. Excluding last year's tough comparison of the royalty settlement, the diagnostics business grew about 1% year-over-year on a currency-neutral basis. Despite steady growth, it is important to note that placements of our key diagnostic systems showed consistent growth during the first quarter of 2019 versus Q1 of 2018. During the quarter, the Diagnostics Group posted solid growth in the Americas across all the product areas, with notable growth in blood typing and in autoimmune testing products. These geographic growths were somewhat offset by a weaker quarter in parts of EMEA and Asia. The decline in Asia was associated with order timing this quarter and a tough comparison with Q1 of 2018. Overall, our outlook for Asia remains positive. The reported gross margin for the first quarter of 2019 was 56.3% on a GAAP basis and compares to 54.8% in Q1 of 2018. The current quarter's gross margin benefited from an escrow release of $7.4 million related to an acquisition from 2011 within the Life Science group. The gross margin also benefited from improved logistics costs and inventory reserves, though the improvement was partially offset by product mix and higher service costs. Amortization related to prior acquisitions recorded in cost of goods sold was $3.7 million compared to $4.8 million in Q1 of 2018. SG&A expenses for Q1 of 2019 were $207.6 million or 37.5% of sales compared to 37.9% in Q1 of 2018. Total amortization related to acquisitions recorded in SG&A for the quarter was $1.7 million versus $2.1 million in Q1 of 2018. Research and development expense in Q1 was $47.6 million or 8.6% of sales compared to $49.4 million or 9% in Q1 of 2018. Looking below the operating line, the change in share market value of the equity securities holdings added $1 billion and $59 million of income to the reported results, substantially related to the holdings of shares of Sartorius AG. Also during the quarter, interest and other income resulted in net other income of $11.4 million compared to $4.1 million income last year. Q1 of 2019 includes $15.7 million of gross dividend income from Sartorius, which was declared this year in March and paid in April. In 2018, the dividend was declared and paid in the second quarter. Remember that in the first quarter of 2018, other income included $9.2 million for the divestiture of a small product line and the sale of surplus land in Europe. The effective tax rate used in Q1 of 2019 was 23.2% and compares to 24% in Q1 of 2018. Reported net income for the first quarter was $865.2 million, and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $28.74. The increase in net income and earnings per share versus last year is substantially related to the valuation of the Sartorius Holding. Moving on to the non-GAAP results, looking at our results on a non-GAAP basis, we have excluded certain atypical and unique items that impacted both the gross and operating margins, as well as other income. These items are detailed in the reconciliation table in the press release. Looking at the non-GAAP results for the first quarter in cost of goods sold, we have excluded $3.7 million of amortization of purchased intangibles, $7.4 million escrow release related to our prior acquisition within the Life Science group, and a small restructuring adjustment. These adjustments move the gross margin for the first quarter from 56.3% to 55.6%. This non-GAAP gross margin compares to a non-GAAP gross margin of 55.7% in Q1 of 2018. The non-GAAP SG&A in the first quarter of 2019 was 36.4%, an improvement versus 37.1% in Q1 of 2018. In SG&A, on a non-GAAP basis, we have excluded amortization of purchased intangibles of $1.7 million, legal-related expenses of $4.4 million, acquisition-related benefits of $365,000, and small restructuring costs. In R&D, we have excluded a small amount of restructuring costs. The non-GAAP R&D in Q1 was 8.6%, which is in line with our expectations. The cumulative sum of these non-GAAP adjustments resulted in moving this quarterly operating margin from 10.2% on a GAAP basis to 10.5% on a non-GAAP basis. This non-GAAP operating margin compares to a non-GAAP operating margin in Q1 of 2018 of 9.7%. We have also excluded certain items below the operating line, which are the increase in value of the Sartorius equity holdings of $1 billion and $69 million, as well as $440,000 associated with venture investments and other nonrecurring items. The non-GAAP effective tax rate for the quarter was 28.5%, this higher tax rate reflects a change in geographic mix of the profitability; however, we still expect the full-year non-GAAP effective tax rate to be between 27% and 28%. Finally, non-GAAP net income and earnings per share for the first quarter of 2019 were $49.6 million and $1.65 per share compared to $35.4 million and $1.17 per share in Q1 of 2018. We estimate that the Sartorius dividend net of an estimation of its stock provision totals $0.40. The estimated EPS benefit of $0.40 shifted from Q2 to Q1, and Sartorius may continue to declare future annual dividend distributions in the first calendar quarter of each year. Moving onto the balance sheet, as of March 31st, total cash and short-term investments were $865 million compared to $850 million at the end of 2018. The first quarter historically has tended to be a heavy cash use quarter as we typically pay the annual bonuses and commissions, as well as annual software and IT-related maintenance expenses. Also during the quarter, we completed an acquisition of a small company in the Life Science group that will expand our suite of genomic reagent offerings. In the first quarter, we adopted the new accounting standard related to leases, which requires us to recognize most leases as assets and liabilities on the balance sheet. You will note a $222 million addition to the balance sheet of right-of-use assets and associated liabilities, which are included in other current liabilities and in other long-term liabilities. These balances primarily represent our operating lease obligations for the duration of the global facilities and other leases. The adoption of the standard has a minimal effect on the income statement. For the first quarter of 2019, net cash generated from operations was $43 million, which compares to $40 million in Q1 of 2018. This improvement reflects the higher operating profits, partially as a result of disciplined cost control. The adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2019, which includes the Sartorius dividend, was $101.7 million or 18.4% of sales. The estimated adjusted EBITDA in Q1 of 2019, excluding the Sartorius dividend, was about 15.5%. The adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter of 2018 was $81.1 million or about 14.7% of sales. Net capital expenditures for the first quarter of 2019 were $23.6 million or 4.3% of sales. Our expectation for the full-year CapEx spend remains in the range of $110 million to $120 million, and depreciation and amortization for the quarter was $32.9 million. We are currently on track with the annual guidance that was provided during the last call. And with this, Norman, do you have anything you would like to say before we open the call for questions?

