Pixelworks Inc (PXLW) 2014 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to your Pixelworks first-quarter 2014 financial results conference call.

(Operator Instructions).

And as a reminder, today's conference is being recorded.

And now I would like to turn it over to your host, Steve Moore.

Good afternoon and thank you for joining us.

This is Steve Moore, Chief Financial Officer of Pixelworks.

With me today is Bruce Walicek, President and CEO.

The purpose of today's conference call is supplement the information provided in our press release issued earlier today announcing the Company's financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2014.

Before we begin I would like to remind you that various remarks we make on this call, including those about our projected future financial results, economic and market trends and our competitive position, constitute forward-looking statements.

These forward-looking statements and all other statements made on this call that are not historical fact are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially.

All forward-looking statements are based on the Company's beliefs as of today, Thursday, May 8, 2014, and we undertake no obligation to update any such statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after today.

Please refer to today's press release, our and report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013, and subsequent SEC filings for a description of factors that may cause forward-looking statements to differ materially from actual results.

Additionally, the Company's press release and management statements during this conference call will include discussions of certain measures and financial information in GAAP and non-GAAP terms including gross margin, operating expenses, net income loss, and net income loss per share.

These non-GAAP measures exclude stock-based compensation expense and additional amortization of a prepaid royalty.

We use these non-GAAP measures internally to assess our operating performance.

The Company believes that these non-GAAP measures provide a meaningful perspective on our core operating results and underlying cash flow dynamics, but would caution investors to consider these measures in addition to, not as a substitute for, nor superior to, the Company's consolidated financial results as presented in accordance with GAAP.

Included in the Company's press release are definitions and reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP net income loss and GAAP net loss to adjusted EBITDA, which provides additional details.

Bruce will begin today's call with a strategic update on the business after which I will review our first-quarter financial results and then provide our outlook for the second quarter of 2014.

Thanks, Steve, good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today.

Q1 2014 came in above the midpoint of guidance and was another solid quarter as revenues of $13.5 million were up 64% year over year driven by growth in our product business which grew 28% year over year as well is the continued successful execution of our licensing partnerships.

All other non-GAAP metrics came in within the range of guidance and we generated positive EBITDA and cash flow for the quarter.

2014 is off to a good start as overall book to bill was greater than 1, reflective of good visibility going into Q2 driven by strong product demand due to an improving overall environment at our customers and the ramping of new products.

More importantly though Q1 was a key quarter of progress as we completed a number of critical milestones during the quarter that advanced progress on our key initiatives.

First, we delivered the mass production version of the advanced SoC for large screen applications we developed under our co-development partnership and during the quarter we received mass production qualification from our customer.

This is a major milestone on this project and we are on track for volume production to begin in the current quarter and ramp in the second half of this year, which we believe will result in significant market share gains in 2014 and beyond.

Also an our projection product line we released the latest version of our VueMagic software which provides wireless connectivity for mobile devices to Topaz based projectors and adds features such as live video and virtual remote access as well as advanced content sharing capabilities.

Topaz continues to receive wide adoption and we have an exciting roadmap of features and capabilities coming in 2014 for VueMagic that will continue to enhance and expand the Topaz platform and provide value to our customers.

We also made significant progress on our initiative for the mobile market as we taped out our device for low-power mobile applications and will be launching this product and sampling devices this quarter.

This will be the industry's first video display processor that brings the video quality of large screens to mobile screens.

Typically this type of dedicated video processing pipeline has only been applied to large screens, but we believe the time has come to apply this technology to all displays.

Pixelworks has a long track record of delivering innovative video processing solutions for large screens and we are now bringing that expertise and innovation to mobile screens as well.

For large display applications we continued to ship volume production of the PA168 during the quarter, which includes our patented halo free technology and tackles the most demanding ultra HD video quality problems.

Sixth generation PA168 level technology is just one of the technologies we have in our expanding video IP portfolio and we continue to experience a robust licensing pipeline for all of our technology.

Building on a 15-year legacy in video, and a portfolio of over 120 issued patents, our latest technology represents the culmination of many generations of video processing innovation.

And in 2014 we will continue to drive an aggressive technology roadmap focusing on the critical areas of next-generation video processing especially for low-power applications.

Key trends from this year's Mobile World Congress in February confirm our thesis of the growing importance of mobile displays as a number of new products with increasing screen size and resolution were introduced.

Smart phones with screen size greater than 5 inches and full HD resolution were launched as well as high-definition ultra books and tablets with 2K products on the horizon and initial 4K ultra HD demos at the show.

4K video capture was a key trend among manufacturers with products introduced from Samsung, Sony and others.

The increasing availability of 4K capture devices is adding to the flood of high-resolution content beginning to enter the video ecosystem.

And as an indication of things to come in the future, DisplaySearch predicts that 2015 will be the first year that 4K ultra HD smart phones will become available to customers.

