Astronics Corp (NASDAQ: ATRO) reported Q4 EPS of ($0.65), $0.54 worse than the analyst estimate of ($0.11). Revenue for the quarter came in at $114.8 million versus the consensus estimate of $113.21 million.

• Fourth quarter sales of $114.8 million; full year sales of $502.6 million
• Fourth quarter pre-tax loss of $7.5 million and net loss of $20.0 million due to the non-cash reserve of $14.1 million against deferred tax assets
• Fourth quarter Adjusted EBITDA* was $2.9 million
• Fourth quarter bookings were $116.0 million, demonstrating sequential improvement
• Backlog at end of the year was $283.4 million

Peter J. Gundermann, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “Even while the commercial aerospace industry continues to be challenged, there was some good news in the quarter.

• We had sequential improvement in Aerospace bookings.
• We were cash positive in the quarter, generating $5.8 million in cash from operations reflecting the impact of our restructuring efforts.
• We had strong Test bookings driven by the transit test order from Stadler Rail for the Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA).
• The 737 MAX was recertified to fly in the U.S. in late December, which is important as the MAX was our biggest OEM production program before the pandemic.

Perhaps the best news from the quarter was the initial approval of multiple effective COVID-19 vaccines, which we expect will result in increased demand for air travel later in 2021. To this end, we are seeing positive signs that demand is picking up in our aerospace business, though conditions currently remain depressed. In the meantime, we are carefully managing our cost structure, pursuing new opportunities and advancing development programs for our customers.”

Outlook

Mr. Gundermann commented, “While it is difficult to provide guidance for all of 2021 given the ongoing pandemic, we do expect that customer demand in the first half of 2021 will be similar to that of the second half of 2020. The year will start slowly, however, with first quarter sales of about $100 million. We expect conditions to strengthen through the year. We expect we will manage the business to generate cash that we will use to reduce debt. We believe we are well-positioned for the future, and we expect to do well when market conditions rebound.”

Capital expenditures for 2021 are expected to be approximately $10 million to $11 million up from $7.5 million in 2020 due to investments in customer programs.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Astronics Corp (ATRO) click here.