Q3 2023 Markforged Holding Corp Earnings Call

Participants

Austin Bohlig; Director of IR; Markforged Holding Corporation

Shai Terem; President and CEO; Markforged Holding Corporation

Assaf Zipori; Acting CFO; Markforged Holding Corporation

Greg Palm; Analyst; Craig Hallum Capital Group

Jacob Stephan; Analyst; Lake Street Capital Markets LLC

Blake Keating; Analyst; William Blair & Company

Presentation

Operator

Greetings and welcome to the Markforged third-quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow formal presentation. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Austin Bohlig, Director of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Austin Bohlig

Good afternoon. I'm Austin Bohlig, Director of Investor Relations of Markforged Holding Corporation. Welcome to our third-quarter 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, Shai Terem; and our acting CFO, Assaf Zipori.
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, November 13, 2023, and are subject to material risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially.
Markforged 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. There's a reconciliation schedule showing 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.markforged.com. I'll now turn the call over to Shai Terem, President and CEO of Markforged.

Shai Terem

Thank you, Austin, and thank you, everyone, for joining us on our Q3 2023 earnings call. For the medium to long-term opportunity for Markforged to help manufacturers reduce costs and strengthen supply chain resiliency remains intact. We were disappointed with our third-quarter results with top-line of $20 million. The current macroeconomic uncertainty and increasing interest rates and the material impact on our ability to close deals in the last two weeks of the quarter.
As we shared on our October 23 press release, we have also updated our full-year 2023 outlook to reflect our current view. At our Investor Day in mid-September, we still believe our 2023 targets are attainable, but macroeconomic headwinds dramatically accelerated in the final weeks of the quarter. And we saw delays in several large deals that we had expected to close. As we progress into the fourth quarter, we believe that the persistent high cost of capital and uncertainty in the macro-environment will continue through strict capital investment in the short-term.
In light of these headwinds, we remain laser focused on our path to profitability and have accelerated cost reduction efforts to align our operating expenses to match anticipated near-term demand. These efforts supported our ability to reduce our cash burn in the third quarter to $10 million and end of quarter cash balance of $126 million. Today, in addition, we are announcing a restructuring initiative that we believe will improve operating efficiencies and strengthen our balance sheet resiliency even further, but without compromising on our ability to innovate and grow to profitability. This initiative, coupled with other cost reduction efforts, is expected to deliver operating cost savings of approximately $9 million to $12 million in 2024, driven by an approximate 10% headcount reduction.
With that, we remain confident in our long-term growth trajectory. The fundamentals, driving manufacturers to reduce cost and seek more resilient and flexible supply chain remain. And as we heard directly from our customers Ford, Vestas Wind System, [is at] Triumph Aerospace, Musashi Auto Parts, Daimler, and Automation [R&D] at our Investor Day, the Digital Forge provides a powerful platform for achieving these goals. This strengthens our conviction that as macroeconomic uncertainty clears, Markforged is well positioned for strong growth.
To expand on one of these examples, Musashi Auto Parts, a leading manufacturer of a differential gear and assemblies, has gained substantial benefit from its investment in the Digital Forge. Musashi began by printing gripper and other industrial end effectors using our Mark Two and Metal X printers in their Michigan facility. Over 80% cost savings and significant operational efficiencies achieved, led Musashi to expand their macro deployments to three additional facilities across the globe. Musashi now uses Digital Forge for over 40 different manufacturing applications. With over 34 facilities worldwide, were excited about further expansion opportunities with Musashi.
In Q3, we achieved another critical milestone towards the future of distributed manufacturing, with the launch of the Digital Source. Digital Source is an on-demand parts platform for the licensing and 3D printing of manufacturer-certified parts when and where they are needed, without the cost or hassle of physical inventory. When our focus in 2024 is building out the platform, we believe the opportunity for high margin revenue stream will be a growth catalyst in the years to come. As we are already seeing early signs of excitement from customers will help us expand Markforged solution into their own customer base.
One of our early digital stores and doctors is VMS, especially the manufacture of complex sandblasting machine with over 200 installations worldwide. Each of the net machines features 60 printed components, which are typically replaced every three to four months. When the machines are running at full capacity, with each resource, VMS customers can print replacement components on-site the moment a failure or a wear is detected, minimizing downtime, as well as shipping and inventory costs.
Continuing our track record of innovation, Markforged announced two new product last week at Formnext. The FX10 is Markforge's next generation composite 3D printer for the factory floor. Building on the precision and reliability of the X7, but nearly twice as large and twice as fast as its predecessor. FX10 is built to supercharge manufacturing productivity and profitability.
The excitement in our booth around this product was beyond words. We are already building a backlog of orders, as the balance between value and price to our customers is extremely attractive, even under challenging cost of capital times. In addition, we also announced Vega, an ultra high performance carbon fiber filled PEKK material for 3D printing aerospace part. Vega is highly compatible with carbon fiber reinforcements, unlocking aluminum strength part for aerospace applications and high value tooling.
Our aerospace FX20 customers visiting Formnext, were highly impressed and eagerly waiting for first shipments. Both these new innovations are complementary to the Digital Forge and further increased our addressable market by helping our customers solve more application and deliver strong accurate parts on the factory floor. So under current macroeconomics environment, it's challenging, especially after coming back from Formnext next week. We strongly believe that the FX10, FX20, the PX100, and the Digital Source, on top of our legacy solution, are meeting critical industry needs to strengthen manufacturing resiliency and supply chain.
There is clearly pent-up demand, which is waiting for new platforms to start shipping. I am very proud of the one team effort of the last few years to reach these critical innovation milestones that will position the company for long-term success. With strong cost controls in place and a sharp focus on achieving profitability, we believe our future is bright. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Assaf Zipori, our Acting CFO. who will offer more details on our financial performance and guidance for the remainder of the year.

