Markforged Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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May 11, 2023

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Operator

A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Austin Bolig, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Austin.

Speaker 1

Good afternoon. I'm Austin Bolick, Director of Investor Relations of Markforged Holding Corporation. Welcome to our Q1 of 2023 results conference call. We will be discussing the results announced in our earnings press release issued after market close today. With me on the call is our President and CEO, Shay Turem and our CFO, Mark Schwartz.

Speaker 1

Before we get started, I'd like to remind everyone that management will be making statements during this call that include estimates and other forward looking statements, which are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements contained in this call that are not statements of historical facts should be deemed to be forward looking statements. These statements represent management's views as of today, May 11, 2023, and are subject to material risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Markforch disclaims any intention or obligation, except as required by law, to update or revise forward looking statements. Also during the course of today's call, we refer to certain non GAAP financial measures.

Speaker 1

There is a reconciliation schedule showing the GAAP versus non GAAP results currently available in our press release issued after market close today, Which can also be found on our website at investors. Markforge.com. I'll now turn the call over to Shay Turem, President and CEO of Markforged.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Austin, and thank you, everyone, for joining us on our Q1 2023 earnings call. We've started the year strong with yet another record first quarter revenues and the largest pipeline in our company's history. We've shared our strategy before around product innovation, go to market and financial efficiency gains and infrastructure build up. We believe our Q1 revenue and our gross margin results in particular are a reflection of strong execution of our strategy And an early indicator of the meaningful opportunity for Markforged in the coming quarters. Demand for the Digital Forge grew across all geographies in Q1 as increasing number of manufacturers are choosing our metal And composite solutions to solve mission critical metal applications at the point of mid.

Speaker 2

It was especially great to see strong pipeline buildup in the Americas, which is our biggest region and can support our planned growth. The incremental improvements we've made to our FX 2020 cost structure, coupled with our strong operating expense controls enabled us to make our Q1 EPS Target. As we spoke before, a couple of macro trends in manufacturing are helping us To fuel demand for our Digital Forge platform. The first, manufacturers across the globe are focused on creating More resilient and flexible production by investing in solutions that derisk their supply chains. The second It is increased focus on digital transformation and industrial automation.

Speaker 2

We believe our platform is uniquely positioned To address the $40,000,000,000 market opportunity available to us on the manufacturing floor today. Our customers Tell us the Digital Ford is the perfect tool for the manufacturing store and accelerates the production of new and replacement parts. For example, our customer Rapid Robotics provides automation tools through robotics as a service offering To manufacturers to automate production sales. With the fleet, which grew over time to 10 Markforged printers, Rapid Robotics Produces on-site custom grippers and end effectors for the robotic arm, saving in some cases months of production cycles to improve overall performance. Another example in Arizona is our customer HandyWriTEN, which develops robots To autonomously create personalized, Handy written notes that stand out with a personal touch.

Speaker 2

Handy written uses the flip of 5 Mark Forch printers For iterative robotic design and faster production times. We even have customers applying advanced robotics To increase production, Athena 3 d Manufacturers, who operate as a service bureau that produces critical parts for other manufacturers, has developed a system Capable of true light out manufacturing by automating the processes of starting print and removing parts with robotic arms. This automation has enabled them to double output and achieve a 40% increase in utilization of the digital technology suite. I encourage you to check out the video we have uploaded to our YouTube channel showing these robots in action, truly amazing. As manufacturers seek production grade solutions for the factory floor, revenue for the FX 2020 continue to exceed our expectations and the pipeline of new orders continues to grow.

Speaker 2

Entering 2023, our focus was improving the cost of producing the FX-twenty. Thanks to the diligent work by our engineering and operation teams, The cost to produce the FX 2020 are declining, which is helping to drive sequential gross margin expansion. We expect FX 2020 production cost to continue to decline throughout this year, which will support our objectives To meet our historical gross margin rates. With the ability to print large, high temp resistant parts, The aerospace market is a key target for the FX 2020 and we are pleased with our early traction and strong interest. We are already scaling with customers utilizing the FX-twenty for maintenance, repair and operations Or MRO applications.

