Anaren quarterly profit, sales slide

DeWITT — A nearly 20 percent drop in sales resulted in a more than 30 percent profit decline in the fiscal fourth quarter at Anaren, Inc. (NASDAQ; ANEN), which reported its earnings Monday after the market close.

Anaren’s net sales for the quarter ending June 30 fell 19.1 percent to $38.2 million from $47.2 million in the year-ago quarter. Net income slipped to $2.9 million, or 20 cents a share, this fiscal fourth quarter from $4.2 million, or 29 cents per share, in the same period in 2011.

DeWitt–based Anaren develops and manufactures components and subsystems for markets including satellite communications, defense, and wireless communications.

Excluding non-cash equity based compensation and intangible amortization, Anaren’s earnings per share (EPS) in the latest quarter was 26 cents, compared to 34 cents in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2011. The 26 cents beat analysts’ consensus EPS estimate of 23 cents, according to Thomson Reuters.

Still, Anaren’s shares dropped sharply today with the stock price off $1.11, or 5.4 percent, at $19.47 as of 1:55 p.m. At that price, the stock is still up more than 17 percent year to date.

Anaren’s leader pointed out the positives in the company’s earnings trends.

“While current quarter revenue and profitability remains below fiscal 2011 fourth-quarter levels, we were pleased to see 10 percent sequential quarterly sales growth, driven by strengthening demand for wireless infrastructure products,” Anaren President and CEO Lawrence A. Sala said in the earnings report. Improvements in operating income coupled with increasing sales and cost-cutting actions since the beginning of the year should lead to better sales and more profitability in fiscal 2013, he added.

Looking ahead to results from the fiscal first quarter of 2013, which runs through Sept. 30, company officials forecast net sales in the $36 million to $41 million range with earnings per share of 13 cents to 24 cents.

Anaren (www.anaren.com), founded in 1967, has more than 1,200 employees at five facilities around the world. The company produces high-frequency electronics for the wireless infrastructure, wireless consumer products, satellite, defense electronics, and other industries.

For more on this story, check out the Aug. 10 issue of The Central New York Business Journal.

Contact DeLore at tdelore@cnybj.com