MILTON, NY – Sono-Tek reported fiscal first quarter net sales of $3.4 million, up 22% year-over-year.

For the fiscal quarter ended May 31, net income was $168,000, an increase of 572%. Operating income was $184,000, compared to $5,000 in the fiscal first quarter of 2020.

“In the first quarter of fiscal 2021, we achieved our forecasted 20% plus revenue growth, along with a significant improvement in the bottom line,” said Christopher L. Coccio, Ph.D., chairman and CEO. “More importantly, we continued to invest in upfront resources in engineering and application engineering. Application engineering especially has become an essential element in our growth strategy of pursuing larger, more complex ultrasonic coating systems. These orders increase our average revenue per order and provide for longer delivery times compared to our more typical orders. We were pleased to be able to quickly shift our customers’ work with our application engineers and development labs to a virtual experience.

“We experienced a significant sales increase in our integrated coating systems this quarter, and these were shipped to the electronics/microelectronics and the medical segments of our business. Globally, our sales to the Asia Pacific (APAC) region were strong, resulting in 78% of our sales originating from outside the United States and Canada, compared to 56% in last year’s first quarter.

“Due to both new orders and existing long delivery pre-Covid backlog this quarter, we are expecting second quarter revenues to increase over last year. Looking ahead, we believe the ongoing strength of our business, combined with continued expense control and our strong balance sheet, position Sono-Tek well for the future.”

Fiscal first quarter sales growth was driven by demand for Sono-Tek’s integrated coating systems primarily for the electronics/microelectronics market. A significant customer took delivery of a system valued at over $700,000 in this market, and further orders from this customer are expected in the future.

From a product sales perspective, integrated coating systems revenues increased 197%.

Sales in the APAC region increased 297%, primarily led by several shipments to China, as manufacturing operations came back online following temporary Covid-19 shutdowns.

Cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments at quarter-end were $8.3 million, up from $7.9 million at the end of fiscal 2020. Cash used in operating activities was $396,000, compared with $362,000 in the prior fiscal year period.

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