Speaker 2

What is extremely encouraging is the interest we are seeing in utilizing The FX20 to produce and use parts that go into the production of new aircrafts. While these have lengthy development cycle, we are already seeing aerospace companies begin to spec the digital forge into their next For example, U. S.-based Air Muse is working with the U. S. Air Force and NASA On a multi year plan to radically accelerate air travel by developing a Mach 5 aircraft capable of commercial flight.

Speaker 2

Early in their development process, they began using our X-five and have recently added an FX-twenty to their fleet To produce the types of advanced composite parts required to achieve hypersonic passenger flights. By adopting our technology early in their product lifecycle, we are helping to enable next gen air travel and planting the seeds for future growth. At the end of Q1, We moved into our new global headquarter in Wolfram, just outside of Boston. It is new state of the art R and D Labs And we can already feel the excitement that comes from collaborating in person every day and believe this move will drive even more operational efficiencies over time. We remain laser sharp focused on margin expansion and driving profitable growth.

Speaker 2

We're particularly encouraged by the sequential improvement in gross margin, which exceeded 49% in the Q1. We are committed to reaching profitability without needing to raise additional capital. Manufacturing is changing significantly, and we're well positioned to benefit from the full potential of this inflection point. Given our upcoming new product introductions, growing pipeline and healthy margins, we're even more confident in our ability to achieve this objective. As you have probably seen in our announcement earlier today, this will be our last earnings call with Mark as our CFO.

Speaker 2

I want to thank Mark for his service to Mark Ford and helping us on our journey from a private start up to a public company. For me personally, Mark has been a great partner. He will continue to support us for the next few months, while we search for our next CFO. For continuity, Assaf Sipori, our previous CFO and current Head of Strategy and Corporate Development, Who has been with us for the past three and a half years will assume the role on an interim basis. Mark is not leaving us just yet, but we wish him well on his next project.

Speaker 2

With that, I now turn the call over to Mark Schwartz, our CFO, We'll offer more details on our financial performance and guidance for the remainder of the year.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Shai. Let's turn to our financial results for the Q1 of 2023. Please note That my comments reflect our non GAAP results and outlook. For your reference, our earnings press release issued earlier this afternoon and to our Investor Relations website includes our GAAP to non GAAP reconciliation to assist with my commentary. Revenue increased 10.2 percent to $24,100,000 for the Q1 of 2023 compared with revenues of $21,900,000 for the Q1 of 2022.

Speaker 3

Gross profit in Q1 was $11,900,000 compared to $11,700,000 for the Q1 of 2022. As a result, we generated a gross profit margin of 49.3 Compared to 53.6 percent in the Q1 of 2022. On a year over year comparison basis, Our Q1 gross margin was impacted by increases in freight and logistics costs as well as by the added component material and labor costs associated with ramping up FX 2020 commercial production. That said, on a sequential basis, Our gross margins expanded by 180 basis points versus Q4 of 2022. Our product mix has shifted toward high margin products and improved FX 2020 production costs.

Speaker 3

Our operating expenses were $26,700,000 for the Q1 of 2023 compared to $26,400,000 for the Q1 of 2022, even accounting for the increased operating expenses We're down 9% from Q4 of 2022, reflecting our commitment to containing costs. Net loss for the Q1 of 2023 was $13,300,000 or $0.07 per share based on our weighted average shares outstanding for the quarter of $195,600,000 Now on to our guidance. We were pleased with our results for Q1 and the start of the year. Our revenue guidance continues to reflect the uncertain macro environment and we reiterate anticipated revenues for the year to be within the range of $101,000,000 to $110,000,000 We expect fiscal year 2023 non GAAP gross margin to be in the range of 47% to 49%. We were encouraged with the progress we made with our gross margin in Q1 and we are confident that longer term they will continue to improve towards historical levels.

