11/10/2022

speaker
Jacob Suen
CEO

Due to the successful initiatives we implemented to mitigate supply chain constraints and headwinds, consumer contributed greatly to the year-over-year improvement we saw on overall sales and gross margin expansion in Q3. Much of the positive momentum has been in the Wi-Fi 6 and 6E space as we continue to gain market share and reinforce AirGain's leadership in fast-growing and higher-margin technologies. Just in this past quarter, we have successfully won two new Wi-Fi 6 60 design contracts with global service providers, both of which will ship in 2023. We also engaged with key ecosystem partners, on the next generation Wi-Fi 7 system designs. At Ergan, we specialize in simplifying the growing complexity of wireless, and Wi-Fi 7 adds increased complexity in the IF design. This plays directly into our core strengths and will help fuel Ergan's sales in the future. In terms of the supply chain, As I mentioned, we continue to navigate the changing tides of the macroeconomic environment by mitigating risk in our supply chain. This includes simplifying our supplier network and adding supply redundancy to ensure stability. As you know, AirGain's brand is synonymous with innovation. Our vision for connecting the world is intertwined with a solution selling approach. We have identified three key differentiators in relation to the market as a whole in our competition. First, we simplify wireless for end customers across all our product lines. Second, our large breadth of products spans across the entire value chain. whether you are trying to solve a connectivity issue in your product design or your operating environment. The third is against technological capabilities, particularly in reference to our AI expertise. Together, these differentiators and capabilities all boil down to one key message. We simplify wireless. In engineering circles, RF design is known as black magic as it is often complex and difficult to optimize Eigen's foundation was built on complex antenna design where we would solve for signal issues not only within the device but within the environment as well As we integrated our acquisitions and added new product lines This specialty in simplifying wireless became a connecting theme. Moving forward, our focus is to leverage this core competency to move into a leadership position in the new wave of technologies and platforms as they become increasingly integrated and complex. Ergen is poised to make a significant impact in the wireless connectivity space. With that, I'll turn the call over to Michael. Michael.

speaker
Michael Alvarez
CFO

Thank you, Jacob. I am excited to be part of the Ergen family. To quickly introduce myself to the audience, I bring over 25 years of experience in public corporate finance, primarily with semiconductor companies. The market served by these companies ranged from wired to wireless broadband solutions. AirGain has building blocks for making a significant impact in the wireless space, and I look forward to making a meaningful contribution to achieving its strategic and financial goals. My objective over the next six months is to improve our operational efficiencies and our communication with the investment community. Before diving into the numbers, please note that my review of our financial results and guidance refer to non-GAAP figures. Information about the non-GAAP financial measures, including GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations, are found in our earnings release. Now, let's turn to this quarter's result. AirGain delivered another quarter of strong sales and profitability. Q3 sales were $19.2 million, $0.4 million higher than the midpoint of our guidance range of $18 to $19.5 million. Our sales were relatively flat sequentially, as higher consumer and automotive sales were offset by lower enterprise sales. Consumer sales totaled $7.3 million, reflecting a sequential increase of $1.4 million on easing supply chain shortages impacting a customer's product shipments. The $7.3 million in consumer sales was the highest point since the second quarter of 2021. Automotive sales were $5.1 million, reflecting a sequential increase of $0.9 million on the continued strength of our aftermarket product line. Enterprise sales were $6.8 million, which declined sequentially by $2.4 million on lower shipments of our industrial IoT product line. Q3 gross margin was 39.4% at the high point of our guidance range of 36.5 to 39.5%. Gross margin was flat sequentially, but it was up 290 basis points on a year-over-year basis because of improving consumer sales mix and automotive margins. Q3 operating expenses totaled $7 million, an improvement of $0.3 million sequentially. As a result, our Q3 adjusted EBITDA was $0.8 million, $0.6 million higher than the midpoint of our guidance, and $0.3 million higher sequentially. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 4.1%. Non-GAAP net income was $0.6 million, resulting in non-GAAP diluted EPS of $0.06, $0.03 higher sequentially. Our cash balance as of September 30 was $9.2 million, relatively flat sequentially. Now moving to our outlook for the fourth quarter ending December 31, 2022. We expect sales to be in the range of $19.7 and $21.1 million, or $20.4 million at the midpoint of the range. We expect gross margins for the fourth quarter to be in the range of 37.5% to 40.5%. We project our operating expenses to be approximately $7.4 million, Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be $0.7 million at the midpoint of our guidance. Non-GAAP EPS is expected to be $0.05 at the midpoint of our guidance. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Murad, who will walk us through our strategic product and marketing initiatives. Murad?

