NASDAQ:IPGP IPG Photonics Q2 2023 Earnings Report $58.15 +0.21 (+0.36%) Closing price 04/25/2025 04:00 PM EasternExtended Trading$57.36 -0.80 (-1.37%) As of 04/25/2025 05:51 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast IPG Photonics EPS ResultsActual EPS$1.31Consensus EPS $1.24Beat/MissBeat by +$0.07One Year Ago EPS$1.38IPG Photonics Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$339.97 millionExpected Revenue$346.78 millionBeat/MissMissed by -$6.81 millionYoY Revenue Growth-9.80%IPG Photonics Announcement DetailsQuarterQ2 2023Date8/1/2023TimeBefore Market OpensConference Call DateTuesday, August 1, 2023Conference Call Time10:00AM ETUpcoming EarningsIPG Photonics' Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Tuesday, May 6, 2025, with a conference call scheduled at 10:00 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Q1 2025 Earnings ReportConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)SEC FilingEarnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by IPG Photonics Q2 2023 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrAugust 1, 2023 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 8 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Morning, and welcome to IPG Photonics Second Quarter 2023 Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded and webcast. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to your host, Mr. Eugene Fedorov, IPG's Senior Director, Investor Relations for introductions. Please go ahead, sir. Speaker 100:00:20Thank you, Rob, and good morning, everyone. With me today is IPG Photonics' CEO, Doctor. Eugene Cherbakov And Senior Vice President and CFO, Tim Mahmet. Let me remind you that statements made during the course of this call As discussed, management's or the company's intentions, expectations or predictions of the future are forward looking statements. These forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those projected in such forward looking statements. Speaker 100:00:52These risks and uncertainties are detailed in IPG's Photonics Form 10 ks for the period ended December 31, at 2022 and other reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Copies of these filings may be updated by visiting the Investors section of IPG's website or by contacting the company directly. You may also find copies on the SEC's website. Any forward looking statements made on this call are the company's expectations or predictions as of today, August 1, 2023 only, And the company assumes no obligation to publicly release any updates or revisions to any such statements. For additional details on our reported results, Please refer to the earnings press release, earnings call presentation and the financial data workbook posted on the Investor Relations site. Speaker 100:01:47We will post these prepared remarks on our Investor Relations website following the completion of this call. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Eugene Shebakov. Speaker 200:01:56Good morning, everyone. I am pleased with our performance this quarter. 2nd quarter revenue came And it is the point of our guidance range. Despite of increased microeconomic uncertainty, which resulted in project delays and impacted sales And outlook in industrial markets across many geographies. We reported another quarter of solid revenue growth in Welding And cleaning applications that were driven by strong sales in eMobility and handheld welding solutions. Speaker 200:02:31Additionally, revenue improved in 3 d printing and solar cell manufacturing applications as investment in this market increased. Sales in flat sheet cutting applications declined year over year, mostly due to economic uncertainty and increased competition in China and continuing to negatively impact in our results. However, cutting sales were up sequentially in China, North America and Japan. Emerging Growth product accounted for 41% of our total sales in the second quarter. We saw continued growth in A and B lasers, light weld, green and ultrafast lasers as well as the beam delivery. Speaker 200:03:16But sales declined in medical and advanced applications as well as in laser based system and high power pulsed lasers. We have shipped our first 50 kilowatt AMB laser during the quarter and continue to invest into international sales platforms for LightWealth. As we said on our Q1 conference call, our Medical business was impacted by A large customer working through the inventory. If you use sales in the second quarter, We expect medical sales to return to a more normal level in the Q3 and continue to focus on additional growth opportunities in the medical market. Despite of challenging operating environment, the positive results were And reducing our exposure to low margin and high competitive business. Speaker 200:04:18We have been focusing on products and applications, which benefits from global investment in e mobility and renewable energy, And this strategy is yielding the good results. IPG had another quarter with a strong sales in e mobility applications, driven by an increase in sales to geographies outside China, primarily in North America, Europe and South Korea. EV related investment in China slowed during the quarter, particularly into traditional prismatic cell batteries. But We are seeing the increased investment into new technologies such as large cylindrical cells and also more investment in Batteries for Storage Applications. Our team is working on new business opportunity in fall cutting applications And Electrical Motor Assembly. Speaker 200:05:17With continued adoption of on electric vehicles And growth in energy storage globally, demand for batteries should quickly catch up with recent capacity additions And we expect investment in battery manufacturing in China to be stronger next year. Meanwhile, We are seeing the increased investment in EV battery capacity outside of China and expect immobility orders to remain strong in the 3rd Our welded cells are benefiting from growth in innovative applications where our complete solution, which include AMD lasers and welding heads combined with our real time weld monitoring and measuring technology, which has become the industrial standard. LDD's real time measurement can significantly reduce testing time, Scrapcast and failed parts for the customer, making a very strong value proposition An exceptional return on investment, given the yield and cost benefits. LGV also getting great acceptance in outside of batteries, where the final cost of defect can be very high and lead to significant recalls. We are proud to deliver multiple solutions, which can significantly reduce the environmental impact for our Customers, including our high efficiency echo lasers with industrial leading wall plug efficiency over the 50%, Environment Friendly Cleaning Solutions and High Efficiency Laser Diabrhyme and Heating System. Speaker 200:07:07During the quarter, we continued to see strong results in our laser cleaning solutions in e mobility And other automotive and non automotive applications. Laser