uid
stringlengths
32
32
question
stringlengths
16
2.61k
answer
stringlengths
7
8.6k
eva4b_label
stringclasses
3 values
choices
listlengths
3
3
eva4b_label_letter
stringclasses
3 values
6d9cbdc3dcb9f9962e5b977753767879
Hi management and thank you for taking my question and congratulations on a solid quarter. I have two questions here. My first question is could you elaborate more details or drivers for a strong performance in the fourth quarter of 2019? And will the sequential revenue trend as you guided while China and global advert...
Thank you for your question. So I'm going to answer this question. So let me elaborate the key drivers behind our strong performance first. The advertising business is the foundation of CooTek. The [Indecipherable] insight is the plan to field and to cultivate our sophisticated growth platform backbone and mentioned th...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
641c3df6c3b32eda14601759cab0954d
Hi Jean, Karl. Thanks for taking my questions. So I understand the company has started to focus on multi -- multi growth drivers since last year. So just want to have a general idea on what is the overall growth strategy or growth target for the new products including the literature app or casual games etc.? And secon...
Thank you. So our mission is to empower everyone to enjoy relevant content seamlessly. So as I mentioned at this stage, we have focused our content app strategy on three special categories and global online novel is actually one of them. So clearly reading novel, which is a app released in China is an initiative for th...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
38aec823dc8186e3a25121a626762270
I guess I wanted to follow up on the recent announcement about the integrated business unit and the potential for add-on SaaS development and products in conjunction with that. And looking over the next several years, I guess how should we think about the way you're going to monetize that? Ultimately, what kind of mix ...
At this point -- Hi, Matt, thanks for the question. At this point, it's -- I would look at it as if it's additive. I mean who knows as those business units unfold and the software and the SaaS-based applications come out, there could be certain areas because we're selling things as a bundle where it might look a bit di...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
66ba5e6ec652c9e7b0ddbf02ff9b36ac
And then you talked a lot about the success you've been having recently in the healthcare group. I guess as we think about the specific unit SKUs that are showing the most volume there, I think some of the examples have used the blade as an integrated model. But looking in the Q quickly, it looks like the M-Series are ...
In an operating theater, there's some really nice features that the blade has -- excuse me, that the M400 has that works well with the PPE equipment and the rest of the equipment guys that are operating, doing open-heart surgery or endoscopic surgery and the like. So the M400 is the flagship still. That said, the blade...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
dc8882815c4da625e4bc295f827cf76f
Based on the slide presentation, I guess when I'm looking at Page 4 of the slide presentation and the commentary in the prepared comments, I'm just trying to figure out, can you give us a range of revenue outcome that you expect for the year in '21 and what type of growth rates we should really be thinking about in the...
Yes. '21 should continue to see consecutive growth as we move from our second quarter. Some of the business in the second quarter was timing related, frankly. That said, none of the SaaS-based software that we expect ultimately will start to add to the revenue stream. I would count in a second -- excuse me, a third and...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
93c359cdc5d0149e96b4b4353cd98dd8
Yeah. No, I appreciate that. I guess if we sum up those numbers, I mean could Q4 be big enough to do 20-plus million this year? Is that a little bit too optimistic, and it may take too many things going in the right direction right now?
It would take some things going in the right direction. I mean it's not impossible to see that. Some of the business we have could do that. But I mean I can't -- we certainly would not give that advice right now because there's question marks on the timing for it. Unfortunately, this industry is zeroed out. It's coming...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
4e9442b875ddf5af197cce73b20da473
And I guess my second question has to do with strategic acquisitions. Is this -- can you give us any direction of what you think the company could tremendously benefit from as far as a technology or a path to increase revenue yourself with new customers? Can you give us a little bit more color about what you guys are t...
I would tell you that the two things you just asked about are characterized exactly by the acquisitions we're looking at. One of them is a software-oriented solution. You sell -- as an example, you might sell an M400 for x amount of dollars, and you would get a recurring revenue basis on an annualized basis, six to sev...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
bb03c8a6ca907f4211ba825a7484ef9f
Paul, in your remarks, I think you mentioned a couple of times OEM production revenues. Is that the tier-one defense supplier that we've been waiting for? And has the contract been signed? Or is that -- you anticipate a contract to be signed and production revenues to occur?
It is exactly the one, and we're literally at the point in the game where the devices that we're delivering are being looked at as if they're production devices. And we are, knock on wood, very, very soon should be in a position to where we have the supply agreement signed.
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
350736446a501fe0954c97386ddc6654
The services revenue, I know it's lumpy, and I know it depends on when you sign things. But is there -- are there more service contracts coming this year? Or is it reasonable to think that there are more service contracts coming this year?
There should be. I will say that some of the base optics and engines that we're delivering now are getting good enough that folks are not really asking for much of a change in it. So they might be looking more like their production ask order, although they're going at the very early gizmos. But that said, you should ex...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
dbea3772396bc70c651086edbd9c040b
Grant, your comments on headcount increasing in the second half, can you tell us what headcount was at the end of Q2 and what you think it might be at the end of Q4?
Well, if memory -- I think we're just now a total of about 110 people globally, and we could see that probably increasing by good 15 people by year's end, and two -- well over 75% of them will be on the R&D software side of the house, which includes the new integrated software solutions division.
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
368e3e4003e5adcda3b155860ab7d2ea
I know you're not going to give you too much on the two potential acquisitions, but maybe you can talk a little bit about the philosophy you have on acquisitions if it's -- I'm just going to throw some softballs here. Is it product driven? Is it financially driven? Is it strategically driven? Is it competition driven? ...
We don't do it just for the money. I will say that it's nice to see that there's a business model built that makes sense, but we're doing it based upon business models that have a long-term play, opportunities to be in organizations that could go into the potential to be in the billions even. If you look at the medical...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
c278449a48b708fa5d8917c15756212e
And can you frame it in a -- can you frame the size? So if somebody came to you and said, "We won $50 million of your pot of gold," you would tell them no way in the world, but 20 million might work. Can you phrase it? Can you frame it for us?
So let me say that the two transactions that we're looking at right now, there's a significant portion of the acquisition component that comes from equity. So it should not impact much the cash position that Vuzix is in. A bunch of reasons for that. I mean, these guys like Vuzix. It isn't like a takeover kind of a thin...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
0dd6ada216780325f146c8fcecf34b44
Paul, I'd also like to just touch on the OEM projects. Aside from the commentary already provided on the -- the main one that comes to my mind that tier-one aerospace customer that completed all four phases. But maybe could you share an update on those? I think last quarter, the other four OEM products that you had dis...
