Lower LED chip sales hit Cree profits

Cree has announced revenue of US $88.8 million for its fiscal second quarter ended 24th December 2006.

Cree has announced revenue of US $88.8 million for its fiscal second quarter ended 24th December 2006.

This represents a 16% decrease compared with revenue of $105.6 million reported for the year ago period.

Net income for the second quarter was $16.5 million, or $0.21 per diluted share, which includes a gain from the sale of marketable securities of $0.15 per diluted share, compared with $17.7 million or $0.23 per diluted share for the second quarter of 2006.

For the six-month period ended 24th December 2006, Cree reported revenue of $192.7 million.

This represents an 8% decrease compared with the same period in fiscal year 2006.

Net income for the six-month period was $29.8 million, or $0.38 per diluted share, which includes a gain from the sale of marketable securities of $0.15 per diluted share, compared with $39.4 million, or $0.51 per diluted share for the same period last year.

"As we announced in early December, the second quarter was more challenging than we had targeted with lower LED chip sales", stated Chuck Swoboda, Cree Chairman and CEO.

"Despite the challenges in the LED chip business, we continued to make progress on our strategy to expand our business by leveraging our strengths in LED chip and SiC materials technology to broaden our product line with higher-value, component level products for the emerging markets in LED lighting and power".

"Our new product lines delivered double-digit growth in Q2, with LED component sales increasing to more than 10% of total LED revenue for the first time".

"The growth in these new product lines is an important leading indicator of how we plan to grow the company over the next several years".

For its third quarter of fiscal 2007, Cree currently targets revenue to be similar to the reported results for the second quarter of fiscal 2007 with earnings of $0.04 to $0.05 per diluted share.

Back to top