Gentex Corp. (GNTX) reported Thursday a profit for the for the fourth quarter, compared to a loss last year. The profit was helped by both realized gains on the sale of equity investments and increase in shipments in all its sales segments.
Zeeland, Michigan-based Gentex's fourth-quarter net profit was $30.05 million or $0.22 per share compared with a net loss of $10.36 million or $0.08 per share in the year-ago quarter. On average, ten analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings per share of 0.18 for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Income from operations rose to $43.24 million from $9.76 million for the year-ago period. In addition to contribution from income from operations, other income also contributed to the net profit of the company. The company's other income for the recent quarter of $1.61 million, reflects decreased other-than-temporary-impairment losses on equity investments and realized gains on the sale of equity investments. For the last year same quarter the company had reported other expense of $5.63 million, impacted by realized losses.
Quarterly net sales of the manufacturer increased to $177.61 million from last year's $122.28 million. Wall Street analysts' consensus revenue estimate was $164.02 million.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Fred Bauer commenting on the results said, "It feels like we are living in a different world now compared with last year at this time, and these results are a testament to the Company's ability to leverage its costs when we experience double-digit revenue growth."
Total auto-dimming mirror unit shipments increased by 35% in the fourth quarter to 3.68 million units, helped by a 45% rise in shipments to 2.37 million units. Domestic mirror unit shipments also rose by 21% to 1.31 million units. Automotive net sales for the fourth quarter increased by 48% to $173.4 million from $117.3 million last year.
During the fourth quarter, the Company said it did not repurchase any of its shares. To date, including the prior share repurchases, the Company said that it has repurchased approximately 26 million shares, leaving approximately two million shares authorized to be repurchased under the plan.
For the year 2009, net income rose to $64.64 million or $0.47 per share from of $62.08 million or $0.44 per share a year earlier. The company's net sales dropped by 13% to $544.52 million compared with $623.80 million last year.
Analysts expected earnings per share of $0.43 on revenues of $530.95 million for the full year.
Gentex currently expects first-quarter net sales to increase by 80%-90% compared year earlier same quarter and said it does not plan to give full-year 2010 guidance at this time due to uncertainties.
GNTX is currently trading at $18.78, up $1.33 or 7.62% on the Nasdaq. In the after hours, the stock is currently trading down $0.57 or $3.04% at $18.21.
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