Applied Optoelectronics Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Results


SUGAR LAND, Texas, Feb. 23, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAOI), a leading provider of fiber-optic access network products for the cable broadband, internet datacenter, telecom and fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) markets, today announced financial results for its fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2022.

“We are pleased to report revenue in line with our expectations and continued improvement in our non-GAAP gross margin, which exceeded our guidance range as our cost reduction efforts and favorable product mix had a greater than expected positive impact on our fourth quarter results,” said Dr. Thompson Lin, Applied Optoelectronics Inc. Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We generated the highest quarterly CATV revenue in the Company’s history this quarter and we continue to see robust demand. With respect to the transaction that we announced in September 2022 that we have entered into an agreement with Yuhan Optoelectronic Technology for the sale of our manufacturing facilities located in the People's Republic of China and certain assets related to our transceiver business and multi-channel optical sub-assembly products for the internet datacenter, telecom and FTTH markets, we continue to advance work on required regulatory approvals and continue to expect that the transaction will close in 2023.”

Fourth Quarter 2022 Financial Summary

  • GAAP revenue was $61.6 million, compared with $54.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 and $56.7 million in the third quarter of 2022.
  • GAAP gross margin was 10.1%, compared with 14.9% in the fourth quarter of 2021 and 17.2% in the third quarter of 2022. Non-GAAP gross margin was 21.4%, compared with 17.6% in the fourth quarter of 2021 and 18.0% in the third quarter of 2022.
  • GAAP net loss was $20.3 million, or $0.71 per basic share, compared with net loss of $14.5 million, or $0.54 per basic share in the fourth quarter of 2021, and a net loss of $15.6 million, or $0.56 per basic share in the third quarter of 2022.
  • Non-GAAP net loss was $5.4 million, or $0.19 per basic share, compared with non-GAAP net loss of $5.5 million, or $0.20 per basic share in the fourth quarter of 2021, and a non-GAAP net loss of $7.1 million, or $0.26 per basic share in the third quarter of 2022.

Full Year 2022 Financial Summary

  • GAAP revenue was $222.8 million, compared with $211.6 million in 2021.
  • GAAP gross margin was 15.1%, compared with 17.8% in 2021. Non-GAAP gross margin was 18.5% compared to 21.7% in 2021.
  • GAAP net loss was $66.4 million, or $2.38 per basic share, compared with net loss of $54.2 million, or $2.01 per basic share in 2021.
  • Non-GAAP net loss was $28.0 million, or $1.01 per basic share, compared with non-GAAP net loss of $20.4 million, or $0.76 per basic share in 2021.

A reconciliation between all GAAP and non-GAAP information referenced above is contained in the tables below. Please also refer to “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” below for a description of these non-GAAP financial measures.

First Quarter 2023 Business Outlook (+)

For the first quarter of 2023, the company currently expects:

  • Revenue in the range of $52 million to $55 million.
  • Non-GAAP gross margin in the range of 23% to 24%.
  • Non-GAAP net loss in the range of $4.4 million to $5.3 million, and non-GAAP loss per share in the range of $0.15 to $0.19 using approximately 28.9 million shares.

(+) Please refer to the note below on forward-looking statements and the risks involved with such statements as well as the note on non-GAAP financial measures.

Conference Call Information

The company will host a conference call and webcast on February 23, 2023 to discuss its fourth quarter and full year 2022 financial results and outlook for its first quarter 2023 at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time / 3:30 p.m. Central time. The call can be accessed by dialing 844-890-1794 (domestic) or 412-717-9586 (international). A live audio webcast of the conference call along with supplemental financial information will also be accessible on the company's website at investors.ao-inc.com. Following the webcast, an archived version will be available on the website for one year. A telephonic replay of the call will be available one hour after the call and will be available until March 2, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time / 10:59 p.m. Central Time and may be accessed by dialing 877-344-7529 (domestic) or 412-317-0088 (international) and entering passcode 5238771.

