Anaren reports decline in sales and profit

DeWITT — A nearly 20 percent drop in sales resulted in a more than 30 percent profit plunge in the fiscal fourth quarter at Anaren, Inc. (NASDAQ; ANEN), which reported its earnings Aug. 6 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 Aug. 7 with the stock slipping $1.36, or 6.6 percent, to $19.22. At that price, the stock was still up more than 15 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.

In an Aug. 7 conference call with investors and the media, Sala said some of those cost-cutting measures, which began in late fiscal 2011, included cutting 20 percent of the company’s work force across several of its locations, reducing research and development expenses, and trimming discretionary spending on things such as outside consultants.

Anaren’s wireless group net sales dropped 32.5 percent from $19.7 million to $13.4 million during the fiscal fourth quarter as overall demand remained soft. However, sales improved 30 percent sequentially over the fiscal third quarter of this year as demand began to ramp up. As the company focuses on new product investments in the area of wireless-infrastructure components and low-power wireless Anaren Integrated Radio (AIR) module product lines, the company says it expects increased wireless sales in 2013. Some of Anaren’s major wireless customers include E.G. Components, Huawei, Nokia, and Richardson.

Anaren’s space and defense group sales dipped 9.5 percent from $27.5 million a year ago to $24.8 million in the latest quarter, primarily due to an expected decline in low-temperature co-fired ceramics sales. The $34.8 million in new orders during the quarter were driven by ground-based radar satellite and passive-ranging applications and helped boost the order backlog to $105 million. Major customers include Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon.

Looking ahead to results from the fiscal first quarter of 2013, which runs through Sept. 30, company officials expect wireless and space and defense sales to compare with fourth-quarter levels with estimated net sales in the $36 million to $41 million range with earnings-per-share of 13 cents to 24 cents.

Sala said the company expects mid-single-digit growth in the space and defense sector throughout the fiscal year, but doesn’t expect wireless sales to begin to pick up until the fiscal second quarter, ending Dec. 31.

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.  

Contact DeLore at tdelore@cnybj.com