Image source: Universal Display.
OLED lighting and display researcher Universal Display (OLED 1.65%) just reported fourth-quarter results for fiscal year 2013.
Universal Display's fourth-quarter sales jumped 76% higher year over year to $49.5 million, helped by a 33% increase in Samsung license fees and a 153% increase in OLED materials sales. At $25.5 million, materials revenue accounted for more than half of the company's total sales, even in a quarter that includes beefy license payments.
Adjusted earnings, which exclude the effect of both positive and negative tax accounting treatments, nearly tripled year over year to $0.36 per share.
Analysts were looking for non-GAAP earnings around $0.34 per share on roughly $47 million in total sales. Universal Display cleared both bars by a modest margin.
Looking ahead, management outlined a revenue range between $190 million and $205 million for the 2014 fiscal year. Current analyst views occupy the middle ground.
CFO Sidney Rosenblatt highlighted industry adoption of Universal Display's green emitter and host materials, which expand Universal Display's reach beyond its red materials stronghold. Rival OLED specialists still cover the market for blue OLED materials while Universal Display works on long-term reliability for blue phosphorous OLED emitters.
Rosenblatt also outlined a handful of early stage research programs, like the organic vapor jet printing technology that might one day make large-screen OLED TV sets cost-effective. "These long-term projects are in their early stages, but we believe they hold promise," Rosenblatt concluded.
Universal Display shares spiked as much as 5.7% higher on the report, but then started falling back. At the close of Thursday's extended trading session, shares had fallen 1.6% below the regular session's closing price.
