Earnings call transcript: Quantum Computing Q4 2024 misses forecasts, stock falls

Quantum Computing Inc. (QCI) reported its Q4 2024 earnings, revealing a significant miss on both earnings per share (EPS) and revenue forecasts. The company posted an EPS of -$0.47 compared to the anticipated -$0.08, and revenue reached $62,000, falling short of the expected $400,000. Following the announcement, the company’s stock dropped by 11.71% in after-hours trading, closing at $6.54. According to InvestingPro analysis, the company is currently trading above its Fair Value, with a market capitalization of approximately $957 million despite generating only $390,000 in revenue over the last twelve months.

Key Takeaways

• Quantum Computing missed EPS and revenue forecasts significantly.
• Stock price declined by 11.71% after earnings release.
• The company improved its gross margin to 55% from 13% a year ago.
• Notable product innovation with the DIRAC3 Quantum Optimization Machine.
• Secured five purchase orders for photonic chips.

Company Performance

Quantum Computing’s Q4 2024 results highlighted challenges, with revenues declining from $75,000 in the prior year to $62,000. Despite this, the company improved its gross margin to 55%, up from 13% in Q4 2023, indicating better cost management. Operating expenses increased to $8.9 million from $6.6 million, reflecting investments in growth and innovation. InvestingPro data shows the company maintains a moderate debt level with a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13 and a current ratio of 1.61, suggesting adequate liquidity despite operational challenges. InvestingPro subscribers have access to 12 additional key insights about QUBT’s financial health and growth prospects.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $62,000 (down from $75,000 YoY)
• Earnings per share: -$0.47 (missed forecast of -$0.08)
• Gross Margin: 55% (up from 13% YoY)
• Operating Expenses: $8.9 million (up from $6.6 million YoY)
• Net Loss: $51.2 million

Earnings vs. Forecast

Quantum Computing’s actual EPS of -$0.47 fell short of the forecasted -$0.08, a miss of $0.39 per share. Revenue also missed the target significantly, coming in at $62,000 versus the $400,000 forecast. This performance represents a substantial deviation from expectations, contributing to the negative market reaction.

Market Reaction

The company’s stock experienced a sharp decline of 11.71% in the aftermarket session, closing at $6.54. This drop reflects investor disappointment with the earnings miss and revenue shortfall. The stock’s performance is notably below its 52-week high of $27.15, indicating ongoing market challenges. InvestingPro metrics reveal QUBT’s high volatility with a beta of 3.26, suggesting significant price swings compared to the broader market. Despite recent declines, the stock has delivered a remarkable 575% return over the past year, though such performance comes with substantial risk. Get detailed analysis and real-time alerts on QUBT and 1,400+ other stocks with InvestingPro’s comprehensive research reports.

Outlook & Guidance

Quantum Computing anticipates the completion of its photonic chip foundry by March 2025, with first chip deliveries expected in Q2 2025. The company aims to drive revenue growth through its foundry and quantum machines, expand industry partnerships, and continue its focus on research and development.

Executive Commentary

"Our approach is unique in the quantum industry because our technology is available and useful today," stated CEO Dr. William McGahn. He emphasized the company’s strong financial position and commitment to innovation as key drivers for future growth. Dr. McGahn also highlighted Quantum Computing’s leadership in the U.S. Tiflin photonic chip market.

Risks and Challenges

• Revenue generation remains a challenge with current sales below forecasts.
• Increasing operating expenses may impact profitability.
• Market adoption of quantum technologies is still in early stages.
• Competition in the quantum computing space is intensifying.
• Economic uncertainties could affect future growth prospects.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about Quantum Computing’s international market focus and the ramp-up of its photonic chip foundry. The company indicated a primary focus on the U.S. market, with some offshore orders. The foundry will start with proof-of-concept chips and develop a multi-project wafer platform.

Full transcript - Quantum Computing Inc (QUBT) Q4 2024:

Conference Operator: Greetings. Welcome to the Quantum Computing Inc. Fourth Quarter twenty twenty four Shareholder Update Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation.

Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Rosalind Christian. You may begin.

Rosalind Christian, Investor Relations, Quantum Computing Inc.: Thank you. And I want to welcome everyone to the Quantum Computing Inc. Fourth quarter twenty twenty four shareholder update call. Before we begin, I’d like to remind everyone that this conference call may contain forward looking statements based on our current expectations and projections regarding future events and are subject to change based on various important factors. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, we should not place undue reliance on these forward looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this call.

