Lightpath Technologies (NASDAQ: LPTH) reported Q1 EPS of $0.06, $0.05 better than the analyst estimate of $0.01. Revenue for the quarter came in at $4.2 million versus the consensus estimate of $3.7 million.

Jim Gaynor, President and Chief Executive Officer of LightPath, commented, "I am pleased to report excellent results for the first quarter of fiscal 2016, which is the fourth consecutive quarter of strong financial performance and improvement in our financial fundamentals. We continued to see impressive revenue growth of our infrared products and specialty products. After a prolonged period of a continuing sluggish economy in China, we began to see the demand for our traditional precision molded optics (PMO) increase during the first quarter of fiscal 2016. Our high volume precision molded optics, or HVPMO product group, benefited from the recovery in the industrial tools market in China and the strength of the telecommunications sector, which is continuing to have strong design, quote, and order activity. Our low volume precision molded lenses, or LVPMO product group, also showed strength with applications in medical instruments and fiber delivery systems."

"The decline in our backlog resulted from a softer order intake during the first quarter of fiscal 2016 due to a delay in certain requirement changes for some larger projects we quoted within our specialty products group. However, quote activity remained strong during the first quarter of fiscal 2016. During the quarter, we provided product quotes totaling approximately $3.4 million that remain open and that we expect to close by the end of December 2015. As of November 4, 2015, our 12-month backlog was approximately $6.5 million, which is a result of customers placing orders for several of these larger projects and an indication of our belief that strong quote activity will result in our back-log growing during the remainder of fiscal 2016."

"Along with strong revenue, quoting and booking trends, gross margins improved as a result of solid operational performance in our Zhenjiang factory, a favorable product mix, and improved overhead leverage as the infrared production volume continues to grow. We have diversified our business by developing new applications for our products in markets, such as digital imaging and laser tools, which are bolstered by our more traditional applications in telecommunications, digital projectors, industrial equipment, weapon sights, and medical instruments. We expect to show increases in revenue in our HVPMO, LVPMO and infrared product groups during fiscal 2016 as a result of this diversification."

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