Biometrics stocks update: RealNetworks, Nuance, Egis, Synaptics report earnings, Ping presents and Goodix impacted

Continued momentum from its SAFR facial recognition offering helped RealNetworks to $172.1 million in revenue for full-year 2019, the company has reported.

Chairman and CEO Rob Glaser said two of the company’s key growth initiatives, SAFR and free mobile games, had success gaining traction during the year.

Napster provided more than $106 million of that top-line result. Games revenue increased 18 percent to $25.5 million. Net loss was $6.4 million, or $0.17 per diluted share, an improvement from a loss of $6.9 million, or $0.18 per diluted share in fiscal 2018.

“SAFR also remains a top growth focus of the Company. We continue to get good initial traction with customers and partners around the world,” Glaser comments.

“Our focus for 2020 will be to continue to drive these key initiatives forward while also running our operations efficiently. While we will make ongoing investments to support our key growth initiatives, we are committed to thoughtfully managing costs along the way as we did during 2019,” Glaser adds. “Our progress in this regard can be seen in our significant improvement in adjusted EBITDA loss in the second half of 2019 as compared to the first half of 2019.”

RealNetworks expects quarterly revenue of $40 million to $43 million, and an adjusted EBITDA loss of between $4 million and $1 million for Q1 2020.

RealNetworks Vice President and General Manager of Computer Vision Dan Grimm recently spoke to Biometric Update about the global opportunities for SAFR and facial biometrics in general.

Nuance affirms guidance and cloud voice technology strategy

Nuance has announced GAAP revenue of $418.2 million and earnings per diluted share of $0.19 for its first quarter of fiscal 2020, which ended December 31, 2019, for 1 percent organic revenue growth over the same period last year.

GAAP net income leapt from $13.9 million in Q1 2019 to $54.9 million in Q1 2020.

“We are very pleased with this strong start to our fiscal year, as we exceeded both our revenue and EPS guidance and delivered margins in line with our expectations,” says Mark Benjamin, CEO of Nuance. “Our pivot to the cloud was bolstered by strong Dragon Medical cloud growth and notable demand from our new cloud solutions, including PowerScribe One and CDE One. We delivered record revenue in our Enterprise business and made important progress with international expansion, launching Dragon Medical cloud in three new countries. Our performance thus far this year enables us to re-affirm our full-year revenue and ARR outlook, while raising our EPS guidance.”

The company has paid down $300 million in high yield bonds and repurchased 5.7 million shares of common stock in the quarter, and has announced the redemption of $47 million of high yield debt as it continues to focus on capital allocation.

Egis gains over previous year

Egis Technology has reported monthly revenue for January of NT$548 million (US$18.2 million), down from the previous month but an increase of 38.4 percent from the same month in 2019, the company announced.

The company plans to host a Q4 2019 earnings conference call mid-March.

Synaptics exceeds guidance

Net revenue for Synaptics in its second fiscal quarter of 2020 exceeded the company’s guidance, with a 14 percent sequential increase to $388.3 million

GAAP net income in the quarter was $19.8 million, or $0.58 per diluted share.

“Our December quarter was better than expected due to unusually strong demand for our PC products and from our largest mobile customer during the holiday season,” states Michael Hurlston, president and chief executive officer, Synaptics. “Early efforts to focus our resources on high margin products coupled with greater operational discipline resulted in a record quarter for Non-GAAP net income and EPS. We are making good progress in defining our long-term portfolio and in transforming Synaptics into a company with differentiated franchise businesses that can generate sustainable and profitable growth.”

Synaptics expects net revenue in its third quarter between $330 and $350 million.

The company also announced the divestiture of its mobile LCD TDDI business for $120 million, putting even more focus on its efforts in the emerging market for automotive biometrics.

Ping to present

Ping Identity has announced it will present and host meetings at the upcoming Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference on February 12 in San Francisco.

A presentation by the company will be available through a live audio webcast, and archived on its investor relations site.

Coronavirus fear hits Goodix shares

The enormous drop in value of publicly traded companies on China’s stock exchange earlier this week included a maximum 10 percent drop for Goodix, Bloomberg reports. The personal fortune of the company’s chairman, Zhang Fan, took a $1.2 billion dollar hit, as the market implications of the coronavirus outbreak were priced in suddenly by investors.

The richest 15 people with companies traded on the mainland lost more than $10 billion in net worth in a single day, with Fan’s loss second only to Midea Group founder He Xiangjian.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  Egis Technology  |  Goodix  |  Ping Identity  |  RealNetworks  |  SAFR  |  stocks  |  Synaptics