This sounds pretty good!
Wednesday August 2 6:59 PM ET
GSI Lumonics Sales Surge in Second Quarter
By Susan Taylor
OTTAWA (Reuters) - GSI Lumonics Inc. (Toronto:LSI.TO - news) (NasdaqNM:GSLI - news), one the world's largest laser-system manufacturers, said on Wednesday its second-quarter sales rose 34 percent as demand for its products accelerated in key semiconductor, electronics and auto markets.
``This is a quarter when sales performance speaks for itself,'' said chief executive Charles Winston in a conference call with analysts.
The result of a March 1999 merger between Lumonics Inc. and General Scanning Inc., GSI Lumonics reported earnings of $5.8 million, or 14 cents a share, on revenues of $92.8 million. Earnings include a one-time gain of $700,000 from the sale of non-core assets.
In the year-earlier period, the company lost $3.7 million, or 11 cents a share, on revenues of $69.2 million.
The average estimate from three analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial was a profit of 15 cents per share for the three months ended June 30. The average revenue expectation from two analysts contacted by Reuters was $88 million.
``EPS came in at 14 (cents), which was our number,'' said Jim Ricchiuti, an analyst at Needham & Company Inc. ``Sales were clearly stronger than expected...it looked like they saw really nice growth in their key markets, being the semiconductor and electronics.''
Sales to the company's semiconductor market of $14.6 million were up 62 percent over last year, with electronics sales up 91 percent to $30.0 million.
Revenues of $10 million to the company's high-profile optical components market were ahead 26.5 percent over last year, while automotive market sales added 329 percent to $9 million.
Shares in GSI Lumonics have slumped in recent sessions as the euphoria for fiber-optic firms subsided. The stock -- which closed on July 20 at 42-8/16 on Nasdaq and C$63.00 on the Toronto Stock Exchange -- fell on Wednesday in advance of the results. Shares lost C$4.05 to end at C$35.45 on Toronto, and shed 2-5/8 to close at 24 on Nasdaq.
To fuel future growth, GSI Lumonics said it will boost optics capacity and sales to the telecoms market through internal expansion and the recent purchase of a California-based precision optics business. GSI Lumonics said the company has annual sales of about $8 million, but does not yet sell to the telecoms market.
GSI Lumonics sold $2.6 million in optical equipment to telecoms firms in the quarter and estimates it will ship between $10 million and $12 million for the year. That's up from $1.8 million in component sales in the first quarter and $3 million for all of last year.
The company expects to boost optical component capacity to produce $20 million in equipment by year's end and $40 million by the fourth quarter of 2001.
``Based on projected demand, we will again be adding capacity to our Nepean plant for 2001 and we continue to look for other acquisition opportunities,'' said chief financial officer Des Bradley, who leaves the company for personal reasons at month's end.
``Our strategy is to find companies that have capability and capacity that can be leveraged into the higher telecom manufacturing area.''
The company said it also expects to benefit from its launch of memory repair technology for the semiconductor market and plans to introduce a new automotive product later this year.
GSI Lumonics said its second-quarter gross profit was $37.0 million, a 39.9 percent gross margin, versus $23.4 million, a 33.8 percent margin, last year. GSI Lumonics has set a target of 45 percent gross margins. The firm's order backlog at the quarter's close was $103 million, up 18 percent from $87 million at the end of the first quarter. |