Speaker 3

The disciplines we exerted over our operating expenses in Q1 will continue as we progress through 2023. We expect operating expenses to decline as a percentage of our revenues, resulting in a non GAAP operating loss In the range of $55,000,000 to $58,000,000 for the year. This translates into non GAAP EPS results for the full year to be a loss in the range of $0.27 to $0.29 per share. We executed on our strategy to lower our quarterly cash burn, With cash flow from operations decreasing $3,700,000 or approximately 20% From the Q1 of 2022 to the Q1 of 2023. As we have previously stated, we expect to reduce Our operating cash burn in 2023 to under $50,000,000 a decrease of $32,000,000 or 39% as compared to 2022.

Speaker 3

This will be realized through higher revenues and margin expansion, continued inventory reductions and working capital improvements and increased yields On our cash and equivalents and short term instruments. We expect to end 2023 with a balance of approximately $120,000,000 in cash and equivalents and short term investments. We are encouraged with our Q1 results. We believe they are a reflection that our strategy and strong execution are working and an early indicator for us of the opportunity coming in future quarters. And further, we continue to believe we have the infrastructure in place that supports our long term innovation and go to market objectives For profitable growth without the need to raise additional capital.

Speaker 3

Finally, I want to thank Shay and the entire team at Markforged for their collaboration and support over the past years. It has been my honor and pleasure to work side by side with this group of passionate people focused on providing manufacturers a flexible and resilient platform to produce mission critical parts at the point of need. It is the right time to step aside and be a fan and champion for the very bright future of this company. That concludes our prepared remarks today. Operator, please open up the call for questions.

Operator

Certainly. We'll now be conducting a question and answer session. Our first question today is coming from Troy Jensen from Lake Street Capital Markets. Your line is now live.

Speaker 4

Hey, gentlemen. Congrats on the nice results here.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Troy. Hey,

Speaker 4

quick Shai for you. FX 'twenty, I guess I'd be really curious on Alltown. And I guess, I don't know if I've seen parts produced from the FX-twenty that's got offset with continuous carbon fiber in it. So This traction that you're talking about specifically in Aerospace, can you just let us know if it's for larger On X parts or is it the traction with Ultem?

Speaker 2

I think it's for both and definitely the OTEM is very, very interesting to the aerospace companies. There's no doubt there's more complexity in That involve all time and continuous fiber, but we do see some of them out there. But we are very pleased with the FX 'twenty Results, it's really increasing significantly.

Speaker 4

Yes, perfect. All right. And Mark, for you, just on gross margins, I mean, you're already above the high end of the range for the year. So can you talk About sequentially, what's going to force this back down to below 49%?

Speaker 3

Yes. I think it's really a reflection, Troy, of The lack of visibility we have into the market and there's just there continues to be some macro pressures That we're feeling. We had a great quarter, but it wasn't an easy quarter. So we as we look into the future, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves here. And we feel really good about the trajectory we're on.

Speaker 3

As I said in the prepared remarks, I think our Q1 results and particularly on the gross margin side, They are a reflection that what we're doing is working and we see ourselves returning to historical levels. But just after the Q1 out of the gate, we're not prepared To change our guidance and really that's a reflection of the visibility.

Speaker 4

All right. Understood. And then maybe last one for Shai. PX-one hundred, can you give us an update and thoughts on the number of units you can ship this year? When does that become our meaningful for you guys?

Speaker 2

Yes. As you saw in Rapid, we brought it for the first time to the U. S. And there's a lot of traction around it, a lot of demand building up, Good backlog, I think also. I hope we're going to start shipping systems in Q3 this year.

Speaker 2

I think This year still relatively to the size of the business. I don't see it as a very big impact, but it's definitely growing materially. We see very, very impressive demand from automotive, from luxury goods, consumer electronics And MediCom Industries, that we did not see before.

Speaker 4

All right. Understood. Mark, good luck with the golf game and congrats guys. Keep up the good

Speaker 3

Thanks, Troy. Thank you, Troy.

Operator

Thank you. Next question is coming from Greg Palm from Craig Hallum. Your line is now live.

Speaker 5

Yes, thanks. Congrats on the good results here as well. I'm just kind of probably speaking, curious If you could just kind of give us more of an update on what you're seeing out there demand wise. A couple of your peers talked about push outs and delays in customer purchase decisions, but your quarter came in

Speaker 6

quite

Speaker 5

a bit better. So just curious what you're seeing out there?

