MKS Instruments - Q4 2020

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the MKS Instruments Fourth Quarter and Full year 2020 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there'll be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you need to press star one on your telephone. If you require any further assistance, please press star then zero. I would now like to introduce your today's conference call, Mr. David Ryzhik. You may begin.

David Ryzhik (VP of Investor Relations)

Good morning, everyone. I am David Ryzhik, Vice President of Investor Relations, and I'm joined this morning by John Lee, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Seth Bagshaw, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Yesterday, after market close, we released our financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2020, which are posted to our website, mksinst.com. As a reminder, various remarks about future expectations, plans, and prospects for MKS comprise forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in yesterday's press release and in the most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for the company.

These statements represent the company's expectations only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing the company's estimates or views as of any date subsequent to today, and the company disclaims any obligation to update these statements. During the call, we will be discussing non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our press release for information regarding our non-GAAP financial results and a reconciliation of our GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. Now, I'll turn the call over to John.

John Lee (President and CEO)

Thanks, David. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before I discuss our quarterly results and current market trends, I want to take a moment to reflect on the past year. 2020 was full of challenges for all of us, both personally and professionally. But for MKS, I can best characterize 2020 with the following three words: resilience, opportunity, and growth. Let me start with resilience. Our foremost priority when the COVID-19 pandemic started was the safety and well-being of our global workforce, and it continues to be our top priority. We responded quickly at the onset of the pandemic and implemented a number of safety precautions for our employees, while also shifting to a work-from-home environment for a significant portion of our workforce. We also remained steadfast in delivering on the needs of our customers during this challenging time.

Our team worked tirelessly to ensure continuity of operations by swiftly responding to disruptions at our factories and supply chain partners, while adhering to stringent safety protocols. Now, let me discuss what I mean by opportunity. Disruptions we faced did not interrupt our cadence of innovation, and this allowed us to take advantage of new opportunities in the markets we serve. In 2020, we were awarded 170 new patents. We also grew new product releases by 48% year-over-year and secured a number of important design wins for both our semiconductor and advanced markets. I am pleased to announce for the second year in a row, that we are a finalist for an SPIE Prism Award, this time for our Ophir beam splitter for high-power lasers. We also view opportunity through another lens: employee development, diversity, equity, and inclusion.

In 2020, we developed new leadership programs and rolled out a new diversity training program for over 120 of our top leaders. We also embarked on several other initiatives to drive greater diversity in hiring, and we are already seeing these results. Finally, let me discuss what I mean by growth. In 2020, we grew revenue by 23%. In particular, we grew our semiconductor revenue by 49% year-over-year. Non-GAAP EPS and free cash flow grew by 64% and 137% year-over-year, respectively. Now let's discuss our fourth quarter results in more detail. We delivered revenue of $660 million and non-GAAP net earnings per diluted share of $2.34, both above the high end of our guidance range and both quarterly records.

Sales to our semiconductor market further strengthened in the fourth quarter, growing 9% sequentially and 45% year-over-year. As we discussed at our Analyst Day last month, our industry-leading portfolio of critical subsystems has allowed us to gain insights into market inflections to drive new areas of innovation that accelerate our customers' roadmaps. This has culminated into a sustainable competitive advantage, enabling us to outperform WFE organically by 200 basis points over the past decade. During the past several quarters, we've discussed the strong demand for our power solutions products, and the fourth quarter was no exception, as revenue reached another record. We continue to lead in dielectric etch applications and remain focused on leveraging our unique capabilities to capture share in conductor etch, as well as new opportunities in deposition.

But our power solutions business was just one component of our strong fourth quarter results, as we achieved robust, sequential, and year-over-year growth across the remainder of our semiconductor portfolio. In our pressure business, we benefited from strong demand across a wide range of applications, and we continue to execute on design wins with multiple OEMs. The superior performance of our capacitance manometers in advanced applications requiring heated pressure measurement has been a key advantage. We are encouraged with the strength we saw in our valves business, and our plasma and reactive gas portfolio delivered strong sequential growth in the fourth quarter. We continue to see healthy design win activity for our dissolved ozone and dissolved ammonia systems in wet clean applications, with particular strength in leading-edge foundry customers.

