Novanta Announces Financial Results for the Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024

Business Wire 25-Feb-2025 7:00 AM

• Fourth Quarter 2024 GAAP Revenue increased 13% to $238 million, including $2 million unfavorable FX impact
• Fourth Quarter 2024 GAAP Diluted EPS of $0.46 and Adjusted EPS of $0.76
• Full Year 2024 GAAP Revenue increased 8% to $949 million
• Full Year 2024 GAAP Diluted EPS of $1.77, and Adjusted EPS of $3.08
• Full Year 2024 Adjusted EBITDA increased 7% to $210 million
• Full Year 2024 Operating Cash Flow increased 32% to $159 million

Novanta Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVT) ("Novanta" or the "Company"), a trusted technology partner to medical and advanced technology equipment manufacturers, today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2024.

*Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures, as well as definitions for the non-GAAP financial measures included in this press release and the reasons for their use, are presented below.

"Novanta achieved solid financial results for the full year 2024, effectively navigating a persistently challenging environment," said Matthijs Glastra, Chair and Chief Executive Officer. "We had strong operating performance, achieving above our expectations for Adjusted Gross Margins and Adjusted EBITDA, and also excellent cash flow generation, while also returning to organic growth in the Fourth Quarter. In the year, we delivered and launched multiple new products which are on schedule to ramp in 2025. The fundamentals of Novanta are strong, and we remain confident in our strategy, in our portfolio, our exposure to diversified end-markets, and in our ability to generate strong operating cash flows to compound our growth through our targeted acquisition strategy."

Fourth Quarter

During the fourth quarter of 2024, Novanta generated GAAP revenue of $238.1 million, an increase of 12.5% or $26.5 million, versus the fourth quarter of 2023. The Company's acquisition activities resulted in an increase in revenue of 9.4% or $19.8 million, compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates year-over-year adversely impacted revenue by 0.3% or $0.5 million, during the fourth quarter of 2024. Organic Revenue Growth, which excludes the net impact of acquisitions and changes in foreign currency exchange rates, was 3.4% for the fourth quarter of 2024 (see "Organic Revenue Growth" in the non-GAAP reconciliations below). Changes in foreign currency exchange rates versus prior quarter adversely impacted revenue by $2.3 million, or 1%, during the fourth quarter of 2024.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, GAAP operating income was $26.7 million, compared to $21.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. GAAP net income was $16.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to $12.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. GAAP diluted earnings per share ("EPS") was $0.46 in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to $0.35 in the fourth quarter of 2023. Diluted weighted average shares outstanding was 36.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Adjusted Diluted EPS increased 21% to $0.76 in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to $0.63 in the fourth quarter of 2023. Adjusted EBITDA increased 15% to $52.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to $45.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Operating cash flow for the fourth quarter of 2024 increased 58% to $61.6 million, compared to $39.0 million for the fourth quarter of 2023.

Full Year

For the full year 2024, Novanta generated GAAP revenue of $949.2 million, an increase of 7.7% or $67.6 million, versus the full year 2023. The Company's acquisition activities resulted in an increase in revenue of 9.4% or $82.4 million. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates year-over-year adversely impacted our revenue by 0.1% or $0.5 million, in 2024. Our year-over-year Organic Revenue Growth, which excludes the net impact of acquisitions and changes in foreign currency exchange rates, was a decrease of 1.6% for the full year 2024 (see "Organic Revenue Growth" in Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures below).

For the full year 2024, GAAP operating income was $110.6 million, compared to $110.5 million for 2023. GAAP net income was $64.1 million for the full year 2024, compared to $72.9 million for 2023. GAAP diluted EPS was $1.77 for the full year 2024, compared to $2.02 for 2023.

Adjusted Diluted EPS increased 2% to $3.08 for the full year 2024, compared to $3.02 for 2023. For the full year 2024, the Company had 36.1 million diluted weighted average shares outstanding. Adjusted EBITDA increased 7% to $209.8 million for the full year 2024, compared to $196.2 million for 2023.

Operating cash flow for the full year 2024 increased 32% to $158.5 million, compared to $120.1 million for 2023. The Company finished the year with approximately $416.6 million of total debt and $114.0 million of total cash. Net Debt, as defined in the non-GAAP reconciliation below, was $305.2 million.

