Cogent's good financial report

Published 4 June 2008

Company’s sales of $24.6 million and profit, excluding some costs, of 16 cents share exceeded the consensus forecast for $23 million and 9 cents, and profit more than doubled from the same period a year earlier

There were good news for South Pasadena, California-based Cogent Systems last week: Shares of billion-dollar market cap Cogent Systems (COGT), which develops fingerprint identification technology, rose following the company’s announcement late last week of sales and profit in its first quarter ending 31 March which beat Estimates. Sales of $24.6 million and profit, excluding some costs, of 16 cents share exceeded the consensus forecast for $23 million and 9 cents, and profit more than doubled from the year-earlier period. While sales fell from a year earlier, revenue was up almost 13 percent from the immediately prior quarter. “The need for biometric solutions continues to grow,” stated chief executive Ming Hsieh in the company’s press release, “driven by key industry initiatives such as border control, identity theft prevention and national ID programs. We expect several sizable procurements to be awarded this year by large government agencies and are also seeing a very large number of smaller opportunities around the world.” The company said it increased its cash per share to $4.79 at the end of the quarter.