As we look ahead at the first quarter of 2021, we expect revenue in our semiconductor market to be consistent to slightly down when compared to our outstanding fourth quarter levels. Demand trends remain strong, and we expect to deliver robust year-over-year growth in the first quarter of 2021. In our advanced markets, we delivered record fourth quarter revenue, growing 16% sequentially and 17% year-over-year, marking a return to year-over-year organic growth for the first time since the third quarter of 2018. Our strong results were underpinned by a sequential improvement in our research market and, more notably, an acceleration in demand from advanced electronics manufacturing. As we highlighted at our Analyst Day, we expect advanced electronics manufacturing to be a key growth driver for our advanced markets over the long term.

The secular trends of miniaturization, complexity, and new materials are driving the need for precision laser processing in PCB, solar, display, and electronic component manufacturing, where we are uniquely positioned with our Surround the Workpiece offering of lasers, optics, photonics, motion, and systems solutions. We saw strong demand for our Flex PCB via drilling systems in the fourth quarter, which is typically a seasonal trough. As we've indicated on prior calls, we benefit not just from capacity additions, but also from our customers' transitions to new Flex PCB designs, where our state-of-the-art Capstone tool is a key enabler. In addition, we have seen an improvement in demand for our multilayer ceramic capacitor test systems, where we are a leading provider to the MLCC manufacturing ecosystem.

We are also very encouraged with the market adoption of our high-density interconnect via drilling tool, and as we announced last month, we received our second multi-unit order for high-volume manufacturing, this one from an important HDI PCB manufacturer in Taiwan. We remain focused on executing on our playbook of converting beta systems to design wins. Needless to say, I am very pleased with how our Equipment and Solutions division exited 2020, which capped off a year marked by strong revenue growth and considerable progress in our strategy to capture share in the sizable HDI PCB market. We are entering 2021 with strong momentum.

In closing, we are encouraged by the continued recovery in our advanced markets, and we expect revenue in the first quarter to be consistent to slightly up compared to fourth quarter levels, as improving demand trends in advanced electronics are expected to continue into the first quarter. For this reason, we expect to deliver another quarter of strong year-over-year growth in advanced markets. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Seth.

Seth Bagshaw (SVP and CFO)

Thank you, John. I will cover our fourth quarter and full year 2020 results, then provide additional detail on guidance for the first quarter of 2021. Sales for the fourth quarter were a record $660 million, up 12% sequentially, up 32% year-over-year, and above the high end of our guidance range. Our performance reflects strong demand in our semiconductor market, continued rebound in our advanced markets. In the fourth quarter, semiconductor sales set another record at $393 million, up 9% sequentially and up 45% year-over-year, reflecting our broad exposure across memory, foundry, and logic applications. Our Power Solutions portfolio continues to outperform the underlying power market, and we are pleased to report another quarter of record revenue.

As we highlighted at our Analyst Day last month, our advanced control algorithms, modularity, and faster development cycles are key differentiators of our power solutions, which will continue to create new opportunities to accelerate our customer roadmaps. For the fourth quarter, sales to our advanced markets were a record $267 million, up 16% sequentially and up 17% year-over-year, led by strong growth in advanced electronics applications and continued recovery in our research market. As John said, we saw strong early cycle demand for our flex PCB via drilling systems, driven in large part by both capacity needs and essential technology transitions for 5G smartphones and other devices. We estimate the amount of flexible PCB content in a high-end 5G smartphone is, on average, 30% higher to compare to a high-end 4G phone.

Moreover, continuous flexible PCB design changes are driving demand for our leading-edge via drilling solutions. We're also pleased to see a recovery in demand for our MLCC test systems. As a reminder, we offer multiple MLCC test system solutions in the market, addressing two main categories. The first is ultra-small form factor MLCCs, which are mainly used in smartphones and other consumer electronics. And the second are large chip MLCCs, which are mainly used in automotive and infrastructure applications. We saw strength in both of these categories in the fourth quarter. We continue to execute on our HDI strategy and received our second multi-unit order for our Geode HDI system in the fourth quarter.

