Hutchinson: Preliminary Fiscal 2FQ15 Financial Results

Hutchinson Technology Incorporated reported preliminary results for its fiscal 2015 second quarter ended March 29, 2015.

The company shipped approximately 101 million suspension assemblies in the fiscal 2015 second quarter, down 17% from 121.7 million in the preceding quarter.

Rick Penn, president and CEO, said that demand was below the company’s expectations due to weakness in the personal computer market.

“Cloud and hyperscale applications are expected to provide future growth for suspension assembly demand, but our current demand is still heavily weighted to PC applications,” said Penn.

Net sales for the quarter totaled approximately $62 million, compared with $72.4 million in the preceding quarter. ASP was $0.59, compared to $0.58 in the preceding quarter.

Regarding the company’s optical image stabilization (OIS) actuator, Penn said that the company continues to focus on optimizing manufacturing processes and refining product designs.

“As we work to win new programs, customer interest in our shape memory alloy (SMA) technology is encouraging,” said Penn. “The smartphone camera market is in the early phases of adopting OIS technology, and as we’ve stated previously, we are still in the initial stages of developing this new opportunity.”

Unrestricted cash totaled $42.6 million at the end of the fiscal 2015 second quarter, compared to $33.6 million at the end of the preceding quarter. During the second quarter, $7.5 million of cash that was previously restricted in use became available to the company as unrestricted cash after the expiration of a 120-day put option for certain holders of its 8.50% convertible senior notes due 2019.