VDC Research: RFID, Barcode, Retail Automation & Self-Service Market Blog

Zebra Technologies – Is the “Better Together” campaign really working?

Zebra Technologies reported its Q2 2015 earnings on August 11th missing analysts’ EPS estimates by $0.13 while beating on revenue. Net sales of $889.8 million for the quarter included $573 million contributed by the Enterprise business unit acquired from Motorola Solutions, a 2% increase from Q2 2014. Zebra’s legacy business (including barcode printers, card printers, consumables, location services) accounted for $320.8 million, down 3.2% from Q1 2015 but up from $288.4 million (11.2%) in Q2 2014. The company’s gross margin now stands at 44.2%, down from 49.3% for 2014; this is reflective of rebranding of legacy Motorola product, the change in product mix and the contribution of Enterprise solutions to the overall revenues, which tend to have a lower margin than legacy Zebra products.

All in all, the investor community is not pleased with the results, sending the stock down almost 24% in a day. From VDC’s perspective, this reflects the market’s reaction to the significantly lower gross margins, lower-than-expected Q3 guidance, and the $3 billion debt that Zebra Technologies has on its hands. Investors are still getting used to the new normal at the company especially given how robust its legacy business performance has been in the past few quarters, especially for what is generally viewed as a stable and relatively saturated market.

The VDC team was invited by Zebra Technologies for a day-long analyst event a few weeks ago to take a sneak peek at some (relatively) new and emerging solution offerings from the company since its acquisition of Motorola Solutions’ Enterprise business unit. VDC was privy to innovative proof-of-concepts and solution capabilities that we are not at liberty to discuss, but there certainly are products and services that we can share here on this blog.

1. MPact Marketing Platform – This is Zebra’s customer engagement offering that leverages the company’s locationing technology to generate highly personalized and (potentially) customer-specific marketing analytics and insight. This platform is designed to enable decision makers in customer-facing application environments to enhance engagement levels using information available on the MPact dashboard, giving them high levels of visibility into customer movement and providing actionable (and customizable) insights. From VDC’s perspective, the biggest potential drawback to this solution is that all of this information is only available IF customers opt-in to receive in-store or indoor notifications AND also turn on Bluetooth on their mobile devices. While this is an effort to close the gap between online and brick-and-mortar retail in terms of promotions and product recommendations, VDC does not see any material enhancements to the platform since its launch more than a year ago.
2. SimulScan Document Capture – This was, perhaps, one of the most interesting product demonstrations at the event. The API is designed to extract critical data from documents, automating data entry even with character recognition, helping organizations make the switch from paper-based tracking to one that is fully available electronically. With the ability to also capture information from multiple barcodes at the same time, VDC believes SimulScan has the potential to significantly enhance productivity, providing chain of custody of all material to improve supply chain efficiencies. Zebra now has SimulScan as part of its Mobility DNA suite which also includes Workforce Connect Push-to-Talk, RhoMobile, and Swipe Assist among others. VDC believes extending this SimulScan capability to purpose-built handheld barcode imagers will give the company a big leg-up over its competition in the highly fragmented scanning market.
3. Zebra One Care and Operational Visibility Service (OVS) – Zebra also officially released a new integrated service portfolio, Zebra OneCare – primarily offering break-fix, repair, and maintenance services for Zebra- and Symbol-branded devices. The portfolio is a combination of Zebra’s previous Zebracare and Motorola Solutions’ Service from the Start. OVS is designed to provide insight into device health, location, and utilization, and to deliver the data and analytics required to optimize device efficiency and is included for no additional charge in the Premier package of Zebra Onecare. This is a big step in Zebra’s efforts to integrate the new acquired division with its legacy business. The company is making a concerted effort to communicate the value proposition and benefits afforded by these new service portfolio extensions and enhancements enabling partners to resell and rebrand the OVS for deeper customer relationships. From VDC’s viewpoint, it will be interesting to see how the company differentiates this offering from Honeywell’s device management software for scanning and mobile devices, Remote MasterMind®.

It was interesting to see all these solutions and innovative product ideas coming from the erstwhile Motorola Solutions Enterprise unit. However, despite the branding efforts and the combined partner program launched at the Global Partner Summit in May, VDC finds the messaging to be a little disjointed. Product innovation and development continue to be largely restricted to the way things were conducted prior to the acquisition. That said, it has been less than a year since the two businesses came together. While Zebra executives may certainly be professing the “better together” mantra, we believe the market will only be convinced once it sees integrated product development and marketing initiatives from the company.