cleaning provide substantially benefits to reducing the use of abrasives, Chemicals and Dry Ice Cleaning. Unlike chemicals, abrasive and heat treatment cleaning process, laser cleaning doesn't impact The materials that has been cleaned does not leave toxic waste and also create a safer and cleaner environment for employers. It can be also significantly reduced water consumption. And we are seeing is increasing interest in our laser clean solution for a number of different processes And applications including the paint and corrosion removal. Speaker 200:07:57Another recently introduced laser solution which is replacing the less efficient Infrared bubbles for the drying and heating is gaining interest and we have booked our first order for EV battery applications, which will be shipped in the Q3. The dryer solution are well received by customers and are gaining market Acceptance because they significantly cut down energy consumption and reduce the environment impact on legacy processes. And today, I am happy to announce that the Board of Directors has elected Colin Kennedy is a new Director of the company. I'm looking forward to working with Colin and believe She will be a great contributor to IPG's strategy, particularly with our growth in medical applications, Given her 25 years of experience in the medical system manufacturing industry, I would like to thank our employees Well, there is a strong contribution in the quarter. And we will now turn the call over to Tim to discuss financial highlights. Speaker 300:09:12Thank you, Eugene, and good morning, everyone. My comments generally will follow the earnings call presentation, which is available on our Investor Relations website. I will start with the financial review on Slide 4. Revenue in the second quarter was $340,000,000 A decline of 10% year over year, partially due to foreign currency headwinds, which accounted for approximately 2% of the decrease And the telecom divestiture that reduced revenue by approximately 1%. Revenue from materials processing applications decreased 8% year over year, while revenue from other applications decreased 23%. Speaker 300:09:58GAAP gross margin was 43.4%, a decrease of 2 30 basis points year over year due to higher cost of Products sold and charges for scrap, which were partially offset by lower inventory reserves, reduced shipping costs and tariffs as well as an improvement in absorption of manufacturing costs as a percentage of sales. On a sequential basis, Gross margin continued to improve as we focused on reducing costs and improving manufacturing efficiency. We also benefited from slightly lower inventory provisions and shipping costs. As mentioned before, FX headwinds also had a negative impact in the quarter. If exchange rates relative to the U. Speaker 300:10:47S. Dollar had been the same as 1 year ago, We would have expected revenue to be $9,000,000 higher and gross profit to be $5,000,000 higher. GAAP operating income was $72,000,000 and operating margin was 21.2%. Net income was $62,000,000 or $1.31 per diluted share. The effective tax rate in the quarter Was 24% and was benefited by certain discrete items. Speaker 300:11:22Foreign currency transaction expense Related to remeasuring foreign currency assets and liabilities to period end exchange rates had a negative impact on operating income of $1,000,000 But net of a tax benefit had no material impact on earnings per share. Excluding the currency transaction loss Under restructuring charge, operating expenses declined year over year, primarily in research and development And general administrative categories as we reduce spending on telecom product developments, implement a tighter cost controls and reduced expenses. Moving to Slide 5. Sales of high power CW lasers decreased 10% and represented approximately 43% of total revenue. Sales of ultra high power lasers above 6 kilowatt Represented 50% of total high power CW laser sales with customers outside of China moving to higher powers. Speaker 300:12:29The decline in revenue was primarily due to lower demand in flat sheet cutting applications as a result of softer demand and competition in China. Pulse laser sales decreased 24% year over year as strong growth in cleaning And solar cell applications was offset by lower demand in foil cutting and marking applications. System sales declined 1% year over year with growth in Lightwell offset by a decline in other laser and non laser systems. Medium power laser sales increased 18%, driven by increased demand in welding and 3 d printing applications, While QCW laser sales were down 2% year over year, other product sales decreased due to lower revenue in medical and advanced applications. Looking at our performance by region on Slide 6. Speaker 300:13:29Revenue in North America decreased by 11% with strong growth in welding and cleaning applications, offset by lower sales in advanced and medical applications, lower cutting revenue and the divestiture of the telecom business. In Europe, sales increased 4% driven by growth in welding and cleaning applications despite overall uncertainty in the economy. At the recent laser show in Europe, the tone of our business was muted with most customers expecting a slowdown in the second half of twenty twenty three. Revenue in China decreased 28% year over year as demand declined across most markets and applications compared to the prior year with the exception of cleaning and 3 d printing. Moving to a summary of our balance sheet and cash flow on Slide 7. Speaker 300:14:26We ended the quarter with cash, cash equivalents and short term investments of $1,100,000,000 and repaid $16,000,000 of debt in the quarter. Cash provided by operations was $67,000,000 And capital expenditures were $26,000,000 during the quarter. We now expect capital expenditures to be between $130,000,000 $140,000,000 this year. Our inventories decreased slightly, and we continue to target further reduction in inventories during the second half of the year. While maintaining a strong balance sheet, we have been returning a significant amount of capital to shareholders over the last year and in the Q1. Speaker 300:15:10We did not repurchase shares in the Q2. As previously reported, the Board announced a new $200,000,000 share repurchase authorization in May, And we have a new 10b18 repurchase plan in place. We intend to repurchase opportunistically. Moving to our outlook on Slide 9. 