GT Advanced Technologies Q1 Results Miss View, But Affirms Full-year Outlook

(RTTNews) - GT Advanced Technologies Inc. (GTAT), a supplier of sapphire material to Apple Inc. (AAPL), on Wednesday reported a loss for the first quarter that widened from last year, reflecting lower revenues at its polysilicon and sapphire segments in addition to higher expenses.

Loss per share came in wider than analysts' estimates by a penny, while revenues missed their estimates. However, the company affirmed its financial outlook for fiscal 2014.

Tom Gutierrez, GT's president and chief executive officer, said, ""Our results for the March quarter were in line with our expectations. We continue to expect that 2014 will be a transformational and significant year for GT as our sapphire materials business ramps up and we continue to execute on our strategy of investing in new technologies that will help drive growth in 2015 and beyond."

GT's net loss for the first quarter was $41.40 million or $0.31 per share, wider than loss of $18.68 million or $0.07 per share in the year-ago period.

Excluding items, adjusted loss for the quarter was $30.13 million or $0.22 per share, compared to adjusted loss of $8.93 million or $0.07 per share in the same period last year. On average, eight analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report loss of $0.21 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenues for the quarter declined 61 percent to $22.51 million from $57.78 million in the year-ago period. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $26.98 million.

The latest quarter's revenues include $13.2 million in photovoltaic, $5.6 million for the sapphire segment and $3.7 million for the polysilicon segment.

The company ended the quarter with $609 million of equipment backlog, consisting of $300 million of ASF orders, $296 million of polysilicon orders and $13 million related to PV equipment.

Subsequent to the close of the quarter, the company booked a $58 million order for high temperature specialty furnaces, which will be reflected in the second-quarter reported backlog.specialty furnaces

Looking ahead to fiscal 2014, GT affirmed its outlook for adjusted earnings of $0.02 to $0.18 per share on revenues of $600 million to $800 million. Analysts currently expect full-year earnings of $0.10 per share on revenues of $693.84 million.

In November 2013, GT announced a multi-year supply agreement with Apple Inc. to provide sapphire material for a consideration of $578 million. Under the deal, GT will own and operate ASF furnaces and related equipment to produce the material at an Apple facility in Arizona where GT expects to employ over 700 people. GT will reimburse Apple for the prepayment over five years, starting in 2015.

GT said Wednesday that inclusive of a third prepayment, it has received about $440 million out of the total prepayments of $578 million that it is eligible to receive under the agreement with Apple. The company expects that the total prepayments it receives from Apple will fully fund its capital outlays related to the project in Arizona.

GT shares closed Wednesday's regular trading at $15.36, down $0.83 or 5.13 percent on a volume of 12.51 million shares. In after-hours trading, the stock further declined $0.11 or 0.72 percent to $15.25.