Fitbit Inc (FIT) Q2 2019 Earnings Call Transcript

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Logo of jester cap with thought bubble.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Fitbit Inc (NYSE: FIT)
Q2 2019 Earnings Call
Jul 31, 2019, 5:00 p.m. ET

Contents:

  • Prepared Remarks

  • Questions and Answers

  • Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to Fitbit's Second Quarter Financial Results Conference. [Operator Instructions]. At this time, I'd like to turn things over to Tom Hudson, SVP of Finance. Please go ahead, sir.

Tom Hudson

Good afternoon and welcome. Fitbit distributed a press release detailing its quarterly results earlier this afternoon. It's posted on our website at www.fitbit.com and available from normal financial news sources. This conference call is being webcast live on the Investor Relations page of our website where a replay will be archived. On this call, all financial measures are presented on a non-GAAP basis except for revenue, which is a GAAP measure.

A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures is provided in our posted earnings release or in other earnings presentation materials posted on the IR web page. Growth references will be the year-over-year comparison unless specified otherwise. This conference call will contain forward-looking information, which is subject to risks and uncertainties described in Fitbit's filings with the SEC and in today's press release. Actual results or events may differ materially. We will begin with a commentary from James and Ron, and we'll then open up the call to questions. Let me introduce Fitbit's Chairman and CEO, James Park. James?

James Park -- PRESIDENT & CO-FOUNDER and Chief Executive Office

Thanks, Tom. And thank you to everyone for joining today's call. In Q2, we made progress transforming our business and generated revenue of $314 million, up 5%. However, our sales mix was different than we anticipated. Versa Lite sales did not meet our expectations, leading to a contraction of quarterly smartwatch revenue growth. We subsequently reduced our Versa Lite sales expectations for the remainder of the year and are lowering our full year 2019 revenue and gross margin guidance. We attribute the Versa weakness to our pricing go-to-market strategy. We added Versa Lite to our product lineup in Q1, the intention of lowering the barrier to entry for consumers to purchase a quality smartwatch with certain core features and shifted to an everyday low-pricing strategy from a promotional.

This resulted in lower promotional dollar spend and less sell-through. While Versa Lite received good press and consumer reviews, we saw that consumers were willing to pay more for a smartwatch with additional features or look for discounting versus everyday value. All of this said, we believe the Fitbit brand remains strong. Versa sales exceeded our expectations, benefiting from the trade-up scenario that I mentioned earlier where consumers are willing to pay more for more features. Tracker sales accelerated in the quarter, growing 51% to $186 million. And using the last 4 weeks of sales through July 20 in the U.S. as a proxy, Fitbit had 4 out of the 5 hot spots in the wearables category, and our Versa smartwatch outsold each Samsung and Garmin.