2nd quarter book to bill was below 1. Speaker 300:15:35We continue to see uncertain macroeconomic condition and soft orders in all major manufacturing regions. Leading indicators in North America and Europe point to contraction in the industrial markets, while the timing of demand recovery in China remains uncertain. However, despite the weaker business conditions overall, the e mobility sector was not affected in Europe and North America, And we're still seeing solid activity in orders in eMobility for the Q3. Furthermore, we expect to see normalizing demand in medical And Advanced Applications as well as the Systems business, which should help to offset headwinds in the rest of the business. For the Q3 of 2023, IPG expects revenue of $300,000,000 to $330,000,000 Company expects Q3 gross margin to be between 40% 42%. Speaker 300:16:33IPG anticipates delivering earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.85 to $1.15 with approximately 47,500,000 diluted common shares outstanding. As discussed in the Safe Harbor passage of today's earnings press release, our guidance is based upon current market conditions and expectations, Assume exchange rates referenced in our earnings press release and is subject to risks outlined in the Safe Harbor and the company's reports with the SEC. With that, we'll be happy to take your questions. Operator00:17:12Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question and answer Our first question comes from Reuben Roy with Stifel. Please proceed with your question. Speaker 400:17:47Thank you. Good morning all. Tim, I wanted to drill in a little bit further into the commentary around cutting. Demand then competition in China, but can you remind us where kind of as a percentage of revenues in China cutting And was the comment on competition in China broader, meaning that did it encompass EV as well? Speaker 300:18:18No. The comment on competition in China is really around the cutting market and Not around the EV market, we continue to have a very strong presence on foil cutting, cleaning and welding applications globally. Globally. Cutting within China is certainly a much smaller share of the total sales there now. We had said at the end of last quarter that it was less than 10% of consolidated sales and it remains quite well below that level, the high power cutting Business in China. Speaker 300:18:59It was pretty stable from Q1 to Q2, but certainly didn't perform well. Speaker 400:19:07I appreciate that. And as a follow-up, Tim, can we talk a little bit about gross margin and some of the puts and takes? Good quarter here. Obviously, we're going into a little bit of a lower revenue environment in Q3. So thinking through sort of the rest of the year, you've got Potentially some improving productivity coming up in the new factory in Poland and potentially New Hampshire. Speaker 400:19:30How are you thinking about Gross margin playing out through the rest of the year? Speaker 300:19:36We were actually very pleased with The sequential improvement in gross margin following the sequential improvement in Q1, so getting back up To a more reasonable level, certainly below our longer term target level still. In Q3, really, the difference is Just on lower revenue levels, the absorption of manufacturing costs will be lower. So going through the remainder of the year, it will really depend upon Where the tone of the business ends up and into next year, hopefully, with an improving outlook, we'd expect to see Gross margins pick up again, but it really is just on the fixed cost base. You start to see some under absorption at the guidance level we're at in Q3. Speaker 100:20:22Got it. Thank you, Tim. Operator00:20:28Our next question comes from James Ricchiuti with Needham and Please proceed with your question. Speaker 500:20:34Thank you. Good morning. So it sounds like you're seeing you've seen some Softening in the EV related business in China, I'm wondering if you could talk more broadly about What you're seeing in the market outside of China? And Tim, maybe you can help size this EV Business in Q2, how it's fared just versus Q1 and to the Ken, what that represents of that EV business, how much is battery welding right now? Speaker 300:21:12Yes. So the soft we are seeing some softness in the demand cycle in China really related to the capacity additions that have already been Built out there. You also started to see a transition for the cylindrical battery investment. We think that's actually going to be a big driver next year As capacity utilization picks up, in the rest of the world, the demand cycle for EV has actually been Pretty robust and strong. I'd say it's strongest in North America and then followed by Europe. Speaker 300:21:43There's good demand out of South Korea and even in Japan as well, it's still dominated by battery applications. We're diversifying the battery applications again. We've got the first orders for the drying equipment. We're starting to see some demand for additional foil cutting applications. There are some Cleaning applications on some of the main body in mainly in North America that's coming from And there are some complete systems we're selling into that. Speaker 300:22:19I'd still say though it's still very much battery driven. Motor manufacturing It's still a sort of ancillary application in that area. Speaker 500:22:32In this reference, roughly, What is your Speaker 300:22:35Sorry, yes. So it's still well above 20% of sales in Q2. Speaker 200:22:42Okay. And also We'll see in Europe trend to achieve this production, shift production or better it The final production of cars and you see it definitely for a few, our customers in Europe and also in the United States. Speaker 500:23:03Got it. And my follow-up question is on the bookings trends. You mentioned book to bill below 1, and I'm wondering if you could If you could provide any more granularity on that and how it may be varying by region and including what you're seeing perhaps in consumer electronics market, which I don't think you mentioned at all in your prepared text? Speaker 300:23:28Yes. We said that it was softer across All of our major industrial geographies, that would be Europe, U. S. And China. We actually had some Pretty positive order flow out of Japan, which is holding up quite well. Speaker 300:23:44And South Korea also performed Pretty well too. That's sort of the it's sort of married up to what you're seeing on some of the PMI Data out there. Sorry, Jim, what was the second part of your question? Speaker 500:24:02Well, just on some of the end markets, mean, I assume that the legacy automotive is slower. I didn't hear any comments about Some of the other end markets, including consumer electronics, which in the past, you've seen some seasonality in terms of orders. What does that market look like for you? Speaker 300:24:23Yes. I mean that would be reflected mostly in the QCW sales, which were down slightly year over year. So there's no great traction in consumer electronics. The other And in consumer electronics. The other positive areas on applications were really cleaning and then Additive manufacturing was actually cleaning was very strong globally. Speaker 300:24:44Additive manufacturing was okay in Europe and was actually very strong In China, with a couple of the OEMs that we work very closely with there and additive there, we have been qualified because of the Quality and the reliability of the lasers. Speaker 200:24:59And cleaning applications for us is very important because we are shipping not only a pulsed laser or CW laser for Such kind of applications, but final systems for cleaning. Thank you. Operator00:25:28Our next question