Itron Announces Third Quarter 2013 Financial Results

LIBERTY LAKE, Wash.—Oct. 30, 2013—Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI) announced today financial results for its third quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2013. Highlights include:

• Quarterly and nine month revenues of $495 million and $1.4 billion;
• Quarterly and nine month non-GAAP diluted net earnings per share of 65 cents and $1.54;
• Quarterly and nine month adjusted EBITDA of $46 million and $118 million;
• Twelve-month backlog of $582 million and total backlog of $1.1 billion; and
• Quarterly bookings of $457 million.

"Our third quarter revenue and non-GAAP earnings performance improved compared to the first two quarters of the year," said Philip Mezey, Itron's president and chief executive officer. "Revenues increased sequentially in each business line: electric, gas and water. I am also encouraged by the progress of our ongoing efforts to improve efficiencies, advance our pace of product development and to lower expenses."

Financial Results
Revenues were $495 million for the quarter and $1.4 billion for the first nine months of 2013 compared with $504 million and $1.7 billion in the same periods in 2012. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates unfavorably impacted revenue by $3 million for the quarter and $11 million for the first nine months of 2013. Excluding the impact from foreign currency, revenues for the quarter and nine month period decreased $6 million and $218 million compared with the same periods in 2012. The decrease for the quarter and nine month period was driven by lower Energy segment revenues primarily related to the completion of several OpenWay projects in North America, partially offset by an increase in Water segment revenues.

Gross margin for the quarter was 30.3 percent compared with the prior year period margin of 34.1 percent. For the first nine months of 2013, gross margin was 31.6 percent compared with 33.3 percent in the prior year period. Gross margin declined for the quarter and nine month period primarily due to a charge recorded in the third quarter for increased costs on an OpenWay project in North America and the impact of product mix and lower volumes.

GAAP operating expenses were $157 million in the quarter and $436 million for the first nine months of 2013 compared with $126 million and $420 million in the same periods of 2012. The increase in expenses for the quarter and nine month period was primarily due to restructuring expenses. During the quarter, the company approved restructuring projects to reduce headcount and restructure its operations to increase efficiency and lower costs.

GAAP operating loss for the quarter was $6 million compared with operating income of $46 million in the 2012 period. For the first nine months of 2013, GAAP operating income was $14 million compared with $132 million in the 2012 period. GAAP net loss for the quarter was $7 million, or 19 cents per diluted share, compared with net income of $35 million, or 89 cents per diluted share. For the first nine months of 2013, GAAP net income and diluted earnings per share were $8 million, or 19 cents per share, compared with $92 million, or $2.31 per share, in the same period in 2012. The decrease in GAAP operating income and net income was attributable to lower gross profit and higher operating expenses related primarily to restructuring, partially offset by lower tax expense.

Non-GAAP operating expenses, which excludes amortization of intangibles, restructuring charges and acquisition related expenses, were $117 million for the quarter which is consistent with the prior year period. For the nine month period, non-GAAP operating expenses decreased $6 million over the same period in 2012. The decrease in non-GAAP operating expenses was due to lower global sales, marketing and product development expenses, partially offset by an increase in general and administrative expenses primarily related to legal reserves.

Non-GAAP operating income was $33 million and $80 million for the quarter and nine month period compared with $54 million and $176 million in the same periods in 2012. Non-GAAP net income and diluted EPS for the quarter and nine month period were $25 million, or 65 cents per share, and $61 million, or $1.54 per share. This compares with $39 million, or 97 cents per share, and $122 million, or $3.04 per share, in the same periods in 2012. The decrease in non-GAAP operating income and net income was attributable to lower gross profit partially offset by lower tax expense.

Free cash flow was $31 million for the quarter compared with $34 million in the prior year quarter. Free cash flow in the third quarter was positively impacted by the collection of accounts receivable. Free cash flow for the nine month period was $21 million compared with $103 million in the same period in 2012. The decrease over the prior year period was due primarily to lower earnings.

During the quarter, the company repurchased 174,200 shares of Itron common stock at an average price of $42.71 per share pursuant to Board authorization to repurchase up to $50 million of Itron common stock during a 12 month period beginning March 2013. As of September 30, 2013, the company had repurchased 559,000 shares of Itron common stock at an average price of $42.16 per share since inception of the program, representing approximately one percent of total shares outstanding as of March 2013.

Financial Guidance
Regarding the full year, Steve Helmbrecht, Itron executive vice president and chief financial officer, said, "Given our third quarter results and softness in Europe, we anticipate our full year results will be at the low end of our guidance range of $1.95 billion to $2 billion of revenue and $2.25 to $2.55 of non-GAAP earnings per share."

Earnings Conference Call
Itron will host a conference call to discuss the financial results and guidance contained in this release at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on Oct. 30, 2013. The call will be webcast in a listen-only mode. Webcast information and conference call materials will be made available 10 minutes before the start of the call and are accessible on Itron's website at http://investors.itron.com/events.cfm. The webcast replay will be available within 90 minutes of the conclusion of the live call and will be available for two weeks. A telephone replay of the conference call will be available at 10:00 p.m. EDT on Oct. 30, 2013 through 10:00 p.m. EST on Nov. 4, 2013. To access the telephone replay, dial (888) 203-1112 (Domestic) or (719) 457-0820 (International) and enter passcode 8002273.

Forward Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements concerning our expectations about operations, financial performance, sales, earnings and cash flows. These statements reflect our current plans and expectations and are based on information currently available. The statements rely on a number of assumptions and estimates, which could be inaccurate, and which are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to vary materially from those anticipated. Risks and uncertainties include the rate and timing of customer demand for our products, rescheduling of current customer orders, changes in estimated liabilities for product warranties, changes in laws and regulations, our dependence on new product development and intellectual property, future acquisitions, changes in estimates for stock-based and bonus compensation, increasing volatility in foreign exchange rates, international business risks and other factors that are more fully described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012 and other reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Itron undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements, including our business outlook.

Non-GAAP Financial Information
To supplement our consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with GAAP, we use certain non-GAAP financial measures, including non-GAAP operating expense, non-GAAP operating income, non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP diluted EPS, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. We provide these non-GAAP financial measures because we believe they provide greater transparency and represent supplemental information used by management in its financial and operational decision making. Specifically, these non-GAAP financial measures are provided to enhance investors' overall understanding of our current financial performance and our future anticipated performance by excluding infrequent or non-cash costs, particularly those associated with acquisitions. We exclude certain costs in our non-GAAP financial measures as we believe the net result is a measure of our core business. Non-GAAP performance measures should be considered in addition to, and not as a substitute for, results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Our non-GAAP financial measures may be different from those reported by other companies. A more detailed discussion of why we use non-GAAP financial measures, the limitations of using such measures, and reconciliations between non-GAAP and the nearest GAAP financial measures are included in this press release.

Statements of operations, segment information, balance sheets, cash flow statements and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures follow.

Related Documents
Itron Q3 2013 Earnings Statement.