So there's -- I'll be frank. I can't remember exactly everybody that was in that last box, OK? I'd have to go back to give you an accurate answer. I can tell you that there have been zero folks that we're working with coming to Vuzix and saying, "We're moving on." All of these things are there. There's been a couple mo...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
88b2a14057156c3c25cf7579f721fb7b
Can you remind us of your existing production capacity in a number of facilities and then maybe what your plans are for building out future production capacity ahead of demand, whether that means expanding in the existing facility or building out a new facility altogether? Just anything you can provide there and the as...
Yes. It's funny. I talked with the landlord about more space. So that -- you probably would see that in our future. That said, the current facility with moving some things around has the ability to expand our production. We've got some areas that are being used for other things right now that we can move. The capacity,...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
2c93c56111417afca564c7ca534f19e1
Ben, could you talk a little bit more about how you're going to address some of the issues that you've mentioned in Germany, in particular? How long will it take to get that fixed and when would you expect growth in that region to normalize?
Yeah, thanks, John. Good to hear from you. The team has obviously been very focused on that. We are disappointed with how challenging the transition was. It has started to get better really in Q4 and early into Q1. But I expect it will still be challenging through the first half of 2021, but we do think that our market...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
567cd4f9105545ed83c61e90933ed0a4
And then you outlined -- it sounds like you're investing in compounding with some new fulfillment assets, any plans to take that to Europe or Asia?
Yeah, I think in the long-term, that's certainly an opportunity. There is obviously, as you know, different regulatory environments in those different countries. I think for now, at least in the short term, the focus is squarely on North America when it comes to compounding. We feel like we really are in a unique place...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
d68d21d74c155ebd1ceca79c448db2b7
Firstly, on the operating margin side, I find it interesting that APAC and EM at 7.9% is higher than North America at 7.4%. So, can you help us understand those dynamics and also try to get a sense of the underlying EBITDA or optimal EBITDA for both of these regions? Secondly on VSG, are you in a position to provide so...
Sure thing. Why don't -- I'll let Matthew answer the first part of your questions on APAC, operating margins and I'll handle the second part of the question on VSG. Yes, I think, we enjoy a really nice market position in APAC. We've got a fantastic team down there that's been really delivering tremendously for the las...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
3b5ed67696545dc49c3ef5f993715320
For the quarter, the $56 million versus $47 million in adjusted EBITDA, so up $9 million. But I just want to make sure, scil was a $3 million headwind and the $4 million legal, Matthew is in the $56 million, call it, and then maybe, it depends on how we want to count both bonus payments. I guess, what I'm trying to get...
Yeah, let me start with the legal reserve that is in that number and was a headwind. And obviously, as you mentioned scil was another drag on earnings. So Q4 was a positive surprise for us. We had strength in all three markets beyond what we expected. I think when the markets go into deeper lockdown, it seems to drive ...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
623be504c3892db4cdc7157a8c251418
If you could just talk to -- I think you alluded to the 10% long-term adjusted EBITDA margins that you drew out there. Maybe if you could talk to the timing behind that and the construct. In other words, do we think about a supply chain and software bids of call it 7% to 8% or high single digits prescription management...
Yeah, I think the -- it really is reflective of a revenue mix shift that is already occurring inside of the business. In my prepared remarks, I mentioned that gross profit on a total basis is now -- 40% of that gross profit is coming from products and services that are unique to the Company, whether that'd be proprieta...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
75b113303a47aadf2616be536ae6a2a5
Just briefly talk about the prescription management potential in Europe. I know, early in the acquisition rationale, it was about the revenue synergy about building on the Covetrus or the legacy Henry Schein business there and how that kind of -- might help you in terms of your growth in kind of a tough macro in Europe...
Yeah, clearly there is long-term opportunity all over the world, I think, for prescription management. I mean generally, the value proposition is one that we think can resonate in every market. For the company, what we're balancing is just obviously a wide hot opportunity here in the U.S. and how much capital we should...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
ea2997830497cc4af03440a3a0df68cb
How do we think about the move to the cloud in PIMS? And then strategically, how we should think about the PIMS business? Should we still think about this as kind of a bridge between distribution and prescription management or maybe that was how I thought about it, not necessarily how you thought about it in terms of a...
Yeah. No, I think it's a good way to think about the business. It's clearly kind of a nexus for the other parts of the business and while it hasn't been a big top line grower, it's obviously a very significant EBITDA contributor. And on top of that, it's a real gateway to our other products and services. So one of the...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
8194c0d2eac033ced88616eba3fd15f5
I guess, I wanted to start off with the EBITDA guidance and trying to kind of marry it with the top line outlook that you gave, it seems like when we think about the growth in the prescription management business that seems to be the primary driver of the EBITDA growth year-over-year. And I guess -- Matt, I guess I'd b...
Yeah, I think in a general sense, that's a good way to look at it, clearly dropping down 20% of the incremental revenue to EBITDA in that business as we consistently shown now is a nice driver of profit going forward. We think the distribution business is going to be strong in North America and we think, it will be pre...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
61fa4f7b9995b53f75c49b2b5ce7d392
Ben, maybe looking a little bit longer term, it's interesting the slide that you guys had on sort of the incremental gross margin across the different businesses. When we think about like the software services business, that growth seems to have been relatively flattish. I guess, what do you feel like it's going to tak...
Yeah. You know 2020 was such an interesting year on so many fronts. I think on products and services that require the customer to make significant changes to their business. We saw a huge pull back and I think, you hear about that from other peers in our category as well. So software clearly fits into that category and...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
f71fe5788636d8a04a1ef4671ba0ef0c
First, have you started label discussions about vibegron yet with the FDA? And if not, when do you expect those conversations to start?
The label discussions start a bit later in the review cycle. So with the PDUFA goal date in December, we'd expect them in the fall. So as of now, we've been responding to FDA request label. Discussions, we expect to start in the fall.
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
40948fc3d64c9b3c39e31de65fe6bc4f
And then as far as drug-to-drug interactions, what, in particular, do you consider the most problematic for mirabegron and that you do not expect to see with vibegron? And what commercial implications do you think this could have?