Speaker 2

Yes. Thank you. We definitely see demand building up significantly stronger than a year ago. And the pipeline is significantly bigger. With that, we also see some delay in the decision making.

Speaker 2

So the conversion are a little bit slower. The Cost of capital now is a big issue, especially for small businesses. But as you saw, the result, I think, speaks for themselves. We're able to grow still in this environment. And I hope the situation will continue to improve and we still have a very good year ahead of us.

Speaker 5

Yes, understood. I'm having a difficult time tying up the gross margin commentary. So I guess I'm going to take a stab at A question as well. I guess I get the lack of visibility, but the full year revenue guide assumes higher levels of revenue throughout the year. And I think, Shai, you talked about in the prepared commentary specifically around FX 'twenty production costs continuing to come down throughout the year.

Speaker 5

So I appreciate the conservatism, but I'm just I'm having a hard time tying out the gross margin in Q1, which was quite a bit better than expectations and the potential that, that actually comes down throughout the year just given the tailwinds I just talked about?

Speaker 3

Yes. Thanks, Greg. I think there's a number of factors, as you can imagine, that go into it. Just as an example, as you bring on a new product and there are Some engineering changes that are incorporated, new suppliers that are incorporated, you end up with materials that you can't use in production And that impacts gross margin. We've got a new product and as it is Being distributed out in the field, we have to think about our warranties and reserves and provisions, etcetera, for that.

Speaker 3

So It's more complex than simply the cost of production, although that's a very important part of it as you highlighted. But I think for us, we feel like we're on a great trajectory and I think you're asking the right question. We feel very positive about The direction our gross margin is moving. But having said that, there is still this lack of full visibility or at least the return to the visibility levels we had a few years ago. And as a result, we're just not prepared to make any changes to our guidance just yet.

Speaker 5

Okay. No, that makes sense. And then can you just remind us and lump this the FX 'twenty production costs within the other various Supply chain related impacts on gross margin that you suffered last year, maybe just remind us quantify how much that was? And then I guess at what point do you think those headwinds will be fully recouped or mostly recouped, fully understanding that there is a lack of visibility at this point, but what's your current thought there?

Speaker 3

So about 2 or 3 quarters ago, I think we did quantify it when maybe our gross margin on a year over year basis was down About 8%. And we've talked about where that 8% comes from. And roughly Half of it, if I recall, was from the FX 2020 and the other half of it we were seeing from general supply chain challenges, price increases, One off parts that were costing us 3x or 5x more than we previously paid for it. Some of that is definitely making its way out of the system. Supply chain is improving.

Speaker 3

There's no question. It's not back to where it was, but it's improving. The FX 2020 isn't where we needed to be from the targets we've set, but it is also improving. And so I would say we're still probably 5% or 6% away from where we expect to be. And that's probably still equally attributed to the supply chain more broadly and to the FX 2020.

Speaker 5

But just on the time line specifically, I mean, do you think that most of that can be recouped at some point next year?

Speaker 3

I think the FX 2020 for certain will be should be out of the system by the time we're having a call like this in a year from now. The supply chain is a little bit more challenging to predict time wise, but I think it's fair to say next year sometime that should be behind us.

Speaker 5

Okay, perfect. I will leave it there. Thanks.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Greg. Thank you, Greg.

Operator

Thank you. Next question is coming from Shannon Cross from Credit Suisse. Your line is now live. Thank

Speaker 7

you very much for taking my question. I'm wondering, looking at your numbers, the recurring revenue as a percent of total has increased significantly. So I'm just curious what factors would you point to behind that?

Speaker 2

Yes. So as you can see, the return revenue has Between material consumption and the success that we have, I think probably More recently, it's probably on the material side, of course, but we also I think we discussed about this before, we launched a new subscription plan. So We believe that we will also have contribution going forward. So we definitely see that the recurring revenue will continue to increase over time. I would also say, Shannon, it's Mark, that the

Speaker 3

power of this model and that software and services Is more stable, is reflected in the Q1 results because while hardware is down seasonally, those other areas are not Down nearly as much. And there is that sort of quarter over quarter stability. And as a result, for the Q1, you see that being a higher percentage of revenues.

