Luna Innovations Incorporated (NASDAQ:LUNA) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Paul Essi: Very good. Thanks for taking the questions.

Scott Graeff: Yes. Thanks, Paul.

Operator: The next question is from Dave Kang from B. Riley FBR. Please go ahead.

David Kang: Thank you. First question is, Brian, you talked about book-to-bill, just wondering what that was for fourth quarter and also if you can talk about the backlog situation and should we expect book-to-bill to be over one in first quarter?

Brian Soller: Yes. So as I said throughout the year last year it was running between . Fourth quarter was a little bit lower. We just had €“ it was really more driven by the revenues bumping up. So from a book-to-bill perspective was more like 1 €“ between 1.01 like 1.05. But we netted the year out total 1.14, and just on the product side 1.17, so still really strong for the year. A lot of activity between now and the end of the quarter, but we expect a strong book-to-bill in quarter one.

Gene Nestro: Yes. I think the new norm, Dave is certainly north of 1, 1, 1.1, maybe drifting to 1.2, even 1.3 in some particular quarters. But I don’t think we drift back down to 1 anymore now with some of the businesses we have.

David Kang: Got it. And then just quickly on this year’s projection. I think you talked about this year being backend loaded as usual. So should we expect like what, 35-65 or maybe 40-60? Any color on that?

Gene Nestro: Yes. Historically, we’ve gone out, we’re kind of 44-56-ish. Maybe it’s closer to 40-60, 42 in that range on H1. I believe, if you look at that midpoint of the range, you could easily be probably in that low-40s, I would say is where we end up being.

David Kang: Got it. And then on €“ regarding 10% customers, did you have 10% customers last year and could be 10% customers this year?

Brian Soller: No. We don’t have the 10% customers.

Gene Nestro: No. Yes. No, no. We don’t have that type of exposure.

Brian Soller: We have, I think we €“ the larger customers drift up into the 5% to 7% range. But we don’t have a major concentration in the top 10.

Gene Nestro: Not for a full-year.

David Kang: Got it. So not even like a Lockheed or Northrop, expect 10% customers.

Gene Nestro: Not Lockheed, Northrop, Intuitive, not on an annualized basis.

Brian Soller: It will be 5% or 7%.

Gene Nestro: Yes. Nothing that gets up to 10%.

David Kang: Got it. All right. Thank you.

Gene Nestro: All right. Thanks, Dave.

Operator: The next question is from , a Private Investor. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst: Thanks. Hey, I noticed that you came in at kind of the low-end of the full-year revenue outlook, and I’m wondering if that’s just revenue that’s been deferred into this coming year or if it’s revenue that’s been lost?

Gene Nestro: Yes. We have a lot of €“ when we gave guidance, you have to put a stake in the ground as far as what you consider on the FX effect. And that’s why we go out with this constant currency. Constant currency, we were right around 112 is the midpoint of the range that we gave a year-ago. We gave guidance range of 109 to 115. Certainly, we continued to see €“ as adding Lios continued to have a little bit more lumpiness with the project-based. But on a constant currency to finish 32.5 for the Q4 and 112 annually in the middle of our range and pulling the $12 million of EBITDA, we feel pretty good with Asia lockdown all year still on COVID throughout all of 2022 and some of the supply issues that we had along with the lumpiness.

We feel really good about being at 112, which is at the middle, the mid-range of that 109 to 115 on that top. So you really do have to factor in that, which is why we go out and announce that constant currency. Because when we gave the guidance range, there’s no way for us to know what the foreign exchange is going to do. So that’s why we kind of lay it out that way.