For its fiscal first-quarter 2014 (to 28 June 2013), Advanced Photonix Inc of Ann Arbor, MI, USA (which designs and makes APD, PIN, and FILTRODE photodetectors, HSOR high-speed optical receivers, and T-Ray terahertz instrumentation) has reported net sales of $7.1m, up 14% on $6.2m a year ago and up 18% on $6m last quarter. This is attributed to increased telecom infrastructure spending and the acquisition by Advanced Photonix Canada (APC) of Montreal-based Silonex Inc, which designs and manufactures optoelectronic devices and sensor solutions based on cadmium sulphide (CdS) for vertical markets including industrial controls, banking, vending, medical and telecoms.
Fiscal Q1/2013 Q2/2013 Q3/2013 Q4/2013 Q1/2014 Revenue $6.2m $5.6m $5.8m $6m $7.1m
Gross margin has rebounded from a low of 35.8% last quarter to 41.4%, up on 36.1% a year ago, aided by cost reduction efforts and a favorable mix.
Operating expenses were $3.45m, up on $3.3m last quarter and $3.2m a year ago due mainly to operating expenses assumed when Advanced Photonix Canada (APC) acquired the net operating assets of Silonex.
Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and stock compensation) was -$68,000, recovering from -$572,000 last quarter and -$456,000 a year ago. During the quarter, cash reserves fell from $619,000 to $581,000. The firm drew about $922,000 on its line of credit. Net working capital fell from $4.9m to $4.2m.
"We continue to believe that our fiscal year 2014 revenues will exceed last year's revenues by over 35%," says chairman & CEO Richard Kurtz.
"As I stated in our annual report, we have begun to include our industrial sales as part of the Test & Measurement market. In the past we had combined our telecommunication transmission product sales and communication test & measurement (Comtest) product sales as telecommunication revenue," says Kurtz. "Going forward we have split this out so that the telecommunication revenues includes solely the transmission revenues. We have included the Comtest product sales in the Test & Measurement category along with the previous Industrial sales and our Terahertz nondestructive test and process control sales," he adds. "When looked at this way, over 50% of API's revenues come from using optoelectronics to solve our customer's need to test and measure key elements in their applications that can only be done through optical sensing. We look forward to establishing API as a leader in the test and measurement market."
