Nuance reports positive results on strong healthcare biometrics business, SuperCom and Nxt-ID report

Nuance has reported GAAP revenues of $470.7 million in Q4, near the high end of the company’s expected range, and beaten the guidance for its operating margin and EPS, at $0.37 per diluted share.

The results were boosted by the sales performance of Nuance’s Dragon Medical cloud offerings, and the company says it finishes the year as a simpler, more growth-focused company, following the sale of its imaging and subscription revenue services businesses.

Dragon Medical is also being integrated with Microsoft Azure, Azure AI, and Project EmpowerMD Intelligent Scribe Service to leverage voice biometrics for automated health records, under a recently-formed partnership.

For the full year, Nuance delivered 3 percent organic revenue growth on its strategic businesses.

“We completed this transformational year on a strong footing, executing on our strategic and financial objectives,” comment Nuance Chief Executive Officer Mark Benjamin. “We posted our sixth consecutive quarter of solid results, meeting or beating our expectations, including 38 percent full-year ARR growth in our Dragon Medical cloud offerings. This is a testament to the validity of our strategy and the dedication of our employees. As part of our ongoing effort to simplify our business, we successfully completed the spin-off of our Automotive business, as Cerence began trading as an independent public company on October 2. This followed our accelerated exit from our non-core Subscription Revenue Services (SRS) business. These significant steps enabled us to focus more closely on the growth opportunities, particularly in our cloud businesses, within our Healthcare and Enterprise segments and we are very excited about our progress and initiatives to drive growth moving forward.”

Comparing results to previous years is complicated by a switch Nuance made in October, 2018, from the ASC 605 revenue recognition standard to ASC 606. By ASC 605 standards, Nuance gained $16.4 million in revenue year-over-year for fiscal 2019.

Nuance will hold an investor day in New York City on December 10.

SuperCom receives notice and contract win

SuperCom has received notification from the Listing Qualifications Department of The Nasdaq a failure to file its Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year coinciding with calendar 2018 with the SEC could result in its ordinary shares being delisted, if the company does not request a timely hearing with the Nasdaq Hearings Panel.

Such a request is expected, and SuperCom says will request any further action be stayed through at least December 5, 2019. The panel can grant an extension of up to 360 days, which would place the last possible filing day on May 11, 2020. The filing date was extended to November 11 after SuperCom missed the original May 16, 2019 deadline.

When discussing its Q1 results in May, the company noted that a financial audit of its full-year 2018 results had reached “advanced stages,” and that at would file its Form 20-F following the audit’s completion.

Meanwhile, SuperCom announced that its subsidiary Leaders in Community Alternatives (LCA) has won a contract to provide a Northern California county with electronic monitoring services for criminal offender employment and re-entry, worth up to $3.75 million.

The contract has an initial 3-year term, and an optional two-year extension, with expected accrual recurring revenues of approximately $750,000.

“This award is a testament to LCA’s decades of experience and successful track record working with law enforcement and public safety agencies with the goal of reducing recidivism, providing treatment and services, improving outcomes and changing lives,” comments Ordan Trabelsi, president of SuperCom Americas.

Nxt-ID announces slight gain in “evolutionary quarter”

Nxt-ID has reported third quarter revenue of $4.4 million, and earnings of $13.1 million for the first nine months of the year, both up slightly over a year earlier. Operating income from continuing operations was $0.7 million for the quarter and $1.8 million for the first three quarters of the fiscal year, compared to $0.2 million and $0.9 million in the same respective periods last year.

“Our third quarter 2019 operating results from continuing operations show continued strength from our LogicMark healthcare business as well as the cost saving initiatives implemented by the Company,” says Nxt-ID Chief Executive Officer Vin Miceli. “We are also very optimistic about the remainder of 2019 as we continue to further evaluate and reduce operating expenses and focus on expanding our core healthcare business.”

“This was clearly an evolutionary quarter for our Company,” continues Miceli. “Although we have had to take non-cash charges associated with our sale of Fit-Pay, we are well positioned with a more focused business to begin delivering the results that our shareholders expect.”

Nxt-ID announced earlier this year that FitPay would become PartX, though FitPay was then acquired by Garmin International in September.

Hikvision facing probe

China’s securities watchdog is investigating alleged disclosure violations by a pair of senior executives at Hikvision, Nikkei Asian Review reports.

The allegations against Hikvision President Hu Yangzhong and Vice Chairman Gong Hongjia were not elaborated in the report, but Chinese media has suggested the issue is related to employee compensation amid strong earnings.

The company is 39 percent owned by state company China Electronics Technology Group, while Gong holds 13 percent, and Hu almost 2 percent.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  HIKVISION  |  Nuance Communications  |  NXT-ID  |  stocks  |  SuperCom