comes from Michael Feniger with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question. Speaker 600:25:34Thanks guys for fitting me in. The inventory came down 3% quarter over quarter. I know that's been a target of you guys to make improvements there. With book to bill less than one times and some of these PMIs low, I'm just curious to how you're thinking about inventories in the back half. Do we need to take out more? Speaker 600:25:54Are you trying to position to get to a certain level to get to position yourself for 2024? Any way to kind of think about that in the back half? Speaker 300:26:05Yes. We continue to be very focused on managing inventory, and We're not seeing some of the same supply chain issues that we had experienced for the last couple of years. So we continue to Target bringing inventory down during the second half of the year and generating cash out of that. In the medium term, let's say, we want to get down to less 200 days inventory on hand and ultimately get back to a more normalized inventory level, which would be Somewhere around 180 days, but that may take a bit longer to get to. But yes, we're definitely looking to Take some additional cash out of inventory and are pleased with the progress that we've made to date this year. Speaker 300:26:51And certainly, it's a significant change as compared to the investment in inventory we felt that was necessary last year. Speaker 600:26:59Great. And Tim, just following up on the question around the production footprint, it sounds like What's weighing on the gross margin among other things is the under absorption that you kind of talked about the volumes. Are you still confident with the change with Poland and raising production in the U. S. That with your cost base, as we think about those gross margin targets, maybe not for obviously Q3 or Q4, just maybe longer term. Speaker 200:27:30Definitely, it's our goal to optimize our cost, first of all, for production of some of components like fiber blocks and others for our lasers. And of course, we are working hard this way. By the way, in Poland, we will increase our production Dramatically and we will increase further to the end of this quarter. The same situation in Italy. We also increased our production for these components and also in Germany. Speaker 200:28:00And every time we have of course, it's under our control to the cost These components because it's influenced finally, you know exactly our gross margin. Situation in the United States much more Rather because it's expensive country, but nevertheless, we are looking forward to make final optimization our cost, First of all, for fiber components production. Speaker 600:28:28Great. Thanks for that. And then just On Europe, Europe, we're hearing from other industrial companies that kind of flagging a weakening in Germany and The last month or so, your growth was pretty resilient, even up a little bit in Germany. Just curious what you're kind of seeing there With the underlying demand versus your ability to offset that it looks like in some areas. Speaker 300:28:55Yes. I mean, certainly, during the quarter, Europe was performed pretty reasonably and particularly compared to a year ago. The weaker guidance reflects some of the softness that other people are seeing. For us, that's translating into Q3. There are positives and negatives, right? Speaker 300:29:15Some of the industrial OEM business is a bit weaker, where some of the welding applications Have held up quite well and things like cleaning are also performing well in Europe. But yes, I mean, the PMIs in Europe are 43, they're some of the weakest they've been for quite a long time. And I think that the German economy is quite weak at the moment. So we'll have to see how long it takes for that to turn around. Speaker 200:29:47Thank you. Operator00:29:51Our next question comes from Mark Miller with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed with your question. Speaker 700:29:57Thank you for the questions. You mentioned there was a large customer inventory adjustment in the U. S. Could you give a little more color what type of industry was that from? Speaker 300:30:07Yes. Mark, obviously, medical applications, which we'd called out on Q1, would be weaker in the Q2, and now we're expecting a Recovery and medical application sales in Q3, the customers worked through their inventory adjustment that they Signal to us would happen in the Q2. Speaker 700:30:28Any opportunities such as in the consumer electronics area Related to AI you see coming up? Speaker 300:30:41I mean there's some announcements out there that there's one of the major smartphone manufacturers is going to be using more additive manufacturing In their processes, that would be an opportunity for us given The strength that we have within the additive manufacturing processes around the world, I think, I mean, that would be one of the more significant This is being talked about. As you mentioned, the consumer electronics investment cycle overall with QCW lasers and even pulse lasers being Relatively, anemic is not strong outside of that right now. Speaker 700:31:21Thank you. Operator00:31:26We have reached the end of the question and answer session. I would now like I'll turn the call back over to Eugene Fedorov for closing comments. Speaker 100:31:36Thanks for joining Thank you this morning and for your continued interest in IPG. We will participate in a number of investor events this Order and are looking forward to speaking with you over the coming weeks. Have a great day everyone. Operator00:31:53This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and we thank youRead morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallIPG Photonics Q2 202300:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) IPG Photonics Earnings HeadlinesIPG Photonics price target lowered to $52 from $64 at BofAApril 22, 2025 | markets.businessinsider.comQ2 EPS Estimates for IPG Photonics Lifted by Zacks ResearchApril 19, 2025 | americanbankingnews.comClaim Your FREE Protection GuideIn the final days of his first term, Trump quietly left open an "off the books" wealth-protection loophole hidden in the 6,871 pages of the IRS Tax Code... And since then, "in the know" patriots have quietly used this same "Trump loophole" to shield their life savings from the economic chaos. But with Trump now forcefully bringing back millions of manufacturing jobs from Mexico, China, and the entire BRICS anti-dollar coalition...April 26, 2025 | American Alternative (Ad)Zacks Research Boosts Earnings Estimates for IPG PhotonicsApril 18, 2025 | americanbankingnews.comIPG Photonics price target lowered to $80 from $90 at Raymond JamesApril 8, 2025 | markets.businessinsider.com3 Reasons to Avoid IPGP and 1 Stock to Buy InsteadApril 2, 2025 | msn.comSee More IPG Photonics Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like IPG Photonics? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on IPG Photonics and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About IPG PhotonicsIPG Photonics (NASDAQ:IPGP) develops, manufactures, and sells various high-performance fiber lasers, fiber amplifiers, and diode lasers used in various applications primarily in materials processing worldwide. Its laser products include hybrid fiber-solid state lasers with green and ultraviolet wavelengths; fiber pigtailed packaged diodes and fiber coupled direct diode laser systems; high-energy pulsed lasers, multi-wavelength and tunable lasers, and single-polarization and single-frequency lasers; and high-power optical fiber delivery cables, fiber couplers, beam switches, chillers, scanners, and other accessories. The company also offers integrated laser systems; LightWELD, a handheld laser welding system; 2D compact flat sheet cutter systems and multi-axis systems for fine welding, cutting, and drilling; welding seam stepper and picker, a fiber laser welding tool; high precision laser systems; specialized fiber laser systems for material processing applications; robotic and multi-axis workstations for welding, cutting and cladding, flatbed cutting systems, and diode markers; and laser and non-laser robotic welding and automation solutions. It serves materials processing, communications, medical procedures, and advanced applications and communications markets. The company markets its products to original equipment manufacturers, system integrators, and end users through direct sales force, as well as through agreements with independent sales representatives and distributors. IPG Photonics Corporation was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts.View IPG Photonics ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Markets Think Robinhood Earnings Could Send the Stock UpIs the Floor in for Lam Research After Bullish Earnings?Market Anticipation Builds: Joby Stock Climbs Ahead of EarningsIs Intuitive Surgical a Buy After Volatile Reaction to Earnings?Seismic Shift at Intel: Massive Layoffs Precede Crucial EarningsRocket Lab Lands New Contract, Builds Momentum Ahead of EarningsAmazon's Earnings Could Fuel a Rapid Breakout Upcoming Earnings Cadence Design Systems (4/28/2025)Welltower (4/28/2025)Waste Management (4/28/2025)AstraZeneca (4/29/2025)Mondelez International (4/29/2025)PayPal (4/29/2025)Starbucks (4/29/2025)DoorDash (4/29/2025)Honeywell International (4/29/2025)Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (4/29/2025) Get 30 Days of MarketBeat All Access for Free Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools. 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There are 8 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Morning, and welcome to IPG Photonics Second Quarter 2023 Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded and webcast. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to your host, Mr. Eugene Fedorov, IPG's Senior Director, Investor Relations for introductions. Please go ahead, sir. Speaker 100:00:20Thank you, Rob, and good morning, everyone. With me today is IPG Photonics' CEO, Doctor. Eugene Cherbakov And Senior Vice President and CFO, Tim Mahmet. Let me remind you that statements made during the course of this call As discussed, management's or the company's intentions, expectations or predictions of the future are forward looking statements. These forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those projected in such forward looking statements. Speaker 100:00:52These risks and uncertainties are detailed in IPG's Photonics Form 10 ks for the period ended December 31, at 2022 and other reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Copies of these filings may be updated by visiting the Investors section of IPG's website or by contacting the company directly. You may also find copies on the SEC's website. Any forward looking statements made on this call are the company's expectations or predictions as of today, August 1, 2023 only, And the company assumes no obligation to publicly release any updates or revisions to any such statements. For additional details on our reported results, Please refer to the earnings press release, earnings call presentation and the financial data workbook posted on the Investor Relations site. Speaker 100:01:47We will post these prepared remarks on our Investor Relations website following the completion of this call. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Eugene Shebakov. Speaker 200:01:56Good morning, everyone. I am pleased with our performance this quarter. 2nd quarter revenue came And it is the point of our guidance range. Despite of increased microeconomic uncertainty, which resulted in project delays and impacted sales And outlook in industrial markets across many geographies. We reported another quarter of solid revenue growth in Welding And cleaning applications that were driven by strong sales in eMobility and handheld welding solutions. Speaker 200:02:31Additionally, revenue improved in 3 d printing and solar cell manufacturing applications as investment in this market increased. Sales in flat sheet cutting applications declined year over year, mostly due to economic uncertainty and increased competition in China and continuing to negatively impact in our results. However, cutting sales were up sequentially in China, North America and Japan. Emerging Growth product accounted for 41% of our total sales in the second quarter. We saw continued growth in A and B lasers, light weld, green and ultrafast lasers as well as the beam delivery. Speaker 200:03:16But sales declined in medical and advanced applications as well as in laser based system and high power pulsed lasers. We have shipped our first 50 kilowatt AMB laser during the quarter and continue to invest into international sales platforms for LightWealth. As we said on our Q1 conference call, our Medical business was impacted by A large customer working through the inventory. If you use sales in the second quarter, We expect medical sales to return to a more normal level in the Q3 and continue to focus on additional growth opportunities in the medical market. Despite of challenging operating environment, the positive results were And reducing our exposure to low margin and high competitive business. Speaker 200:04:18We have been focusing on products and applications, which benefits from global investment in e mobility and renewable energy, And this strategy is yielding the good results. IPG had another quarter with a strong sales in e mobility applications, driven by an increase in sales to geographies outside China, primarily in North America, Europe and South Korea. EV related investment in China slowed during the quarter, particularly into traditional prismatic cell batteries. But We are seeing the increased investment into new technologies such as large cylindrical cells and also more investment in Batteries for Storage Applications. Our team is working on new business opportunity in fall cutting applications And Electrical Motor Assembly. Speaker 200:05:17With continued adoption of on electric vehicles And growth in energy storage globally, demand for batteries should