Bel Fuse Inc. today announced preliminary financial results for the second quarter of 2016. Net sales decreased 9.6% to $131.6 million in the second quarter of 2016 as compared with $145.7 million in the second quarter of 2015. Operating income was $10.0 million in the second quarter of 2016 as compared with operating income of $7.5 million in the second quarter of 2015. GAAP EPS was $1.83 per Class A share and $1.93 per Class B share in the second quarter of 2016 as compared with GAAP EPS of $0.49 per Class A share and $0.52 per Class B share in the second quarter of 2015.
Daniel Bernstein, President and CEO, said "We are pleased with the performance of the business in the second quarter of 2016 despite lower revenues. Bel's post acquisition cost saving and restructuring efforts completed last year have reduced fixed costs and allowed for continued improvement in profitability while we position for future revenue growth. As Bel moves forward, our focus turns to improving top line growth and we have realigned our sales structure to accomplish this goal.
"Bel Power Solutions (BPS) sales continued to decline as a result of previous management's actions. These actions had resulted in BPS being removed from key customers' preferred supplier lists. As a result of taking corrective actions since acquiring BPS, over the past 12 months we have been able to regain that status at key customers; however, not being able to participate in new designs for a period of time has contributed to a large part of the decline in sales. BPS has refreshed its product lines and introduced new products for the Rail industry and Open Compute market. Also, BPS will open a Taiwan engineering design and support center in August 2016 to better service the local needs of the ODM (original design manufacturer) customers who work closely with our major customers on the development of their new systems. We continue to expect BPS to be a major driver of future growth of our business.
"Bel's Cinch Connectivity Solutions (CCS) business finished the second quarter with essentially flat sales but improved operating profitability resulting from lower costs and favorable sales mix as compared with the same period last year. We were able to overcome continued general market weakness with improved distribution sales, highlighted by significant gains in sales through our value added distribution partners servicing the commercial avionics market and improved sales of our optical products sold primarily into high reliability military applications. CCS continues to allocate a significant amount of our design resources to the development of next generation avionics products and we are encouraged by recent progress made in the design of these products and in the qualification of these products with our OEM (original equipment manufacturer) customers. This effort and expected demand increases on existing commercial avionics platforms are anticipated to provide sales growth in future quarters.
"Bel's Magnetic Solutions products sales were lower in the second quarter of 2016 as compared with the same period last year as a result of a decrease in our ICM product sales. These products are mainly used by Networking and Telecommunication manufacturers."
Net sales decreased 9.6% to $131.6 million in the second quarter of 2016 as compared with $145.7 million in the second quarter of 2015, primarily due to lower sales of Bel's power solutions and protection products, as well as certain magnetic products.
Gross profit decreased 10.0% to $25.7 million in the second quarter of 2016 as compared with $28.6 million in the second quarter of 2015 primarily due to the impact of lower sales. Despite the decline in net sales, lower material costs, lower warranty costs and a favorable mix of products sold enabled gross profit margin to remain essentially flat. In addition, the restructuring efforts taken last year also had a favorable impact on the second quarter of 2016 gross profit margin.