Speaker 7

Got it. And then I'm curious, how should we think about if you layer on top what you're doing from a subscription standpoint in your software business? Like I mean, I know it's going to take time, but how should we think about the potential for contribution there as you shift to more paid software?

Speaker 2

I think there are two elements to it. 1 is the new subscription plan, which is A little bit more expensive, but gives more value to our customers. So that will, of course, have a positive impact on our earnings. But also the other side of it is that we continue to push bigger system that have significant bigger consumption And significantly bigger success plan and that will also have another very positive impact on the recurring revenue as We continue to grow the fleets of the bigger systems.

Speaker 7

Okay. That's helpful. And then can you talk a bit about strength in Europe? What you're seeing and maybe talk geographically anymore to the extent that you can get granular in terms of verticals in that, I'm just kind of curious as a follow-up to one of the prior questions, just anything about who's buying and where are they buying and what are they interested in? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Sure. So as you can see, we are very fortunate to be able to grow across all region and across all segments this quarter year over year, Which is great. I think the main reason is probably that we are razor sharp focused on manufacturing. We're trying

Speaker 7

to be the best tool for

Speaker 2

the manufacturing floor for our customers and for machine builders that need to put very strong and accurate parts into their machines. And there is, in my view, an inflection point in the manufacturing in general. Manufacturers are looking for more resilient supply chains. Markforged can be part of the solution. And I think this is where we see the highest growth.

Speaker 2

We see more and more solutions being put into my second floor. We see more and more solutions That go into parts that are eventually part of another product. And we start to have great success and some of our customers, for example, with bio jetting already That part going into cars. With the FX-twenty, we see more and more parts going into aircraft. So I think because we focus on the manufacturing side of stuff and Really enabling our customers to build resiliency into their product and into their supply chain, this is where we see the growth.

Speaker 3

I would add to that, Shannon, that we mentioned it before, but we added a very strong leader In EMEA over the last maybe 3 quarters now. And as we have pushed out Decision making and autonomy at a certain level to the edge into the region, we're seeing the results of that now 3 quarters later. We have very strong leadership, a very collaborative group, a very passionate group of folks in EMEA that are running that business. So It's been really an important aspect of the growth.

Speaker 7

Great. Thank you very much And good luck, Mark.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Shannon. Thank you, Shannon.

Operator

Thank you. Next question is coming from Brian Drab from William Blair. Your line is now live.

Speaker 8

Hey, thank you. So in the sequential gross margin improvement From Q4 to Q1, what was the biggest factor? Is it the FX 2020 manufacturing costs coming down or supply chain or what was the single biggest factor?

Speaker 3

It's related to the FX 2020, Brian, in 2 areas. One is the pure cost of production It's coming down. And secondarily, I mentioned it sort of briefly one of the earlier questions, but There's fewer and fewer engineering changes. And so there's less material that is not being used And doesn't need to be written off as obsolete material as part of that product family. So It's both of those, but it's the increase in gross margin is largely related to FX 'twenty.

Speaker 8

Okay. Yes. And then I guess more just a comment rather than a question, honestly. I'm with Greg. I'm more And Greg about the gross margin guidance because the midpoint of the guidance implies 47.5% after you just had a great quarter of Around 49, I mean, so second, 3rd, 4th quarter that you have to average 47.5 to hit the midpoint of the guidance.

Speaker 8

So I'm surprised you're not Saying high end of the range or something like that even because this is it's just confusing Given that it's the seasonally weakest quarter, you're making great improvements in the FX-twenty manufacturing costs, the supply chain is getting better, You're expecting volume improvement throughout the year. Like so that's not I feel like we're going to leave this call not Really understanding where like the boogeyman is hiding here or something. It just makes me feel uneasy that we don't It just doesn't make sense, but it's just going

Speaker 2

to it's leaving us a

Speaker 8

little bit of an uneasy feeling. I don't know if there's any other clarity you can provide around that though, because we've already asked it 3 times. Well, I think you asked it

Speaker 3

a little bit differently, Brian, and I can appreciate that. We're not trying to be obtuse here at all. I think the realistically, we just don't have enough visibility to get confidence in maybe raising that. But you asked it slightly differently and maybe we can address that. When we created our guidance, We looked at sort of where that midpoint was.