For more details on factors that could affect these expectations, please see our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. On the call today, we have Doctor. William McGahn, CEO of QCI and Chris Demler, CFO. Bill will provide an update on the business followed by a question and answer session hosted by both Bill and Chris. With that, I would like to turn the call over to management.

Please go ahead, Bill.

Dr. William McGahn, CEO, Quantum Computing Inc.: Well, thank you, Rosalind, and everyone out there for joining us today. We’re extremely excited to share our progress with you after what has been a very, very busy fourth quarter with a lot of significant operational and financial progress to report to you all. With a transformed balance sheet and critical advancements across both our Quantum Solutions and Foundry Services business, we are really well positioned to scale and accelerate the commercialization of our technology in 2025. QCI has been in living and breathing Quantum for years now, but one shame since we last spoke together is that the broader world has definitely started to take notice to the importance of quantum. This is a really exciting momentum in the industry and especially here at QCI.

For those that are new to our story, QCI is a nanophotonics company and we leverage the nonlinear quantum optical properties of a material called thin film lithium niobate to build high performance computing solutions for real world applications today. That’s a differentiator. Our approach is unique in the quantum industry because our technology is available and useful today. While many of the quantum players continue to work on that ultimate challenge of a large scale fault tolerant system that may remain years away, our focus is in delivering accessible and affordable solutions for quantum enhanced solutions today and right now. So we’ll talk about some of those in a moment.

One of the differentiators for our core technology is so called SWAP C, which is our ability to deliver superior size, weight, power and cost advantages. And our DIRAC3 quantum optimization machine operates at room temperature, requires no cryogenic cooling, it fits within a standard data rack in a server room and consumes less than 100 watts, which is a fraction of the power required by many competing systems. So these together are advantages, are critical as the industries that seek important solutions that seamlessly integrated to existing infrastructure while also simultaneously improving computational efficiency. That’s kind of our mission. So we’re addressing two very primary market needs right now.

The first is our DIRECT3 quantum machine is aimed at solving complex optimization problems in transportation, finance, healthcare, fraud detection and even in improving the optimization of AI algorithms. The second focus has been advancing our photonic chip technology, which we talked about last time. We’ll talk a little bit more about that today. And our foundry will provide the building blocks for not only the next generation of our quantum applications, but also for adjacencies in datacom and telecom markets.

Chris Demler, CFO, Quantum Computing Inc.: Markets. So I’ll give you

Dr. William McGahn, CEO, Quantum Computing Inc.: a little bit of an update on some of the operational highlights for the fourth quarter twenty twenty four. What we did there is we really continued to make a lot of progress across our key initiatives, validating both the demand for our quantum computing solutions and for our chip foundry services. One of the major highlights was an expansion of our partnership with NASA. Many of you have heard that we’ve had numerous contracts with them. On October 17, we secured our fifth task order with NASA for developing quantum modeling and removal of solar noise from spaceborne LiDAR missions using our DIRECT three machine.

The goal of this project is to reduce costs associated with climate monitoring missions, while significantly improving the data collection capabilities and results. Then again, on December 17, we announced an additional contract with NASA to support initiative for doing what’s so called phase unwrapping using our directory machine optimization solver. And these are exciting opportunities that demonstrate how our technology can enhance data accuracy and efficiency in large scale imaging applications. So more importantly, our ongoing work with NASA over the years has always been laying the groundwork for continued collaboration, not only with NASA, but also with other great government agencies and research institutions looking to leverage our quantum solutions for complex computational challenges. So we’ve made a lot of progress in this area.

If we turn a moment now to our Quantum Photonic Chip Foundry in Tempe, Arizona, we’re in the final stage of commissioning that facility and remain on schedule to begin production in early Q2. The construction is substantially complete as of today and we are now establishing our design process kits and we’ll be fulfilling customer orders in Q2. Throughout the quarter, we strengthened our industry relationships by signing a couple of memorandums of understanding with Spark Photonics Design and Alcyon Photonics to broaden our collaboration efforts. As part of our 2024 pilot launch, we secured multiple preorders through the opening of the fab and subsequent to the fourth quarter, we announced a total of five purchase orders for our Tefillin photonic chips. These milestones reinforce our strategy and the growing industry demand for high performance energy efficient photonic integrated circuits or PICS.

