Taser International (TASR) has reported 24.24 percent rise in profit for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2016. The company has earned $6.34 million, or $0.12 a share in the quarter, compared with $5.10 million, or $0.09 a share for the same period last year.     

Revenue during the quarter surged 46.46 percent to $82.08 million from $56.04 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter contracted 536 basis points over the previous year period to 60.64 percent. Total expenses were 88.53 percent of quarterly revenues, up from 84.81 percent for the same period last year. That has resulted in a contraction of 372 basis points in operating margin to 11.47 percent.

Operating income for the quarter was $9.41 million, compared with $8.51 million in the previous year period.

However, the adjusted EBITDA for the quarter stood at $13.06 million compared with $11.69 million in the prior year period. At the same time, adjusted EBITDA margin contracted 494 basis points in the quarter to 15.92 percent from 20.85 percent in the last year period.  

"We ended 2016 with record fourth quarter revenues, record order bookings and strong momentum across our business lines in both domestic and international markets," commented Rick Smith, TASER chief executive officer and founder. "We are delighted to see accelerating adoption of our technology platform by our law enforcement customers. Our investments to build the preeminent technology ecosystem in public safety have driven substantial growth by affording our customers greater capabilities with a better user experience. We look forward to continuing the expansion of our ecosystem with our new Fleet in-car system, more sensors like Signal Sidearm, our new Records Management System (RMS) and industry leading analytics with new Axon Artificial Intelligence capabilities in 2017 and beyond."

The company has spent $3.04 million cash to meet investing activities during the year as against cash outgo of $36.01 million in the last year.

The company has spent $34.66 million cash to carry out financing activities during the year as against cash inflow of $0.60 million in the last year period.

Cash and cash equivalents stood at $40.65 million as on Dec. 31, 2016, down 31.71 percent or $18.88 million from $59.53 million on Dec. 31, 2015.

Working capital declines
Taser International has witnessed a decline in the working capital over the last year. It stood at $99.19 million as at Dec. 31, 2016, down 19.53 percent or $24.08 million from $123.27 million on Dec. 31, 2015. Current ratio was at 2.27 as on Dec. 31, 2016, down from 4.23 on Dec. 31, 2015.