iRobot preannounced its full-year 2008 earnings and revenue after the close of business today, reporting that revenue came in several million dollars light of expectations due to reduced U.S. consumer demand (which anyone who hasn't been in a cave knew was going to be the case) and a marginal profit for the full year after charges for layoffs and a retailer bankruptcy (presumably Linens 'N Things II).
The company also is expecting flat to slightly lower overall revenue in 2009, despite continued growth in the military and overseas markets due to the U.S. economy, and has nearly $40 million in cash.
A lack of growth is disappointing but not surprising given the consumer meltdown of the past few months, and pretty much meets my expectations for the company in this environment. This year by necessity is a hunker-down year for consumer products companies, and everyone, with the exceptions of Apple and RIMM (two other stocks I own), are seeing revenue and profits evaporate. That said, iRobot has a big soft landing in its military business and has to be considered a takeover target if it drops much lower. And the Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle contract that could come in the second half of the year could easily boost the stock into the stratosphere. That is the big kahuna upon which hopes for a snapback this year rest, given that iRobot has clearly decided to avoid any significant new product launches until the economy improves.
The company is now trading at about one half of annual revenue and less than four times cash.
I'm hanging in there.
The full press release is here.
Tags: iRobot, robot
1 comments:
Buy Warcraft(wow power leveling)please point machine to enter the website(wow power leveling)of Warcraft
Post a Comment