And QCI is positioned as a leader in the emerging U. S. Based Tiflin market, which we feel even more secure about today than we did the last time we spoke. So from a sales and market expansion perspective, we’ve been actively engaged with commercial and government partners in Q4 and we’ve attended numerous up to 10 industry trade shows and conferences, making numerous presentations, presenting quantum optimization and our photonic chip solutions to some of the key decision makers and then one list of potential customers. This focused outreach is really helping us drive better adoption, visibility and strengthening our customer relationships to expand our presence across the multiple sectors we try to serve.

One additional example is that we had the opportunity in November of last year to present at the Quantum Frontiers Conference at Los Alamos National Laboratories. This is a key moment for us because we get to sit and talk with key thought leaders on panels to discuss how quantum optimization solutions, particularly associated with our direct machine today are solving real world problems. And while there’s been some debate in the industry about the timeline for quantum computing adoption, our model is different and our approach is different. Our photonic quantum machines are already demonstrating tangible value in important government and commercial applications and it was a nice opportunity to be able to talk about some of those with a very small focus group of thought leaders in the industry. Our work with NASA and our expanding foundry services underscore this proving quantum technologies are not just theoretical concepts, but they are here now and ready to deploy.

Chris is going to talk to you in a moment, if I can get over my cold here, I apologize for that, and discuss our financial progress in more detail. But another key highlight of the quarter was bolstering our balance sheet. With a significantly stronger financial position this year versus last, we’re really well positioned like never before really to scale the operations at QCI and execute and accelerate our commercial strategy to expand the industry adoption of its quantum photonic solutions. As we move into 2025, we’re going to remain really focused on driving revenue from that foundry in our quantum machines. We’re going to expand our industry partnerships like we gave you a few examples of in our customer base.

We’re going to continue as always our R and D innovation to push the boundaries of what is possible in photonic computing. So with that, I’m going to turn over the call now to our CFO, Chris Bemler, who will walk her through some of the financials. Over to you, Chris.

Chris Demler, CFO, Quantum Computing Inc.: Thanks, Bill. Today, I’m going to provide a brief overview of our financial performance for the fourth quarter twenty twenty four. Our results in the quarter reflect a significantly strengthened cash position in advancement of our strategic initiatives, key initiatives that will drive long term growth in both our offerings for foundry services of tiflin photonic chips and quantum solutions that use our machines. Fourth quarter twenty twenty four revenues totaled approximately $62,000 compared to $75,000 in the prior year quarter. Our gross margin improved significantly to 55%, up from 13% in the fourth quarter of twenty twenty three.

This improvement was largely driven by our focus on reducing our direct costs of goods sold. Operating expenses for the fourth quarter totaled $8,900,000 compared to $6,600,000 in the same quarter last year. The year over year increase was primarily driven by higher employee based expenses, including stock based compensation and increased depreciation in support of bringing our Photonics chip foundry online, offset by lower non recurring legal services expenses. Further, for the full year ended 2024, our cash used in operations decreased by $2,100,000 reflecting management’s disciplined strategy to minimize general and administrative expenses. The company reported a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $51,200,000 or $0.47 per basic share compared to a net loss of $6,800,000 in the prior year quarter.

The higher net loss this quarter was primarily due to non cash charges attributable to the mark to market of the company’s warrant liability as a result of our merger with QPhoton back in June of twenty twenty two. As of 12/31/2024, total assets stood at $153,600,000 up from $74,400,000 at year end twenty twenty three. Cash and cash equivalents notably increased by 76,900,000 to $78,900,000 at year end bolstered by total net proceeds of $92,100,000 raised in the fourth quarter through offerings of common stock. Subsequent to the quarter, the company announced an additional private placement of common stock for an additional $100,000,000 of gross proceeds, further strengthening our balance sheet. Total liabilities at year end were $46,300,000 an increase of approximately $41,000,000 compared to year end 2023, driven primarily by the previously disclosed non cash mark to market adjustment for the QPhoton warrant liability I mentioned.