We are very pleased with the increasing market acceptance of our HDI tool and believe this is a validation of our cost of ownership advantage, which includes higher throughput, smaller footprint, lighter weight, and improved serviceability. With regards to our first multi-unit order announced last September, we successfully completed installation and received customer acceptance on all units. These units are now fully deployed in high volume manufacturing. As highlighted on our analyst day last month, our advanced electronics story extends beyond PCB solutions, but also encompasses solar, display, and electronic component applications, and we're encouraged with the demand trends we've seen in all these applications. For the quarter, the revenue split between our semiconductor and advanced markets was 60% and 40% respectively. Fourth quarter non-GAAP gross margin was 45.7%, above the midpoint of guidance and up 240 basis points year over year.

Non-GAAP operating expenses for the fourth quarter were $138 million and reflects higher variable compensation due to our strong financial performance. Fourth quarter non-GAAP operating margin was 24.7%, a sequential increase of 160 basis points and up 630 basis points year-over-year, reflecting the strong financial leverage in our operating model. Non-GAAP net interest expense for the fourth quarter was $6 million, and our non-GAAP tax rate was approximately 18%. Non-GAAP net earnings for the fourth quarter were a record $130 million and a record $2.34 per diluted share. Moving on to full year results, sales were a record $2.3 billion, up 23% year-over-year, with semiconductor sales up 49% to $1.4 billion.

2020 was not only a record year for our Power Solutions business, but excluding Power, the remainder of our combined Semiconductor business also delivered record results. This record performance underscores the increasing importance of our surround the chamber strategy and our critical enablement across a number of key technology inflections. In 2020, we believe we outperformed our peers across multiple market segments. In advanced markets, end revenue declined slightly or 3%, largely due to COVID-19 related headwinds in the first half of the year. However, we recovered strong in the second half of 2020, growing 6% year-over-year. With sequential quarterly growth in the third and fourth quarters, we're starting 2021 with improving demand trends in advanced electronics applications, which are a key driver of long-term growth in our advanced markets.

The revenue split for the year between our Semiconductor and Advanced markets was 59% and 41%, respectively. Non-GAAP gross margin was 45.2%, up from 44.1% in 2019, and non-GAAP operating margin increased 450 basis points to 22.6%. In 2020, we recorded non-GAAP net earnings of $411 million, or $7.43 per diluted share, which were both up more than 60% from 2019. Exiting the fourth quarter, we maintained a strong balance sheet and liquidity position, with cash and short-term investments of $836 million and $100 million of incremental borrowing capacity under an asset-based line of credit, subject to certain borrowing base requirements.

With a term loan principal balance of $833 million, we are pleased to announce that we have exited the fourth quarter in a net cash position, less than 24 months of the acquisition of ESI. In terms of working capital, days sales outstanding were 54 days at the end of the fourth quarter, compared to 56 days at the end of the third quarter. Inventory turns were 2.9x in the fourth quarter, compared to 2.6x in the third quarter. We remain focused on improving our cash conversion cycle, and fourth quarter operating cash flow and free cash flow were $147 million and $122 million, respectively. For the year, operating cash flow and free cash flow were $513 million and $428 million, respectively.

Both operating and free cash flow were record results and more than doubled from 2019. Consistent with prior quarters, we had a dividend payment of $11 million or $0.20 per share. I'll now turn to our first quarter outlook. Based on current business levels, we estimate first quarter 2021 revenue of $650 million, ±$25 million. Based on anticipated product mix and revenue levels, we estimate first quarter non-GAAP gross margin of 45%, ±1 percentage point, and non-GAAP operating expenses of $140 million, ±$4 million. For the first quarter, non-GAAP net interest expense is expected to be approximately $6 million, and our non-GAAP tax rate is expected to be approximately 18%.

Given these assumptions, we expect first quarter non-GAAP net earnings of $2.16 per diluted share, ±$0.20. I'd like to now turn the call back to the operator for Q&A.

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question or a comment at this time, please press the star, then the one key on your touchtone telephones. If your question has been answered, please press the pound key. We also ask that you limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Our first question comes from Jim Ricchiuti with Needham and Company.

