Check your calendar. What year does it say we're in?
Ah, but at American Science & Engineering (NASDAQ:ASEI), they've already closed the books on 2008 -- and good riddance. Despite a strong start in fiscal Q1, the company proceeded to post a trio of underwhelming earnings releases, closing out the fiscal year with a real stinker. Now it's time for another go 'round, as the company gives us an X-ray view into its fiscal Q1 2009 business on Monday.
What analysts say:
- Buy, sell, or waffle? The five analysts following this Motley Fool Rule Breakers-recommended stock are sticking to their guns, still giving it three buy ratings and a pair of holds.
- Revenues. On average, they're looking for sales to rise a bare 4.5% rise to $46.5 million.
- Earnings. Profits are predicted to tumble 20% to $0.53 per share.
What management says:
The big news at AS&E came just a little over one month ago. In early July, the company announced a monster $55 million deal to provide "multiple" OmniView Gantry cargo screeners, Z Portal vehicle zappers, and Z Backscatter mobile X-ray van systems to Abu Dhabi Customs in the United Arab Emirates.
As I wrote at the time, this deal is: "Equivalent to one-third of AS&E's annual revenue. ... Eight times the size of the recent subcontract that L-3 (NYSE:LLL) gave Analogic (NASDAQ:ALOG) for the latter's eXaminer XLB screening system. ... [and] Fourteen times as large as the most recent sale reported by OSI (NASDAQ:OSIS)."
What management does:
Of course, sales are only half the equation. Now we need to see how well AS&E does at transforming these sales into profits. Sadly, AS&E hasn't been doing so well on this score in recent quarters -- but you can see that for yourself:
|
12/06 |
3/07 |
6/07 |
9/07 |
12/07 |
3/08 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Gross |
46.2% |
43.4% |
42% |
40.4% |
37.6% |
35.8% |
|
Operating |
23.6% |
21.4% |
21.1% |
19.8% |
16.6% |
13.7% |
|
Net |
15.9% |
16.1% |
14.8% |
14% |
12% |
10.5% |
All data courtesy of Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's. Data reflects trailing-12-month performance for the quarters ended in the named months.
One Fool says:
TSA remains committed to tightening airport security. GE's (NYSE:GE) InVision division is doing yeoman's work keeping bombs out of the cargo department. And to keep smaller incendiaries off of the passengers, TSA is expanding trials of AS&E's SmartCheck body screener, currently in use at California's LAX and Phoenix's Sky Harbor, to JFK airport. In fact, since news of the $55 million contract broke, hardly a day has passed without news of another contract win at AS&E, from TSA or elsewhere.
Published press releases during the quarter described contract wins totaling less than $20 million. But while we've little assurance that Q1's numbers this year will look as good as last year's did, the future sure looks bright.
What did we expect out of AS&E last quarter, and what did we get? Find out in:
