Despite another quarter of losses, nLIGHT’s latest earnings report was a cheerful one as it accompanied the announcement of an $86 million government contract, its largest to date.
The Camas laser manufacturer reported $54.09 million in revenue in its first quarter, down from $64.46 million in the first quarter of 2022. It saw a net loss of $7.73 million, compared with a loss of $8.62 million during the same period in 2022.
In a call to the company’s investors last week, nLIGHT’s CEO Scott Keeney said the quarter ended better than expected.
Declining revenues were caused by lower demand and timing of development projects, said Joseph Corso, the company’s chief financial officer.
Corso also reported nLIGHT’s operating expenses declined due to its lower employee count and reduced spending on research and development projects, both announced at the end of last year.
On Thursday’s call, Keeney and Corso were met with congratulations from investors as the company announced earlier in the day that they’d secured a $86 million contract for the Department of Defense’s High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative, also known as HELSI.
The contract was the largest the company has ever received, Keeney said. nLIGHT will produce a high energy laser prototype for the next phase of development for the department’s initiative.
“The core of this is validation of our position in the market, our leadership and the continued support to drive that forward,” Keeney told investors.
Keeney said the government’s laser initiative is a top priority for the U.S. and its allies, which he sees as good for business.
“We are well positioned to continue to lead in this space,” he added.
The company also reported progress in its microfabrication projects and growth in its industrial projects. In 2023’s first quarter, nLIGHT received around 7 percent of its revenue from Chinese clients, down from more than 40 percent when the company went public in 2018. This impacted its microfabrication and industrial revenues, though the company said it did better in China in its first quarter than it expected.
nLIGHT trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker LASR. Its stock closed Monday at $12.37, down from $12.75 on Friday and up from $9.23 where it closed Thursday — the day its earnings report was released.