Stockholders’ equity rose to $107,300,000 reflecting our strengthened capital position. Looking ahead, our focus remains on executing our commercialization strategy by prudently managing our financial resources with our foundry on track to be operational by the end of this month, March 2025, with deliveries of preorders early next quarter, Q2 twenty twenty five, coupled with our continued momentum with our go to market strategy to deliver quantum machines, we are very well positioned to drive revenue growth and work toward sustainable cash flow. I’ll now turn it back over to Bill for closing remarks.

Dr. William McGahn, CEO, Quantum Computing Inc.: Thank you, Chris. Twenty twenty four has been a year of significant progress for QCI with key advancement in our quantum machines and photonic chip foundry and strategic partnerships. As we move into 2025, we are well positioned to drive revenue growth and expand the adoption of our quantum technologies. Our strong financial position and continued focus on innovation will enable us to capitalize on the growing demand for scalable quantum solutions. And I’m excited for what lies ahead as we begin to execute our strategy and continue to put photons to work.

So with that, we’ll open it up for questions and operator, please go ahead with that. Thanks.

Conference Operator: Thank you. At this time, we will be conducting a question and answer session. And our first question is from Ed Woo with Ascendiant Capital. Please proceed.

Ed Woo, Analyst, Ascendiant Capital: Yes. Congratulations on all the progress and congratulations on getting those recognitions. My question is, the opportunities in international, is most of your focus now domestic business or are you focused just on worldwide opportunities?

Dr. William McGahn, CEO, Quantum Computing Inc.: Yes. Thanks, Ed. It is currently a big focus in The U. S. With some commercial entities.

Those entities are global companies. And with some of The U. S. Government initiatives with our DIRECT3s, particularly in the areas of fraud detection and sort of portfolio analysis, payment analysis. We do have, I will say, a couple of orders for our photonic ships that are offshore, both in Europe and in Asia.

So it’s a mix for the commercial products, the DIRAC machine in particular. There are, I will say, orders in our pipeline that we have not been able to capture as an order and deliver as a sale yet that are offshore. But right now, we’re pretty much focused on closing orders that are largely domestic for the quantum machines. And we’ve got a decent mix onshore, offshore for the chips.

Ed Woo, Analyst, Ascendiant Capital: That sounds good. And just my last question on the foundry business, congratulations on starting orders in early Q2. Are you going to be operating at a ramped 100% operational efficiency right away or will it take time to ramp up?

Dr. William McGahn, CEO, Quantum Computing Inc.: Well, of course, there’s a startup time, right, because what you have to do, I’m sure you’re aware, because we have to get what’s called our PDKs, our process design kits going and we have that going. So we’ll be delivering chips, proof of concept chips to customers in Q2 and those are most of the orders we secured. I mean, we are a new foundry, so most customers rightly would say, hey, build us a handful of these modulator devices or ring resonators or various components. And that leads to a scaled up for a sort of a multi project wafer platform, which is what we’re looking to drive as quickly as possible. So, yes, there’s going to be a ramp as you would expect, commissioning the equipment, getting our PDKs lined up.

But we have some partnerships that I mentioned in the call that will be helping us and working with us on some of those things.

Ed Woo, Analyst, Ascendiant Capital: Great. Well, thank you and I wish you guys congratulations again. Thank you. You’re welcome. Thank you.

Conference Operator: Okay. We have no further questions in queue and I’d like to turn the floor back to management for closing remarks.

Dr. William McGahn, CEO, Quantum Computing Inc.: Okay. Well, thank you, operator, and thank you out there, everybody. I see there’s about 30 people. So listen, please, I really appreciate the support and taking the time to listen to our story today and the things we’ve done. And we’re very much looking forward to keeping you up to date in 2025.

I would ask that to really keep in daily contact with us. You can look at our website. We try to keep that very relevant. We work very hard in 2024 to make that a good reflection of who we are and what we do, not just from a press release perspective, but our knowledge base, the events that we share on our LinkedIn website. We’ve really tried to get our message out there and be as transparent as we possibly can with our shareholders and with the world, in the market.

So I would ask that if you really want to stay in daily touch with us, we’d love to hear from you. And please always feel free to reach out to Rosalind, our Investor Relations contact here on the call with us today. Thank you all very much once again. And I hope you all have a good rest of the remaining day.

Conference Operator: This concludes today’s conference and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

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