Financial Guidance

"We continue to see strength in our medical business and reconfirm our outlook for incremental new product sales in 2025, the majority of which sell into hospital operating room and surgical equipment," said Matthijs Glastra. "Although capital spending in industrial, semiconductor, and life science is expected to remain volatile in the first half of the year due to trade war uncertainty, government funding, and geopolitical disruptions, there continues to be strong signs of growth slowly recovering. While we are optimistic about stronger revenue growth in these markets, our initial full-year guidance will remain conservative until these growth trends strengthen. Therefore, our full year revenue guidance is based on delivering $50 million of incremental new product sales, primarily in the medical technology markets, and presumes no market recoveries in the capital spending markets in industrial, semiconductor, and life science at this time."

For the full year 2025, the Company expects GAAP revenue of approximately $1.0 billion, representing revenue growth of approximately 5% year-over-year. The Company expects Adjusted Gross Profit Margin to be in the range of 47.0% to 47.5%. The Company expects Adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $225 million to $235 million and Adjusted Diluted EPS to be in the range of $3.35 to $3.55. The Company's guidance assumes no significant changes in foreign exchange rates.

For the first quarter of 2025, the Company expects GAAP revenue of approximately $232 million to $236 million. The Company expects Adjusted Gross Profit Margin to be in the range of 46.0% to 46.5%. The Company expects Adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $48 million to $51 million and Adjusted Diluted EPS to be in the range of $0.63 to $0.71. The Company's guidance assumes no significant changes in foreign exchange rates.

Novanta provides earnings guidance on a non-GAAP basis and does not provide earnings guidance on a GAAP basis, with the exception of GAAP revenue guidance. A reconciliation of the Company's forward-looking Adjusted Gross Profit Margin, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Diluted EPS guidance to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is not provided because of the inherent difficulty in forecasting and quantifying certain amounts that are necessary for such reconciliations, including acquisitions and related expenses; impact of purchase price allocations for recently completed acquisitions; future changes in the fair value of contingent considerations; future restructuring expenses; foreign exchange gains/(losses); significant discrete income tax expenses (benefits); benefits or expenses associated with the completion of tax audits; divestitures and related expenses; gains and losses from sale of real estate assets; costs related to product line closures; intangible asset impairment charges and related asset write-offs; and other charges reflected in the Company's reconciliation of historical non-GAAP financial measures, the amounts of which, based on past experience, could be material. For additional information regarding Novanta's non-GAAP financial measures, see "Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures" below.

Conference Call Information

The Company will host a conference call on Tuesday, February 25, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. ET to discuss these results and to provide a business update. To access the call, please dial (888) 346-3959 prior to the scheduled conference call time. Alternatively, the conference call can be accessed online via a live webcast on the Events & Presentations page of the Investors section of the Company's website at www.novanta.com.

A replay of the audio webcast will be available approximately three hours after the conclusion of the call in the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at www.novanta.com. The replay will remain available until Monday, April 21, 2025.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The non-GAAP financial measures used in this press release are Organic Revenue Growth, Adjusted Gross Profit, Adjusted Gross Profit Margin, Adjusted Operating Income, Adjusted Operating Margin, Adjusted Income Before Income Taxes, Adjusted Income Tax Provision/(Benefit) and Effective Tax Rate, Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted Diluted EPS, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin, Free Cash Flow, Free Cash Flow as a Percentage of Net Income, and Net Debt.

The Company believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful and supplementary information to investors regarding the operating performance of the Company. It is management's belief that these non-GAAP financial measures would be particularly useful to investors because of the significant changes that have occurred outside of the Company's day-to-day business in accordance with the execution of the Company's strategy. This strategy includes streamlining the Company's existing operations through site and functional consolidations, strategic divestitures and product line closures, expanding the Company's business through significant internal investments, and broadening the Company's product and service offerings through acquisitions of innovative and complementary technologies and solutions. The financial impact of certain elements of these activities, particularly acquisitions, divestitures, and site and functional restructurings, is often large relative to the Company's overall financial performance and can adversely affect the comparability of its operating results and investors' ability to analyze the business from period to period.

The Company's Adjusted EBITDA, Organic Revenue Growth and Adjusted Gross Profit Margin are used by management to evaluate operating performance, communicate financial results to the Board of Directors, benchmark results against historical performance and the performance of peers, and evaluate investment opportunities, including acquisitions and divestitures. In addition, Adjusted EBITDA, Organic Revenue Growth and Adjusted Gross Profit Margin are used to determine bonus payments for senior management and employees. The Company has also used in the past, and may use in the future, Adjusted Diluted EPS and Adjusted EBITDA as performance targets for certain performance-based restricted stock units. Accordingly, the Company believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide greater transparency and insight into management's method of analysis.