Assaf Zipori

Thank you, Shai, and good evening, everyone. I will be covering our financial results for the third quarter 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 to our investor relations website includes our GAAP and non-GAAP reconciliation to assist with my commentary. So let's begin.
In line with our preliminary announced results, revenue for Q3 was $20.1 million compared to $25.2 million in the third quarter of 2022. The revenue decline was driven by stronger than expected macroeconomic headwinds that delayed orders towards the end of the quarter. Revenue for the first nine months of 2023 was $69.6 million compared to $71.3 million in the first nine months of 2022. In spite of the lower sales volume, gross profit margin for the quarter was 46.9% compared to 49.2% in the third quarter of 2022.
Gross margins were also impacted by the continued ramp of the FX20 production, which is expected to continue until May 2024. Our operating expenses were $24.9 million for the third quarter of 2023, down from $28.5 million in the third quarter of 2022. This improvement in operating expenses is a result of our continued efforts to reduce operating expenses in our commitment to incremental efficiency. The net loss for the third quarter of 2023 was $13.8 million or a loss of $0.07 per share, based on our weighted average shares outstanding for the quarter of $197.4 million.
Our net cash used in operating activities in the first nine months of 2023 decreased by $25.3 million, or approximately 39%, from the first nine months of 2022. Our cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments were $126 million as of September 30, 2023, down from $136 million at the close of second quarter 2023. We expect our cash utilization to continue to decrease with time as a result of higher revenue, continued focus on OpEx management, and working capital efficiency. Now moving on to our guidance.
The uncertain macro environment and relatively high cost of capital have weight on our customers' purchasing behavior more than expected. Therefore, we are maintaining our revised revenue guidance of $90 million to $95 million. We expect gross margins to be within the range of 47% to 48%, still within the range of our previous guidance. As previously communicated, we are committed to balance between revenue and expenses.
As such, we have recently announced the restructuring initiative, that, together with other cost reduction efforts, are expected to generate annualized OpEx cost reduction of $9 million to $12 million in 2024, based on our 2023 OpEx range of approximately $104 million. Furthermore, we remain committed to continuously optimize our cash utilization. Our operating loss for the year is expected to be within the range of $59 million to $61 million, including a one-time restructuring cost of approximately $900,000. EPS loss per share is expected to be between $0.26 and $0.28, including restructuring costs.
With our recent product introductions and the excitement that it has generated, we are confident in our ability to grow and increase our market share in 2024 and beyond. Furthermore, we are confident that the cost reduction measures, which we have taken together with our growth trajectory, keep us on a path for profitability. That concludes our prepared remarks today. Let's please open up the call for questions.

Question and Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Greg Palm, Craig Hallum Capital Group.

Greg Palm

Yeah, thanks for taking the questions. Just starting off with what you saw end of quarter. I'm just curious if you can give us a little bit more color on whether: A, you were relying on several large orders that didn't close, whether it was certain end customers or end verticals that you saw the most weakness? Maybe just a little bit more detail on what drove the end of quarter weakness. And just to be clear, did some of those orders that get delayed have those closed here in Q4 or are those still getting pushed?

Shai Terem

Thank you, Greg. And yes, so as we indicated previously, some of the large deals that we're expecting to close in the end of the quarter unfortunately got delayed, mainly due to the macro uncertainty, I would say, and mainly in APAC and the Americas, as you can see from the detailed performances. A fair question, some of them already closed in Q4, but a bigger portion of them got delayed into 2024. And it was fairly large deals that were fully funded and we were expecting them to close, based on the knowledge that we had.
But the owners and the decision makers decided in the last second to pull out due to the sentiment and the uncertainty on the macro-environment, and they ask to wait until the next quarter or even 2024. With that, as you can see, we came back from Formnext, which was fairly successful. So we have started to build the confidence back.

Greg Palm

Got it. Okay. And one item that maybe stood out to us was consumables. I wouldn't think of consumables as having nearly the same kind of magnitude, volatility and that was a lot lower, both on a year-over-year and a sequential basis. So what drove that? How much of that was based on the other phenomenon you saw? And going forward, just in terms of usage rates of the installed base out there, are you seeing a significant difference in recent months versus where we've been trending before?

