Supertex Inc. Reports Operating Results (10-Q)

Author's Avatar
Nov 05, 2009
Supertex Inc. (SUPX, Financial) filed Quarterly Report for the period ended 2009-09-26.

Supertex Inc. is a technology-based producer of high voltage analog and mixed signal semiconductor components. It designs develops manufactures and markets integrated circuits utilizing state-of-the-art high voltage DMOS HVCMOS and HVBiCMOS analog and mixed signal technologies. They are used by flat panel display printer medical ultrasound imaging telephone telecommunications and instrumentation industries. Supertex Inc. has a market cap of $298.7 million; its shares were traded at around $23.16 with a P/E ratio of 55.2 and P/S ratio of 3.8. Supertex Inc. had an annual average earning growth of 5.3% over the past 10 years.

Highlight of Business Operations:

Net sales for the three and six months ended September 26, 2009 were $15,875,000 and $29,430,000, respectively, a 32% and 36% decrease compared to $23,453,000 and $46,204,000 for the same periods of the prior fiscal year. These year-over-year decreases in net sales resulted primarily from the current weak global economy affecting nearly all of our markets, one of our customers of EL inverter ICs for cell phones losing market share, and reduced shipments to telecom due to lower demand for driver ICs for a military radio application, as well as a general decline in the expansion of optical network infrastructure. These decreases were partially offset by increases in sales of our LED driver ICs for backlighting LCD TVs and LED lighting driver ICs for general lighting.

Our medical electronics product family accounted for the largest sales of all of our five focus markets for the three and six months ended September 26, 2009 and September 27, 2008, and three months ended June 27, 2009. Sales to the medical electronics market for the three and six months ended September 26, 2009 were $6,272,000 and $11,653,000, respectively, which were 37% and 40% lower than the same periods of the prior fiscal year due to reduced demand for our analog switches and high voltage pulser circuits and chipsets, as demand for our customers products also declined resulting from the weak global economy and reduction in credit availability. Sequentially sales increased 17%, resulting from higher customer demand for our high voltage pulser circuits and chipsets as well as our medical custom processing services.

Sales of LED driver ICs for lighting and backlighting were $3,897,000 for the three months ended September 26, 2009, compared to $737,000 for the same period last year and $2,876,000 for the prior quarter. For the six months ended September 26, 2009, sales to LED lighting and backlighting market were $6,773,000 compared to $2,090,000 for the same period of last fiscal year. The year-over-year quarter and year-to-date increases, as well as the sequential increase, in sales were due to increased shipments of our high voltage LED driver ICs for backlighting a new line of LCD TVs which were ramping up volume production at a tier-one OEM and for general lighting applications.

In our offerings for the imaging market, which consist of EL inverter ICs, commercial printing ICs and custom processing services, sales for the three and six months ended September 26, 2009 were $2,670,000 and $5,308,000, both decreased 59% when compared to the same periods in the last fiscal year. These sales decreases were due to reduced demand for our customers products. Sales for the three months ended September 26, 2009, when compared to the prior fiscal quarter, were essentially flat. During the second fiscal quarter we increased shipments of our EL inverter ICs to a hand-set OEM for a new family of products; however this increase in sales was offset by reduced sales in custom processing services.

Sales in the industrial and other markets for the three and six months ended September 26, 2009 were $1,962,000 and $3,602,000 , a decrease of 53% and 49%, respectively, when compared to the same periods a year ago and increased 20% sequentially. The year-over-year decreases were primarily due to decreased sales of driver ICs for automatic test equipment which was seriously affected by the global recession. The sequential increase in net sales was primarily due to increased shipments in custom processing services.

Compared to the same periods a year ago, sales to the telecom market decreased 49% and 56%, respectively, to $1,074,000 and $2,094,000 during the three and six months ended September 26, 2009. The year-over-year decreases were due to lower shipments of driver ICs for a military radio application and reduced demand for high voltage MEMS driver ICs for optical-to-optical switching applications. Sales to the telecom market increased 5% sequentially.

Read the The complete Report