quickly catch up with recent capacity additions And we expect investment in battery manufacturing in China to be stronger next year. Meanwhile, We are seeing the increased investment in EV battery capacity outside of China and expect immobility orders to remain strong in the 3rd Our welded cells are benefiting from growth in innovative applications where our complete solution, which include AMD lasers and welding heads combined with our real time weld monitoring and measuring technology, which has become the industrial standard. LDD's real time measurement can significantly reduce testing time, Scrapcast and failed parts for the customer, making a very strong value proposition An exceptional return on investment, given the yield and cost benefits. LGV also getting great acceptance in outside of batteries, where the final cost of defect can be very high and lead to significant recalls. We are proud to deliver multiple solutions, which can significantly reduce the environmental impact for our Customers, including our high efficiency echo lasers with industrial leading wall plug efficiency over the 50%, Environment Friendly Cleaning Solutions and High Efficiency Laser Diabrhyme and Heating System. Speaker 200:07:07During the quarter, we continued to see strong results in our laser cleaning solutions in e mobility And other automotive and non automotive applications. Laser cleaning provide substantially benefits to reducing the use of abrasives, Chemicals and Dry Ice Cleaning. Unlike chemicals, abrasive and heat treatment cleaning process, laser cleaning doesn't impact The materials that has been cleaned does not leave toxic waste and also create a safer and cleaner environment for employers. It can be also significantly reduced water consumption. And we are seeing is increasing interest in our laser clean solution for a number of different processes And applications including the paint and corrosion removal. Speaker 200:07:57Another recently introduced laser solution which is replacing the less efficient Infrared bubbles for the drying and heating is gaining interest and we have booked our first order for EV battery applications, which will be shipped in the Q3. The dryer solution are well received by customers and are gaining market Acceptance because they significantly cut down energy consumption and reduce the environment impact on legacy processes. And today, I am happy to announce that the Board of Directors has elected Colin Kennedy is a new Director of the company. I'm looking forward to working with Colin and believe She will be a great contributor to IPG's strategy, particularly with our growth in medical applications, Given her 25 years of experience in the medical system manufacturing industry, I would like to thank our employees Well, there is a strong contribution in the quarter. And we will now turn the call over to Tim to discuss financial highlights. Speaker 300:09:12Thank you, Eugene, and good morning, everyone. My comments generally will follow the earnings call presentation, which is available on our Investor Relations website. I will start with the financial review on Slide 4. Revenue in the second quarter was $340,000,000 A decline of 10% year over year, partially due to foreign currency headwinds, which accounted for approximately 2% of the decrease And the telecom divestiture that reduced revenue by approximately 1%. Revenue from materials processing applications decreased 8% year over year, while revenue from other applications decreased 23%. Speaker 300:09:58GAAP gross margin was 43.4%, a decrease of 2 30 basis points year over year due to higher cost of Products sold and charges for scrap, which were partially offset by lower inventory reserves, reduced shipping costs and tariffs as well as an improvement in absorption of manufacturing costs as a percentage of sales. On a sequential basis, Gross margin continued to improve as we focused on reducing costs and improving manufacturing efficiency. We also benefited from slightly lower inventory provisions and shipping costs. As mentioned before, FX headwinds also had a negative impact in the quarter. If exchange rates relative to the U. Speaker 300:10:47S. Dollar had been the same as 1 year ago, We would have expected revenue to be $9,000,000 higher and gross profit to be $5,000,000 higher. GAAP operating income was $72,000,000 and operating margin was 21.2%. Net income was $62,000,000 or $1.31 per diluted share. The effective tax rate in the quarter Was 24% and was benefited by certain discrete items. Speaker 300:11:22Foreign currency transaction expense Related to remeasuring foreign currency assets and liabilities to period end exchange rates had a negative impact on operating income of $1,000,000 But net of a tax benefit had no material impact on earnings per share. Excluding the currency transaction loss Under restructuring charge, operating expenses declined year over year, primarily in research and development And general administrative categories as we reduce spending on telecom product developments, implement a tighter cost controls and reduced expenses. Moving to Slide 5. Sales of high power CW lasers decreased 10% and represented approximately 43% of total revenue. Sales of ultra high power lasers above 6 kilowatt Represented 50% of total high power CW laser sales with customers outside of China moving to higher powers. Speaker 300:12:29The decline in revenue was primarily due to lower demand in flat sheet cutting applications as a result of softer demand and competition in China. Pulse laser sales decreased 24% year over year as strong growth in cleaning And solar cell applications was offset by lower demand in foil cutting and marking applications. System sales declined 1% year over year with growth in Lightwell offset by a decline in other laser and non laser systems. Medium power laser sales increased 18%, driven by increased demand in welding and 3 d printing applications, While QCW laser sales were down 2% year over year, other product sales decreased due to lower revenue in medical and advanced applications. Looking at our performance by region on Slide 6. Speaker 300:13:29Revenue in North America decreased by 11% with strong growth in welding and cleaning applications, offset by lower sales in advanced and medical applications, lower cutting revenue and the divestiture of the telecom business. In Europe, sales increased 4% driven by growth in welding and cleaning applications despite overall uncertainty in the economy. At the recent laser show in Europe, the tone of our business was muted with most customers expecting a slowdown in the second half of twenty twenty three. Revenue in China decreased 28% year over year as demand declined across most markets and applications compared to the prior year with the exception of cleaning and 3 d printing. Moving to a summary of our balance sheet and cash flow on Slide 7. Speaker 300:14:26We ended the quarter with cash, cash equivalents and short term investments of $1,100,000,000 and repaid $16,000,000 of debt in the quarter. Cash provided by operations was $67,000,000 And capital expenditures were $26,000,000 during the quarter. We now expect capital expenditures to be between $130,000,000 $140,000,000 this year. Our inventories decreased slightly, and we continue to target further reduction in inventories during the second half of the year. While maintaining a strong balance sheet, we have been returning a significant amount of capital to shareholders over the last year and in the Q1. Speaker 300:15:10We did not repurchase shares in the Q2. As previously reported, the Board announced a new $200,000,000 share repurchase authorization in May, And we have a new 10b18 repurchase plan in place. We intend to repurchase opportunistically. Moving to our outlook on Slide 9. 