Synaptics Posts Loss On Charges, But Tops View; Stock Up

(RTTNews) - Synaptics Inc. (SYNA) on Thursday posted a loss for the third quarter, hurt mostly by acquisition related charges despite a 25 percent growth in revenues. Nonetheless, shares of the company surged a near nine percent in after-hours trade, with adjusted earnings and revenues easily surpassing Wall Street expectations, on strong demand for its fingerprint ID business.

Synaptics, a maker of touchscreen pads for smartphones and tablets, said revenues for the third quarter rose 25 percent to $204.3 million from $163.3 million last year. Thirteen analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $192.03 million for the quarter.

Third-quarter revenues reflect the first full quarter of the fingerprint ID business, which became accretive to earnings a quarter ahead of schedule, the company said in a statement. Synaptics expanded its portfolio to include the fast growing fingerprint ID market after it acquired Validity Sensors Inc.

Revenue from mobile products, which include touchscreen, video display, and fingerprint ID products, surged 44 percent to $150.7 million, while revenues from PC products decreased 9 percent to $53.5 million.

The San Jose, California-based company reported a third-quarter loss of $40.1 million or $1.12 per share, compared to a profit of $36.4 million or $1.07 per share last year.

The third-quarter results include acquisition related costs of about $55.7 million.

Excluding one-time items, earnings were $0.63 per share compared to $0.79 per share last year. On average, 13 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $0.57 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Moving ahead, Chief Executive Rick Bergman said, "We expect to close the fiscal year with another exceptional quarter. While at the start of the year we had forecast annual revenue growth to be similar to the 21 percent achieved last year, with the strength of the fingerprint ID business augmenting the growth of our core touch solutions, we now expect to achieve top-line growth of 37 to 40 percent for fiscal 2014."

SYNA closed Thursday's trade at $64.01, down $2.78 or 4.16%, on a volume of 1.8 million shares, on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, gained $5.39 or 8.42%, in after-hours trade.