LSI Industries reverses year-ago loss with $1.6M profit; revenue rises 14 pct

LSI Industries posts $1.6 million profit

CINCINNATI — Convenience store lighting maker LSI Industries Inc. said on Thursday it reversed a loss in its second quarter a year ago that was driven by an accounting charge.

For the quarter that ended Dec. 31, the company said it earned almost $1.6 million, up from a loss of $13.4 million a year earlier. The profit worked out to 7 cents per share; a year earlier, it posted a loss of 61 cents per share, including a $13.3 million impairment charge.

Sales rose 14.1 percent to $69.4 million, from $60.8 million a year earlier.

But the results fell short of the average forecast by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters for profit of 9 cents per share on revenue of $71.1 million.

President and CEO Robert J. Ready said he was “reasonably pleased” with the operating results for the second quarter and first half of LSI’s fiscal year.

“The outlook for the second half of fiscal 2010 is difficult to predict since we have substantially completed the major LED lighting project for a national convenience store customer and the nonresidential construction market is extremely depressed and forecast to decline further in 2010,” he said.

The company said AdL Technology, which it acquired in July, is growing and profitable and has been fully integrated into LSI. AdL engineers and makes lighting circuit boards and assemblies.

LSI shares fell almost 86 cents, or 10.7 percent, to $7.15 in afternoon trading.