Wall Street content with Andrew’s loss

Despite a $2 million net loss in its most recent quarter, Andrew Corp. announced steady growth in sales. The news appeared to please investors, which sent the company’s stock up 10% on the news.
The communications systems and products manufacturer blamed its loss on the continuing challenges it faces in the North American market, as well as relocation and startup costs associated with its new facility in Illinois. The company also repurchased 1 million shares of common stock at an average price of $10.34 per share during the quarter.
Wireless infrastructure sales increased 5% from the same period last year to $472 million, while total sales increased 4% from the same period last year to $503 million. The company is working to sell its Satellite Communications business, which accounted for 6% of the company’s overall revenues for the last quarter.
“As we previously guided, the first half of our fiscal year has been challenging due to consolidation issues with two significant North American customers, volatile commodity costs and a number of important facility startups and relocations,” said Ralph Faison, president and CEO of Andrew. “While our revenue growth for the quarter was modest in our seasonally weakest quarter, we are pleased that we have been able to replace reduced revenues of over $130 million to those two customers in the first half of our fiscal year with significant increases in volume with other customers and in other geographies.”