A Busy And Productive Quarter For AXT

AXT, a manufacturer of compound semiconductor substrates, has reported financial results for the first quarter, ended March 31, 2017.

Revenue for Q1 2017 was $20.6 million, compared with $20.3 million in Q4 2016. Gross margin was 30.5 percent of revenue for Q1 2017, compared with 37.1 percent of revenue in Q4 2016.  This decline was largely the result of product mix, foreign exchange and recovery efforts from the short circuit electrical fire in March of 2017.

Operating expenses were $4.9 million in Q1 2017, compared with $5.2 million in Q4 2016. Operating profit for Q1 2017 was $1.4 million compared with operating profit of $2.3 million in Q4 2016. Interest and other, net for Q1 2017 was a loss of $0.8 million, compared with a loss of $0.3 million in Q4 2016.

Net profit in Q1 2017 was $0.7 million, or $0.02 per diluted share, compared with a net profit of $2.2 million or $0.06 per diluted share in Q4 2016.

“Q1 was a busy and productive quarter,” said Morris Young, CEO. “We are seeing encouraging progress in the adoption of several emerging technologies and are continuing to invest in our product development, production capacity, and customer engagement and support capabilities in order to position ourselves for coming business opportunities.

“In addition, we recently completed a successful secondary offering, helping to ensure that AXT is well capitalised for both business expansion and the future relocation of our GaAs production line.

“And finally, we experienced, and then quickly and effectively recovered from, a short-circuit electrical fire at our Beijing facility. I am proud of the way our team pulled together with a shared sense of purpose to support all of our key stakeholders, including our customers, investors, and fellow employees. 2017 will likely be an important year for AXT, and I believe we are taking the correct steps to ready our business for our next phase of growth.”