Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript May 2, 2023

Repligen Corporation beats earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $0.64, expectations were $0.59.

Operator: Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Repligen First Quarter of 2023 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Vaishnavi, and I will be your coordinator. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] In order to accommodate all individuals who wish to ask questions, there will be a limit of two questions at a time. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to your host for today’s call, Ms. Sondra Newman, Head of Investor Relations for Repligen. Please go ahead.

Sondra Newman: Thank you. And welcome everyone to our first quarter of 2023 report. On this call, we will cover business highlights and financial performance for the three months periods ended March 31, 2023. We’ll also provide updates to our financial guidance for the full year. Repligen’s President and CEO, Tony Hunt; and our CFO, Jon Snodgres, will deliver our report, and then we’ll open the call up for Q&A. As a reminder, the forward-looking statements that we make during this call, including those regarding our business goals and expectations for the financial performance of the company are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events or results to differ. Additional information concerning risks related to our business is included in our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, our annual report on Form 10-K, and the current report on Form 8-K and other filings that we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Today’s comments reflect management’s current views, which could change as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The company does not obligate or commit itself to update forward-looking statements, except as required by law. During this call, we are providing non-GAAP results and guidance. Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures are included in the press release that we issued this morning, which is posted to Repligen’s website and on sec.gov. Non-GAAP figures in today’s report include the following: Revenue growth at constant currency; gross profit and gross margin; operating expenses, including R&D and SG&A; operating income and operating margin; net income and earnings per share; as well as EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA.

These adjusted financial measures should not be viewed as an alternative to GAAP measures, but are intended to better enable investors to benchmark Repligen’s current results against historical performance and the performance of our peers when evaluating investment opportunities. Now I’ll turn the call over to Tony.

Tony Hunt: Okay, thank you, Sondra, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to our Q1 earnings call. As shown in our press release this morning, we delivered an excellent first quarter, given the bioprocessing industry market dynamics with 7% revenue growth for our base business at constant currency and stronger than expected gross and operating margins. Overall revenues of $183 million for the quarter were down 9% at constant currency due to the predicted reduction in COVID-related demand. The starting in the quarter was forwards of our proteins and chromatography businesses where we saw solid gains in an increased competition from non-COVID mRNA programs in the cell and gene therapy space. COVID-related, revenues came in as expected at around $23 million, a decrease of approximately 60% year-over-year.

On the orders front, we saw book-to-bill for the base business of the quarter of 29.4, cell and gene therapy orders were strong, up 40% sequentially and 20% versus the average quarterly order intake in 2022. The region where orders were soft was China, down 40% sequentially and 60% versus a year ago. Challenges in the region were driven by a combination of inventory burn-off that was built up during COVID and lower demand from ceiling in pharma. Based on current projections, we expect it will take another few quarters for China to return to more normalized level of demand. Base orders in the other regions performed reasonably well in Q1 with a combined book-to-bill 1.0. Activity and interest at our customer level remains high with many customers scaling here in 2023.

However, given the lack of order growth across the regions, and the situation in China and APAC to a lesser extent, we feel it’s prudent adjust 5 plus for the year. We do expect overall orders for the company to pick up the second half of the year and continue to strengthen as we move into 2024. Our expectation now is 4% 8% organic growth in our base business with our COVID orders unchanged, at $30 million to $40 million. Strategically, we continue to make selective investments across our product portfolio. We see 2023 as an important year to complete several key R&D programs. And our intent is to increase our spend to approximately 60% of revenue. We have four new product launches planned by mid-year, supporting our filtration, and analytics franchises with additional launches in the second half positioning us well into 2024.

We continue to see strong traction for many of the new products we launched in ’21 and ’22, which contributed 10% of our overall revenues in the first quarter. We saw strong demand for ARTeSYN chromatography filtration systems and high level of activity around her most recent launch our RPM system with inline analytics. On the M&A front, we closed on the acquisition of FlexBiosystems in mid-April giving us another play include managements with the addition of single-use bags. We focused our M&A efforts over the last few years in building out the management’s vision, and we believe that FlexBiosystems Technology in 2D and 3D bag manufacturing is a core competency to the company and something we can build upon over the next few years. With the newly built 7,000 square foot manufacturing space, we expect to increase the number of opportunities for FlexBiosystems to our dedicated commercial team and deliver approximately $5 million in revenues this year with the business ramping up quickly in 2024.

As we look to 2024, our goal is to be back to 20% plus growth from our base business armed with a broader portfolio of products and to return to more historical growth levels across the regions. So moving down to our quarterly performance, as mentioned earlier, the starting of the quarter was performance of our proteins and chromatography franchises and the overall performance of cell and gene therapy. In chromatography, our OPUS pre-packed column business had an excellent quarter for orders and revenue. Overall revenue for chrome came in at close to 20% against the lighter comp in Q1 of last year. We saw a greater than 50% increase in revenues and orders from new modality accounts focused mRNA, viral vector and plasma manufacturing. As highlighted in our year end call, chromatography investment supply remains tight through the first three months of this year and pharma results were strong year-on-year, our base target in revenues were down 15% sequentially.

