Audiovox posts 1Q profit despite lower sales

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. - Consumer electronics company Audiovox Corp. reported a fiscal first-quarter profit Friday, reversing a loss posted in the year-earlier period, helped by cost-cutting efforts and despite weaker sales.

Net income for the three months ended May 31 rose to $473,000, or 2 cents per share. That compares with a loss of $5.2 million, or 23 cents per share, a year earlier, when results included a write-down of about $2.9 million related to portable navigation products.

Quarterly pretax income from continuing operations climbed to about $800,000 from a loss of $7.2 million last year.

Sales tumbled 17 percent to $119.8 million from $144.6 million in the year-earlier period.

Analyst estimates of the company's results for the quarter were not immediately available.

"Despite lower sales, we managed to post a modest profit in the first quarter as a direct result of the cost reduction and margin improvement plans instituted last year," Patrick Lavelle, Audiovox's president and CEO, said in a statement.

The company said its operating expenses fell 25.4 percent to $22.7 million in its fiscal first quarter from $30.4 million a year earlier.

Lavelle said he expects to see sequential sales improvements in the second and third quarters, and that the company is well-positioned to take advantage of acquisition opportunities, with more than $62 million in cash.

"We also have a number of new mobile programs that will launch in the fall that should help offset weakness in the automotive sector," he said.

Shares of Audiovox rose 71 cents, or 12.6 percent, to close at $6.36.

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