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| Statement |
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| We expect gross margins in the 60% range, up from 59%, and we expect adjusted EBITDA margins improving to the mid-teens, up from 13% |
| Let's move to Slide 8 where we'll discuss full year results and also our success this year with improving operating cash flow and liquidity |
| So that and bioproduction, when we -- very few companies do we see as competitors, that gives us a great position, scarcity value, pricing value |
| Gross margin improved to $16.3 million or 58% of revenue, up 230 basis points from the same period last year |
| We're excited to see strong interest for applications in research and biopharma discovery, which we expect will then lead to higher volume compound analysis and testing applications at higher volumes |
| So, we feel very good about the second half, and we'll get through the first half here |
| Pre-clinical had strong growth in core telemetry and Ponemah enterprise software |
| We expect meaningful growth from new product commercializations, and we expect China funding to improve going into the second half |
| This is a significant improvement in net leverage, which finished the year at 2.3 times compared to 4 times at the end of last year |
| I mean, I see the base business, my target would be base ought to be at or a better -- a little bit better than market, maybe it's 5% to 7% |
| So, if you could please refer to the top middle of the slide, on a reported basis, our Q4 gross margin was 58.0% compared to 55.7% last year, an improvement of 230 basis points |
| Adjusted EBITDA finished in alignment with our expectations at 13%, a strong improvement over last year's 9.6% |
| Certainly, the second half should really be a great business for us by then, because we've at least got the headwinds |
| But again, we're going to focus on the areas that are going to give us that pricing power and keep us -- and the ability to stay in our niches and expand from there |
| During Q4, we added an additional $4.3 million in cash flow from operations, bringing our full year cash flow from operations to $14 million, a substantial improvement over $1.2 million in 2022 |
| Our full year gross margin truly demonstrated the impact of the changes we made last year and finished at 58.9% compared to 53.7% last year, an improvement of 520 basis points |
| Let me start with saying, I'm pleased to see growth in North America |
| We do, however, expect strong second half growth versus the first half of this year and versus the second half of last year |
| Pre-clinical systems showed modest growth and was helped by the first installation of our new high-capacity VivaMARS Behavioral System at a large CRO operation |
| We see that growing fairly -- even though it's starting with a small base, we see that growing very fast |
| Certainly, if I think about those four driving pillars, first with the products introduced into our main, what I call, base business, the introduction of SoHo and the ability to now offer shared housing and more longitudinal testing, we think that's going to add a nice -- that will continue to support our base business, and my expectation is that keeps us at or above at kind of the market level |
| And adjusted EPS measured a positive $0.04 a share, again same as last year |
| The good news is we do think it's going to annualize by the going into the second half and even with the latest news that we've been hearing out of China, it looks like there might even be some upside from that |
| Overall, EMEA revenue was up 3.1% as reported and included 2.1% net reduction from discontinued products and a positive currency effect of 4.1% |
| By combining these new applications in a single data management platform, the Ponemah system opens new opportunities for our customers to use emerging AI and machine language technologies to analyze these study data |
| So, let's move on to Slide 5 and let me tell you a little bit about some of the exciting new products and how we've positioned our base business to deliver solid growth with expanding margins, and those margins then support investments to commercialize our exciting new high-growth areas like high capacity behavior systems, advanced cell and organoids and bioproduction/electroporation applications |
| Coming in, I mean, certainly, given such a tough comparable to last year, I mean, Q1 last year, that was a record |
| Our gross margin can fluctuate based on mix of products, but the year-over-year improvement in our gross margin primarily reflects the impact of the product portfolio improvement initiatives that we completed in 2022 |
| I mean, I think it was an all-time record |
| Last year's gross margin did include inventory write-downs related to the discontinued product of $1.5 million, which accounted for 1.3 percentage points of the improvement |
| Statement |
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| Q4 reported revenue was down 15% |
| Revenue for the quarter was $28.2 million, down a modest 1% from last year on an as reported basis |
| Cellular and molecular products saw another tough quarter similar to Q3, and the primary impact again was academic customers where we saw continued weakness due to post COVID government academic research funding |
| However, similar to numerous life science tools companies, we were held back by post COVID lower demand in China |
| And by dramatically, I'd be -- I guess, I'd be disappointed if we didn't see north of a 30% growth vector on that part of the business |
| And then, our goal, I would be disappointed if we didn't see it doubling again going into '25 and that's kind of a growth vector |
| We expect weakness in the first half versus a strong and very difficult prior-year comparison |
| And this is especially true in our China revenue, where in Q1 2023 was up significantly from 2022 and where we're expecting revenue to be down significantly in Q1 2024 entering this year with these continued headwinds coming in from China |
| So, overall, was held back by lower demand in the respiratory products as a part of the recovery from the post COVID timeframes |
| So, I think to your point, I would expect Q1 is going to be tough |
| Adjusting for currency and discontinued products, Asia Pacific was down about 10% |
| As we enter the year with continued market headwinds from China, we expect 2024 to be a tale of two halves |
| So, China gives us a difficult comparison and then turns around a year later and gives us a low entry into the year |
| CMT was down modestly, mostly on discontinued products |
| And at worst case, we'll at least see things annualizing at a level where we won't see -- hopefully won't see so much back and forth with lumpiness like that |
| GAAP earnings per share was $0.04 loss, again same as last year |
| Our 2022 operating cash flow was reduced by $4 million in conjunction with the settlement of the [indiscernible] litigation |
| Last year, we incurred $5.8 million in restructuring and other costs related to the transformation of our business, which accounted for $0.14 of the diluted loss per share on the bottom left chart |
| Our actual results and performance may differ materially from what we have projected due to risks and uncertainties, including those described in our annual report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2022, our subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and our other public filings |
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