Our expectation is that, Q2 will be similar to Q1 with revenues picking up from second half of 2023, as more resin supply comes online. We continue to expect our chromatography franchise to grow approximately 10% this year. Our proteins business had a good quarter with year-over-year reported growth in the high-single-digits in Q1 the expected drop off in Cytiva ligands demand in first quarter was more than offset by the performance of other ligands and growth factors as we continue to transform our proteins business with Repligen developed products. We expect proteins to be flat here in 2023. In filtration, our business was down approximately 20% as reported, driven by a predicted sharp decline in COVID-related revenues. For the base filtration business, revenues were down less than 5% against a tough come in Q1 last year.

Base filtration revenues in Q1 were essentially in line with the revenue in the previous quarter. Our ARTeSYN systems and flow paths and Excel ATF performed well in the quarter with our systems and flow path revenues up over 200%. New modality strengths came from challenging therapy including mRNA. We are seeing the benefits of our relationships established during COVID as many of these companies have pivoted to mRNA programs in vaccines and therapeutics. We expect mRNA to be a catalyst of growth of the next few years as new vaccines and therapeutics make their way through clinical trials. Overall, filtration orders for the quarter were down versus a year ago, which is driven by the aforementioned weakness in China and APAC where management soft.

We expect our filtration franchise will start to recover during Q3 as the macro headwinds subside and customers complete their destocking activities. We expect this franchise to be down, 13% to 20% overall, and flat to up 8% on base business. Finally, our process analytics business had an excellent quarter on orders, which were up over 30% year-on-year while revenues were up slightly versus prior year, new order growth rate is very encouraging. We continue to expect this business to deliver 15% to 20% growth here in 2023. So overall, we’re off to a solid start for the year. However, given the macroenvironments, 2023 will be a challenging year for our industry and for the company. Repligen continues to be well positioned with a great suite of innovative products and strong traction in key areas of market to manage to the next six to nine months.

We do expect to see order pick up during the second half of the year which will put us in a good position for 2024. We remain very optimistic about medium to longer term potential in bioprocessing once we navigate through the next few quarters. With that, I will turn the call over to Jon for the financial update.

Jon Snodgres : Thank you, Tony, and good day, everyone. Today, we are reporting our financial results for the first quarter 2023, as well as updating our financial guidance for the year. Unless otherwise mentioned, all financial measures discussed reflect adjusted non-GAAP measures. As shown in our press release this morning, we delivered revenue of $182.7 million in the first quarter. The highlight continues to be the performance of our base business, which grew by 7% in constant currency, driven by the performance of our chromatography and proteins businesses, despite challenging market conditions. For the first quarter, our total revenue decreased by 12% as reported and 9% at constant currency. FX impact for the quarter was about $5 million, creating a three-point headwind on reported growth.

Based on current conditions, we expect FX headwinds to continue through the first half of 2023 and then shift to tailwinds in the second half netting out to a zero impact for the full year. For our overall revenue performance, we saw year-over-year reduction in COVID revenue of $30 million. This was partially offset by performance on our base business, which grew by $10 million or 4% as reported and 7% at constant currency. As it relates to regional revenue growth, we saw strong performance in Asia, with Europe and North America down as expected due to COVID revenue declines. For the quarter, overall, revenues from Asia, rest of the world increased by 21%, while North America and Europe contracted by 15% and 21% respectively. While revenue growth in Asia was strong, orders in the region especially in China, dropped off significantly setting us up for tougher last three quarters in 2023 for this region.

Regarding overall revenue distribution by region for the first quarter, Asia represented 23%, Europe represented 39%, and North America represented 38% of our global business. Now, moving down to our income statement. First quarter 2023 adjusted gross profit was $100.8 million, a reduction of $23.8 million or 19%, compared to the 2022 first quarter. Adjusted gross margin of 55.2% in the quarter goes down from 60.4% in the 2022 first quarter. Gross margins declines compared to the 2022 first quarter are related to volume deleverage, less favorable product mix tied to COVID revenue declines, material cost inflation and higher expenses tied to our capacity expansions. Sequentially, gross margins in the quarter improved by 370 basis points from our fourth quarter ‘22 performance of 51.5% driven by improved product mix benefiting our material costs, price increases covering material cost inflation from suppliers and operational cost optimization in our business.