Shai Terem

Thank you. I think there are two points around that. The first one, is usually when our customers buy from us printers, they immediately also buy materials. So when there is significant drop in the purchasing of printers, with that. comes a point in time of reduction of the purchases of materials.
The second, which I think for your question, we do not see a drop in utilization. And but as you know, we are fairly still a small company. So at point of time, could move a few pallets right or left with our channel partners that you will sell the materials through them. And as such, it was a point of time, we already see a recovery right after the end of the quarter and utilization stay in the right direction. So we don't have any concerns on that front.

Greg Palm

Understood. I will get back in the queue. Best of luck. Thanks.

Shai Terem

Thank you, Greg.

Operator

Jacob Stephan, Lake Street Capital Markets.

Jacob Stephan

Hey, guys, thanks for taking my questions. Maybe I'll just touch on the restructuring initiative a little bit. Could you help us think about what percentage of the $9 million to $12 million comes out of the model and how that lays out over 2024?

Shai Terem

So yes, thanks for the question. So we are looking at a reduction of, say, $9 million to $12 million from a run rate of $104 million approximately in OpEx. The reduction is going to be across across the board and we're across all departments, without any compromise on our ability to grow and innovate. So it's across all departments, and we are well positioned positions and encouraged with the outlook for 2024.

Jacob Stephan

Okay. And maybe I could just get a better sense on the quarterly, I guess, impact of that? I mean, are we thinking Q1 as we see the majority of the $9 million to $12 million in Q2, Q3, Q4 steps down together with, I guess (multiple speakers) --.

Shai Terem

Yeah, of course. When you look at the numbers, so basically the bottom line is that the OpEx run rate will be between $92 million and $95 million annually, it should kick in in Q1 2024. And obviously, there's a certain level of fluctuation between the Q's, given the events that we have in sales marketing and so on. But the annual run rate would be $92 million and $95 million.

Jacob Stephan

Okay, got it. And I just wanted to touch on the services. Revenue was up 33% year-over -year. Could you just touch on the strength? What you're seeing in the services business results? Is that Blacksmith? Is that Digital Forge?

Shai Terem

Yeah. Jacob, if you remember about a year ago, we talked about changing our service model to subscription and adding to it the tools around software with simulation and the automated inspection. And we're starting to see the fruits of it. So we are starting to see higher level of attach rate right out of the box when people are buying the printers, but also a higher level of renewal rate. And I think that's worth turning to kick in. So we did some revisions to this more than a year ago we announced it and now we're starting to see the fruits of it.

Jacob Stephan

Okay. I think that's all the questions I had. Best of luck going forward here, guys. Great seeing you last week.

Shai Terem

Thank you, Jacob.

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Brian Drab, William Blair.

Blake Keating

Hi, guys, good evening. This is Blake Keating on for Brian. If I could just ask, can you guys provide some additional details about the FX10 backlog you guys mentioned in the prepared remarks? Are these existing customers looking to upgrade from the X7 or add to the fleet? Or is it new customers who are beginning to use 3D printing?

Shai Terem

Thank you for your question. It's actually both. We are just coming back from Formnext, and if you can see videos of the event, it was very, very impressive and encouraging. Right after we launched it, we had hundreds of potential prospects reaching out into the printer trying to touch it in. So we currently see backlog of existing customers, but also new customers, which are really interested in this solution.
We're already looking on dozens of orders. What's really nice about this printer that it's building up on the legacy X7, the reliability of the solution, but also the price points. So the price point here is around $100,000, which is a very good, sweet spot to our channel partners, but also to our customers, especially in times like this with a very strict cost of capital environment. A sub $100,000 solution can easily top the bar, for example, much better than the FX20 in times like this.

Blake Keating

Understood. Appreciate the color. And then just building on that, do you anticipate the launch of the Digital Source that could cannibalize some of these new demand from the new customers that you're seeing for newer products like the FX10, PX100, or FX 20?

Shai Terem

It's actually exactly the opposite. The Digital Source was launched successfully. And actually last weekend, Formnext, we officially started the GA. We see a lot of traction from the big OEMs that are looking into these solution. And what we've seen for the first step is that these big OEMs are pushing our solution into their supply chain or into their customer base. So what we actually see in reality is an increased adoption of our Digital Source of the printers and materials and software and not the cannibalization of it. It's actually very impressive.

Blake Keating

Understood. And then just lastly, I know you guys have mentioned that you expect, you're encouraged by what you're seeing so far for 2024. But can you provide additional detail on how we should think about growth in 2024? You touched how you're going to balance revenue growth and profitability but is there any more focus with the macro where it is on profitability or how should we think about that?

Shai Terem

Yes. So I would say the macro uncertainties are still out there and we cannot control them. With that, especially coming out of Formnext, we are coming with a very strong product portfolio, which is complementary to our legacy product portfolio. And we really believe that we can still grow even in tough environment, and especially, because some of the new products are in the right the price point. So we believe we're in the right direction, but the final will be decided by the macroenvironment and how it clears up.

Blake Keating

Got it. I'll pass it along. Thank you.

Shai Terem

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I'll hand floor back to management for closing remarks.

Shai Terem

Thank you very much, everyone, for joining us on our call and looking forward to seeing you in our next quarter. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's conference. All parties may disconnect. Have a good day.