James Ricchiuti (Analyst)

Hi, good morning. A couple of questions on the E&S business. I'm wondering if there's any way you can elaborate on the strength you saw in the business versus Q3, you know, as it relates to how much of the demand you would attribute to the better smartphone cycle, you know, the type of recovery that you're seeing in the MLCC portion of the business, and maybe, you know, the extent to which Geode was a contributor in the quarter?

John Lee (President and CEO)

Yeah. Hi, Jim, it's John. I'll take that. Yeah, I think Geode was a contributor, but not, not a large contributor. So I think in general, we're attributing both the MLCC and the flex upside in Q4 to a stronger smartphone cycle and a little earlier than is typical. So it's really we believe driven mostly by the smartphone market.

James Ricchiuti (Analyst)

Got it. And, John, just, yeah, I wanted to just ask you about, I mean, obviously, it's been a high profile M&A development within the laser photonics market of late. And I'm wondering, how you see this impacting MKS from the standpoint of, of whether this may signal further consolidation in the market, or, you know, maybe as it relates to multiples for potential, yeah, M&A that you may be pursuing in this space?

John Lee (President and CEO)

Hey, Jim. Well, certainly, we've talked about, you know, one of our strategies for growth is in M&A, and we've talked about the fact that we have targets both in advanced markets, as, as you know, as well as semi. There are just more targets in advanced markets. So, you know, I think the industry does, the photonics industry does have more room for consolidation. I think that will, that will occur. And as you can imagine, we're certainly going to be a participant in that.

James Ricchiuti (Analyst)

Thanks. I'll jump back in the queue.

John Lee (President and CEO)

Thanks, Jim.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Paretosh Misra with Berenberg.

Paretosh Misra (Analyst)

Yeah, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. So we've been hearing about the chip shortage, particularly at several automotive producers. So just curious, how are you—how is MKS positioned to help customers to increase volumes? Like, are you seeing any incremental demand because of that shortage?

John Lee (President and CEO)

Yeah, Paretosh, it's John. I can't say we can put a finger on anything specific with respect to the, you know, the published shortages in automotive chips. I think we certainly sell a lot of, you know, service and spare parts to the older fabs that are the ones building a lot of those, those kinds of automotive chips. So, so I don't think we can really tell if, if a lot of that's going to, to the automotive manufacturers.

Paretosh Misra (Analyst)

Got it. And then just as a follow-up on your laser business. So some of the fiber laser producers are seeing increased demand, primarily from manufacturing. I'm just curious, are you seeing some of that, too? I know you don't have that much exposure to the fiber lasers, mostly pulse side, but just curious, what are you seeing on the demand side?

John Lee (President and CEO)

Yeah, broadly, Paretosh, I think we do see, you know, industrials as well as advanced, electronics manufacturing, increasing. You could see that in our numbers in Q4 and our guidance in Q1. So we see a little bit of that as well. As you said, we don't make the fiber lasers, but we do make, you know, the rest of the surround workpiece diagnostics that go around it. So, I would say we're seeing something similar to what some of those participants are saying, they're seeing in the fiber laser market.

Paretosh Misra (Analyst)

Got it. Thanks, guys.

John Lee (President and CEO)

Thanks.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Patrick Ho with Stifel.

Patrick Ho (Managing Director)

Thank you. Congratulations, and a belated Happy New Year. John, maybe first off, on the semiconductor side of things, you've talked about share gains on the power end for your semi business. Can you just discuss, I guess, maybe some of the emerging opportunities on the optics side, particularly as it relates to litho and process control? Do you expect to outperform, you know, the industry growth rates as you gain more share in that segment?

John Lee (President and CEO)

Yeah, thanks for the question, Patrick. That's certainly one of our strategic objectives, as we talked about at Analyst Day, and our investments in there with respect to engineering as well as CapEx to allow us to address more of the optics market for lithography inspection, as well as outside semi. And so, we'll see, but it's kind of the playbook of MKS. We see an opportunity, as you know, and we invest in that inflection, and it's a multi-year plan, and we're pretty positive about the opportunity there because our share there is lower than, you know, our vacuum chamber type of businesses.

Patrick Ho (Managing Director)

Great. That's helpful. And maybe as my follow-up question for Seth, you actually delivered strong working capital numbers in an environment where logistics and supply chain is tight across the ecosystem. One, how are you looking at the supply chain today? Are you facing any shortages? And two, what are you able to do to maintain, you know, these pretty strong working capital numbers, you know, despite the high demand, particularly in the semi side of things?

Seth Bagshaw (SVP and CFO)

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Patrick. Yeah, so I would say on the supply side, we have normal into a ramp environment, obviously looking at parts that we, work on supply chains. I'd say it's just typical ramp environment. You're always chasing a few parts, which is quite typical. The operations team, you can see our numbers, has done just a really fantastic job navigating that, in this environment, especially go back when COVID-19 hit in Q1 and Q2. So I put that in kind of normal category, and we're managing that pretty well. In terms of working capital, you know, we mentioned a couple of calls, I think Analyst Day as well, is we're really focused on cash conversion. Obviously, we've got a very strong operating model, and then the cash conversion, opportunities we're seeing is working down receivables.

We did that starting back again in early 2020, and maintain momentum going forward. We'll do the same thing on being more efficient on inventory levels and, you know, velocity of turns and so forth. So that'll be a bit of a journey for us because we have a long list of parts, and one of our strength, again, is to really respond quickly to our customer base. So we'll always have a little bit, you know, probably higher than average inventory levels, but we're definitely looking at that as an opportunity going forward. So it's a holistic approach. Obviously, the operating model is in good shape. We'll continue to drive that improvement over the long term, and now cash conversion is a focus for us as well. And we're seeing impact, obviously, this year in the record free cash from operating cash results.

We think we can do a little better going forward. That's our goal.

Patrick Ho (Managing Director)

Thank you.

John Lee (President and CEO)

Yep.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Krish Sankar with Cowen.

Speaker 12

Hi, this is Steven calling on behalf of Krish. John, first question for you. In terms of the semis business, I was wondering if you could provide some more color on the March quarter guidance for the semis business. You know, any color on the components that may be driving that would be helpful. And also, if you could look a little further out, you know, just one of the big customers last night talked about a front half loaded WFE year. Wondering if the trends you're seeing are consistent with that, or if you see any other factors that might lead to differentiation there?

John Lee (President and CEO)

Yeah. Hi, Steven. Yeah, so, yeah, no, we're seeing a strong Q1 for sure. And, you know, the guide, the midpoint of the guide is $650. You know, slightly lower than our $660 million that we actually achieved in Q4, but it's really, you know, Q4 was really quite, quite a record quarter. So we see a very strong semi quarter in Q1. You know, we don't guide out more than Q1, but I would say visibility is okay in the first half. And I think that in the second half, I don't think really, you know, anyone really knows. There's a lot of things that could go drive it better or worse.

So I think we're strongly positive about semi in Q1, and then the first half is looking okay, but we wouldn't want to guide beyond the first quarter.

Speaker 12

Okay. Thanks for that, John. And, maybe one quick one for, Seth. Seth, in terms of the gross margin guidance, can you talk a little about the puts and takes, for the high and low end of the gross margin guidance?

Seth Bagshaw (SVP and CFO)

Yeah. Thank you, Steven. So, you know, we obviously, our published model is a 50% variable gross margin, and in 2020, you know, we achieved that for sure, and, and again, pretty close in the fourth quarter. The Q1, there's a little bit of a mix dynamic in there. I'd say the L&M division had a little bit, you know, we sold products in Q4, we think in Q1, but a little bit below the corporate average, so it's probably a tick below that 50% flow through, if you take the midpoint, but it's really not that far off from the model. And again, we range the margin, obviously. So that's kind of the high level takeaway for the, for the, the quarterly guidance for margin.

The other piece we're managing very well is we do have some headwinds in the COVID world. You know, obviously, freight costs a little higher. We're being very careful on within the factory, social distancing, and making sure that everybody is, you know, maintaining the right, you know, protocol. So that's kind of affecting a little bit the efficiencies, but that's kind of in the run rates as well. But the team's managing very well on that. So really, the big takeaway is just a little bit of mix, I think, in the L&M group, in Q1. Again, we range the guidance, so you know, I would kind of be looking at that range as a good, you know, thoughtful estimate for us.

Speaker 12

Great. Thanks, Seth, and congratulations on the good results.