All of these statistics point to the fact that we are just at the beginning of a multiyear trend of increasing display sizes, resolutions and video consumption across all screens.

At the show in February we provided demonstrations of our technology designed to improve the video quality of high-resolution mobile displays to key industry partners and customers.

We provided a number of compelling side-by-side comparisons that illustrated the power savings, performance and video quality benefits of our technology to mobile video and we will be delivering our first product based on this technology this quarter.

These high-resolution screens have two to four times more pixels than today's full high-definition displays resulting in an exponential increase in the number of pixels to be processed.

And it is clear that high-resolution mobile displays suffer from the same problems as large screens as high-resolution magnifies video quality issues in addition to the added performance and power consumption burden on the system.

Video consumption on mobile devices is growing rapidly as consumers increasingly view their favorite video content on their ultra book, tablet or smartphone which are rapidly becoming the first screen consumers reach for to view their video content.

Recent studies point to the trend towards increasing video consumption on mobile devices.

According to a newly released Ad Reaction study daily time spent on mobile devices is now outpacing TV in the US for the first time.

And demographics increasingly favor video consumption on mobile devices as well borne out by a new study from Deloitte that finds teens and young 20-somethings spend more time watching movies and TV shows on their computers, smart phones and tablets than they do on their TV screens.

Video is a crucial element driving the transformation of an increasing number of mobile devices.

As more video is created more devices are capable of displaying video and more people are consuming video on a growing number and variety of displays.

With the increase of resolutions and media consumption growing across all screens users are demanding the best visual experience for their content regardless of the screen they are viewing it on.

Screen resolution and display quality are key product features that increasingly drive brand and product differentiation as manufacturers compete for market share.

And a recent study by Strategy Analytics noted that the drivers of increased mobile video viewing are video quality along with larger screens and 4G bandwidth.

Pixelworks has a long track record of solving the most difficult video quality problems for large screens.

And because this is our singular focus and we do it better than anyone we are in the best position to deliver the innovative solutions customers need for next-generation high-resolution mobile displays.

In closing, 2014 is off to a good start with strong Q1 revenues up 64% and we entered the year with significant momentum for our products, our technology and an expanding set of opportunities.

During the quarter we achieved a number of critical milestones that advanced our key initiatives and we have positioned the Company to address a large fast growing market opportunity as we demonstrated our latest generation technology for mobile applications and are on track to introduce products in the current quarter.

Now I would like to turn the call over to Steve to review the financial results of the quarter.

Thank you, Bruce.

Revenue for the first quarter of 2014 was $13.5 million, up 64% year over year due to growth in product and license revenues and down 10% compared to the prior quarter reflecting typical seasonality.

The split in our first-quarter chip revenue for the market was 69% digital projection and 31% TV and panel.

Please note that beginning this quarter we will no longer be breaking out embedded video display as a separate end market as it represented less than $1 million of revenue in the fourth quarter of 2013.

For the first quarter and going forward we will be reclassifying all chip revenue as either digital projection or TV panel revenue.

Digital projection revenue was $7.3 million in the first quarter compared to $8.3 million in the prior quarter and was in line with typical seasonality.

Revenue from TV and panel which also includes ultra HD monitors totaled $3.3 million in the first quarter compared to $3.5 million in the prior quarter.

Licensing revenue was $2.9 million in the first quarter compared to approximately $3.2 million during the prior quarter.

Non-GAAP gross profit margin was 60.1% in the first quarter compared to 57.8% in the prior quarter.

The sequential increase in gross margin was primarily driven by a more favorable mix.

Non-GAAP operating expenses were $8.8 million in the first quarter compared to $7.1 million in the prior quarter.

As a reminder, operating expenses for the prior quarter included a credit to research and development expense as a result of achieving the final payment milestone related to a previously announced customer co-development agreement.

Adjusted EBITDA was a positive $464,000 for the first quarter compared to $2.7 million in the prior quarter.

The reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to GAAP net loss may be found in today's press release.

On a non-Basis we recorded a net loss of $786,000 or a loss of $0.04 per share in the first quarter of 2014.

This compares with non-GAAP net income of $1.3 million or $0.05 per diluted share in the prior quarter.

Moving to the balance sheet, we ended the first quarter with cash and marketable securities of approximately $21.9 million, up $1.1 million from $20.8 million at year end.

The Company has no long-term debt and as of the end of both the first quarter of 2014 and the fourth quarter of 2013, the Company had a balance of $3 million on its working capital line of credit.

Other balance sheet metrics include days sales outstanding of 29 days at March 31, unchanged compared to 29 days at the end of the prior quarter.

And inventory turns of 12 times in the first quarter compared to 13 times in the prior quarter.

Guidance, looking ahead to the second quarter of 2014, we expect revenue to increase to a range of $14 million to $16 million driven by increased product sales.

