Itron Announces Second Quarter 2013 Financial Results

Itron Announces Second Quarter 2013 Financial Results

LIBERTY LAKE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Itron, Inc. (NAS: ITRI) announced today financial results for its second quarter and six months ended June 30, 2013. Highlights include:

• Quarterly and six month revenues of $482 million and $930 million;

• Quarterly and six month GAAP diluted net earnings per share of 31 cents and 38 cents;

• Quarterly and six month non-GAAP diluted net earnings per share of 58 cents and 89 cents;

• Quarterly and six month adjusted EBITDA of $45 million and $72 million;

• Twelve-month backlog of $558 million and total backlog of $1.06 billion; and

• Quarterly bookings of $515 million.

"Our second quarter results improved over first quarter in nearly every metric," said Philip Mezey, Itron's president and chief executive officer. "We were encouraged by the revenue growth in our core electricity business and improved total gross margin. In addition, our bookings increased 15 percent year-over-year to the highest level in six quarters. We expect our results to strengthen further in the second half of this year and we will continue to focus on lowering our costs to drive additional earnings leverage in our business."

Financial Results

Revenues were $482 million for the quarter and $930 million for the first six months of 2013 compared with $579 million and $1.2 billion in the same periods in 2012. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates unfavorably impacted revenue by $4 million for the quarter and $9 million for the first six months of 2013. Excluding the impact from foreign currency, revenues for the quarter and six month period decreased $93 million and $212 million compared with the same periods in 2012. The decrease for the quarter and six month period was driven by lower Energy segment revenues primarily related to the completion of several OpenWay projects in North America.

Gross margin for the quarter was 33.1 percent compared with the prior year period margin of 34.0 percent. For the first six months of 2013, gross margin was 32.2 percent compared with 33.0 percent in the prior year period. Second quarter gross margin declined over the prior year quarter primarily due to the impact of lower volumes and higher warranty costs. The prior year quarter included a warranty related credit, which positively impacted gross margin. The decline in gross margin for the first six months was due to the impact of lower volumes and product mix.

GAAP operating expenses were $142 million in the quarter and $279 million for the first six months of 2013 compared with $151 million and $294 million in the same periods of 2012. The decrease in expenses for the quarter and six month period was due to decreased global sales, marketing and product development expenses and lower restructuring costs, partially offset by increased general and administrative expenses primarily related to legal reserves.

GAAP operating income for the quarter and first six months of 2013 was $18 million and $20 million compared with $46 million and $86 million in the respective 2012 periods. GAAP net income and diluted EPS for the quarter and six month period were $12 million, or 31 cents per share, and $15 million, or 38 cents per share. This compares to net income of $32 million, or 79 cents per share, and $57 million, or $1.42 per share in the same periods in 2012. The decrease in GAAP operating income and net income was attributable to lower gross profit primarily due to lower revenues, partially offset by decreased operating expenses and lower tax expense.

Non-GAAP operating expenses for the quarter and six month period, which excludes amortization of intangibles, restructuring charges and acquisition related expenses, decreased $2 million and $6 million over the respective periods in 2012. The decrease in non-GAAP operating expenses for both periods was due to lower global sales, marketing and product development expenses, partially offset by an increase in general and administrative expenses primarily related to legal reserves.

Non-GAAP operating income was $32 million and $47 million for the quarter and six month period compared with $67 million and $122 million in the same periods in 2012. Non-GAAP net income and diluted EPS for the quarter and six month period were $23 million, or 58 cents per share, and $35 million, or 89 cents per share. This compares to $47 million or $1.16 per share, and $83 million, or $2.06 per share in the same periods in 2012. The decrease in non-GAAP operating income and net income was attributable to lower gross profit primarily from lower revenues, partially offset by lower tax expense.

Free cash flow was positive $4 million for the quarter and negative $10 million for the six month period compared with $27 million and $69 million in the same periods in 2012. The decrease over the prior year periods was due to lower earnings coupled with an increase in working capital.

During the quarter, the company repurchased 380,310 shares of Itron common stock at an average price of $41.88 per share pursuant to Board authorization to repurchase up to $50 million of Itron common stock during a 12-month period beginning March 2013. As of June 30, 2013, the company had repurchased 384,800 shares of Itron common stock at an average price of $41.91 per share since inception of the program, representing approximately one percent of total shares outstanding as of March 2013.

Financial Guidance

Itron's guidance for the full-year 2013 is as follows:

• Revenue between $1.95 and $2.0 billion

• Non-GAAP diluted EPS between $2.25 and $2.55

The company's guidance assumes a gross margin of approximately 32 percent for the year, a non-GAAP effective tax rate of 18 percent for the year, average shares outstanding of approximately 39.7 million for the year, and a Euro to U.S. dollar average exchange rate of $1.31 for the second half of 2013.

Earnings Conference Call:

Itron will host a conference call to discuss the financial results and guidance contained in this release at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on July 31, 2013. The call will be webcast in a listen-only mode. Webcast information and conference call materials will be made available 10 minutes before the start of the call and are accessible on Itron's website at http://investors.itron.com/events.cfm. The webcast replay will be available within 90 minutes of the conclusion of the live call and will be available for two weeks. A telephone replay of the conference call will be available at 10:00 p.m. EDT on July 31, 2013 through 10:00 p.m. EDT on August 5, 2013. To access the telephone replay, dial (888) 203-1112 (Domestic) or (719) 457-0820 (International) and enter passcode 5310793.

About Itron

Itron is a global technology company. We build solutions that help utilities measure, monitor and manage energy and water. Our broad product portfolio includes electricity, gas, water and thermal energy measurement and control technology; communications systems; software; and professional services. With thousands of employees supporting nearly 8,000 utilities in more than one hundred countries, Itron empowers utilities to responsibly and efficiently manage energy and water resources. Join us in creating a more resourceful world, start here: www.itron.com.

Forward Looking Statements:

This release contains forward-looking statements concerning our expectations about operations, financial performance, sales, earnings and cash flows. These statements reflect our current plans and expectations and are based on information currently available. The statements rely on a number of assumptions and estimates, which could be inaccurate, and which are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to vary materially from those anticipated. Risks and uncertainties include the rate and timing of customer demand for our products, rescheduling of current customer orders, changes in estimated liabilities for product warranties, changes in laws and regulations, our dependence on new product development and intellectual property, future acquisitions, changes in estimates for stock-based and bonus compensation, increasing volatility in foreign exchange rates, international business risks and other factors that are more fully described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012 and other reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Itron undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements, including our business outlook.

Non-GAAP Financial Information:

To supplement our consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with GAAP, we use certain non-GAAP financial measures, including non-GAAP operating expense, non-GAAP operating income, non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP diluted EPS, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. We provide these non-GAAP financial measures because we believe they provide greater transparency and represent supplemental information used by management in its financial and operational decision making. Specifically, these non-GAAP financial measures are provided to enhance investors' overall understanding of our current financial performance and our future anticipated performance by excluding infrequent or non-cash costs, particularly those associated with acquisitions. We exclude certain costs in our non-GAAP financial measures as we believe the net result is a measure of our core business. Non-GAAP performance measures should be considered in addition to, and not as a substitute for, results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Our non-GAAP financial measures may be different from those reported by other companies. A more detailed discussion of why we use non-GAAP financial measures, the limitations of using such measures, and reconciliations between non-GAAP and the nearest GAAP financial measures are included in this press release.

Statements of operations, segment information, balance sheets, cash flow statements and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures follow.