First of all, vibegron does not have a drug-drug interaction at the CYP2D6 level. And as you know, this, for example, is called out in the label of the other beta-3 agonist, at least on the first page. So we do not have a drug-drug interaction at the CYP2D6 level, which we think is clinically very important. A lot of c...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
9fdf59445c24eded5b4522754188d79e
Could you just comment on how enrollment is proceeding for the COURAGE study with coronavirus? And have you adjusted the protocol at all? Have you added any sites, maybe virtual visits, things like that?
So the COURAGE study is running in the U.S. and Europe. And as you know, there are regional differences with the coronavirus. We have restarted the study in most centers also in the U.S., but of course, depending on geographic location and having documented COVID-19 measures in place. We are actually content with the C...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
5d3e02b9f6dec009d32c9ab6c8d532cf
Can you talk a little bit about how the ideology of OAB may differ in this population compared to men without BPH or in women? And then in understanding that there's no approved medication currently for this population, I'm curious to know what your sense is on the extent to which OAB and men with BPH is currently mana...
As you know, the real etiology of OAB is not known. It has to do with the aging of the bladder. That certainly is one of the main factors, maybe with the stretch receptors. However, the true origin is not known. Men with BPH have an additional extra factor which women don't have, because men have a prostate. So the ure...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
9136972a40ddd1493f1ec4f913f5b110
Do you have a sense currently of the footprint that Astellas currently has with Myrbetriq, the level at which they're still supporting that brand? And do you anticipate much in the way of sort of counter detailing that launch?
I can't comment specifically on their sales force size or structure. What I can tell you is that with the size and structure that we're putting in place, we feel very comfortable that we'll be able to cover over 50% of the market as it exists today. So as we've spoken previously, we'll have roughly 115 to 120 urology s...
fully_evasive
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
C
4b2355f3b30d8ac06f392b2b568401e7
The first portion of the BPH trial looked at, I think, 80 patients. And I think you looked at safety at week four. But have you evaluated any efficacy components in that Phase 1 portion of COURAGE in terms of just daily micturation or urgency at week four? And can you comment on if there's any read-through that you've ...
Well, the review by the Data Safety Monitoring Board was based on the safety and not efficacy. And they reviewed the safety data. So that basically is what they reviewed, and they concluded that we can continue to the larger patient population. And as of now, for all OAB drugs, just to put it carefully, there typically...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
f3e482f6d256864625653222fecfd1fe
Maybe if you could just comment on launch and any feedback you've received from payers regarding your discussions with the upcoming launch in terms of pricing or regarding step edits, prior authorization that you think you might face? Any, I guess, anecdotes would be helpful.
Yeah. So it's Jim again. Thanks for the question. So we have just completed our hiring of our market access team. So the entire long-term care regional account and national accounts team is complete. That team is engaging in preapproval information exchange meeting starting next week. So we'll be able to engage with ke...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
6c5452912226fc3bbd9b6e9af5a48e89
And then on the long-term care side of things, that seems to be a considerable component of patients that drives prescriptions in the OAB market. What are your thoughts, Jim, in terms of -- is this an area that would be an early adopter? Or -- and I guess, what challenges do you face in gaining adoption in this market?
So I do think it's going to be an early adopter. If you think of the profile of vibegron, one of the key differentiators versus any other beta-3 in the space is that vibegron is crushable. And so the stats basically indicate up to 40% of patients in long-term care facilities either cancel or have trouble swallowing. So...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
a5f6d2c6377de26df57679910d2222bd
Thanks for the outlook there, Millar, on the 1% ROA target. I did want to just follow-up high level on that. I think, originally, the guidance included around 20 to 25 basis points of ROA improvement from higher rates. So is the right way to think of the target for this year is kind of just removing that piece? Or is i...
Well, Michael, what's important to tell -- what's important to mention is, and to rehash what Millar mentioned, we've achieved almost all of the other targets that we set out to. The fee income, cost reductions, a remixing of the portfolio. All that's missing is the rates. If you recall, when we did the ROA walk initia...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
288830bbc3e8af2b4238036a109f4393
Right. And -- completely understand that. I mean that was why I was just trying to hone in on the rate piece of the ROA walk, because I do agree all the rest of the pieces have moved forward and progressed. But that piece, I was just trying to understand if that should be kind of how we think about the ROA target, mayb...
Yes. Well, we -- as I said before, we -- our walk, our ROA walk put us soundly in the 90s, it was somewhere between 90 and 95 basis points without the rates. So that's kind of the starting point that we should be looking at. We thought that -- and I know that we weren't given credit for it because, obviously, we can't ...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
069b79b624f2828495808eb208a97f27
Right. And maybe just switching over to expenses. I know there's a few benefits from lower kind of IPO grant costs next year, and you guys have got the CRE -- CRM system up and some other systems in place. Is there kind of a step function down in expenses at any point? Or is it kind of just a slow grind lower from mayb...
Yes. I -- we're -- if we exclude the cost of the digital project that we're embarking on right now that we've started already. We would see a decline in our run rate. We would still see a decline of probably $1 million to $2 million in our run rate. Some granularity in terms of when some of those expenses come in durin...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
5cbc668194cb361c30a90c89205636de
Okay. So should we kind of think of starting the year in the first quarter, kind of, similar but maybe slightly down from the fourth quarter run rate? Is that kind of the right messaging?
Yes. The first quarter will certainly have that immediate drop from the amortization of the IPO grant, remember? That was like $1.5 million every quarter, this in '19. And I believe that goes down to about $700,000 per quarter in '20. So that's -- right off the bat, you have a pretty significant decrease to nearly $1 m...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
f03266b6b123102d35b91b79125da43c
Hey, good morning, guys. How are you? I just wanted to go back to expenses, AL. I think last quarter, you talked about a sub-$50 million per quarter, kind of, run rate. I know there'll be some puts and takes. This quarter, you had another benefit from the FDIC charge reversal. And I know, looking forward, obviously, th...
Well, we expect the run rate roughly to -- excluding the investments in digital, we expect it to be somewhere in the area of $48 million to $49 million. So that would be definitely a reduction in cost. In terms of the -- I'll let Miguel talk a little bit about the efforts to hire those teams. But generally, the focus i...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
5f71a56d7697868d829a7a661bbcc7df
Okay. So putting that all together, AL, I think, what you're saying is the kind of the $50 million with the technology and digitization costs is probably still the right way to think about it?
Yes. And including those teams, which are an incremental cost. Definitely.