Non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered as substitutes for, or superior to, measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. They are limited in value because they exclude charges that have a material effect on the Company's reported results and, therefore, should not be relied upon as the sole financial measures to evaluate the Company's financial results. The non-GAAP financial measures are meant to supplement, and to be viewed in conjunction with, GAAP financial measures. Investors are encouraged to review the reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures as provided in the tables accompanying this press release.

Safe Harbor and Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements in this release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements contained in this news release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, and are generally identified by words such as "expect," "intend," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "future," "could," "should," "plan," "aim," and other similar expressions. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding anticipated financial performance and financial position, including our financial outlook for the full year 2025 and first quarter of 2025; expectations for our end markets and market position; macroeconomic expectations; our competitive position, including our positioning for long-term growth, capital spending and momentum from new product launches; and other statements that are not historical facts.

These forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements for many reasons, including, but not limited to, the following: economic and political conditions and the effects of these conditions on our customers' businesses, capital expenditures and level of business activities; our dependence upon our ability to respond to fluctuations in product demand; our ability to continuously innovate, to introduce new products in a timely manner, and to manage transitions to new product innovations effectively; customer order timing and other similar factors; disruptions or breaches in security of our or our third-party providers' information technology systems; risks associated with our operations in foreign countries; our increased use of outsourcing in foreign countries; risks associated with increased outsourcing of components manufacturing; our exposure to increased tariffs, trade restrictions or taxes on our products; our ability to contain or reduce costs; violations of our intellectual property rights and our ability to protect our intellectual property against infringement by third parties; risk of losing our competitive advantage; the loss of sales, or significant reduction in orders from, any major customers; our failure to successfully integrate recent and future acquisitions into our business; our ability to attract and retain key personnel; our restructuring and realignment activities; product defects or problems integrating our products with other vendors' products; disruptions in the supply of certain key components and other goods from our suppliers; our failure to accurately forecast component and raw material requirements leading to additional costs and significant delays in shipments; production difficulties and product delivery delays or disruptions; our exposure to extensive medical device regulations, which may impede or hinder the approval, certification or sale of our products and, in some cases, may ultimately result in an inability to obtain approval or certification of certain products or may result in the recall or seizure of previously approved or certified products; potential penalties for violating foreign and U.S. federal and state healthcare laws and regulations; impact of healthcare industry cost containment and healthcare reform measures; changes in governmental regulations related to our business or products; actual or perceived failures to comply with applicable data protection, privacy and security laws, regulations, standards, and other requirements; our failure to implement new information technology systems successfully; changes in foreign currency rates; our failure to realize the full value of our intangible assets; our reliance on original equipment manufacturer customers; increasing scrutiny and changing expectations from investors, customers, governments and other stakeholders and third parties with respect to corporate sustainability policies and practices; the effects of climate change and related regulatory responses; our exposure to the credit risk of some of our customers and in weakened markets; being subject to U.S. federal income taxation even though we are a non-U.S. corporation; changes in tax laws and fluctuations in our effective tax rates; any need for additional capital to adequately respond to business challenges or opportunities and repay or refinance our existing indebtedness, which may not be available on acceptable terms or at all; our existing indebtedness limiting our ability to engage in certain activities; volatility in the market price for our common shares; and our failure to maintain appropriate internal controls in the future.

Other important risk factors that could affect the outcome of the events set forth in these statements and that could affect the Company's operating results and financial condition are discussed in Part I, Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, as updated by our subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such statements are based on the Company's beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to the Company. The Company disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any such forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this document except as required by law.

About Novanta

Novanta is a leading global supplier of core technology solutions that give medical, life science, and advanced industrial original equipment manufacturers a competitive advantage. We combine deep proprietary expertise and competencies in precision medicine, precision manufacturing, robotics and automation, and advanced surgery with a proven ability to solve complex technical challenges. This enables Novanta to engineer proprietary technology solutions that deliver extreme precision and performance, tailored to our customers' demanding applications. The driving force behind our growth is the team of innovative professionals who share a commitment to innovation, the Novanta Growth System, and our customers' success. Novanta's common shares are quoted on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "NOVT."

More information about Novanta is available on the Company's website at www.novanta.com. For additional information, please contact Novanta Investor Relations at (781) 266-5137 or InvestorRelations@novanta.com.

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Free Cash Flow (Non-GAAP):