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "believe," "may," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "should," "could," "would," "target," "seek," "aim," "predicts," "think," "objectives," "optimistic," "new," "goal," "strategy," "potential," "is likely," "will," "expect," "plan" "project," "permit" or by other similar expressions that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes. These statements include management’s beliefs and expectations related to our outlook for the first quarter of 2023. Such forward-looking statements reflect the views of management at the time such statements are made. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions and current expectations, which could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and financial results; reduction in the size or quantity of customer orders; change in demand for the company's products due to industry conditions; changes in manufacturing operations; volatility in manufacturing costs; delays in shipments of products; disruptions in the supply chain; change in the rate of design wins or the rate of customer acceptance of new products; the company's reliance on a small number of customers for a substantial portion of its revenues; potential pricing pressure; a decline in demand for our customers' products or their rate of deployment of their products; general conditions in the cable television (CATV) broadband, internet datacenter, telecom, or fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) markets; changes in the world economy (particularly in the United States and China); changes in the regulation and taxation of international trade, including the imposition of tariffs; changes in currency exchange rates; the negative effects of seasonality; and other risks and uncertainties described more fully in the company's documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2022. More information about these and other risks that may impact the company's business are set forth in the "Risk Factors" section of the company's quarterly and annual reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should not rely on forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon information available to us as of the date hereof, and qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this press release to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in the company's expectations.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We provide non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP net income (loss), and non-GAAP earnings per share to eliminate the impact of items that we do not consider indicative of our overall operating performance. To arrive at our non-GAAP gross margin, we exclude stock-based compensation expense, expenses associated with discontinued products, and non-recurring (income) expenses, if any, from our GAAP gross margin. To arrive at our non-GAAP net income (loss), we exclude all amortization of intangible assets, stock-based compensation expense, non-recurring expenses, unrealized foreign exchange loss (gain), losses from the disposal of idle assets, if any, non-GAAP tax benefit (expenses), and expenses associated with discontinued products, from our GAAP net income (loss). Included in our non-recurring expenses in Q4 2022 and Q4 2021, and FY 2022 and FY 2021, are certain non-recurring expenses related to extreme weather and pandemic events and non-recurring tax expenses or benefits (if any), and employee severance expenses (if any). In computing our non-GAAP income tax benefit (expense), we have applied an estimate of our annual effective income tax rate and applied it to our net income before income taxes. Our non-GAAP diluted net loss per share is calculated by dividing our non-GAAP net loss by the fully diluted share count (for periods in which non-GAAP net income is positive) or basic share count (for periods in which our non-GAAP net income is negative). We believe that our non-GAAP measures are useful to investors in evaluating our operating performance for the following reasons:

  • We believe that elimination of items such as amortization of intangible assets, stock-based compensation expense, non-recurring revenue and expenses, losses from the disposal of idle assets, unrealized foreign exchange gain or loss, and depreciation on certain equipment undergoing reconfiguration is appropriate because treatment of these items may vary for reasons unrelated to our overall operating performance;
  • We believe that elimination of expenses associated with discontinued products, including depreciation and inventory obsolescence is appropriate because these expenses are not indicative of our ongoing operations;
  • We believe that estimating non-GAAP income taxes allows comparison with prior periods and provides additional information regarding the generation of potential future deferred tax assets;
  • We believe that non-GAAP measures provide better comparability with our past financial performance, period-to-period results and with our peer companies, many of which also use similar non-GAAP financial measures; and
  • We anticipate that investors and securities analysts will utilize non-GAAP measures as a supplement to GAAP measures to evaluate our overall operating performance.

A reconciliation of our GAAP net income (loss) and GAAP earnings (loss) per share for Q4 2022 and FY 2022 to our non-GAAP net income (loss) and earnings (loss) per share is provided below, together with corresponding reconciliations for Q4 2021 and FY 2021.