Sure. I think Ilan covered the quarter well. I just wanted to say that it's great to have both Ilan and Andy, Andy Last on board. They both recently joined us and they bring a wealth of experience and fresh perspectives to Bio-Rad. As you may know, Ilan's background is in accounting and finance, and he has spent most of his career in the semiconductor industry with global companies. Andy is rooted in the biological sciences, and over the years he has progressed through product and general management at some recognizable names like Applied Biosystems, BD, and Affymetrix, bringing with him a wealth of industry and operational experience. I think they both joined us as we're off to a good start for the year, and the organization looks forward to their contributions. And with that, Jimmy, I think we'll open up the line to take your questions.

Thanks, good afternoon, this is Mike Sarcone on for Dan Leonard. Just first on the Life Sciences business, you called out particularly strength in the Americas. Can you give us some more granularity on what you saw in APAC and Europe?

Hi, this is Annette. We saw good growth across all our geographies. We called the Americas out because they were particularly strong. So I don't have anything bad to say about growth in Europe, EMEA, and Asia. They are growing across all of our key product areas.

And just one on the Clinical Diagnostics business. You gave a positive mention to autoimmune and blood typing. Can you maybe delve into any areas where you saw particular weakness just to get some granularity there?

Mike, you're looking for a year-over-year increase?

No, well, you had mentioned, you called out the positives in the quarter for clinical diagnostics. I was just curious if there was anything that stood out as being particularly weak in the quarter. And if you could kind of talk to that.

Particularly weak in the quarter? Well, I think in the earlier narrative, we talked a little bit about Asia and parts of Europe being a little bit weak, Asia because of sort of the ordering lumpiness, and there were certain parts of Europe, I'd say probably non-core Europe that were weaker. We did see some growth in quality control and diabetes on a global level, but we didn't highlight that because it wasn't as strong as both the BioPlex autoimmune business and blood typing.

Let me add to that also for Asia. Specifically, we believe it's a timing issue and it's not a sustained weakness that we see so far.

Got it. Thank you. And last one for me. Are you still expecting EMEA on the clinical diagnostics side to return to growth this year?

Yes. We did actually see some growth in quarter one. I think we've mentioned over the last few calls. If you go back a couple of years, there was some consolidation in Europe and assets load growth. And then we talked at our last earnings call about EMEA having worked through the D3 transition for SAP. That seems to be continuing, and they did show growth overall for this quarter, which was encouraging.

Thanks, good afternoon. I actually like to start with Andy. I'm curious if there are any similarities you can draw from your time at Affymetrix, where I think you took operating margins up something like 600 basis points over time that you can apply here at Bio-Rad. What are some of your near-term priorities as you sort of take over this CEO role and what are some of the biggest opportunities you see near term?

