Schmitt Gains After Swinging to a Profit in Fiscal 2018

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Thursday, July 19, 2018

As the broad U.S. markets lumber lower in Thursday trading, Schmitt Industries (NASDAQ:SMIT), a maker of high precision test and measurement products like distance-measuring lasers and monitoring devices, is having a solid day after releasing results from its fourth quarter and fiscal 2018 year ended May 31, 2018 after Wednesday's closing bell. Shares are well off the intraday high, but still a top gainer amongst Nasdaq-listed companies.
The Portland, Oregon-based company reported sales of $3.79 million for the fourth quarter, led by a 13.8% improvement to $2.59 million in its balancer segment, while its smaller measurement segment had sales slip 12.3% to $1.21 million. Q4 marked the fifth straight quarter than sales in the balancer division topped $2.0 million. The company's Xact® product line, which consists of sales of remote tank monitoring products that measure the fill levels of tanks holding propane, diesel and other tank-based liquids, hit an all-time high during the quarter and for the year.
For the full year, sales companywide increased to $13.89 million from $12.4 million in fiscal 2017. Again the balancer segment was key, gaining 27.5% to $9.03 million. The measurement segment lost 8.5% to $4.86 million.
Schmitt president and chief executive David Case said that the company benefited from a successful rights offering in December, which raised over $2.3 million, allowing Schmitt to ramp up manufacturing and meet rising demand.
Gross margins for the quarter improved to 42.6% from 34.6%. Net income for the quarter came in at $225,936, or 6 cents per share, versus a net loss of $433,932, or 14 cents per share, in Q4 last year. The strong final quarter swung Schmitt into the black for the year with net income of $210,639, or 6 cents per share, after a net loss of $1.07 million, or 36 cents per share, in fiscal 2017.
After closing trading Wednesday at $2.36, shares of SMIT rocketed ahead at the opening bell Thursday to $3.73 and galloped as high as $4.12 (+74.6% at that point) before hitting a wall and skidding back down to $3.05 as the closing bell approaches, holding a gain of 29.3% on the day.

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