iRobot's Roomba 980 continued to enjoy strong demand in Q1, Image source: iRobot Corporation
What: Shares of iRobot (IRBT -4.29%) climbed as much as 10.9% early Wednesday, and traded up 9.3% as of 3:30 p.m. EST after the home robot maker announced strong first-quarter 2016 results.
So what: Quarterly revenue climbed 10.8% year over year, to $130.8 million, and translated to an 18.8% decline in net income, to $3.9 million, or $0.13 per share. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBTIDA) increased 7.6%, to $14.1 million. By comparison, iRobot's guidance called for roughly the same first-quarter revenue in the range of $125 million to $135 million, but significantly lower adjusted EBITDA of $8 million to $11 million, and adjusted EPS in the range of a $0.03 per share loss to earnings of $0.04 per share.
"Our first quarter results were outstanding," added Colin Angle, iRobot chairman and CEO. "Home Robot revenue grew 15% over Q1 2015, driven by significant growth in the United States following a record Q4 2015."
To be sure, Home Robot segment revenue climbed 55.5% year over year in the U.S., to $63.2 million, driven by sustained momentum for the new Roomba 980 and what the company describes as an "overwhelmingly positive response" to its new Braava jet floor-mopping robot. Meanwhile, international home robot sales fell 8.4% year over year, to $64.5 million, but remained in line with expectations given the timing of distributor orders in the EMEA region.
Now what: For the current quarter, iRobot anticipates revenue of $145 million to $150 million, good for growth of 6% to 10% over the same year-ago period. That should result in adjusted EBITDA of $9 million to $12 million, and earnings per share of $0.06 to $0.14. Analysts, on average, were modeling second-quarter earnings of $0.01 per share on revenue of $128.4 million.
Zooming further out to the full year, iRobot reiterated guidance for revenue of $630 million to $642 million, adjusted EBITDA of $80 million to $90 million, and earnings per share of $1.20 to $1.40. Keep in mind when iRobot initially issued that guidance in February, it included revenue in the range of $2 million to $7 million from its recently divested Defense and Security business. That business generated roughly $3 million in revenue during the first quarter prior to being sold, so iRobot is maintaining its guidance as it expects the Home Robot segment to perform slightly better than its initial expectations.
In the end, given iRobot's solid beat and encouraging guidance as it looks forward to bolstering its presence in the burgeoning home robot space, I think investors have every right to celebrate where the company stands today.
