Strong Newport Q2 2010 financials signal photonics industry recovery

Irvine, CA--Newport Corporation reported financial results for its second quarter and six months ended July 3, 2010. The company noted the following highlights regarding its Q2 results compared to last year:
----Received $125.5 million in new orders, a 56.2% increase over Q2 2009
----Recorded $114.6 million in net sales, a 30.9% increase over Q2 2009

The results complement recent news that the semiconductor industry is in recovery mode, as well as similar good news in the machine-vision markets for 2010.

Robert J. Phillippy, Newport's president and CEO, said, “We are very pleased with our strong financial performance in the second quarter and first half of 2010, which reflects both the improved conditions in all of our target markets and excellent execution by the Newport team. Our orders in the first half of 2010 were $250.2 million and our book-to-bill ratio for the last four quarters was 1.10, increasing our backlog scheduled to ship in the next 12 months to $124.5 million at the end of the second quarter of 2010 from $88.0 million a year ago. As a result, we expect our sales levels to continue to increase sequentially in the third and fourth quarters of this year. We are also pleased with the strong profit leverage we have been able to generate on these increasing sales. On a 7% sequential increase in sales, our gross margin of 43.4% increased by 320 basis points and our earnings per diluted share grew by 57% compared with the first quarter levels."

Newport Corporation sales in the second quarter of 2010 were $114.6 million, an increase of 30.9% compared with the $87.5 million recorded in the second quarter of 2009. Sales for the first half of 2010 were $221.8 million, a 25.2% increase over the sales of $177.1 million recorded in the first half of last year.

New orders received in the second quarter of 2010 were $125.5 million, an increase of 56.2% compared with the $80.4 million received in the second quarter of 2009, and the second highest level in the company's history. First half orders of $250.2 million increased 55.6% compared with the $160.8 million in orders received in the first half of 2009.

The company noted the following regarding its sales and orders results:
----Sales and orders increased in the second quarter of 2010 compared with the second quarter of 2009 across all of Newport's end markets, led by significantly higher orders from and sales to semiconductor equipment customers, which are included in the company's Microelectronics end market.
----Sequentially, sales increased 7.0% in the second quarter of 2010 compared with the first quarter level, driven by increases in the company's Microelectronics and Life & Health Sciences end markets.
----Sequentially, orders were slightly higher than the $124.6 million in orders recorded in the first quarter of 2010, due to increases in the company's Industrial Manufacturing and Life and Health Sciences end markets, offset in part by lower orders from the Microelectronics and Research markets compared with the strong levels in the first quarter of 2010.

Commenting on the company's financial outlook, Phillippy said, "Due to the current strength in our markets, our increasing backlog and continued orders momentum, we now expect our sales for the full year of 2010 to be in the range of $460 million to $470 million, an increase of more than 25% compared with the 2009 level and an all-time record for Newport. We also expect our earnings to increase sequentially in the third and fourth quarters of 2010, and expect our earnings per diluted share for the full year of 2010 to be in the range of $0.80 to $0.90."

SOURCE: Newport Corporation; http://investor.newport.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=70217&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1453329&highlight=

--Posted by Gail Overton; [email protected]; www.laserfocusworld.com