Universal Display slides to 3Q loss; shares tumble

Associated Press

EWING, N.J. (AP) — Universal Display Corp. slid to a loss in the third quarter, as weaker materials sales and fees led to a sharp drop in revenue for the lighting-products maker. The company also scaled back its revenue outlook for the year.

The results fell well short of Wall Street's expectations, and shares in the Ewing, N.J., company tumbled 30 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday.

Sidney Rosenblatt, the company's chief financial officer, said material sales in the quarter reflect what he believes is a temporary slowdown in industry growth.

"The long-term outlook for OLED technology remains strong, despite this quarter's results," he said, noting that the company saw revenue grow 29 percent on an annual basis over the first three quarters of the year.

Universal Display reported a loss of $5.5 million, or 12 cents per share, for the three months ended Sept. 30. That compares with net income of $6 million, or 12 cents per share, in the prior-year period.

Revenue sank 43 percent to $12.5 million from $21.8 million a year earlier.

Analysts' consensus forecast called for earnings of 2 cents per share on $18.6 million in revenue, according to FactSet.

Material sales fell about 29 percent to $11 million due to lower volumes of green emitter and host materials.

Royalty and license fees shrank to $396,000 from $4.6 million a year earlier, when the company recorded a partial license payment from its agreement with Samsung Display Co. Ltd.

Universal Display develops organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, technologies, materials and services to the display and lighting industries.

Management noted that the OLED industry is in the early stage of development and commercial adoption, which makes Universal potentially vulnerable to a delay or acceleration in the introduction of new products by a small number of customers.

As a result, Universal Display reduced its revenue outlook for 2012 to a range of $80 million to $82 million, down from a range of $90 million to $110 million. Wall Street was expecting $99.2 million.

Universal Display's stock plummeted $8.35 to $19.83 in extended trading following the release of the earnings report.