Thank you, Brandon. So 600 basis points for that. Okay. Well, I think, the main comments I would make is that was really a question of probably managing the portfolio of the company and applying the resources where the biggest growth opportunities were. When I come into Bio-Rad, I mean I'm a couple of weeks in, and it's very early. I've got to fully understand the business and the profile of the business, but it's got a similar mix to Affymetrix, and I feel confident that we can apply the same principles as we move forward.

All right, super. And then maybe one for you, Ilan. It's early, but based on your first few weeks at the company, any reason to back off the 2020 targets? How would you sort of describe your level of comfort with those that were established by your predecessor? And any thoughts on how you might be able to use the balance sheet more sensibly? Do you think carrying $400 million to $500 million of net cash is an optimal position for the balance sheet?

Yes, sure. Thanks, Brendan. So let me start with the 2020 target. I did have a talk down and look at it and at the first conclusion. I think that is a reasonable target to achieve by the end of 2020. We have several initiatives within the Company, several that are focused on SG&A and gross margin expansion. Andy and I are going to look into those initiatives on a bottom-up basis, and we're going to dive into each one of them. But overall, again, it is targeted; I believe we can achieve by the end of 2020. Going back to your second question regarding the capital allocation model. So when you look at it, we have a $250 million buyback program right now, we did about 49 so far. And when you think about the inorganic activities, as an example the acquisition that we did this quarter. We continue to have the same kind of approach to either tuck-in technology acquisitions or IP or alternatively acquisitions with nice cash flow this year in order to augment the free cash flow overall and at least for the time being, we think this is the best use of the overall capital allocation model that we will deploy.

Could you discuss the demand trends in the ddPCR business? Have you noticed any slowdown in growth? What are the main factors and applications that are contributing to the adoption of this system? Also, could you provide an update on the current status of the global installed base? Thank you.

I can probably answer some of those questions, Brandon. We continue to see really good adoption for liquid biopsy application. It's growing across all geographies, so we are very happy about that, and we see really strong sales into the biopharma segment, both in discovery and in the QC and manufacturing, as people are manufacturing some of these newer cell-based drugs. So those are two areas that continue to drive good growth for us. Tell me what your other question was? We don't really talk about our installed base, but suffice it to say it's growing, and we expect this year to really continue the consumable pull-through on all of those products as well.

Okay. And then maybe the last one for John, perhaps a little bit of a slower start, arguably some timing dynamics in there in diagnostics in Asia, but you still expect that business to grow 3% to 4% for the year? And then specifically on the blood typing business, how do you think your growth stacks up relative to that level of the market? And could you sort of speak to perhaps your competitive win rate if you launch some of these newer platforms in the U.S.? Thank you.

Yes, I'll start with the first question. Brandon, overall guidance and confidence for us at both the group level and in Asia is fine; we would stick with that. Blood typing continues to be strong. We don't really talk about competitive shares, but we grew the business nicely in the first quarter. Adoption in the U.S. has been really good with the recent FDA approvals of the IH24 and then just last month IH500. We expect that to improve. We always start the medium volume market, which is the largest part of the market in the United States, and IH500 is particularly well suited for that, so we continue to see good prospects for that business overall.

Great, thanks. Maybe just one on the Life Science business, you obviously put up a great quarter. Maybe just talk through the magnitude of the beat there, the durability of the growth. I know the guidance is for more kind of 5% to 6% type growth. Nice double-digit growth to start the year, it doesn't seem like the outlook changed much. But maybe just walk us through the dynamics. Is there any pull-forward dynamic or any reason to think that the growth will slow materially again to get closer to that guidance range?

We were happy that we had really strong growth across all of our core businesses and some of our newer businesses and good growth from process chromatography resins. That's one of those businesses where we can see fluctuations quarter-to-quarter in customer orders, and we don't like to, but we call that a lumpy business. So in the first quarter, we did have some pull-through of orders that we expected to come in Q2; we got them in Q1. So I think that moderates some of our expectations moving forward.

Okay, makes sense. And then Ilan, maybe some on the margin story, particularly this year seems a little ahead of schedule. We had it a little more back half-weighted. So can you just talk through what came in a little ahead of expectations on the margin side? What levers have you been able to pull again, maybe a little ahead of expectations?