At the midpoint this would represent over 10% sequential growth and growth of over 50% compared to the year ago second quarter.

We expect gross profit margin in the quarter to range between 50% and 52% on a non-GAAP basis and 49% and 51% on a GAAP basis.

In terms of operating expenses, we expect the second quarter to range between $8 million and $9 million on a non-GAAP basis and $9 million and $10 million on a GAAP basis.

Similar to the first quarter we will not record any R&D reimbursement credit in the second quarter of 2014.

And finally, we expect a non-GAAP second-quarter net income of between breakeven and $0.11 loss per share and we expect a GAAP net loss of between $0.05 and $0.16 per share.

That concludes my comments.

We now open the call for your questions.

(Operator Instructions).

Krishna Shankar, ROTH Capital.

Bruce and Steve, congratulations on the good first-quarter results.

With your guidance for the June quarter are you anticipating growth both in projector chip revenues and TV chip revenues?

And you had also mentioned that healthy pipeline of licensing and royalty opportunities.

Can you talk about how that may shape up for the rest of the year in terms of new deals or additions to existing deals?

Yes, as mentioned, Krishna, I think we are continuing to see good opportunities and demand for our technology.

I think -- as some of the trends that we have noted of this type of processing and this type of requirements across a lot of systems, we are seeing a lot of very good opportunities and continuing interest on the licensing front.

I think as we noted as well, we are -- this year 2014 is off to a pretty solid start.

I think we're seeing really good trends across our businesses.

I think really it is a couple things, as we mentioned.

We have some new product ramping and we have a good macroeconomic backdrop and customer backdrop in terms of overall demand.

So we are seeing a good momentum going into Q2.

Sort of as opposed to last year where it was extremely weak in the first half of the year, we are seeing a strong start to the year.

Okay.

So basically we will see growth I guess in both major product areas, the projector and the TV chip business in Q2?

We don't break out those details by market.

Clearly the projection market is remarkably strong, the uptake on 4K continues to be good in both televisions and ultrahigh definition monitors.

We continue to work on new design wins in all areas.

We don't break out by product category guidance historically, Krishna, but generally we are seeing strong trends across our business in general.

And then you said you will be -- I guess you are sampling your mobile video processor chip this quarter.

Can you give us some sense for the design win momentum there and how that might ramp in the second half of this year?

Well, I think as we have been reporting for the last couple of quarters as we have gone through our sort of introduction process in the market, typically there are technology demonstrations to customers where there are side-by-side comparisons of the technology against current solutions and then ultimately that technology ends up in a chip.

And so we are at that -- what we're saying is that this quarter we will be sampling that chip, we will be introducing this product formally and we will have a better -- complete understanding of the chip, its capabilities.

But the analogy you can think of, it is kind of much like sort of coprocessors do for large screens, this is a very similar sort of process except that it is really focused on low power, it is focused on mobile systems and a lot of the specific things and innovation we have had to do to take sort of technology that is appropriate for large screens and really target that to the specific requirements of mobile systems.

So we will be sampling that chip this quarter and [giving] it to our customers.

And I think that based on the feedback and the interest that we have had so far, we are very excited and optimistic about potential design win momentum once we get the product into the market.

And would you anticipate initial adoption of this mobile leader processor chip in tablets and ultra books or hybrid notebook tablets over the smart phones?

Can you talk about the initial target markets for this mobile leader processor chip?

Well, the initial target market is sort of across all mobile platforms.

I think the value proposition is largely the same across all those.

Of course each one of those products has a different profile from volume, cost and adoption and so forth.

But generally as a start we are targeting for mobile systems.

You can think of it in terms of screen size and resolution, sort of 5.5 inches and above up to your top end ultra book/tablet and then HD resolutions and above as well.

Although any video processing this will enhance the efficiency of the video processing.

So there is multiple value propositions in terms of the video quality.

There is sort of power consumption and of course there is processing efficiency to help just the system have more cycles to process video.

Great.

And then my final question is I guess with the completion of the March quarter you have completed the multi-quarter licensing, the $10.5 million licensing deal that was first announced in [Q3] (corrected by Company after the call) of last year.

Can you give us some sense for -- I guess that deal is kind of done now and can you give us a sense for what kind of milestones were achieved there and the potential for ongoing business there or any other updates?

With regards to the deal that we announced in the 8-K backing Q3, we certainly -- we can't say any more than what was said in that release.

That release did give you the framework for sort of the horizon and timeline of the project and its configuration and its amount.

But that is about all that we can say about it.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, and that does conclude our Q&A for today.

I would like to turn it back to management for any closing remarks.

Thanks for joining us today and we'll look forward to talking to you on our Q2 2014 conference call.

Thank you.

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude your conference.

You may now disconnect and have a great day.