Coherent has announced a slight drop in revenue compared to the previous year, but a better performance than predicted in terms of earnings for shareholders.
The company's revenue for the quarter-year ending 29 December was $183.2 million. That is a four per cent drop on sales of $190.8 million for the same period in the previous year. The company has predicted a slight upturn in revenues for the next quarter, as part of a total income of around $780 million, with share values expected to remain strong.
Earnings per share were $0.73, compared to predictions by a range of analysts of $0.71.
John Ambroseo, Coherent's president and CEO, explained: 'Demand improved modestly on a sequential basis as customers in advanced packaging and instrumentation started to rebuild their inventories. Orders for service from semicap customers also increased as utilisation rates began to inch back up.
'We also remain very enthusiastic about the flat panel display market where penetration of low-temperature polysilicon LCD displays continues to rise. On a combined basis, these are early, positive indicators supporting a recovery thesis in the second half of calendar 2013,' he stated.
