Planar Announces Fiscal Q2 2014 Financial Results
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
Planar Systems Inc., Beaverton, Oregon-based display and digital signage technology company, recorded sales of $41.1 million of in its second fiscal quarter ended March 28, 2014.
“I am pleased with our second quarter results,” says Gerry Perkel, Planar’s president and CEO. “The strong growth in digital signage product sales, combined with profitability in the second quarter, keeps us in a position to achieve our goals of growing sales of digital signage products in excess of 20% for the full fiscal year, being profitable every quarter of the fiscal year, and expanding profitability in fiscal year 2014 compared to fiscal 2013.”
The company recorded Non-GAAP EBITDA of $1.1 million in the second quarter of 2014, resulting in $2.8 million of Non-GAAP EBITDA in the first half of fiscal 2014.
Quarterly sales of digital signage products totaled $19.0 million in the fiscal second quarter of 2014, representing 41% growth compared with the second fiscal quarter of 2013.
During the quarter, Planar introduced the new 46” and 55” Simplicity Series digital signage displays to round out the Planar Simplicity Series, which offers a broad range of choices for deploying simple, sleek and affordable digital signage displays. It also showcased the industry’s largest interactive display with Corning® Gorilla® Glass, the 84” 4K Planar UltraRes Touch with ERO at Digital Signage Expo 2014 in Las Vegas, and also began shipping Clarity Matrix LCD Video Wall Systems with G2 Architecture, which deliver a new level of visual performance as the next generation of Planar’s award-winning family of LCD video wall solutions
Total revenue in Q2 increased 4% compared to Q2, 2013, as increases in sales of digital signage products more than offset the decline in sales of Commercial and Industrial products. Sales of C&I products decreased 15% to $22.1 million compared with the same quarter a year ago. This decrease was primarily driven by lower sales of touch monitors, desktop monitors, rear projection cubes, and high-end home products, partially offset by higher sales of custom C&I displays.
The Company’s consolidated gross profit margin, as a percentage of sales (on a Non-GAAP basis), was 23.6% in the second quarter of 2014, up from 20.4% in the second quarter of 2013. The improvement in gross profit rate is the result of both a higher concentration of higher margin digital signage product sales relative to lower margin C&I products as well as higher gross profit rates on sales of digital signage products compared with the prior year. The Company has been expanding its differentiated line of digital signage products and leveraging higher volumes to improve overall gross profit rates on sales of digital signage products.
Looking forward for the full fiscal year 2014, the Company continues to believe it can achieve between 20% and 30% revenue growth for sales of digital signage products compared with fiscal year 2013. As a result, the Company expects revenue in the range of $165-175 million and is increasing its forward looking estimate for full fiscal year 2014 Non-GAAP income per share to $0.15 to $0.20. In the short-term, the Company expects to see continued strong revenue growth for digital signage products in the third quarter, driving overall revenue growth for the third quarter in excess of 10% compared with the third quarter of 2013. As a result, the Company currently anticipates revenue in the range of $41.5-43.5 million and Non-GAAP income per share of $0.01 to $0.03 in the third fiscal quarter of 2014.
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