February 5, 2014
Inverter sales up 8.9%
FORT COLLINS, Colo., Feb. 3, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. (Nasdaq:AEIS) today announced financial results for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2013. The company reported fourth quarter sales of $152.6 million compared with $142.9 million in the third quarter of 2013 and $113.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2012. Income from continuing operations was $34.4 million or $0.83 per diluted share. On a non-GAAP basis, income from continuing operations was $27.8 million or $0.67 per diluted share. A reconciliation of non-GAAP income from continuing operations and earnings per share is provided in the tables below. Based on our current mix of profits between thin films and solar, the effective tax rate excluding restructuring was approximately 0%. The company ended the quarter with $149.7 million in cash and marketable securities, a sequential increase of $45.0 million.
“Two years into our strategic plan, we have increased our global presence, completed our restructuring, improved margins, accelerated revenues and effectively utilized our cash for acquisitions and share repurchases, all in order to return value to our shareholders,” said Garry Rogerson, CEO of Advanced Energy. “Our highly efficient engine is now in place, with R&D centers throughout the world and our manufacturing centralized through Shenzhen. Entering the new year, our opportunities span applications and geographies. With a variety of new thin films products, growing demand for our revamped inverter product line and a strong pipeline of opportunities in both existing and new applications, we believe we are poised for a strong 2014.”
Thin Films
Thin Films sales were $87.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2013, a 16.2% increase from $75.4 million in the third quarter of 2013 and a 64.4% increase from $53.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2012. Growth this quarter was particularly strong as our OEM customers prepared for first quarter shipments to their customers and the company’s multitude of new products continue to enable expansion into new applications.
Solar Energy
Solar Energy sales were $64.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2013, down 4% from $67.5 million in the third quarter of 2013 and an increase of 8.9% from $59.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2012. Backlog for our new 1 megawatt inverter remained strong as the company began to ramp production in the fourth quarter to meet demand.
Income from Continuing Operations
Income from continuing operations for the fourth quarter was $34.4 million or $0.83 per diluted share, compared with $687,000 or $0.02 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2013, and $4.9 million or $0.13 per diluted share in the same period last year. On a non-GAAP basis, net of tax and excluding the restructuring charges, income from continuing operations this quarter grew to $27.8 million or $0.67 per diluted share from $21.7 million or $0.53 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2013.
Restructuring Activities
During the fourth quarter, the company recorded a pre-tax restructuring charge of $2.3 million, $405,000 of which was non-cash. The company has now completed all of its restructuring actions and expects to report future charges only as related to inorganic activity. The total charges related to the restructuring activities over the last 2 years were $53.9 million, of which $37.9 million was non-cash. These cost savings activities are expected to deliver annual savings of approximately $80 million by the end of 2014.
First Quarter 2014 Guidance
The company anticipates first quarter 2014 results from continuing operations to continue our trend of significant year-over-year increases. This guidance reflects some Solar seasonality partially offset by demand for new products and the resulting impact of last quarter’s strong OEM sales in Thin Films. Guidance is within the following ranges:
• Sales of $138 million to $146 million ($112 million in Q1 2013)
• Earnings per share of $0.36 to $0.42 ($0.17 in Q1 2013)
• Non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.41 to $0.47 ($0.29 in Q1 2013)
Fourth Quarter 2013 Conference Call.
Management will host a conference call tomorrow, Tuesday, February 4, 2014, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss Advanced Energy’s financial results. Domestic callers may access this conference call by dialing 855-232-8958. International callers may access the call by dialing 315-625-6980. Participants will need to provide conference pass code 34809200. For a replay of this teleconference, please call 855-859-2056 or 404-537-3406 and enter pass code 34809200. The replay will be available for one week following the conference call. A webcast will also be available on the Investor Relations web page at http://ir.advanced-energy.com.
About Advanced Energy
Advanced Energy (Nasdaq:AEIS) is a global leader in innovative power and control technologies for high-growth, thin-film manufacturing and solar-power generation. Advanced Energy is headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado, with dedicated support and service locations around the world. For more information, go to www.advanced-energy.com.
This release includes GAAP and non-GAAP income and per share earnings data. Please note that beginning in 2013, Advanced Energy redefined its non-GAAP measures to exclude restructuring charges, acquisition –related costs, stock based compensation and amortization of intangibles and tax release items. These non-GAAP measures are not in accordance with, or an alternative for, similar measures calculated under generally accepted accounting principles and may be different from non-GAAP measures used by other companies. In addition, these non-GAAP measures are not based on any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles. Advanced Energy believes that these non-GAAP measures provide useful information to management and investors regarding financial and business trends relating to its financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, the company believes that these non-GAAP measures, in combination with its financial results calculated in accordance with GAAP, provides investors with additional perspective. While some of these excluded items may be incurred and reflected in the company’s GAAP financial results in the foreseeable future, the company believes that the items excluded from certain non-GAAP measures do not accurately reflect the underlying performance of its continuing operations for the period in which they are incurred. The use of non-GAAP measures has limitations in that they do not reflect all of the amounts associated with its results of operations as determined in accordance with GAAP and these measures should only be used to evaluate the company’s results of operations in conjunction with the corresponding GAAP measures.