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Entegris, Inc.(ENTG) | |  | | Corrected Transcript |
Q4 2018 Earnings Call | | 05-Feb-2019 |
Thank you, Bill. I will make some comments on our fourth quarter and full-year performance, and then Greg will follow with more details on our financial results and provide guidance for the first quarter of 2019. We’ll then open the line for questions.
Let me start by covering Q4 and the full-year of 2018. Our fourth quarter capped off a record year for Entegris. During the quarter, sales were up 1% sequentially and grew 15% versus Q4 2017, above our guidance. This performance, especially in the second half of the year, showcase the strength of our execution and the resilience of our unit-driven business model.
For all of 2018, we grew sales 15%. Organic sales grew approximately 10%, once again, outpacing our markets and in line with our expectations. Microcontamination led the way with 12% organic growth, as the increasing need for purity drove strong demand for our advanced filtration across the whole range of products.
In addition, SAES Pure Gas, which we acquired last June, was a meaningful contributor to growth in the second half of the year for Microcontamination. The other two divisions also performed strongly in line with our expectations. The AMH business grew 11% and SCEM grew 9% for the year. Consistent with our objective, we grew our bottom-line significantly faster than the rate of ourtop-line in 2018. Indeed, our adjusted EBITDA andnon-GAAP EPS grew by 22% and 31%, respectively.
During the year, our capital allocation decisions led to additional value creation for our shareholders. First, we acquired three companies: PSS; SAES Pure Gas; and Flex Concepts. PSS and SAES, which are equipment businesses, grew sales in the second half over the first half of the year, as demand for these products benefited from the need for greater process control and the need for greater purity in process gases. These two businesses also finished the year with strong backlogs, positioning them well for strong performance in 2019.
Second, we further strengthened our capital structure and increased our financial flexibility as we refinanced our term loan in November and established a new revolver which is currently undrawn.
Finally, during the fourth quarter and through January of this year, reflecting our confidence in our business and long-term outlook, we repurchased over 6 million shares of our stock. Looking back on 2018, I am proud of how our team navigated the second half industry headwinds. It really demonstrates the value and resilience of our model.
Putting short-term macro concerns aside, we continue to believe that secular semiconductor demand will continue to be attractive. Enabled by technologies like IoT, 5G and AI, our society will continue to need more chips.
In addition to positive underlying industry growth drivers, Entegris is the beneficiary of two key intersecting themes. The first one is increased device complexity which leads to greater importance of materials. And the second is increased purity requirements and the resulting need for greater and more advanced filtration and purification solutions.
At its core, our value proposition is about helping our customers achieve higher yields and new levels of device reliability and performance. Entegris is uniquely positioned to achieve this with our combination of global scale, world-class technical capabilities and operational excellence.
Looking ahead to 2019, I would like to provide some perspectives on the industry environment and how we see it impacting our business. The secular demand drivers for unit-driven growth remain intact. As a result, we expect MSI to continue to grow in 2019. We also expect to see the impact of technology node transitions and the
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