There is, obviously, a lot more to come from Zebra Technologies. The company’s messaging to its partners and customers needs to match up to expectations from a distribution and execution standpoint – a tough ask, especially given the sizable acquisition (and debt) that it has undertaken. Zebra’s (re)branding efforts in the past few months have certainly been very commendable; it is now up to the company’s leadership to take it to the next level with extensive collaboration across its two “divisions” so they really are viewed as better together by key stakeholders.

Cognex Stock Plunges 20% Day After Q2 Earnings Call; Weak Q3 2015 Outlook to Blame for Sharp Decline

On August 3rd, Cognex (CGNX) published its second quarter results ending July 5, 2015 and recorded a historic winning second quarter for the corporation, ranking the second highest for any quarter in its history. The revenue from continued operations amounted to $143.8 million in the past three months, a 56% growth from the year ago quarter and a 42% sequential increase from Q1 2015. Income from continuing operations from last year and the previous quarter rose 92% and 123% respectively. This quarter’s revenue and income calculations excluded sales from the discontinued Surface Inspection System Division (SISD) operations, which generated $11.2 million in revenue in Q2 of 2015. With the strategic sale of its surface inspection business in early July, Cognex plans to sharpen its focus on automating discrete manufacturing applications with the high-margin yielding machine vision and ID product lines. You can read more about our thoughts on the acquisition here. RD&E and SG&A expenses grew 8% from the previous quarter due to new product development costs and legal fees related to Cognex’s recently-resolved patent dispute with Microscan.

Despite global currency exchange rate fluctuations, Cognex’s operational margins rose to 36%, a 14% increase from the prior quarter. Factory automation revenue contributed $137 million or 95% of total quarter two revenue; majority was accounted by the large volume orders from the consumer electronics industry. Cognex has experienced much success in the European market in the past few quarters; this continued in Q2 with Europe’s consumer electronics sector making significant investments in the company’s factory automation solutions (both machine vision as well as ID products). Asia, excluding Japan, witnessed another solid quarter. The company continues to see success in China, despite the economic woes that the country is presently facing. Cognex is doing particularly well in consumer electronics and electronic components manufacturing industries and is fully committed to generating growth in the long-term. However, from VDC’s perspective, it is the company’s performance in and outlook for the Americas that is most disturbing for the broader investor community. The company is now seeing much lower-than-expected growth from the region with customers pulling back on their factory automation-related investments. Reasons for this “stagnation” as outlined by the company include a strong US dollar, macroeconomic uncertainty, and company-specific considerations especially with “large postal and parcel providers getting pushed out for financially-driven reasons”.

In other not-so-good news, contrary to the company’s growth trajectory in the past few quarters, Cognex has set conservative guidance below market expectations for Q3 2015. Revenues are estimated to be between $106 million and $109 million, a range notably trailing both Q3 2014 (and Q2 2015) figures as well as Wall Street analyst expectations for $144 million. The company also expects a slight decline in gross margin percentage to the mid-70s due to a higher percentage of services-related revenues, consistent with its guidance for Q2 2015 as compared to Q1. Operating expenses will decrease 5% sequentially, helped by the Microscan resolution and lower internal employee-related overheads.

Unimpressive revenue growth in the Americas, timing fluctuations of large projects, and the related uncertainty has some investors questioning the long-term growth potential of the company, leading to a sharp decline in its stock price on August 4th, the day after its earnings call. Cognex’s growth in the logistics vertical in Europe, a relatively undeveloped market territory, has also been deferred to 2016 due to timing and financial drivers. Demands for factory automation in non-automotive industries are forecasted to decline in the Americas.

While factory automation investments are typically soft in Q3, it is important for Cognex to not be overly reliant on a few large customers to meet its growth and profitability targets. From VDC’s perspective, it is important for this leading machine vision solutions vendor to diversify its offerings and further expand its presence in non-electronics markets that have a lower tendency to exhibit massive cyclical fluctuations. What Cognex certainly has going for it is its strong competitive positioning and its market leadership in this space from a product development innovation standpoint. The company is actively looking to acquire – with a focus on enhancing its technology expertise and product feature set, which help keep its gross margins high in an industry that is inundated with vision-based options for automation. Interesting times up ahead for Cognex as it grapples with a certain loss in investor confidence but seeks to build it back with its innovation, new market focus (including life sciences), and potential acquisition(s).

(With Jenny Hai, Research Assistant)