Yes. So first, let's recap. On a non-GAAP basis, the margin was about 55.6%, which is approximately flat year-over-year. When you exclude the RainDance revenue and last year's royalties, you see an increase of about a point. Much of that increase resulted from last year's initiatives. If you remember, the consolidation of the warehouses, logistics, and improvements in the supply chain contributed significantly to the incremental margin. Additionally, the process improvements were another factor contributing to this quarter.

Okay. And then last one from me just on the softness in Asia. Can you just give a bit more color on the order timing that things slip into 2Q that you've already recognized? And expect to see a catch-up on revenues in 2Q or was it more uncertain in terms of the timing there?

It's John Hertia. Our guidance remains unchanged, and we believe that the anticipated orders we expect for Asia will materialize over the course of the year.

Thank you. Good afternoon. I was hoping you could start in the diagnostics business. I was curious how the quality controls business performed in the quarter, just given that usually pretty steady-eddy. I'm surprised it wasn't called out for growth. Were there any one-time factors in the quarter or geographic point you would highlight?

This is John Hertia. It did grow a little bit in the quarter, but not a call-out business. A part of that mitigated growth was related to the earlier comments that we had and ordering patterns in China and in certain parts of Europe.

Got it. And then I was curious on the Droplet Digital side, how some of the liquid biopsy rollout, how that's going and similarly any updates on timing of rollout of applications in single-cell?

Sure. So you may have heard that we achieved FDA clearance of the first Droplet Digital platform and test for use in liquid biopsy to monitor molecular response to chronic leukemia, and we are going to launch that product in the second quarter by the end of the second quarter. So that was a really big development for us, and we expect to see that help expand the adoption of lab-developed tests on that platform. So these are all things that are helping expand our share in the liquid biopsy market. On the NGS sample prep single cell front, we have announced that we are launching in the next few weeks a new application for interrogating the epigenomics of single cell; it's an ATAC-seq kit for single cell NGS sample prep. So that's our next application coming out.

Great. And just one final question, could you give a little bit more color on the sizing and the nature of the acquisition on the Life Science side in the quarter and any thoughts around the attractiveness of buyback at this point?

I can answer the first part. We acquired a novel technology for genomic reagent application, and right now we're kind of heads down, focused on getting the product transferred into our manufacturing plants. We plan to launch probably in the fourth quarter of this year, and we'll have more to say about it closer to launch.

And Jack, to your second question. So in Q1, I mean after we filed, we had a close window, so we were not able to, since the beginning of the year, to be in the market. Generally speaking, we will continue to be opportunistic with the buyback, and it depends on the timing and when we feel that it sees the right opportunity for us to step in.

Okay, that makes sense. Thank you, Ron.

Thank you.

Do you want to pull one more time maybe?

I'll continue with a couple of others that I had. I guess you called out some of the one-timers in the first quarter. Is there anything just as we think about the progression into the second quarter and into the second half? You would know just in terms of one-timers year-over-year?

So, one-timers for example on the top-line on the process from, it's going to fluctuate as it does every year, and that's the one that I can think about here right now.

Okay. And then the other progression I wanted to ask was on the gross margin side. I know there's been a little bit of movement related to the blood typing instrument versus reagent pieces, but just as we think about the progression through the rest of the year, anything on that you would point out?

In blood typing specifically?

Or just overall, which would impact the gross margins for the business.

So generally, we don't break down the specifics of each product line, but the growth between blood typing is very nice, and the pull-through continues to be healthy, and we are very pleased with the progress, including the penetration into the U.S. market.

Okay. Do you still think 55.5 to 56 is a good range for the full year?

Yes, we do.

Thank you. Hello everyone. I just wanted to take a minute to say farewell and certainly thank the investment community for your interest and support over these many years. I've certainly enjoyed working with you very much. And I also wanted to say that I'm confident that Bio-Rad is in good hands and well positioned for the future and like you, we all will be excited to see what the future unfolds. So with that, I'll say goodbye and best wishes for continued success, and hopefully our paths will cross again one day.

Thank you, Christine. I wanted to thank you also for your support in my transition here in the past few weeks. I don't know, Norman, if you want to add anything?

No.

No? Okay, good. Thank you, Christine.

Okay, thank you everyone for joining our call today, and we appreciate your continued interest. Thank you.