Earnings reports pour in from N.H. firms

There has been a flurry of earnings reports over the last week from public companies based in New Hampshire or with substantial operations in the Granite State. Here is what some firms have reported.StandexStandex International Corp., Salem, reported a net income of $12.1 million, or 95 cents a diluted share, in the first quarter of fiscal 2012, which ended Sept. 30 — a slight increase from $11.4 million it made during the same quarter last year.Sales at the conglomerate were up 11.2 percent, to $174.7 million. The company, however, had an increase in debt, to $49.6 million, and its capital-to-debt ratio was at 16.6 percent at the end of the quarter, compared to 13.2 percent at the beginning.The company has about $27.8 million in cash, and stockholders have $249 million in equity.Micronetics Micronetics Inc. was in the black again, with a net income of $1.1 million, or 24 cents a share, in its second quarter ending Oct. 1. That was more than double the $473,000 it made the same quarter last year.The Hudson-based maker of microwave components for primarily the defense industry sold $11.6 million worth of goods last quarter, a 29 percent increase.That brings sales for the last six months to $21.7 million, an 18 percent increase, and net income for the first half of the fiscal year to $1.6 million, a 69 percent increase.Centrix BankCentrix Bank reported net earnings of $1.2 million (39 cents a share) in its third quarter ending Sept. 30, the same amount it reported during the third quarter of 2010. That brings income up to $3.9 million, which lags behind last year, when the Bedford-based bank earned $4.5 million during the first nine months, though $1.4 million of income last year related to a sell off of investment securities.Throw in the bank’s payback of $7.9 million to the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Purchase Program, and the bank’s profits would have increased 12 percent over ninth month period.Centrix, however, took some $24.5 million from a new federal program designed to encourage the bank to lend more money. That deal was finalized in the third quarter, and the bank got to play less in dividends to the feds by increasing its lending to businesses.The bank’s total assets at the end of the third quarter were $758.9 million, up 15 percent. Net loans were at $492.9 million, up 11 percent, and deposits totaled $603.2 million, 14 percent.Nonperforming assets were down to .42 percent, less than half of the percentage of a year ago.Sturm, RugerGuns continue to sell briskly, as Sturm, Ruger & Co. reported a quarterly net income of $10.7 million (or 56 cents a diluted share) up 78 percent from last year, bringing up the profits year to date to $29.5 million, or $1.55 diluted share.The Southport, Conn.-based firearms manufacturer whose major plants are in Newport reported sales were $80.5 million — up 38 percent over last year — and the company sold some $235.6 million worth of guns and castings.New products – such as the LC9 pistol and the SP-101 double-action revolver – accounted for about a third of the sales.At the end of the quarter (Oct. 1), the company had some $53.3 million in cash and equivalents, 10 times the amount it had at the start of the year.It was able to declare a quarterly dividend of 14.1 cents a share.The company said it is on track to meet its goal to sell a million guns between April 2011 and March 2012. Ruger pledged to donate $1 for every gun sold to the National Rifle Association. It has already donated $279,000 in July and will donate an addition $276,500 in the fourth quarter, which would mean it is more than halfway there.White Mountains InsuranceWhite Mountains Insurance Group reported an adjusted comprehensive net loss of $97.6 million, which comes out to a loss of $2 loss per share. But it isn’t as bad as it sounds.First, the insurance conglomerate, which mainly operates out of Hanover but is officially based in Bermuda, had about $14.6 billion in assets and $557 million in the bank as of Sept. 30.Second, the loss per share stems from discontinued operations. The company actually made a $1.81-per-share profit from its continuing operations.White Mountains sold off its Esurance, its automobile insurance arm, and Answer Financial on Oct. 7, and reorganized its reinsurance operations — which used to be called White Mountain Re but have been renamed Sirius Group.White Mountains prefers to measure itself by another yardstick, adjusted book value per share, which was at $436 on Sept. 30, down some 4.6 percent for the quarter. But without the sales factored in, the company estimates its book value per share would have been $523.iCADOn paper, iCAD Inc. lost $25 million, or 46 cents a share, in its third quarter, which doesn’t look good for a small Nashua-based medical imagining company with only twice that much in assets.But all of that loss was attributed to a $26.75 million “goodwill impairment,” thanks to a decline in the company’s stock price, which relates to the liability of its purchase of Xoft Inc. in Dec. 2010. Throw in a $3.8 million gain because the liability wasn’t as bad as originally thought, and the company’s loss was about $1.8 million, slightly lower than last year.The net loss brings the year-to-date loss to $34.3 million, or 63 cents a share.On the positive side, the company’s revenue increased to $8 million, compared to $5.6 million the same quarter last year, and it has $5.3 million in the bank and a positive stockholder equity of nearly $40 million.ProPhotonixProPhotonix Ltd. (formerly StockerYale) posted a net loss of $85,000 in its third quarter ending Sept. 30, one of the smallest losses the company has incurred in years.During the same quarter last year, the Salem-based LED and laser equipment manufacturer lost $454,000.For the year so far, the company has a loss of $567,000, or 19 cents a share, though that’s an improvement over 2010, when it reported a loss of $2.8 million for the first nine months.All of the company’s facilities are in England and Ireland. Its stock is traded on the AIM, a London-based exchange that increased its quarterly revenues by 16 percent, to $4.5 million.Bookings for 2011 were $4.4 million and order backlog at the end of the quarter was $6.1 million.The company has $5.4 million in cash at the end of the quarter, and has bounced back from a negative equity, so that stockholders now have a company worth $4.3 million. — BOB SANDERS/NEW HAMPSHIRE BUSINESS REVIEW