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
f22efd38e7a480e2b4c13c408204c5cf
Correct. Just wanted to talk about the -- switch to the margin. PAT, obviously, on hold, deposit costs were essentially flat. You guys had good domestic growth, but obviously, offset by the continued Venezuelan runoff. How should we think about the trajectory of margin from here? I mean should we think about it being r...
Sure. Our outlook is that if you look at 2020 as a whole, we would expect to be probably flat to maybe a small pickup from where we are sitting now in Q4. We do expect probably Q1 to take another dip. I think there, we will have essentially, we'll be feeling the full effect of the more recent rate cuts, which weren't r...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
3d2a2e0be22ebb188c53a9e0bcee8cd8
Okay. And what's driving that big uptick? I know part of it is going to be the TruPs cost. But besides that, I mean, what else is driving that kind of 2.80% number that you're talking about?
Sure. Of course, the TruPs, as you mentioned, but also a full quarter effect as well of a lot of the strategies that we've been implementing in treasury to try to control our institutional funding costs. We're also doing a lot of work on increasing our core deposits, our domestic core deposits. We're certainly starting...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
ea2df10343748a991aec8a2230d01a2f
Okay. And maybe finally for me. It looks like you had some growth in your assets under management. Can you give an update there and how -- where we stand with the build-out of, kind of, the domestic platform as we go forward?
Yes. In terms of -- I probably should let Miguel speak in more detail about the expansion of the domestic wealth management. But there's -- we're making incremental progress on that. The increase in the AUMs has been essentially just market valuation. But I think it's very important. Remember that, that's still 90-plus...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
4a7b5370612eddb73005c189a0cefba0
Thanks. Sorry, I was on mute. On the foreign deposits, saw sort of a deceleration in the runoff. But you specifically mentioned that you were seeing more of them being used for foreign home purchases. So should we think of sort of more seasonality around that heading into 2020, maybe with floor decay, kind of, in the f...
We are starting to see some interesting trend on the positive side, and that is a reflection on the fourth quarter. We implemented sale platform payments. And also, we're starting to provide to this group the same type of products and bundles that we gave to the domestic market during the last year. We have seen a smal...
fully_evasive
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
C
50223faf46ceb4ef6763cb58e68d1753
Okay. And I guess, just holistically, maybe, AL, just on the deposit costs. We've kind of gone to flat quarter-over-quarter. I know you guys have termed out some deposits over the last year or 2. Is there a point at which we should expect that to start really sliding lower at some point in 2020 or any way to think abou...
Yes, Michael, our domestic deposit costs are already declining. We've lowered our transactional, even our bundle like money market accounts, we've lowered the rates on those, even the top-notch customers, we've lowered the rates on those. And increasingly, we're seeing time deposits that were probably put on the books ...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
00ab4b9744037ba64688aebf6b4d408e
Let's start with -- just the guidance for '21. The operating margin range implies a fair bit of compression, you clearly signaled some higher G&A investment spend, and a little bit of gross margin. So the direction is not a surprise, but maybe just what level of opex growth do you anticipate this year and can you give ...
Sure, Dan. So let me walk through some of that. So our guidance does include that gross margin headwind with higher opex relative to 2020. We spoke last quarter there were some growth opportunities we're looking to fund. We do plan on going into further detail on those growth opportunities at that Investor Day. We do h...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
dec81d861f0d241d2cf1a97e56754b74
Got it. That's helpful. So if we think about mid-single-digits being the higher end of the range, if R&R remains robust and housing activity remains robust and we push through those at the higher end, maybe a little bit of upside to the guide, at least that's what I'm hearing.
Yes, I mean I think, Dan as we -- there is a lot of enthusiasm right now among some of the builders about starts and certainly we've seen an increase in R&R from the standpoint of people staying at home and doing remodels, index and fences and all kinds of projects. We will see if that continues, but I think the three ...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
0bf17167c1870a1b269b1c5640b74d1f
Absolutely. Very helpful. And then is it possible to quantify how much of a benefit in ballpark terms reduce travel trade show activity was and part of the reason is -- is it possible that some of that doesn't necessarily come back, whether it's in 2021 or beyond, but just trying to get a sense of the magnitude of that...
I think that there, so far in the early part of the year, it doesn't seem much different from that perspective, relative to the latter part of 2020 from a travel and those other activities perspective. We would anticipate those to pick up at some point, but a lot of uncertainty right now around when that might be, mayb...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
7e981618934bc3ab7d54d9326864761d
Okay. And long shot here, but any chance to get any sort of preview on what type of metrics you might be talking about in March, not necessarily the magnitude but, whether they'd be similar or different to your last three plus -- three-year goals that obviously executed on extremely well.
Yes, that's a great question. And we don't want to -- we want to hold our surprises here, but we obviously will be giving you some information on where we believe our growth strategy is in some metrics associated with that, and we'll just wait till that March date to be able to clarify all of that for you.
fully_evasive
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
C
9c7a1355b223b8f0ff7ed936200a0269
Maybe just to start. In your EBIT guidance range what exact and maybe even revenue, what exactly have you factored in for price for steel inflation, if anything?
Well, right now with our guide, we do include some assumptions on some steel price increases. We do want to provide more granular -- more detail on that Investor Day as that comes out. So, if you could bear with us until that time, Tim, we'll plan on disclosing more of that information around what we're seeing and plan...
fully_evasive
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
C
c973ce09164c6a5de087c706868ec7e5
Okay. And then secondly just on the investments -- I know you want to kind of keep the cat in the bag a little bit, but could you just quantify how much incremental investment related to your growth opportunities you're making in '21?
There'll be a little bit in opex. But what we'd like to do is on that Investor Day, talk about those growth opportunities and then at the same time, talk about the investment that we'll be making in '21 to move us -- to be able to go after and achieve some of those opportunities.
fully_evasive
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
C
98ae700f254ad94167739abf3b9a95d6
Okay. Okay. And I guess, big picture, I mean is there any reason why SG&A shouldn't continue to grow at a slower rate relative to revenue over time?
Over time, typically that would be the case 2021 as we'll detail out later, may or may not, but in general over the longer run, then we should definitely see the leverage on the revenue. I would just add. We know we've done a really nice job over the 2020 plan of ensuring that we've looked at all of our SG&A spend ver...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
a6583c28383b91aaf6d76bd254990c71
Okay, that's great. And then just the last question kind of back on price costs. Has anything changed relative to history in terms of your ability to go out and get price from the customers?
