News

Vicor Reports Financial Impact of New Product Ramp-up

April 25, 2017 by Jeff Shepard

Vicor Corporation reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2017. Revenues for the first quarter ended March 31, 2017 increased to $54,462,000, compared to $46,027,000 for the corresponding period a year ago, and increased from $48,085,000 for the fourth quarter of 2016. First quarter bookings increased to $57,891,000 from $49,000,000 for the corresponding period a year ago, and increased from $55,082,000 for the fourth quarter of 2016.

Gross margin increased to $23,652,000 for the first quarter of 2017, compared to $19,316,000 for the corresponding period a year ago, and increased from $21,499,000 for the fourth quarter of 2016. Gross margin, as a percentage of revenue, increased to 43.4% for the first quarter of 2017, compared to 42.0% for the first quarter of 2016, but decreased from 44.7% for the fourth quarter of 2016.

Net loss for the first quarter was ($974,000), or ($0.02) per share, compared to a net loss of ($5,351,000), or ($0.14) per share, for the corresponding period a year ago and a net loss of ($2,688,000), or ($0.07) per share, for the fourth quarter of 2016.

Cash used for operating activities totaled $1,347,000 for the first quarter of 2017, compared to cash used for operating activities of $834,000 for the corresponding period a year ago. Cash and cash equivalents sequentially decreased by $3,343,000 to approximately $52,827,000 at the end of the first quarter of 2017 from $56,170,000 at the end of the fourth quarter of 2016.

Total backlog at the end of the first quarter of 2017 was $51,732,000, compared to $48,371,000 at the end of 2016.

Speaking to the first quarter's results, Dr. Patrizio Vinciarelli, Chief Executive Officer, stated, "Financial performance fell short of consolidated net profitability because of manufacturing inefficiencies related to ramping new products. Notably, shipments of 48V to Point-of-Load solutions for datacenter servers rose by a third sequentially concurrently with the start of a steeper ramp of AC to 48V and 48V to Power-on-Package ("PoP") solutions for an advanced supercomputing installation taking place in Q2. A sequential increase in consolidated bookings and a strengthening book-to-bill ratio bode well for projected sequential increases in quarterly revenues and profitability in 2017."

Dr. Vinciarelli continued, "Design-in activity of advanced products in datacenter, supercomputing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, autonomous driving, and aerospace applications led to design wins for powering next generation GPUs, CPUs, and ASICs, whose escalating current requirements necessitate higher density power system solutions, on the motherboard or, preferably, within the ASIC package (PoP). Customers recognize that Vicor's power system technology enables competitive advantages in a rapidly evolving compute landscape."