Sevana: Test and Measurement: EXFO reports currency impacts, YOY declines

EXFO reported that its quarterly and full-year fiscal 2015 results saw significant impacts from currency rates affecting its sales numbers.

Sales for the fourth quarter were $56.6 million, compared to $59.7 million during the same period last yer. EXFO said that its annual sales of $221.8 million were down 3.8% compared to fiscal 2014, but that if currency rates had held steady, that number would’ve been stable. The company also saw bookings decrease year-over-year by 7.2%.

Net earnings increased from 2014, jumping from $0.8 million to $5.3 million. EXFO said that 2015’s net earnings included $2.7 million in after-tax amortization of intangible assets, $1.3 million in after-tax restructuring charges, $1.3 million in stock-based compensation costs, and a foreign exchange gain of $7.2 million. The company also saw its cash and short-term investments significantly redued, from $59.8 million a year ago to $27.4 million due to share repurchasing plans that total $25.5 million.

“While financial results for fiscal 2015 are below my expectations mainly due to adverse conditions and the strength of the US dollar against a basket of currencies, I am nonetheless quite pleased with the important internal transformations implemented during 2015 that will strongly contribute to value creation in 2016 and beyond,” said Germain Lamonde, EXFO’s Chairman, President and CEO, in a statement. He added that the company had launched a new real-time analytics solution for network performance and service experience, appointed a new COO and resolved issues with its Protocol solutions that resulted in growth during the second half that is expected to continue during 2016. It also cut its operating costs by $.67 million and came up with a restructuring plan that it expected to deliver another $3.5 million in savings in 2016.

EXFO expects revenues of $230 million in 2016.

In other test news this week:

–Anite’s upcoming release of its Nemo series of drive- and walk-testing equipment will support three-component-carrier carrier aggregation and testing of Category 9 devices with speeds up to 450 Mbps, the company announced this week. This will include its Nemo Outdoor laptop-based drive testing solution, Nemo Invex II and Nemo Walker Air mobile and portable systems, and Nemo Handy handheld air interface test tool.

– Anritsu made a number of upgrades to its Shockline vector network analyzer line. It added a scalar transmission option for its MS46121A ShockLine 1-port USB VNA, which allows scalar measurements to be made between on a one-to-one or one-to-many basis between multiple units. The company also extended the available frequency range of its MS46322A and MS46122A series VNAs to 43.5 GHz, for engineering, manufacturing and university testing environments that are particularly sensitive to instrument cost.

Anritsu also announced its BERTWave MP2100B, which combines bit error rate measurements and simultaneous eye pattern analysis for evaluation of high-speed optical modules and devices that are used in data-center servers and network devices. Anritsu said that by combining capabilities that were previously supported by separate instruments, the new solution reduces test speeds, improves measurement reliability and cuts test costs by as much as 40%.

–Tektronix added eight new DC power supply models to its Keithley series 2260B family, expanding its capabilities to support higher power, high voltage and higher currents in components, products and sub-assemblies. Tektronix also noted that the size of the power supplies means that six of the 360W, three of the 720W model or two of the 1080W power supplies can be rack-mounted in a single row.

Tektronix also added a new arbitrary function generator to its series aimed at the educational market. The AFG1062 has two “equally capable” channels, 60 MHz bandwidth and a 300 MS/s sample rate.

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