Yes, I think it really hasn't. As we've talked about, there's a lot of information in the market about the rising cost of steel and the availability of steel. We certainly are -- our customers know that that's a key element in our costs and that as we have steel increases, we have to evaluate that and be able to push t...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
d94e708074031a0745896b9c6d66a4c6
Hi, so I do want to ask about the approach to growth that you guys have an understanding that you'd like to hold some of the details for the Investor Day, but maybe if you could talk about, I guess what do you think Simpson does exceptionally well that should continue to be part of your approach to growth going forward...
I think the things that distinguish us are the complete solution that we supply and that's typically a complete engineered solutions. So we do quite well with building materials that are helping make those building safer and stronger and we do that by not only differentiating our products from the standpoint of its per...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
e0fe25caa87c9d3fce08320f4b7f98fe
Got it and I guess, some of your engineered products, some of the things we've benefited from over the last three or so years is really having that narrowed product focus. I guess is that maybe one aspect of the growth approach that kind of continues since it worked for you so well over the last three to four years.
Yeah, I think when you -- when you say narrow product focus, we look at things and I'll look back at our fasteners, we've talked about this, there's billions of dollars of opportunities in fasteners and we note that our structural fastener market is $750 million, right. So we have really taken a very large market and w...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
f51d8a7eaffe7358eba0fdea04df51e2
Got it. And just touching on your capex guidance. I guess you did pull your original 2020 capex target once the pandemic hit and but if I go back to that original 2020 guide number. I think you came -- your full-year number you reported today came in about $9 million below what your original goal was for the year. So a...
Good question. Part of it is a catch up for sure, an element rolling over from 2020 into 2021. And then periodically, there will be years where we may have a higher investment amount due to maybe investing in some element that needs to get refreshed every, say four to five years. So there is a bit of that element in 20...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
88737beaf3c9bfa414908858cac08b29
Yeah, I mean not to belabor the steel and gross margin points, but I just -- just to confirm, it doesn't sound like you guys have taken any action on pricing to date, is that right?
Well, right now we are in the initial stages of communicating price increase out due to rising steel costs. So we need to allow that process to occur, where our customers are hearing about it from -- from our folks and our team and then we'll have that greater detail that I mentioned -- when I mentioned in the latter p...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
ac13f2dc8288504c42357f3cd51fabe6
Okay, got it. That's fair. And then from an inventory standpoint, I mean how far out do you have, I guess, visibility or confidence before some of this inflation that we've seen starts to roll through the P&L, is that something that would really be relegated to the back half of the year or could we see it here in the f...
Yeah really good question because as we purchase steel and consume it, our of our weighted average cost change based on the ins and outs there and there is a bit of a delay factor just because what we have on hand today versus what we're buying at today. So there is a bit of a delay in steel price increases or decrease...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
6609ac5f44af7901cb5caf05b9a2399c
Okay, got it. That makes sense. And the revenue performance was very strong relative to at least what you talked about through October and it sounds like the home center customer set was again a big driver of that. I'm curious whether you would view that upside as a load-in benefit associated with gaining back Lowe's o...
I don't think there is much if any load-in Q4, it was largely done for the end of Q3, maybe a couple of few stores at the beginning of the quarter. So, largely due to some of the elements that Karen mentioned, more favorable weather, we continued DIY element for -- that trend that has definitely been prevalent in the e...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
1c18458271d7ac547dbfa2d695cbde6f
Got it, OK. And you guys alluded to some share gains in Europe with competitors kind of being I guess cut short on supply and here in the US, just across the building material supply chain, that seems to be really relevant issue as well. I'm curious whether now here in North America you're seeing similar type opportuni...
Yeah, Kurt, I think, obviously, as you've stated, our number one goal is the relentless customer focus and we have been able to meet our customers' needs, as I've mentioned, even amazingly as we have many, many people working remote but to ensure that we have the product availability is a big key and as you mentioned t...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
ad5aac34e946c394fe010df762ab5ffe
Right, right. Okay, that's helpful. And then just last one from me, Karen, I know you kind of alluded to the lag impact between starts and seeing that pull through, but just curious as you sit back and think about I guess the volumes go into more new residential type customers whether there is anything that's surprised...
Yes, I think there's definitely demand, but I still see some of the same headwinds that we had -- we've talked about material shortage headwinds, but to me the biggest one is still labor. I think the demand has increased, but being able to complete projects is still a function of that limited labor resource that we hav...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
13c4cc18b72eaa3429c6b9e3b8d72e4c
Can you give us some color on the timeline on when do you hope that all 10 dossiers would be completed and pricing negotiations would be completed? What is the time frame or maybe the order of the countries that we could maybe expedite the process?
We have been working on 10 dossiers for 10 countries to submit over the next weeks and months. The sequence of the submissions really depends very much on two elements. One, what is the requirement of the country. So each country has a different requirements, certain files will end up being far more significant than ot...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
db7413eb41813e5124100db1b862936e
What type of candidate are you looking for in a new Head of the EU? What kind of people have you been speaking to? And then, secondly, can you give more color on your thoughts on how do you expand your product portfolio beyond VASCEPA and VAZKEPA? Are you looking at approved products, R&D type opportunities and the tim...
With respect to generic competition, we have one generic in the marketplace today. They have, by their own accounts have limited supply. We have both patients and payers commenting that they're regularly finding the branded product to be less expensive than the generic product, and they're regularly finding shortages o...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
584d074e11983080beafa2c40aa5a8fa
Could you maybe just comment around how to think about the bookends of pricing for VAZKEPA. I know there's a lot of different prices for PCSK9 around Europe, and there's a big price delta from U.S. Maybe you could just comment about how to think about, for modeling perspectives, the pricing in Europe and the parameters...
We decided to do is to really deliver on a value-based pricing approach because if we're trying to be consistent across the different European countries, the only way of doing that is to build out a price based on the value we provide, meaning the cost that we reduce for many of these reimbursement agents. So that is t...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
b3344a66d5eaff402b9591a8b7949e65
I think some patients and provider payers are commenting on how net pricing for VASCEPA is actually currently lower than the generic. So I was wondering if you could maybe just speak to how do you think about discounting and/or gross net adjustments to help maintain the moat around your VASCEPA franchise here in the U....