speaker
Murad
Executive – Product/Marketing

Thanks, Michael, and welcome to the team. With our transition into selling IoT products and bundled solutions, we've seen many opportunities arise from existing and new customers, including more comprehensive and stickier contracts. From a sales perspective, this boosts retention and renewal rates, further demonstrating the long-term value of our products. In addition, the broadening of our markets from consumer only to Automotive and enterprise greatly expands our serviceable market from $330 million to well over $7 billion. As Jacob touched on, we saw significant wins this quarter that reflect the strength of our horizontal reach in multiple IoT and markets. The notable demand increase for connected EV charging, both in terms of consumer trends as well as governmental infrastructure investment resulted in a contract win that we're expecting to contribute to our results in 2023. Additionally, we secured purchase orders for our NimbleLink integrated modems coupled with antennas offerings from large customers in the medical device and oil and gas industries, further validating the effectiveness of the synergy of our products and our go-to market plan. We also secured wins for our next generation IoT products with new and existing customers in the video surveillance and public safety and markets. Cross-selling and upselling existing customers is an important initiative for Airgain and a key driver of sustainable sales growth going forward. This is an exciting time for Airgain, particularly in R&D. We began the transition to the next generation of vehicle networking platforms, an initiative in line with our goal to capture a much broader market share by producing international service provider agnostic products and solutions. We're building off the experience over the past three years of our AirGain Connect platform, and the focus in the future will be not only on HPE, but other product subcategories in order to broaden the offering and capture new branches of the market simultaneously. To this date, we've seen success not only in first responder markets, but also in fleet and utilities. We look forward to continuing that momentum and updating the market on these initiatives in the coming quarters. 5G represents a central focus for the company. as we work with ecosystem partners to develop both the hardware and software that will improve user experience. We are leveraging our expertise with in-home wireless and cellular technologies to develop the critical building blocks of next-generation CPE wireless systems in order to increase customer satisfaction and help operators reduce churn. We look to continue to build on our leadership in RF, taking advantage of the new wave of 5G product deployments, including C-band and beyond. We announced in September our work in fixed wireless access, which is a central application for many 5G deployments. This is a significant market expected to grow fivefold by 2026, according to industry estimates. Today, most fixed wireless access antennas, particularly those used in home gateways, are designed to prioritize simplicity over performance. With fixed wireless access and the addition of 5G, the complexity of embedded antenna system increases, which is the area where AirGain offers a differentiated advantage given our knowledge base and ability to solve complex radio frequency problems. Our offerings will continue to cater to more intensive demands in order to simplify the process of bringing higher quality solutions to the market. We're able to save customer costs and accelerate time to market by leveraging our methods of embedded antenna systems designed specifically for fixed wireless access. Over the next few months, we will be announcing several new products that we believe will highlight our market leadership in these key technologies I just described. This is a concerted effort by our company in line with our shift to becoming a wireless system solution provider with differentiated value for many focused markets that include fixed wireless access, vehicle networking, industrial IoT, and carrier network segments. Stay tuned as we look forward to unveiling our work in due time. Now I'd like to turn the call back over to Jacob. Jacob. Thanks, Maureen.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

-

-