Lydall (LDL) has reported 16.90 percent fall in profit for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2016. The company has earned $4.42 million, or $0.26 a share in the quarter, compared with $5.32 million, or $0.31 a share for the same period last year. On an adjusted basis, earnings per share were at $0.52 for the quarter compared with $0.46 in the same period last year.
Revenue during the quarter grew 9.74 percent to $144.19 million from $131.40 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter contracted 6 basis points over the previous year period to 22.18 percent. Total expenses were 94.94 percent of quarterly revenues, up from 91.99 percent for the same period last year. That has resulted in a contraction of 295 basis points in operating margin to 5.06 percent.
Operating income for the quarter was $7.29 million, compared with $10.53 million in the previous year period.
However, the adjusted operating income for the quarter stood at $12.18 million compared to $11.88 million in the prior year period. At the same time, adjusted operating margin contracted 60 basis points in the quarter to 8.44 percent from 9.04 percent in the last year period.
Dale G. Barnhart, president and chief executive officer, stated, "Lydall delivered strong organic revenue growth in our Thermal Acoustical Metals, Performance Materials and Thermal Acoustical Fibers segments of 11.1%, 8.9% and 5.1%, respectively. The Technical Nonwovens segment experienced an organic sales decline of 19.9%, as the weakness in the domestic power generation market and general softness in China continued, but this was offset by increased sales from the Texel acquisition of $17.7 million. While gross margin improved in three of our segments, our consolidated results for the fourth quarter fell short of our expectations as they were impacted by persistent operating inefficiencies in our Thermal Acoustical Metals segment as this business continued to face challenges with ramping up to increased demand in North America and changing product mix in Europe. Effecting the necessary operating changes is taking longer than we expected in this business, but the underlying root causes have been identified and corrective actions are being implemented."
Operating cash flow improves significantlyLydall has generated cash of $69.73 million from operating activities during the year, up 93.10 percent or $33.62 million, when compared with the last year. The company has spent $177.71 million cash to meet investing activities during the year as against cash inflow of $7.90 million in the last year.
Cash flow from financing activities was $106.38 million for the year as against cash outgo of $26.71 million in the last year period.
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