Pricing is as usual, but maybe others aren't quite as familiar with. We've got branded pricing where we are selling to -- we sell -- the wholesalers prescriptions are made, reimbursed by managed care. And along the way, we're providing copay card to reduce the cost to patients, and we're providing rebates to various ma...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
1e146cb41b73d8012bafb90acce14a88
You talked about matching your spending efforts in the U.S. to demand and/or opportunity set afforded by the COVID backdrop for the first -- for the next few quarters. Should we just look at you managing the U.S. to an essentially breakeven business from here? And if not, what would that look like?
We've been trying, since COVID came out, to manage expenses appropriately, trying to predict where COVID goes is tricky. This time last year, we had pulled our sales force out of the field and entirely pulled back on our consumer initiatives. And for the September-ish time frame, it looked like COVID was pulling back, ...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
40e3dac6464abb1fa5537fd625336439
First of all, I'd like to know if you could please clarify the remarks made, I believe, by both Maggie and Daniel in your presentations regarding the intention to completely reinvest all incremental profit in the coming year. Does that mean that we're talking about an outlook with zero profit growth in the coming finan...
Yes. Hi, Alex, and good evening. Let me start by answering as to what we intend to or what we meant with this announcement of our investment of incremental profits and what the priorities will be in terms of making this investment. So as we stated in our earnings guidance, we plan to invest all incremental profit in th...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
2d0675c67750250d2d01749fdfde62d9
May I ask about the trend in terms of the CMR. Given that we have seen the CMR of late as where we sold it, can you comment about the FY '22 outlook? In particular, how we should think about the tech weight trend for this year? And my second question is about the competitive landscape. Given that we have a wide port of...
Yeah. Hi, Thomas, In terms of CMR growth, you've seen that we reported a 24% year-on-year growth for the quarter. And if you look at the past few quarters, it's been growing strongly considering its, you know, large base. I believe the CMR growth going to be -- have -- continue to have high potential. If you look at th...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
f841924ef0560f14a5e2b9de68f588f8
My question is really on the business model. If we look at the recent past years, we've seen an increase in the 1P revenue mix, right, as Alibaba consolidates Sun Art and as we grow Hema or Freshippo. So today, we talk about investing in community marketplace. And from the presentation, it looks like, you know, that pr...
In short, we don't have any specific goal for 1P, 3P mix. We strongly believe that this mix is an organic result -- outcome for -- of operation. And we don't manage the 1P, 3P mix intentionally. Over years, we built our two flying wheels in our consumption business. One is to build our -- continues to build a capabilit...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
c10edb49d7d203d22939985ad8057dc0
It's regarding Taobao Deals. I'm wondering if we are empowering it to try to grow to 700 million, 800 million, you know, users [Inaudible]. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, just to repeat, for Taobao Deals, just wondering if this is a business you're empowering to try to get to kind of 700 million, 800 million kind of user base in a...
Well, the value proposition of Taobao Deals is very clear. It's for price-conscious consumers, and we provide on Taobao Deals platform the value for money products for these, I mean, price-sensitive customers. And in terms of supply side, actually, we focus on manufacturers and then farmers and their direct offer -- an...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
b15d34c1eae9f32fed5174f2e61f010d
Can you talk about sort of plans for the pricing strategy around that? And then, you called it a companion product to Bartleby Learn, is there an intent to bundle this at all moving forward?
It's too early to tell. We first want to get a better understanding of the student demand, student reaction to the product experience and what is solving from a need state. But it certainly does present opportunities to bundle it, as you suggest, with the Learn product. So we're early days -- we'll be able to better un...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
ebf744643ae12f46680f84c6374ee7ca
And then on in terms of the back to school season, obviously we're very early days in it. But can you kind of talk about some of the strategies or any promotional activity you put in place to sort of continue to drive adoption for Bartleby among students and maybe higher feeling just at the beginning of this, this Fall...
This is Kanuj again. I guess the first thing I'd say is we're very excited because it's the first time we've really been in a position to promote the product during a fall season with as much content as we have. And we're excited about what we think we can do with this new cohort of freshmen in incoming first year stud...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
28918fef1bb4dba41591092a0d2bdee2
Great. Great. And shifting to sort of the BNC business, great to see some additional net new store openings expected for this year. Can you talk about the impact that adoption and insight is really having on driving net new store win and perhaps how it's impacting discussions around renewals with existing university pa...
Yeah, I mean -- this is Lisa Malat. I mean certainly course material affordability is number one on the minds of many of the -- many or most of the schools we are speaking with. So just the visibility into the savings for the students to be able to get the faculty that transparency into what the options are and to be a...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
e44b8cb3bb07859993133696478f68c7
Great. And then just last one from me is around the FirstDay and VitalSource announcement. How long do you expect this transition to take for FirstDay on to VitalSource and any expected disruption to, I guess, existing FirstDay users at all?
Yeah. We're -- we've already started the teams working together, that agreement was announced I think last week, but that -- efforts started early. They have an ongoing relationship. For example, we have a new sizable state college system, Ivy Tech that we took on that was already VitalSource customer. And so we're wor...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
0fc6c1e5ef409939e86360fae6472301
Great. Thank you very much for taking my question. I wanted to ask just a little bit more on the digital services and Bartleby in particular. Sounds like you're having some good success marketing that on campuses and signing students up. What is your expectation that this could really start to become a revenue grower f...
Yeah, well, without giving any specific guidance on revenue from Bartleby subscribers, I think we're expecting the results to exceed what we did in spring. Obvious -- maybe not, obviously, but we are and so it gets to your definition of what you think is meaningful. Obviously, it's a very high margin product. So we exp...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
ad051b05458e03c71dd27ea032576367
Okay, thanks. Now, that is definitely helpful. And then also wanted to ask about some of these new partnerships that you're doing in your bookstore locations. You mentioned some partnerships you're testing out with AT&T and Urban Outfitters, certainly that sounds like a huge opportunity just given your strategic locati...
Now, there's a lot of questions in there, Alex. We can just try to unbundle that a little bit, I'll take. This as Mike, I'll do a general answer and then Lisa Malat, who's done a great job of driving this -- these kinds of relationships can give more detail. First off, yes, we do discuss these kinds of arrangements wit...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
7796ff2914763ee1fdbd11ee519e9c8a
Hi guys. Thanks for taking my question. Can you just give us a little bit of color on the trends you saw, I guess, in summer classes where they're down year-over-year. I know we're starting to anniversary some pretty weak trends. And then what we should be thinking about in Fall Rush is just enrollment trends go?
