Calix's Q4 revenue jumps 19%, but international sales lag

Calix reported that fourth-quarter 2014 revenues were $112 million, up 19 percent year-over-year, reaching the top end of its previously released guidance, but international revenues continued to trail behind the domestic market.

Fourth-quarter non-GAAP net income was $6.8 million, or $0.13 per fully diluted share, compared to a non-GAAP net income of $1.5 million, or 3 cents per fully diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2013.

During the quarter, Calix reported that a number of its Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 customers, including a number of utility cooperative and municipally owned networks, made purchases of the vendor's equipment for their respective broadband service deployments.

"Calix clearly benefited from these investments by our Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 operators including many utility cooperative and municipally owned networks," said Carl Russo, president and CEO of Calix during the earnings call, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. "We ended the year with over 60 announced service provider gigabit networks enabled by Calix with many more networks beyond this number that have not been publicly disclosed."

Despite these overall gains, the vendor reported that international revenues declined to $11.8 million, down from $13.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2013.

William Atkins, EVP and CFO of Calix, said that the company is seeing fluctuations in both the international and domestic U.S. markets.

"This business internationally as well as domestic is a choppy business," Atkins said during the earnings call, according to the transcript. "And if you look at the full year at the broadband line, last year we called [the broadband line] at 13% for 2013, we are calling a 12% for 2014."

In the international market, Calix plans to pursue new and existing customers with its E7 platform across the countries it serves.

"Many of our customers internationally are evaluating the E7 platform that might have had other platforms installed prior," Russo said. "And we are seeing a lot of interest around the E7, but when you get into that mode it slows things down and potentially all you have to have is one or two orders to move from quarter to another and on a lower revenue number it has a material impact on that number. So the underlying buildup we are seeing and it is encouraging us to continue to bang away at it because there is more and more countries were Calix now has customers."

One area where Calix said it foresees new growth is with its new fiber-enabled GigaCenter home gateways that debuted in September. The IPTV-capable 844G GigaCenter and its RF-enabled brother, the 854G, are 802.11ac-based Wi-Fi routers that are designed to provide enhanced in-home wireless broadband coverage.

Russo said that the company has received GigaCenter orders from over 100 of its customers, but the majority of them are still in the pilot phase.

"GigaCenter achieved orders from more than 100 customers," Russo said. "While this is the highest customer take up for a Calix product that I can remember, please keep in mind that these are mostly early deployment pilot and thus we anticipate unit volumes to grow materially over time."

Looking toward the first quarter of 2014, Calix has forecast revenue to be in the range of between $89 million and $93 million.

Shares of Calix closed at $10.55, up 40 cents or 3.94 percent, in Tuesday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more:
- see the earnings release
- here's the earnings transcript (sub. req.)

Special report: Wireline telecom earnings in the fourth quarter of 2014

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