From William Trent, CFA of Stock Market Beat
SanDisk® Corporation (SNDK – Annual Report), the world’s largest supplier of flash storage card products, today announced results for the first quarter ended April 1, 2007. First quarter revenue increased 26% on a year-over-year basis to $786 million and the net loss in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) was $0.6 million, or $0.00 per share, compared to GAAP net income of $35 million, or $0.17 per share, in the first quarter of 2006.Excluding the impact of acquisition related charges, stock compensation expense and the related tax effect, first quarter non-GAAP net income was $45 million, or $0.19 per share, compared to first quarter 2006 non-GAAP net income of $90 million, or $0.44 per share.
Analysts had expected the company to earn $0.17 on $757 million in sales. For the second quarter, the company gave a wide range of $625-$725 million in product sales, supplemented by $95-$100 million in royalty revenue. Even at the high end of the range the company will fall short of the $833 million consensus sales estimate.
“First quarter results reflected the current difficult market conditions,” said Eli Harari, Chairman and CEO. “In the first quarter our industry experienced excess supply, sharp price declines, and depressed margins. These market conditions were exacerbated by weak seasonal consumer demand in retail. One highlight for the quarter was that the mobile market became our largest revenue generator with 27 million units sold in the quarter. Another highlight was the signing of an important licensing agreement with Hynix, which again validates our strong intellectual property portfolio. In another important milestone for our flash technology, this week Dell announced the launch of notebook PCs that incorporate our 32-gigabyte Solid State Drive (SSD).
“Looking forward, we project a pick-up in demand during the seasonally strong back half of the second quarter. However, excess supply and depressed pricing is expected to continue through the second quarter, possibly extending through the summer months, putting pressure on our margins. Our outlook is optimistic for renewed growth heading into the fourth quarter of 2007 and forward to 2008.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you. In addition to harping about oversupply for the last year, we said in our earnings preview that it “Will take more than one quarter to clear the channel inventory.”
In fact, SanDisk’s own inventory increased $100 million during the quarter, or 20%. At this rate, the fourth quarter/2008 recovery may be too optimistic an outlook.
Top Gaining Stocks
Top Losing Stocks