2nd quarter book to bill was below 1. Speaker 300:15:35We continue to see uncertain macroeconomic condition and soft orders in all major manufacturing regions. Leading indicators in North America and Europe point to contraction in the industrial markets, while the timing of demand recovery in China remains uncertain. However, despite the weaker business conditions overall, the e mobility sector was not affected in Europe and North America, And we're still seeing solid activity in orders in eMobility for the Q3. Furthermore, we expect to see normalizing demand in medical And Advanced Applications as well as the Systems business, which should help to offset headwinds in the rest of the business. For the Q3 of 2023, IPG expects revenue of $300,000,000 to $330,000,000 Company expects Q3 gross margin to be between 40% 42%. Speaker 300:16:33IPG anticipates delivering earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.85 to $1.15 with approximately 47,500,000 diluted common shares outstanding. As discussed in the Safe Harbor passage of today's earnings press release, our guidance is based upon current market conditions and expectations, Assume exchange rates referenced in our earnings press release and is subject to risks outlined in the Safe Harbor and the company's reports with the SEC. With that, we'll be happy to take your questions. Operator00:17:12Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question and answer Our first question comes from Reuben Roy with Stifel. Please proceed with your question. Speaker 400:17:47Thank you. Good morning all. Tim, I wanted to drill in a little bit further into the commentary around cutting. Demand then competition in China, but can you remind us where kind of as a percentage of revenues in China cutting And was the comment on competition in China broader, meaning that did it encompass EV as well? Speaker 300:18:18No. The comment on competition in China is really around the cutting market and Not around the EV market, we continue to have a very strong presence on foil cutting, cleaning and welding applications globally. Globally. Cutting within China is certainly a much smaller share of the total sales there now. We had said at the end of last quarter that it was less than 10% of consolidated sales and it remains quite well below that level, the high power cutting Business in China. Speaker 300:18:59It was pretty stable from Q1 to Q2, but certainly didn't perform well. Speaker 400:19:07I appreciate that. And as a follow-up, Tim, can we talk a little bit about gross margin and some of the puts and takes? Good quarter here. Obviously, we're going into a little bit of a lower revenue environment in Q3. So thinking through sort of the rest of the year, you've got Potentially some improving productivity coming up in the new factory in Poland and potentially New Hampshire. Speaker 400:19:30How are you thinking about Gross margin playing out through the rest of the year? Speaker 300:19:36We were actually very pleased with The sequential improvement in gross margin following the sequential improvement in Q1, so getting back up To a more reasonable level, certainly below our longer term target level still. In Q3, really, the difference is Just on lower revenue levels, the absorption of manufacturing costs will be lower. So going through the remainder of the year, it will really depend upon Where the tone of the business ends up and into next year, hopefully, with an improving outlook, we'd expect to see Gross margins pick up again, but it really is just on the fixed cost base. You start to see some under absorption at the guidance level we're at in Q3. Speaker 100:20:22Got it. Thank you, Tim. Operator00:20:28Our next question comes from James Ricchiuti with Needham and Please proceed with your question. Speaker 500:20:34Thank you. Good morning. So it sounds like you're seeing you've seen some Softening in the EV related business in China, I'm wondering if you could talk more broadly about What you're seeing in the market outside of China? And Tim, maybe you can help size this EV Business in Q2, how it's fared just versus Q1 and to the Ken, what that represents of that EV business, how much is battery welding right now? Speaker 300:21:12Yes. So the soft we are seeing some softness in the demand cycle in China really related to the capacity additions that have already been Built out there. You also started to see a transition for the cylindrical battery investment. We think that's actually going to be a big driver next year As capacity utilization picks up, in the rest of the world, the demand cycle for EV has actually been Pretty robust and strong. I'd say it's strongest in North America and then followed by Europe. Speaker 300:21:43There's good demand out of South Korea and even in Japan as well, it's still dominated by battery applications. We're diversifying the battery applications again. We've got the first orders for the drying equipment. We're starting to see some demand for additional foil cutting applications. There are some Cleaning applications on some of the main body in mainly in North America that's coming from And there are some complete systems we're selling into that. Speaker 300:22:19I'd still say though it's still very much battery driven. Motor manufacturing It's still a sort of ancillary application in that area. Speaker 500:22:32In this reference, roughly, What is your Speaker 300:22:35Sorry, yes. So it's still well above 20% of sales in Q2. Speaker 200:22:42Okay. And also We'll see in Europe trend to achieve this production, shift production or better it The final production of cars and you see it definitely for a few, our customers in Europe and also in the United States. Speaker 500:23:03Got it. And my follow-up question is on the bookings trends. You mentioned book to bill below 1, and I'm wondering if you could If you could provide any more granularity on that and how it may be varying by region and including what you're seeing perhaps in consumer electronics market, which I don't think you mentioned at all in your prepared text? Speaker 300:23:28Yes. We said that it was softer across All of our major industrial geographies, that would be Europe, U. S. And China. We actually had some Pretty positive order flow out of Japan, which is holding up quite