Now transitioning down the P&L to adjusted operating expenses. Adjusted research and development expenses for the first quarter 2023 were 6.7% of revenue. As Tony mentioned, we are focused on ramping up our R&D efforts here in 2023 in order to launch key new products into the market this year with our primary focus areas being filtration systems. Adjusted SG&A expenses for the first quarter 2023 were 26% of total revenue, compared to 22% in the same ‘22 period. Year-over-year percentage increases were tied to capacity expansion and investments in commercial resources to continue to drive growth and market share gains in the short and long-term. Now moving to adjusted earnings and EPS. First quarter 2023 operating income was $40.9 million, compared to $67.4 million in the prior year quarter and adjusted operating margin was 22.4%, compared to 32.6% in the same prior year period.

Adjusted net income for the first quarter of 2023 was $36.3 million, compared to $53.7 million in the same quarter of 2022, a 32% reduction. Adjusted fully diluted EPS for the first quarter of 2023 was $0.64, compared to $0.92 in the same ‘22 period, a decline of $0.28 or 31%. Our cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments, which are GAAP metrics totaled $618 million at March 31st 2023. We will now transition to our 2023 full-year guidance. Our GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations for our 2023 financial guidance are included in the reconciliation tables in today’s earnings press release. As previously mentioned, unless otherwise noted, all 2023 financial guidance discussed will be non-GAAP. Please also keep in mind that our 2023 guidance may be impacted by fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, beyond our current projection of flat on full year sales and includes financial estimates for our FlexBiosys acquisition closed on April 17.

Guidance does not include potential impact of any future acquisitions that the company may pursue. Based on our current view of market conditions, we are revising our 2023 full year revenue guidance, the GAAP metric to a range of $720 million to $760 million, a reduction of $40 million at the midpoint compared to our February guidance. This revised guidance reflects overall reported and constant currency growth of minus 10% to minus 5% and organic growth of minus 11% minus 6%. Our overall revenue guidance includes COVID revenues of $30 million to $40 million consistent with our February guidance and we have included $5 million of revenue from our FlexBiosys acquisition. We are updating our base business revenue guidance to a range of $685 million to $715 million, growing at 4% to 8% as reported and at constant currency.

This compares to our February guidance of $730 million to $760 million growing at 11% to 15% as reported and 12% to 16% at constant currency. We are revising our 2023 adjusted gross margin guidance to the range of 52% to 53%, 50 basis point reduction from our previous guidance of 52.5% to 53.5%, driven primarily by lower revenue projections for the year. We are modifying our adjusted operating income guidance to a range of $153 million to $158 million for the $23.5 million at midpoint from our February guidance of $176 million to $182 million. Our adjusted operating margin guidance is now in the range 20.5% to 21.5% for the year compared with our February guidance range of 22.5% to 23.5% of revenue. Adjusted other income guidance is being increased to $14 million, compared to prior guidance of $10 million.

And we continue to expect 2023 adjusted income tax expense to be approximately 20% of adjusted pre-tax income. We’re revising our adjusted net income guidance to the range of $134 million to $138 million, a difference of $15.5 million at the midpoint from our February guidance of $149 million to $154 million. We are revising our adjusted EPS guidance to the range of $2.35 to $2.42 per fully diluted share, a reduction of $0.27 from our previous guidance of $2.61 cents to $2.69. Our adjusted EPS guidance assumes 57.1 million weighted average fully diluted shares outstanding at year-end 2023. Adjusted EBITDA is now expected to be in the range of $190 million to $194 million, a reduction of $24 million at the midpoint from our prior guidance of $213 million to $219 million with depreciation and intangible amortization expense is expected to be approximately $35.7 million, and $30.2 million respectively.

Adjusted EBITDA margins continue to be strong and are expected to be in the range of 25.5% to 26.5% for the year reflective of the exclusion of fixed depreciation cost from our capacity expansions from this metrics. We expect year-end cash and cash equivalents, a GAAP metric to be in the range of $620 million to $640 million with $60 million of CapEx investments being fully funded by cash generation from our operations. This provides any cash figures inclusive of cash payments made for our April acquisition of FlexBiosys. This completes our financial report and guidance update. And I will now turn the call back to the operator to open the lines for questions.

Q&A Session

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Dan Arias with Stifel. Please go ahead.

Operator: The next question comes from Jacob Johnson with Stephens. Please go ahead.

Operator: The next question comes from Puneet Souda with SVB Securities. Please go ahead.

Operator: The next question comes from Julia Kim with JPM Chase. Please go ahead.

Operator: The next question comes from Matt Larew with William Blair. Please go ahead.

Operator: The next question comes from Paul Knight with KeyBanc. Please go ahead.

Operator: Our next question comes from Lisa Garcia with UBS. Please go ahead.

Operator: The next question comes from Matt Hewitt with Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Please go ahead.

Operator: The next question comes from Brandon Couillard with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Operator: This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Tony Hunt for any closing remarks. Yeah, thanks everybody for joining. Good discussions today. Look forward to connecting with everybody in a few months time and talking through how the rest of the year has gone for us. So thanks everybody for joining.

Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.