Seth Bagshaw (SVP and CFO)

Yep. Thanks, Steven.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Sidney Ho with Deutsche Bank.

Jeffrey Rand (Analyst)

Hi, this is Jeff Rand for Sidney Ho. After growing your business, your semis business, almost 50% in 2020, do you believe your semis business can still outgrow the overall WFE market in 2021, or do you expect some destocking to take place?

John Lee (President and CEO)

Yeah. Hi, Jeff, it's John. You know, typically, for suppliers in this part of the, the food chain, critical subsystems, we tend to overperform during the ramps, and we tend to underperform, when the ramps turn. And so that's really a question of when you think the ramp, the thing will turn. And I know there's a lot of talk about people trying to call the peak right now, which we're not gonna. I would say, though, that we're still very confident in our long-term model, as we talked about in Analyst Day, which is, you know, our historic 200 basis points above WFE CAGR over the long term. And, so that model is still very much intact.

Jeffrey Rand (Analyst)

Great, and just as my follow-up, gross margins were close to the midpoint of guidance on it, but on the strong revenue beat. Can you discuss how you think about the opportunity for margin expansion as you grow revenue over time?

Seth Bagshaw (SVP and CFO)

Yeah, Jeff, this is Seth. Yeah, so, clearly, volume is the bigger driver, and again, that 50% flow-through is our model and well intact. So that's the bigger driver going forward. Obviously, I think when the COVID-19 pandemic eases up, we'll have a little bit of tailwind there in margins just 'cause the protocols will be relaxed a little bit; is our belief. And then we do have some trade friction, which is in the run rate, so if that was to move differently going forward, that would be slightly helpful as well. And then on the long term, you know, we do look at product development activities, and our roadmap is to deliver products in the long term that have higher value for customers, and that should have, you know, have an impact, obviously, on gross margin.

We have the cadence we have across all three divisions on a regular basis, and that's sort of the ongoing, you know, again, process, which will, I think, help margins going forward. And, and then we do have a team, you know, a widespread team in place to look at profitability improvements. So that's always something we do on a regular basis as well. So there's really multiple levers, Jeff, that we've always been pulling and working pretty hard to all those right now, but in the short term, I'd tell investors the margin impact is really that 50% flow-through on revenue. So that's kind of how I look at the margin growth going forward, the bigger, the biggest lever.

Jeffrey Rand (Analyst)

Great. Thank you.

Seth Bagshaw (SVP and CFO)

Yep.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Mark Miller with The Benchmark Company.

Mark Miller (Analyst)

Congratulations on another very strong quarter. So I was just wondering, in terms of design wins, any notable design wins besides in the power area?

John Lee (President and CEO)

Yeah, Mark, it's John. Yeah, so, we have several in our portfolio of semiconductor other products, so pressure, flow and valves, as well as, remote plasma source reactive gases. So there are multiple design wins there. As we talked about, you know, in 2020, we released 48% more products than we did in 2019, even during, you know, a remote work protocol for many of the engineering teams. So, not just power, but, the whole portfolio there. We also had design wins in, our world-class optics efforts, as well as in lasers. So, we're pretty happy with our design win activities across the portfolio.

Obviously, we talked about ESI, you know, in terms of HDI, and certainly, we've certainly also maintained share in our leading flex drilling tool as well.

Mark Miller (Analyst)

The laser design wins, were these nanosecond lasers?

John Lee (President and CEO)

Both. Both nanosecond and picosecond.

Mark Miller (Analyst)

Okay. Final question. Margins were up significantly, sequentially year over year. Besides higher sales, what was driving it? Was it a mixed improvement?

Seth Bagshaw (SVP and CFO)

No, Mark, I think volume is definitely again a bigger driver, I would say. Then, if you look at our cost structure, we do a pretty good job maintaining, you know, a pretty disciplined cost structure in that ramp environment. Higher variable comp in 2020, obviously, because of the record results. But, you know, fundamentally, that's kind of what we did in 2020, where the volume piece, you know, maintaining good cost controls and strong execution.

Mark Miller (Analyst)

Thank you.

Seth Bagshaw (SVP and CFO)

Yep.

John Lee (President and CEO)

Thanks, Mark.