Hi Greg, it's Barry Brover. The summer has consistently been slower year-over-year as far as course offerings by colleges and universities, as they cut back and better manage. So, obviously textbook is a smaller part of the summer session. During the summer, it's a lot about prep football and our GM sales, which is a h...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
ae5c41f18c407e815dd9edaee6b93edd
Okay. That's helpful. And then can you just give us a little bit of color on just the bump up in the SG&A cost for the digital business? Some of that head count that's going to continue throughout the year or is that -- was that a lot of, I guess just spend, that should fall back down throughout the year?
No, it's definitely headcount related as well. We will expect to add moderately to that. But, it's really building out product marketing and development competency in terms of the digital team related to Bartleby principally. Some of it is Bartleby Write product, but it's principally Bartleby Learn.
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
9382d468b5c25ba9f0a5faf65618c05b
Okay, great. And then just one final one. I guess, just with the FirstDay initiative, is that going to replace a lot of the -- I guess communicating the message of price matching? Are you going to be talking about sort of both fronts going forward into the Fall Rush?
Yes. There -- our objective is to present all affordable solutions. Solutions that help with the affordability objective, price matching is one. It's not mutually exclusive from inclusive access or any other program that we put in to help individual schools or more broadly achieve that affordability option. One of thin...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
16b4777e62389b7df8f5031a10681080
Got it. Are you price match on the virtual stores as well? Or is that just in the physical stores?
We price match on all of our stores where we decide that it makes sense to do so, physical or virtual.
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
d7d78e8f159d6556145b00bb1ff8aa2f
Question on your -- well, your outlook and a comment you might have made about datacom. So as you look at the sequential increase you're guiding for Q3, should we assume that's principally all cable TV catch-up? Or is there anything else going on there on the one hand? And on the other, I think Thompson made a comment ...
Sure. So the first question was about the nature of the sequential increase that we're forecasting in revenue. Yes, a lot of that is related to the cable TV increase. Data center, we think, will be kind of flattish sequentially. And as far as the returning to sequential growth, that wasn't a specific statement on Q3 or...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
e55457f5524a93ce7e7f5eae3ab3a6d7
Given the orders in hand and additional design wins for 400 gig, it sounds like you expect that to ramp more materially in Q4? Or are you seeing any offsets in lower speed to kind of drive that flattish outlook for data center in Q3?
Yeah. I mean a lot of the 400G orders are going to start shipping later in Q3. So there's not as much effect in Q3 as you might otherwise -- would otherwise expect if it was going to be for the entire quarter. And then there's always some fluctuation in some of the lower stuff as well. So we do expect to see some ramp ...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
b5a2c4cd67aafbeb92aebe7191dc0221
When you talk about the $5 million 400G orders, should we assume that's primarily from your kind of just, I guess, recently historically top customer? Maybe you've just added your other historical top customer. But should we assume that's concentrated with one major cloud operator? And how does that initial kind of bat...
Yeah. So the orders that we've gotten so far bought for 400G, by and large, are not for the largest, the most recent largest major customer. It is for a couple of other hyperscale operators. As far as how we look at this opportunity, I mean, this is very much the beginning. That $5 million represents an accumulation of...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
f6b63ebb6f4a84f5c00fe74d1ba6ef4e
Stefan, what's the visibility, if any, to margin improvement? What are the -- what needs to happen? I recognize everyone's thinking about supply chain, yourselves included, but what needs to happen for gross margin to get up to more meaningful level from here?
Yeah. I think as we highlighted in our prepared remarks earlier, the biggest factor that's been affecting us recently has been just -- there's not one particular supply chain issue that I can point to. There's been a lot of various different issues that we've had. I think this is not untypical for other companies. Of c...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
46ac724afed2a6a89ac81fcefc169a65
Stefan, is what you're talking about getting back to the mid, high-20s for the incremental impact of supply chain? Or you're not even talking about getting back to that level. And I guess we're always trying to get to was to get to 30-plus beyond supply chain, what needs to happen? What can supply -- just reparation of...
Yeah. I think the supply chain probably gets us back into the low to mid-20s. To get to 30%, we would need to see contribution -- significant contribution from some of our higher margin -- newer higher-margin products. So a mix shift in addition to the supply chain normalization.
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
c77db83e1be2131a01457225f1cdd310
And I apologize, I know you've addressed this in the past, but to get to breakeven, what does that assume in terms of volume and gross margin, your assumptions?
Right. Well, we gave some guidance to operating expense. It's going to hover probably between $19.5 million, $20 million, something like that through the rest of the year. So you can kind of -- and I don't expect that to change meaningfully next year really either. We've been fairly consistent in operating expense. So ...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
b9b723b501ea6735082651ea9e19f958
I have one quick question about the -- your COVID offerings. More specifically, I was just curious if you guys could quantify what kind of revenue you were looking at for your COVID offerings over the quarter?
I would say that I would not put a lot of emphasis on our COVID growth. And I would say that there's kind of two comments there. There's the research side of it, where we have seen good momentum that we think is going to be sustainable into the future because we believe infectious disease will continue to be an area th...
fully_evasive
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
C
1e20aa2579c8662b979ba1252dbc65a6
So I was just curious if you could provide An update on the competitive landscape of what you're looking at right now and I guess going into 2020 -- 2022, excuse me, as well.
Absolutely. And I do think the competitive landscape is somewhat depends on the magnitude of opportunity that you're searching for and trying to influence. And so at the highest level, we would look at imaging as being the primary competitor to a lot of what we do with biomarkers, meaning that today, there is an opport...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
1a53b51566dff3293cfb72584e88aa02
It looks like revenue and gross margin came in strong in the quarter, but SG&A was a little heavier than what we were expecting. Could you tell us a little bit more about what went into that?
Yes, absolutely, Dave, and thanks for the question. And I think that we're in a scenario, where you might recall, we started to build a diagnostics organization that really kicked off about four or five months ago when we brought in from Perkin Elmer, who's heading up our diagnostics. He's also President of Quanterix. ...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
dee2952d3e62bda9ca191e68605fd27d
And then on the pTau breakthrough designation, any additional color you can give on how you think about the time line with the FDA there?