Non-GAAP measures should not be considered as an alternative to net income (loss), earnings (loss) per share, or any other measure of financial performance calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. Our non-GAAP measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other organizations because other organizations may not calculate such other non-GAAP measures in the same manner. We have not reconciled the non-GAAP measures included in our guidance to the appropriate GAAP financial measures because the GAAP measures are not readily determinable on a forward-looking basis. GAAP measures that impact our non-GAAP financial measures may include stock-based compensation expense, non-recurring expenses, amortization of intangible assets, unrealized exchange loss (gain), asset impairment charges, and loss (gain) from disposal of idle assets. These GAAP measures cannot be reasonably predicted and may directly impact our non-GAAP gross margin, our non-GAAP net income and our non-GAAP fully-diluted earnings per share, although changes with respect to certain of these measures may offset other changes. In addition, certain of these measures are out of our control. Accordingly, a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measure guidance to the corresponding GAAP measures is not available without unreasonable effort.

About Applied Optoelectronics

Applied Optoelectronics Inc. (AOI) is a leading developer and manufacturer of advanced optical products, including components, modules and equipment. AOI's products are the building blocks for broadband fiber access networks around the world, where they are used in the CATV broadband, internet datacenter, telecom and FTTH markets. AOI supplies optical networking lasers, components and equipment to tier-1 customers in all four of these markets. In addition to its corporate headquarters, wafer fab and advanced engineering and production facilities in Sugar Land, TX, AOI has engineering and manufacturing facilities in Taipei, Taiwan and Ningbo, China. For additional information, visit www.ao-inc.com.

Investor Relations Contacts:

The Blueshirt Group, Investor Relations
Lindsay Savarese
+1-212-331-8417
ir@ao-inc.com

Cassidy Fuller
+1-415-217-4968                
ir@ao-inc.com


 Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. 
Preliminary Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets 
(In thousands) 
(Unaudited) 
 December 31, 2022December 31, 2021 
    
ASSETS   
CURRENT ASSETS   
Cash, Cash Equivalents and Restricted Cash$35,587$41,136 
Accounts Receivable, Net 61,175 47,944 
Notes receivable 339 8,148 
Inventories 79,679 92,516 
Prepaid Income Tax - 1 
Prepaid Expenses and Other Current Assets 6,384 4,334 
Total Current Assets 183,164 194,079 
    
Property, Plant And Equipment, Net 210,184 243,035 
Land Use Rights, Net 5,238 5,856 
Operating Right of Use Asset 5,566 7,078 
Financing Right of Use Asset 26 57 
Intangible Assets, Net 3,699 3,836 
Other Assets 386 518 
TOTAL ASSETS$ 408,263$ 454,459 
    
LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY   
    
CURRENT LIABILITIES   
Accounts Payable$47,845$34,402 
Bank Acceptance Payable 12,337 8,198 
Accrued Expenses 17,222 15,587 
Deferred Revenue 3,000 - 
Current Lease Liability-Operating 1,041 1,062 
Current Lease Liability-Financing 63 19 
Current Portion of Notes Payable and Long Term Debt 57,074 49,689 
Total Current Liabilities 138,582 108,957 
    
Notes Payable and Long Term Debt - 5,000 
Convertible Senior Notes 79,506 78,680 
Other Long-Term Liabilities 5,505 7,252 
TOTAL LIABILITIES 223,593 199,889 
    
STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY   
TOTAL STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY 184,670 254,570 
    
TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY$ 408,263$ 454,459 
    


 Applied Optoelectronics, Inc.
Preliminary Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations
(In thousands, except per share data)
(Unaudited)
 Three Months Ended
December 31,
 Twelve Months Ended
December 31,
Revenue 2022  2021   2022  2021 
CATV$38,216 $25,200  $118,169 $94,538 
Datacenter 16,485  24,928   77,094  97,188 
Telecom 6,365  3,288   24,727  16,248 
FTTH 4  173   129  956 
Other 514  819   2,699  2,635 
Total Revenue 61,584  54,408   222,818  211,565 
      
