SuperCom margins and Okta revenues improve as biometrics providers angle for growth

SuperCom, Okta and Remark have reported earnings improvement by different metrics, while ImageWare has appointed an investor relations advisor, and Synaptics is positioned for growth from fingerprint sensors in PCs. Idex Biometrics has issued shares to board members as renumeration, OneSpan is trying to keep its board intact, and Fingerprint Cards and Zwipe held orderly AGMs.
SuperCom gross margin improves
SuperCom earned $3 million in revenues from its biometric monitoring solutions in its first fiscal quarter of 2021, and improved its gross margin from 47.5 percent in 2020 to 55.3 percent, the company has reported.
At the end of Q1, SuperCom has $9 million in cash, equivalents and restricted cash, compared to $4 million at the end of 2020, after a $7 million financing deal. EBITDA for the first quarter was reported at $652,000.
“Following my February appointment to CEO, one of my first priorities was to improve our reporting capabilities and enable us to report financial results on a quarterly basis. I am pleased to announce our first quarter earnings results, which is the first time that we have reported financial results on a quarterly basis since the first half of 2019,” states Ordan Trabelsi, CEO of SuperCom. “We have worked hard to improve our financial processes to enable us to report on a timely basis. Our work is ongoing, and we plan to continue improving the quality of our financial reporting capabilities.”
For 2020, SuperCom reported earnings of $11.8 million, significantly down from 2019, though its EBITDA improved significantly.
Highlights during the quarter include a new project in California worth up to $4 million, and a tender won in Israel for its PureHealth Coronavirus (COVID-19) Quarantine Compliance Solution.
The company sees sustained growth opportunities serving correctional institutions.
Okta revenue grows
Okta revenues grew by 37 percent in Q1 of its fiscal 2022, on a year-over-year basis, to $251 million, with similar growth in subscription revenue, giving the company record quarterly operating and free cash flows.
“Broad-based demand for both our customer and workforce identity solutions led to another quarter of strong financial results and an excellent start to the fiscal year,” says Todd McKinnon, CEO and co-founder of Okta. “Organizations around the world are turning to Okta to improve the digital customer experience and to improve how their employees safely connect to their applications from anywhere. With the closing of the Auth0 acquisition earlier this month, we are further enhancing Okta’s market-leading identity platform, enabling us to provide even more choice and unprecedented innovation to customers and developers. Together, we’ll capture more of the massive $80 billion identity market opportunity even faster.”
The company’s GAAP net loss was $109 million, compared to a loss of $58 million in the same quarter a year ago.
Deployments of Remark’s KanKan AI system vision grow
Remark Holdings reports revenues improved by $0.4 million to $4.4 million in its Q1 2021, as deployments of its KanKan AI Platform, which includes face biometrics increased.
The KanKan Smart Queueing System was installed in more than 350 China Mobile stores during the quarter, and 40 communities in Bazhong, China began installing KanKan systems.
Revenues were higher than the first quarter a year ago in both its Chinese domestic market and the U.S. Net loss during the quarter for Remark was $5.5 million, or $0.05 per diluted share.
“Demand for our AI solutions came from schools, retail outlets, bank branches, and medical facilities and we expect demand momentum, particularly in the United States, to carry forward throughout 2021,” notes Remark Holdings Chairman and CEO Kai-Shing Tao. “Additionally, during the quarter we saw the initial implementation of our AI marketing program that we believe will be a big catalyst for 2021.”
ImageWare brings in investor relations firm
ImageWare has a new investor relations lead, with Gateway taking the role to develop and deploy an outreach and communications program.
Company Chair, President, and CEO Kristin Taylor says the company is looking to navigate “several significant market opportunities.” Gateway will help with messaging and positioning, strategic advisory services and outreach with investors and analysts, as well as participation in its annual Gateway Conference.
“In addition to the value within the historical businesses of law enforcement and public safety, we believe the financial, educational, and automotive spaces are rich with opportunity as the need for secure access leveraging biometrics is becoming one of the best ways to validate one’s identity,” says Taylor. “The value within our historical business from long-standing customer relationships and defensible, strategic IP has provided us with a great set of tools as we continue to build our vision for the ImageWare of the future: a leading biometric identity authentication company providing a new Cloud-based solution for the domestic and international government, law enforcement and enterprise sectors.”
As it transitions, Taylor says, ImageWare needs to “redefine (its) value proposition to the investment community.”
Synaptics PC fingerprint leadership to pay dividends
Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy writes that Synaptics is going to be a major beneficiary of the everything-from-home shift from one PC per home to one per person, with its leadership in fingerprint biometric sensors and trackpads for PCs. Moorhead is also very positive about Synaptics’ success in transitioning to an IoT focus.
Idex Biometrics issues shares to three board members
Idex Biometrics allowed board members to take shares as their renumeration in part or in full, with three members participating for a total of 535,583 shares, which will be issued when the share capital is paid in.
Board members Lawrence John Ciaccia has subscribed for 143, 458 shares, Thomas M. Quindlen subscribed for 138,981 shares and Stephen A. Skaggs subscribed for 253,144 shares, each at NOK 0.15 (US$0.018) per share.
OneSpan fends off activist investor
OneSpan is defending its nominees for the company’s Board of Directors in a letter to shareholders urging them to confirm its nominees and reject those proposed by activist investor Legion Partners Holdings.
Legion has been agitating for a board refresh and increasing its focus on a cloud services delivery model, prompting OneSpan to write its shareholders earlier in the month to say it has already addressed Legion’s concerns.
OneSpan claims its nominees have more relevant experience, and that its board and management team have undertaken decisive action towards a multi-year transformation.
FPC authorizes share repurchase and issuance
Fingerprint Cards has resolved that no dividend will be paid and discharged its board and CEO from liability for 2020 financial results at its annual general meeting.
Seven board members were re-elected, and Johan Carlström voted chairman at the meeting.
The company has authorized a repurchase and transfer of Class B treasury shares, the issuance of new shares with or without preferential rights, and the reduction of share capital through cancellation of repurchased shares and increase it through a bonus issue. The Articles of Association were amended as proposed.
Zwipe approves all board resolutions
Zwipe has published the minutes from its annual general meeting, at which all proposed resolutions were unanimously approved.
The company’s financial statements, new board members, board renumerations, and share capital increases were each approved.
Article Topics
biometrics | digital identity | financial results | Fingerprint Cards | Idex Biometrics | ImageWare | Okta | OneSpan | Remark Holdings | stocks | SuperCom | Synaptics | Zwipe
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