Rubicon Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: RBCN) reported Q1 EPS of ($0.43), $0.10 worse than the analyst estimate of ($0.33). Revenue for the quarter came in at $14.3 million versus the consensus estimate of $12.95 million.

Raja Parvez, President and CEO of Rubicon, commented, “Patterned sapphire substrates (“PSS”) and polished wafers are an important part of our strategy and I am pleased with the sales progress we made in the quarter.”

Second Quarter 2014 Guidance

Commenting on the outlook for the second quarter of 2014, Mr. Parvez said, “We expect the LED market to continue to strengthen in the second quarter resulting in some pricing improvement, particularly for four-inch material.”

Mr. Parvez continued, “Core sales volumes in the second quarter will decline somewhat as we have exhausted our excess boule inventory. We also believe we will see meaningfully higher wafer revenue in the second quarter which will improve utilization but, in the near-term, will not improve margins. With reduced core revenue offsetting increased wafer revenue, we expect total revenue in the second quarter to be similar to the first quarter. We expect our loss per share in the second quarter to be between $0.38 and $0.46, based on a share count of 26.1 million shares.”

*** The Street is looking for loss of $.20 per share.

Mr. Parvez said, “We are building momentum in the wafer business and with increasing volume and experience, and as customer specifications are defined, we will reduce our idle plant costs and our wafer product cost. The higher wafer sales mix will allow us to generate significant growth without adding crystal growth capacity and improve margins as our utilization and efficiency increase.”

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Rubicon Technology, Inc. (RBCN) click here.