Operator (participant)

Thanks, Mark. Our next question comes from Joe Quatrochi with Wells Fargo.

Joseph Quatrochi (Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah, thanks for taking the question. On the semi side, you know, some of your customers have been, you know, continuing to increase inventory to support the stronger demand, but they've also been talking about building some buffer inventory, just given the supply chain disruptions. I was curious, do you have any kind of visibility into that across your customer base?

John Lee (President and CEO)

Yeah, Joe, it's John. I, I don't think we have a broad view of it. We certainly have certain product lines where. And certain customers, where, you know, they have asked us to do that, and we have done that because that's their plan. You know, so that's a customer-specific and probably product-specific kind of, inventory, safety inventory, if you will. So it's really not a broad-based thing, but, customer-specific or product-specific.

Joseph Quatrochi (Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, so that's helpful. And then on the strong E&S results this quarter, was that reflective of any of the 80-unit Capstone order that you got early in December, or is that still kind of more ahead of us in the guide?

John Lee (President and CEO)

Yeah, I would say that that 80-unit order, the majority of it was not shipped in Q4.

Joseph Quatrochi (Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Helpful. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Tom Diffely with D.A. Davidson.

Thomas Diffely (Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Hey, John, I was hoping to get a little bit more on the microelectronics part of the business, and, you know, I know it's come back a bit recently, but what is your outlook for the year? And, do you think your growth in that industry or that sector comes from share gains, or is it gonna be recovery in the space that's gonna be the biggest driver?

John Lee (President and CEO)

Yeah, Tom, it's—that's a good question. I think, the majority is recovery in the space, for sure. But as you know, our HDI momentum is good now. I think we're starting from a small base, so that's why my answer is that, the recovery is probably from, you know, the larger flex and MLCC markets where we already have established leadership. But we hope that HDI will continue to accelerate, and at some point, it will be both.

Thomas Diffely (Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Does HDI run on a similar cycle, or is it a little bit off cycle versus the rest of the business?

John Lee (President and CEO)

You know, I think in general, it does run in a similar cycle, but HDI boards, as you know, are broader in terms of applications. They're not just tied to smartphones. Flex is still very tied to, you know, the iPhone and the Samsung-type phones, form factors. And it's also broadening as well, the use of flex, but HDI is broader, so it has a broader base of different kinds of applications.

Thomas Diffely (Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, thanks. That's helpful. And then Seth, when you look at the tax rate, it looks like it's edging up a little bit here. Is anything to read into that?

Seth Bagshaw (SVP and CFO)

No, Tom, it should be at 17%. It's at 18% in this guide. It's probably our view, you know, if I look for 2021, I think in the fourth quarter, precisely, it was like 17.5%, which versus 17% guidance. So it's really around that, that zip code for sure. And it's really based on the mix of income by geography, so that's the only driver, frankly, on tax rate. But yeah, I think for modeling, so internally, we're using 18%, for 2021.

Thomas Diffely (Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Thank you.

Seth Bagshaw (SVP and CFO)

Yep. Thanks, Tom.

John Lee (President and CEO)

Thanks, Tom.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Amanda Scarnati with Citi.

Amanda Scarnati (VP and Semiconductor Equity Research)

Hi, good morning. The first question I have is on the advanced market side of the business. You know, it looks like it's sort of accelerating off of the trough year. Is that the way to look at it, or is it more just sort of one-off ordering that you saw in the December quarter to drive that strong sequential growth?

John Lee (President and CEO)

Hi, Amanda, it's John. No, it's the latter. Sorry, it's the broader order patterns from multiple subsegments, most notably advanced electronics. So, I don't believe it's a one-off quarter kind of event, as we guided in Q1, and as we said in the script, we expect to have even stronger Q1 in advanced markets.

Amanda Scarnati (VP and Semiconductor Equity Research)

Great. And then on the HDI order that you saw in the quarter, I remember last quarter you talked about having some new inquiries that were sort of unexpected. Was this order driven off of that, or is this something in addition to sort of the inquiries that you were seeing earlier in the year?

John Lee (President and CEO)

You know, our reference to inquiries coming in a little earlier than we thought was really more about flex, Amanda. So that. And then you saw our Q4 being a lot higher than normal, you know, seasonality. So it was really driven by flex, those inquiries.