well. Speaker 300:23:44And South Korea also performed Pretty well too. That's sort of the it's sort of married up to what you're seeing on some of the PMI Data out there. Sorry, Jim, what was the second part of your question? Speaker 500:24:02Well, just on some of the end markets, mean, I assume that the legacy automotive is slower. I didn't hear any comments about Some of the other end markets, including consumer electronics, which in the past, you've seen some seasonality in terms of orders. What does that market look like for you? Speaker 300:24:23Yes. I mean that would be reflected mostly in the QCW sales, which were down slightly year over year. So there's no great traction in consumer electronics. The other And in consumer electronics. The other positive areas on applications were really cleaning and then Additive manufacturing was actually cleaning was very strong globally. Speaker 300:24:44Additive manufacturing was okay in Europe and was actually very strong In China, with a couple of the OEMs that we work very closely with there and additive there, we have been qualified because of the Quality and the reliability of the lasers. Speaker 200:24:59And cleaning applications for us is very important because we are shipping not only a pulsed laser or CW laser for Such kind of applications, but final systems for cleaning. Thank you. Operator00:25:28Our next question comes from Michael Feniger with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question. Speaker 600:25:34Thanks guys for fitting me in. The inventory came down 3% quarter over quarter. I know that's been a target of you guys to make improvements there. With book to bill less than one times and some of these PMIs low, I'm just curious to how you're thinking about inventories in the back half. Do we need to take out more? Speaker 600:25:54Are you trying to position to get to a certain level to get to position yourself for 2024? Any way to kind of think about that in the back half? Speaker 300:26:05Yes. We continue to be very focused on managing inventory, and We're not seeing some of the same supply chain issues that we had experienced for the last couple of years. So we continue to Target bringing inventory down during the second half of the year and generating cash out of that. In the medium term, let's say, we want to get down to less 200 days inventory on hand and ultimately get back to a more normalized inventory level, which would be Somewhere around 180 days, but that may take a bit longer to get to. But yes, we're definitely looking to Take some additional cash out of inventory and are pleased with the progress that we've made to date this year. Speaker 300:26:51And certainly, it's a significant change as compared to the investment in inventory we felt that was necessary last year. Speaker 600:26:59Great. And Tim, just following up on the question around the production footprint, it sounds like What's weighing on the gross margin among other things is the under absorption that you kind of talked about the volumes. Are you still confident with the change with Poland and raising production in the U. S. That with your cost base, as we think about those gross margin targets, maybe not for obviously Q3 or Q4, just maybe longer term. Speaker 200:27:30Definitely, it's our goal to optimize our cost, first of all, for production of some of components like fiber blocks and others for our lasers. And of course, we are working hard this way. By the way, in Poland, we will increase our production Dramatically and we will increase further to the end of this quarter. The same situation in Italy. We also increased our production for these components and also in Germany. Speaker 200:28:00And every time we have of course, it's under our control to the cost These components because it's influenced finally, you know exactly our gross margin. Situation in the United States much more Rather because it's expensive country, but nevertheless, we are looking forward to make final optimization our cost, First of all, for fiber components production. Speaker 600:28:28Great. Thanks for that. And then just On Europe, Europe, we're hearing from other industrial companies that kind of flagging a weakening in Germany and The last month or so, your growth was pretty resilient, even up a little bit in Germany. Just curious what you're kind of seeing there With the underlying demand versus your ability to offset that it looks like in some areas. Speaker 300:28:55Yes. I mean, certainly, during the quarter, Europe was performed pretty reasonably and particularly compared to a year ago. The weaker guidance reflects some of the softness that other people are seeing. For us, that's translating into Q3. There are positives and negatives, right? Speaker 300:29:15Some of the industrial OEM business is a bit weaker, where some of the welding applications Have held up quite well and things like cleaning are also performing well in Europe. But yes, I mean, the PMIs in Europe are 43, they're some of the weakest they've been for quite a long time. And I think that the German economy is quite weak at the moment. So we'll have to see how long it takes for that to turn around. Speaker 200:29:47Thank you. Operator00:29:51Our next question comes from Mark Miller with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed with your question. Speaker 700:29:57Thank you for the questions. You mentioned there was a large customer inventory adjustment in the U. S. Could you give a little more color what type of industry was that from? Speaker 300:30:07Yes. Mark, obviously, medical applications, which we'd called out on Q1, would be weaker in the Q2, and now we're expecting a Recovery and medical application sales in Q3, the customers worked through their inventory adjustment that they Signal to us would happen in the Q2. Speaker 700:30:28Any opportunities such as in the consumer electronics area Related to AI you see coming up? Speaker 300:30:41I mean there's some announcements out there that there's one of the major smartphone manufacturers is going to be using more additive manufacturing In their processes, that would be an opportunity for us given The strength that we have within the additive manufacturing processes around the world, I think, I mean, that would be one of the more significant This is being talked about. As you mentioned, the consumer electronics investment cycle overall with QCW lasers and even pulse lasers being Relatively, anemic is not strong outside of that right now. Speaker 700:31:21Thank you. Operator00:31:26We have reached the end of the question and answer session. I would now like I'll turn the call back over to Eugene Fedorov for closing comments. Speaker 100:31:36Thanks for joining Thank you this morning and for your continued interest in IPG. We will participate in a number of investor events this Order and are looking forward to speaking with you over the coming weeks. Have a great day everyone. Operator00:31:53This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and we thank youRead morePowered by