Shamir Optical Industry climbs as Q3 profit rises

Alex Alexandrov | Nov 27, 2007 11:57am EST | Comment

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Shares of Shamir Optical Industry Ltd. (Nasdaq: SHMR) are looking good following news before the start of trading of a rise in third-quarter net income and revenue.

The Israeli maker of optical lenses and molds announced that profit for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was $2.3 million, or $0.14 per share, an increase of 75.4% compared with a net income of $1.3 million during the third-quarter of 2006. Analyst estimates were not available.

Revenues rose 28.5% to $30.9 million from $24.1 million a year earlier.

“Our results for the third quarter reflect the growing demand for Shamir’s products and services,” said president and CEO Giora Ben-Ze’ev in a statement. “Our revenue growth was well spread over most of our operations, especially in our European subsidiaries.”

Shamir has production and distribution centers in Germany, Portugal, Spain, England, Turkey, France and Italy, as well as in California and South Africa.

“We continued to see the expansion of our customer base particularly in the United Kingdom and France, where both operations executed according to plan,” explained Ben-Ze’ev.

Based on the solid third quarter, Ben-Ze’ev said that he now expects revenue growth of between 16% to 20% for the year. That means that the company will book 2007 revenue between $112.87 million and $116.76 million, compared with $97.3 million in revenue for 2006.

The previous forecast called for revenue growth of between 12% and 20%.

At 11:52 a.m. ET, shares of Shamir Optical Industry Ltd. (SHMR) had advanced $0.31, or 4%, to $9.03. The 52-week high of $13 was reached on Aug. 9, while the 52-week low of $7.40 was set on Jan. 11.