Total Cost of Goods Sold 55,359  46,314   189,191  173,850 
      
Total Gross Profit 6,225  8,094   33,627  37,715 
      
Operating Expenses:     
Research and Development 9,224  9,229   36,244  41,220 
Sales and Marketing 2,616  2,324   9,723  10,899 
General and Administrative 12,749  10,167   46,658  42,362 
Total Operating Expenses 24,589  21,720   92,625  94,481 
      
Operating Loss (18,364) (13,626)  (58,998) (56,766)
      
Other Income (Expense):     
Interest Income 36  21   126  70 
Interest Expense (1,888) (1,462)  (6,319) (5,619)
Other Income (Expense), net (34) 529   (1,205) 8,155 
Total Other Income (Expense): (1,886) (912)  (7,398) 2,606 
      
Net loss before Income Taxes (20,250) (14,538)  (66,396) (54,160)
      
Income Tax Expense (1) (2)  (1) (2)
      
Net loss$ (20,251)$ (14,540) $ (66,397)$ (54,162)
Net loss per share attributable to common stockholders
basic$(0.71)$(0.54) $(2.38)$(2.01)
diluted$(0.71)$(0.54) $(2.38)$(2.01)
      
Weighted-average shares used to compute net loss per share attributable to common stockholders   
basic 28,460  27,173   27,846  26,912 
diluted 28,460  27,173   27,846  26,912 
      


 Applied Optoelectronics, Inc.
Reconciliation of Statements of Operations under GAAP and Non-GAAP
(In thousands, except per share data)
(Unaudited)
 Three Months Ended
December 31,
 Twelve Months Ended
December 31,
  2022  2021   2022  2021 
GAAP revenue$61,584 $54,408  $222,818 $211,565 
Non-recurring customer credit -  -   -  - 
Non-GAAP revenue$61,584 $54,408  $222,818 $211,565 
      
GAAP total gross profit (a)$6,225 $8,094  $33,627 $37,715 
Share-based compensation expense 118  196   489  886 
Non-recurring expense 5  32   261  118 
Expenses associated with discontinued products 6,802  1,242   6,858  7,212 
Non-GAAP total gross profit (a)$13,150 $9,564  $41,235 $45,931 
      
GAAP net loss$(20,251)$(14,540) $(66,397)$(54,162)
Share-based compensation expense 2,357  3,199   9,602  12,123 
Expenses associated with discontinued products 6,802  1,242   6,859  7,212 
Non-cash expenses associated with discontinued products 1,147  1,173   4,625  4,811 
Amortization of intangible assets 157  151   616  600 
Non-recurring (income) expense 15  531   233  (5,174)
Unrealized exchange loss (gain) (434) (339)  1,809  703 
Non-GAAP tax benefit 4,793  3,101   14,638  13,466 
Non-GAAP net loss$(5,414)$(5,482) $(28,015)$(20,421)
      
GAAP diluted net loss per share$(0.71)$(0.54) $(2.38)$(2.01)
Share-based compensation expense 0.08  0.12   0.34  0.45 
Expenses associated with discontinued products 0.24  0.05   0.24  0.27 
Non-cash expenses associated with discontinued products 0.04  0.04   0.17  0.18 
Amortization of intangible assets 0.01  0.01   0.02  0.02 
Non-recurring (income) expense -  0.02   0.01  (0.19)
Unrealized exchange loss (gain) (0.02) (0.01)  0.07  0.02 
Non-GAAP tax benefit 0.17  0.11   0.52  0.50 
Non-GAAP diluted net loss per share$(0.19)$(0.20) $(1.01)$(0.76)
      
Shares used to compute diluted loss per share 28,460  27,173   27,846  26,912 
Shares used to compute diluted earnings per share 28,460  27,173   27,846  26,912 
      
(a) Provided for the purpose of calculating gross profit as a percentage of revenue (gross margin).