MILPITAS (dpa-AFX) - Flash memory card maker SanDisk Corp. (SNDK), Wednesday reported an increase in profit for the fourth quarter, due largely to higher revenues and strong margins. Both earnings and revenues for the quarter came in ahead of Wall Street estimates.
Milpitas, California-based SanDisk's fourth-quarter profit rose to $338 million or $1.45 per share from $214 million or $0.87 per share last year.
On an adjusted basis, earnings for the quarter increased to $390 million or $1.71 per share from $257 million or $1.05 per share last year. On average, 27 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $1.58 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
SanDisk revenues for the fourth quarter grew 12 percent to $1.73 billion from $1.54 billion last year. Twenty-eight analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.70 billion for the period.
The improved results follow last year's lackluster display amidst sluggish demand and weak prices for flash chips. However, the company has benefited from improved prices while turning its focus on improving sales of solid state drives.
Commenting on the results, SanDisk CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said, 'We delivered outstanding results in the fourth quarter and full year 2013 driven by strong execution and continued favorable portfolio mix shift. Our SSD product revenue set another quarterly record and represented 19 percent of our annual revenue, and we also set a record for annual retail product revenue.'
SanDisk makes removable cards, embedded flash products, USB flash drives and solid-state drives used in place of hard disk drives.
Gross margin, or percentage of sales left after deducting cost of production, rose sharply to 49.6 percent from 39.1 percent last year.
SanDisk declared dividend of 22.5 cents per share, payable on February 24 to stockholders of record on February 3.
SNDK closed Wednesday's trading at $72.19, up $0.30 or 0.42%, on the Nasdaq. The stock further gained $0.66 or 0.91% in after-hours trade.
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