LSI Industries Narrows 4Q Loss, Voices Optimism

CINCINNATI (AP) — LSI Industries Inc., which makes lighting for convenience stores, said Thursday it narrowed a its fiscal fourth-quarter loss from a year earlier, when a charge weighed down results.

The news drove LSI shares up 65 cents, or 9.4 percent, to $7.55 in morning trading.

The company's loss for the three months ended June 30 amounted to $257,000, or a penny per share, compared with a loss of $25.8 million, or $1.18 per share, during the year-earlier quarter. Results included goodwill impairment charges of $260,000 in the latest quarter and $28 million in the year-earlier quarter.

Excluding those charges and an amount for litigation, the company's per-share results would have broken even in the latest quarter. That compares with a loss of 5 cents per share in the prior-year period.

Net sales slid 24 percent to $50.2 million from $66.4 million.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, on average, expected a loss of 3 cents per share on revenue of $49.8 million. Those estimates typically exclude one-time items.