Amanda Scarnati (VP and Semiconductor Equity Research)

Perfect. Thank you.

John Lee (President and CEO)

Thank you, Amanda.

Operator (participant)

Again, ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question or a comment at this time, please press the star, then the one key on your touchtone telephone. Our next question is a follow-up question from Jim Ricchiuti with Needham & Company.

James Ricchiuti (Analyst)

Yeah, I just wanted to go back to the, the L&M business, you know, particularly the, the non-semi portion of that business. I'm wondering, you know, where, where would you say we are with, with respect to pre-pandemic levels of demand in some of the major verticals?

John Lee (President and CEO)

Yeah, Jim, it's a good question. I think we're still, you know, we still have the trade friction headwinds. So that was before the pandemic, and then the pandemic added even more, you know, headwinds, as you could say. So I think the pandemic headwinds are kind of gone now. The trade headwinds are still there, and things hopefully will normalize over time. But that's kind of how we're viewing this final return to growth, organic growth.

James Ricchiuti (Analyst)

Got it. And John, on the E&S side of the business, you know, clearly a little change here in the seasonal patterns of demand, and I'm wondering, you know, how we should think about flex demand, the flex drilling demand as it relates to the normal seasonality you see in the business. And then, you know, what's the outlook for this recovery in the MLCC business? What are you hearing from some of the customers there? Is that near-term outlook, you know, still pretty strong?

John Lee (President and CEO)

Yeah. I mean, MLCC, near-term outlook, I'll take that one. It does still seem to be strong. It seems to be strong for, you know, has been strong, and we believe it will continue to be strong for at least another quarter, as far as we can see. You know, and I think, the seasonal pull-in, if you will, I think your question is, is the flex a pull-in or is it just additive? And from what we can tell now, because of the bookings and activities we see in Q1 and Q2, that's the normal activity, and we still see that. And so Q4 seems to be an additive, you know, quarter to what is normally a Q1, Q2 high quarters for the E&S flex business.

James Ricchiuti (Analyst)

Got it. That's, that's helpful. Thank you, and congrats on the quarter, guys.

John Lee (President and CEO)

Yeah. Thanks, Jim.

Seth Bagshaw (SVP and CFO)

Thanks, Jim.

Operator (participant)

Our next question is a follow-up question from Tom Diffely with D.A. Davidson.

Thomas Diffely (Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah, hello again. Just a quick clarification. John, did you say you had over 200 patents issued in the year?

John Lee (President and CEO)

170, Tom.

Thomas Diffely (Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

170. Okay, and then what segments are those concentrated in?

John Lee (President and CEO)

It's pretty broad. I would say, you know, we have so many products. We have a fair number of pressure products, valve products, RPS products, and power products, and then you have the entire array of products in Light and Motion, so optics, lasers, photonics. So it's really pretty broad-based. And you know, we have a pretty rigid and good patent processing in terms of evaluating whether things are worth patenting or not, and that goes across all the divisions. E&S has some patents, too, but you know, those are really a little fewer in terms of the number because those are mostly system integration type of ideas.

Thomas Diffely (Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, and maybe just on that, when you look at your R&D spending for the upcoming year, are there particular focuses that you have, or are you gonna be pretty broad-based across all your markets, spending R&D as well?

John Lee (President and CEO)

Yeah, no, I think we've talked about it in the past, too, Tom. We are very targeted in terms of where we will put our R&D dollars. We always look at areas for growth, opportunities for growth. And so, you know, for us, you know, we will invest in all the products appropriately, but the areas where we are investing for future growth are power, world-class optics, to address that, and lasers and HDI.

Seth Bagshaw (SVP and CFO)

I'll say, too, Tom, if you look at our. We're not guiding for the full year, obviously, but internally, we're leaning pretty heavy into the R&D spending in 2021. So, you know, the majority of our spending increases in OpEx will be heavily geared towards R&D efforts. And we see a lot of opportunity there, for sure.

Thomas Diffely (Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Thank you for your time.

John Lee (President and CEO)

Yeah. Thanks, Tom.

Operator (participant)

I'm not showing any further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to our host for any closing remarks.