KLA-Tencor's CEO Discusses Q1 2012 Results - Earnings Call Transcript

KLA-Tencor (KLAC)

Q1 2012 Earnings Call

October 27, 2011 5:00 pm ET

Executives

Mark P. Dentinger - Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President

Richard P. Wallace - Chief Executive Officer, President and Executive Director

Ed Lockwood - Senior Director of IR

Analysts

Stephen Chin - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division

Srinivasan Sundararajan - Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division

Mehdi Hosseini - Susquehanna Financial Group, LLLP, Research Division

Bill Peterson

Wenge Yang - Citigroup Inc, Research Division

Olga Levinzon - Barclays Capital, Research Division

Satya Kumar - Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division

Mark Heller - CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, Research Division

Mahesh Sanganeria - RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division

Mark Delaney - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division

Krish Sankar - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division

Viswanath Valluri - Morgan Stanley, Research Division

Patrick J. Ho - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., Research Division

Raj Seth - Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division

Jagadish K. Iyer - Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division

Presentation

Operator

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» KLA-Tencor CEO Discusses F1Q2011 Results - Earnings Call Transcript

Good afternoon, my name is Steve, I'll be your conference operator for today. At this time I would like to welcome everyone to the KLA-Tencor First Quarter Fiscal Year 2012 Earnings Conference call. [Operator Instructions] I'll now turn the call over to Ed Lockwood, KLA-Tencor Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Ed Lockwood

Thank you, Steve. Good afternoon, everyone. And welcome to the KLA-Tencor's First Quarter Fiscal Year 2012 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me on our call today are Rick Wallace, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Mark Dentinger, our Chief Financial Officer. We're here to discuss first quarter results for the period ended September 30, 2011. We released these results this afternoon at 1:15 p.m. Pacific time. If you haven't seen the release, you can find it on our website at www.kla-tencor.com or call (408) 875-3600 to request a copy. A simulcast of this call will be accessible on demand, following its completion, on the Investor Relations section of our website. There, you'll also find a calendar of future investor events, presentations and conferences, as well as links to KLA-Tencor's SEC filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K, for the year ended June 30, 2011, and our subsequently filed 10-Q reports. In those filings, you'll find descriptions of risk factors that could impact our future results.

As you know, our future results are subject to risks. Any forward-looking statements, including those we make on this call today, are subject to those risks, and KLA-Tencor cannot guarantee those forward-looking statements will come true. Our actual results may differ significantly from those projected in our forward-looking results. More information regarding factors that could cause those differences is contained in the filings we make with the SEC from time to time, including our fiscal year 2011 Form 10-K, and our current reports on Form 8-K. We assume no obligation and do not intend to update those forward-looking statements. However, any updates we do provide will be broadly disseminated and available over the Web.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Rick.

Richard P. Wallace

Thank you, Ed, and welcome, everyone, to our first quarter fiscal year 2012 earnings call. September quarter results, show KLA-Tencor, executing well in a difficult industry environment. Capitalizing on our market leadership and strong business model, to deliver solid operating performance and return significant cash to our shareholders. Revenue was $796 million in Q1, just above the midpoint of guidance, and non-GAAP net income per share was right at the midpoint of guidance of $1.17.

We generated $219 million in operating cash flow in the quarter, paid our quarterly dividend of $0.35 per share, reflecting the increase in our dividend level announced in July, and repurchased approximately 1.8 million shares of common stock, ending the quarter with a healthy $2.1 billion in cash and securities.

Looking at the September demand environment, persistent economic weakness, compounded the normal cyclical factors facing our industry. Leading customers to scale back or delay capacity expansion plans. Spending was concentrated among the market leaders, and focused primarily, on supporting technology development at the leading edge. New orders for KLA-Tencor in Q1 were $486 million, down 43% sequentially.

This result was in line with our revised outlook we gave on September 8, and reflects the general demand climate I just outlined. Although overall order levels were low in Q1, as expected, the end market story is highlighted by relative strength from the foundries in the quarter. Foundry bookings were 57% in new orders in Q1, and we are expecting growth from the foundries to continue in Q2, with demand coming from selected market leaders, investing to ramp their 28-nanometer designs, to enable advanced technology development at the next nodes. Bookings from logic customers were 22% of the total in September quarter, and memory orders were low at 21% of the total.

Setting aside the macroeconomic and cyclical factors currently impacting the industry, we look ahead to 2012, with a good deal of optimism, as the forces that propel KLA-Tencor's growth and market leadership remains solid. Though overall equipment demand is experiencing a cyclical pause, technology investment remains a priority for the market leader, as they execute their competitive strategies at the leading edge. This technology focus is favorable for KLA-Tencor, as process controls plays a critical role in helping IC manufacturers address the increasingly more complex yield challenges, associated to qualifying new technologies, and this is driving higher adoption in our core markets.

Given KLA-Tencor's market leadership, strong new product acceptance, and industry-leading business model, we think the stage is set for the company to outperform in 2012.

Now turning to the guidance for the December quarter. We exited Q1 with new orders picking up in the final days of the quarter. We expect this momentum will continue in Q2, highlighted by strength from the Tier 1 foundries and growing adoption of our latest generation Brightfield technology and leading-edge memory.

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