AngioDynamics Q1 2010 Earnings Conference Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Christopher Warren - Caris & Company - Analyst : Thanks so much, and it's very gratifying to see you guys above the consensus for the quarter. My question is, to what extent were maybe an extra selling day or two contributors to results?

Question: Christopher Warren - Caris & Company - Analyst : Perfect. And do you think there were any benefits or impacts this quarter from a smoothing out of what has historically been a bit of an unhealthy sales cycle where the fourth quarter number was particularly big?

Question: Christopher Warren - Caris & Company - Analyst : And then just one last question on the Access side. Are you seeing any change overall in the pricing for ports and PICCs?

Question: Christopher Warren - Caris & Company - Analyst : Okay, thank you very much. Nicely done. LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies.

Question: Jamar Ismail - Canaccord Adams - Analyst : Hey, this is Jamar Ismail for Jason.

Question: Jamar Ismail - Canaccord Adams - Analyst : I've got a quick question. Can you clarify the PICC supply issue? You said you're going to launch a new PICC in the second half of 2010 so that means you're going to be supply constrained until then, or will you have an adequate supply of old PICCs before then?

Question: Jamar Ismail - Canaccord Adams - Analyst : Okay.

Question: Jamar Ismail - Canaccord Adams - Analyst : Yes, it does.

Question: Jamar Ismail - Canaccord Adams - Analyst : My second question, can you talk more about the venous market, give us maybe an estimate for what you think the market growth there is in '10, and have you seen any pricing pressure, especially from the smaller competitors in there?

Question: Jamar Ismail - Canaccord Adams - Analyst : All right, thanks a lot.

Question: Jayson Bedford - Raymond James - Analyst : Hi, good afternoon, guys. A couple of questions here. Just on the oncology business, what is really driving that, meaning your portfolio seems to have been on the market for quite some time. Are there any new products there? Clearly the market's not growing that quickly, so maybe if you could just pinpoint of what's the key driver here to what appears to be strong oncology growth? LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies.

Question: Jayson Bedford - Raymond James - Analyst : Okay. Just jumping to gross margin, I'm a little confused by the weakness there given the top-line growth. You mentioned mix, but I look at mix, your highest margin segment is also growing the fastest and seems to be accounting for a bigger piece of the pie, so I'm just a little confused as to why the margin is down -- sequentially down year over year despite much higher revenue?

Question: Jayson Bedford - Raymond James - Analyst : Okay. And if I could just squeeze one more in, you raised the low end of the EPS guidance but you didn't change your EBITDA guidance, and I'm just wondering what accounts for that? Is it just lower non-cash cost incorporated there?

Question: Jayson Bedford - Raymond James - Analyst : Okay. Thank you. LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies.

Question: Brooks West - Craig-Hallum Capital Group - Analyst : Hi, can you hear me?

Question: Brooks West - Craig-Hallum Capital Group - Analyst : Great, thanks for taking the question. Joe, I just wanted to push a little bit more on the gross margin question. Looking at the 60.2% in Q1, you maintain the guidance of 61% to 62%, and you gave us a couple of scatter-shot reasons on how that's going to prove it. Can you point to a couple of major points that is going to bring that margin up to that range for the year? And then are we going to see that happen sequentially over the year, or are we going to see a significant move here at the end of the next quarter?

Question: Brooks West - Craig-Hallum Capital Group - Analyst : Great. And then maybe if I could switch to the laser ablation business, that feels like a pretty nice turn in that business and I'm wondering, Jan, maybe on a scale of one to ten, is that anywhere near to where you think the potential of that business is, or is it really just back on a footing and you've got some opportunity ahead of you?

Question: Brooks West - Craig-Hallum Capital Group - Analyst : And then just if I could just sneak one more in. In that you had talked about a head-to-head study, or some kind of post-market study, laser versus RF, is that still in the works?

Question: Brooks West - Craig-Hallum Capital Group - Analyst : Great, thank you.

Question: Greg Brash - Sidoti & Company - Analyst : Good afternoon, Jan and Joe, thanks for taking my call. LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies.

Question: Greg Brash - Sidoti & Company - Analyst : I believe it was last quarter you launched four new products, just curious how those are progressing, did they have a meaningful impact on the quarter?

Question: Greg Brash - Sidoti & Company - Analyst : And you have six or seven more here for the rest of the fiscal year, is that going to be spread out through the year, or should we expect most of those near the end of the year? I was thinking how would I think about that?

Question: Greg Brash - Sidoti & Company - Analyst : Okay. One more quick one, if I can. St. Jude was -- (inaudible) this morning mentioned a little bit of slowdown in hospital stocking, of certain devices, just curious if you're seeing any of that?

Question: Greg Brash - Sidoti & Company - Analyst : Great, thanks, Jan. And then, Joe, would you mind repeating the venous laser sale numbers in the quarter and I'll go back in queue?

Question: Greg Brash - Sidoti & Company - Analyst : Great, thank you.

Question: Tom Kouchoukos - Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst : Hi, good afternoon, guys.

Question: Tom Kouchoukos - Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst : I just wanted to follow up on the EVLT question. Being out at TCT you guys had a booth there, which might have been one of the first times I've seen you at that meeting. You were showing that next to Benephit and it seemed like they go hand in hand in attracting the interventional cardiologist and I'm wondering, are you seeing a synergy between those two products? And then how -- talking to your rep it seemed like LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies. they felt like they were getting some good interest on the venous product, which historically really hasn't been the call point. Are you seeing more activity from interventional cardiologists getting interested in this technology?

Question: Tom Kouchoukos - Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst : Okay, great. And then going back to your comments from the last question. Looking at -- you've got a whole string of products coming towards the back half of the year, some which may already have approval and some may not. I'm curious with -- there's been noise around the 510(k) process, I'm assuming that's probably -- all of these products would fall under that. Are you seeing anything different as you go to make your filings and do you have any concerns that there could be some pushback given the FDA's under a lot more scrutiny these days?

Question: Tom Kouchoukos - Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst : Okay, that's good to hear. And then one last one, you guys had mentioned the Sotradecol issue, I'm not too concerned about the details of that, but I am curious. You haven't talked about this product in quite a while, I'm just wondering, it was built a couple of years back as being a nice growth opportunity. Have you seen that market improve at all, or is it more just an incremental add to your overall venous business?

Question: Tom Kouchoukos - Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst : Okay, great. Thank you very much, guys.

Question: Chris Sessing - AMI Asset Management - Analyst : Yes, thanks for taking my question. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about some of the patients that have been treated with the IRE to date. Are those going to be published in a peer journal? Is it up to the individual investigator's responsibility? Maybe you can clue us in on the update there.

Question: Chris Sessing - AMI Asset Management - Analyst : Yes.

Question: Chris Sessing - AMI Asset Management - Analyst : Okay. And then just as a follow up, as I -- everything that I hear is the safety is -- seems to be there, but the efficacy, we're going on about one year now, I think, since the procedures were first performed down in Australia, so I was just wondering if there's any planned data or if anybody's seen anything as to whether these tumors are actually returning or not over time?

Question: Chris Sessing - AMI Asset Management - Analyst : Okay, and last question. How long do you -- how long should we expect the trials to take place? You talk about several years to getting those indications, but do you have a firm timeframe on those and a firm number of patients yet, or is that still to be determined?

Question: Chris Sessing - AMI Asset Management - Analyst : Sure. Great, thanks a lot. I appreciate it.