Itron Posts Improved Earnings

Itron Inc. Tuesday reported profits for 1997 and the fourth quarter compared with losses for the year-ago periods.

Quarterly revenues set a new record, as did the 12-month order backlog as of Dec. 31, 1997.

Net income for the quarter was $3.3 million, or 22 cents per share, compared with a loss of $2.3 million, or 17 cents per share, a year earlier.

Results benefited from a $2 million payment associated with the shutdown of a joint venture with Portland General Electric Co., said Itron spokeswoman Mima Scarpelli.

Revenues for the quarter were $64.4 million, a 51 percent improvement on the 1996 period.

For the year, the maker of utility meter-reading equipment earned $1 million, or 7 cents per share, compared with a loss of $1.5 million, or 11 cents per share, in 1996.

Revenues climbed 22 percent from 1996 levels to $216.1 million.

“These results are particularly gratifying because they were achieved despite some continuing uncertainties in the utility industry,” said President Johnny Humphries.

He said the company’s decision to continue development of new automatic meter-reading equipment in the face of slack demand produced new multiyear contracts for the company in 1997.

“The new products and new contracts fueled a 48 percent increase in AMR revenues in the last six months of 1997 compared to the first half of the year,” Humphries said.

Order backlog at the end of the year was $406 million, with $145 million scheduled for delivery in 1998.

Scarpelli said the Asian crisis has had relatively little effect on the company, although the fate of a final shipment of equipment of Korea Electric Power Co. is uncertain.

International sales in 1997 were $23.6 million, up 56 percent from 1996.

, DataTimes