Yes. I, first of all, would caution investors, I think we probably always are taking a very cautious kind of a posture when it comes to the diagnostic landscape, particularly because it can be with delays and regulatory challenges, etc. It's not common that you get breakthrough designation 55 days after you submit an a...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
dd27f379674a406b075d60dfe2af9d2e
I guess my first question is, it sounds like you guys have good rate momentum in a lot of your product lines. So I guess what is your current view of the loss cost inflation, like overall for the auto lines and then for workers comp?
Sure Chris. Well, we're obviously monitoring those loss costs at a very granular level. And from an actuarial perspective, we're seeing a loss cause remain fairly stable. Our frequency statistics have been declining modestly and we're seeing some increases in severity in certain pockets, especially in the auto lines. ...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
f48f26d053073b16ee4c4b2dd74e3ab0
Got it. And so should we be thinking like overall, like, you know, low to mid-single digit loss cost inflation?
It's probably most appropriate, yes.
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
0fbef703edbca21f9d51f75a61c0a64c
And how is that and how does that with just workers comp, because I know that that's a line where you can achieve [Phonetic] like a lot of rate increases, increasing competition. Kind of what's happening with loss cost inflation there, like, you know, pure premium, frequency, and then severity.
Well, in workers' comp, frequency continues to decline. So that has been a line where really I think the industry as a whole has seen frequency declining, and we have also seen that that's phenomena. On the severity side, although we've seen some larger loss activity, it's really in line with what we've seen in prior y...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
53a9cf120c6e74eff2ac3574ed1a0f7c
Got it, Thanks for that color. Just moving on to Mountain States Mutual, I guess where are you guys with that turnaround and what are the prospects that those come in to and did that written premiums in 2020?
Well, Mountain States right now is performing is performing quite well. It's meeting and exceeding our 2019 business plan. We had a a projected growth for them at about 10% for 2019, and they are exceeding that year-to-date [Indecipherable] about $25 million in written premium and the targeted goal to end the year at a...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
0ae6d9e3ef52b4f089ef208ae053e564
Right. Great. And then just one last one. You know, it doesn't sound like you guys are going to be like too into it, but just M&A. I guess just you know, you guys are about to like embark on like a bigger IT upgrade. And I'm thinking a lot of you like your smaller competitors in a lot of different geographies would be ...
Well, I think that you're correct with the changes that are going on in the marketplace and all the data-driven initiatives and the competitive nature of the property and casualty world today, I think that there is going to be a lot of maybe smaller mutuals and others that may have some challenges being able to compete...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
a928155d338a1c7a60567eb9df4919bf
With the enhancements to your technology and modernizing of the business, what kind of impact has that had and will it have on your expense ratio going forward?
Oh, sure. This is Jeff, Bob. I appreciate that question. We are well into the these legacy modernization projects that we kicked off last October. It is going according to plan and it is a phased approach that we're following. And there are four releases at this point that we have identified as the way we will bring th...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
e120ce2d19084d1f915964c0f207af5f
Right. So you're so the current expense ratio, you're saying, it does not sound like it includes a whole lot of that development expense yet.
Not really, it includes some licensing fees of the software that we've purchased and are implementing, but as far as all of the consulting fees, that will be related to the project, those will not hit until because they're being capitalized and they'll be depreciated and allocated to Donegal Group over the next five pl...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
0cf8e8493974a9c6c0426a149333fefd
All right. Okay, great. Thanks. Thanks for that. And maybe one more about the exposure growth, I mean, in the commercial lines, it sounds like you're getting rate increases, but premium growth is pretty strong. So assume you're getting pretty solid exposure growth in commercial lines. Is that coming mostly from new geo...
Sure. Bob, this is Kevin. It's primarily coming from our existing geographical footprint. The only thing that we have done is we've sort of pivoted a little bit in terms of where we're emphasizing the commercial lines growth. We're looking back over the last several years and there are certain states and geographies th...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
ec24181c1ddc0892c361099d7c01e955
Do you see much change in the appetite from competitors or like are the competitors pulling out of markets or just reducing their exposure to certain certain lines?
I don't see that there's any change on the competitive front in terms of entering or leaving certain classes of business. We're not seeing that. What is very good to see is the fact that our renewal business, when we're seeing that we're getting 4% and 5% rate increases. It's not that the market is hardening [Phonetic]...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
757653acbee0a443c295a6d4b64012b1
Hi, guys. Just at Dow Jones revenue growth of 6%, can you give a bit more color around the level of cost growth during the quarter to drive that growth? And then I suppose, some comments around the revenue quantum we should be expecting from those digital partnerships this year, sort of next year? Should we expect them...
Well, look, I'll take the second part of the question first, Kane. The Facebook deal is a big deal. It establishes a clear precedent of paying a premium for premium journalism. And there are a couple of other initiatives that are notable. When you click on a headline in the Facebook News tab, you'll be taken to our sit...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
4ee05c348b50885cb41156284eca3c05
Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. You mentioned in your comments, you're bringing extra focus on your key assets. And given the proposed sale of NAM, how should we think about the company's overall strategy going forward? Are you looking to unlock the value of the assets via monetization? Or could you ...
Eric, simplification is indeed an ongoing process, and it doesn't stop at News America Marketing and Unruly. But we're very cognizant that the company trades at a discounted to some of the parts. We're seeking to rectify that situation and maximize value for all our shareholders. So it's fair to say that the institutio...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B
9cba65f54db8e76530773568419d0798
Hi, Robert. Hi, Susan. Just a couple from me related to SVs. And just firstly, Susan, wanted to clarify your comments around the next quarter. You said you've lapped the increase seen in domestic cricket rights, so should we expect any increase in the cost of the cricket heading into Q2? And then just secondly, your co...
I'll take maybe the first two, and Robert can take the last one, Entcho, if that's OK. So just in relation to cricket, we would expect to see very, very modest increases over the course of the year. So the bulk of those costs have come through in Q1. But I think it's important to note when we think about the cost base,...
direct
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
A
cfec22947d70ecea7b67c522a7f2416f
Hi, Robert. I'm just interested in your comments upfront that you were talking about giving us a clear view of the assets and the value, you're willing to just give us a little bit more insight to what you mean there. I assume you're talking about The Wall Street Journal and timing of that. I mean do we now have to wai...
On your first question, we really can't go into detail about what simplification means in the longer term. What it does mean at the moment is News America Marketing and Unruly, which are under strategic review. But as I said, that strategic review does not stop with those two properties, and we are very conscious of th...
intermediate
[ "direct", "intermediate", "fully_evasive" ]
B