Speaker 3

And now after the Q1 and based on the cost cutting initiatives where we see the FX 20. I would say we still feel good within that range, but maybe we do feel better at the higher end of that range, Brian. We're not at all saying that You should expect something there's no boogeyman out there. There's nothing that you should expect that's going to weigh this down. But we just don't feel comfortable enough yet to raise it.

Speaker 8

Okay. All right. I'll follow-up more later. I think that's the first time I ever said boogeyman on an earnings call, but

Speaker 3

I'm sure it's the first time I've ever said

Speaker 8

I don't think I've ever said it personally. All right. Good luck, Mark. Take care.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Brian.

Operator

Thank you. Next question is coming from Jared Maybaum from

Speaker 6

Thanks. First one is just on the revenue guide. So I guess if we kind of look at what you guys are saying here, so impressive demand from automotive, Aerospace and Defense. Shay, I think if I'm not misquoting you, you said the pipeline is significantly larger than it was last year. I know you guys have also talked about some of the data insights that you have.

Speaker 6

You obviously get a lot of data back from the systems that are in the field. So I guess just when I look at the guidance, I mean in Q1, you guys are already fairly close to a level of revenue where On a run rate basis, you're kind of closing in on the low end of the guidance. So I guess I'm just trying to understand is when we look at your assumptions, are you guys kind of assuming that there's And it's 2 recession and there's some orders canceled, they're pushed out. And if that doesn't come to fruition, then maybe there's some upside or is is there something you're seeing in utilization that's concerning? Anything else that you can tell us there?

Speaker 3

Yes. Maybe I'll start Jared and Shai can add More color, but I think you hit it on the head there, the way you couched that. So when we thought about the year Earlier this year and relayed that in our March earnings call, we had baked into that Revenue guidance and all of our guidance, a level of uncertainty that perhaps we weren't going to have smooth sailing throughout the year. I think most economists and others would are probably a little bit more positive today than they were 2 or 3 months ago About the rest of the year, we're feeling that as well. But again, just given that we don't have the visibility we had a Few years ago, we're being a little cautious and suggesting that 1 quarter in isn't the time to sort of stray from our current Talking points around this.

Speaker 3

And we'd like to see more data before we do that. Yes, I think exactly

Speaker 2

as Mark It was a good quarter. It's a good start. We feel a little bit more positive, but the uncertainty in the macro still remains In lower level, but still remains. So we want to wait another quarter before we change anything, if at all.

Speaker 6

Got it. Okay. And then just Following up on kind of the second part, which was the data question. I guess, just kind of thinking about the Q2, you guys, I assume you have some visibility from that backlog order book and then you've obviously got strong visibility from the data that you guys received from the customers. So I'm just curious anything that you're seeing on utilization data that leads you to believe that consumable purchases as a percentage of sales could be up quarter or anything that could provide some gross margin tailwinds even just in the near term Q1 to Q2?

Speaker 3

No, I don't think that those are necessarily related data points. One thing brought up by an earlier around the percentage of our revenue coming from consumables and services being a bit higher this quarter than perhaps the last few quarters. And that's all around the stability of that revenue stream in our business. And but that revenue stream doesn't necessarily have a significantly higher Gross margin. As we've always said, the gross margin of our hardware as a standalone is a good gross margin.

Speaker 3

It's a healthy sustainable gross margin business. So I wouldn't read too much into that, Jared.

Speaker 6

Got it. Loud and clear. Thanks, guys.

Speaker 3

Thank you. Thank you, Jared.

Operator

Thank you. We've reached the end of our question and answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over for any further or closing comments.

Speaker 2

Thank you very much everyone for joining us for our Q1 results and looking forward to see you in our next earnings.

Operator

Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.

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