STEC Announces Fourth Quarter And Full-Year 2010 Results

SANTA ANA, Calif., Feb. 14, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- STEC, Inc. (Nasdaq:STEC) announced today the Company's financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year ended December 31, 2010.

Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2010 was $93.9 million, a decrease of 11.4% from $106.0 million for the fourth quarter of 2009 and an increase of 9.1% from $86.1 million for the third quarter of 2010.

GAAP gross profit margin was 45.2% for the fourth quarter of 2010, compared to 50.9% for the fourth quarter of 2009 and 46.4% for the third quarter of 2010. GAAP diluted earnings per share from continuing operations was $0.34 for the fourth quarter of 2010, compared to $0.47 for the fourth quarter of 2009 and $0.26 for the third quarter of 2010.

Non-GAAP gross profit margin was 45.3% for the fourth quarter of 2010, compared to 51.0% for the fourth quarter of 2009 and 46.5% for the third quarter of 2010. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share from continuing operations was $0.35 for the fourth quarter of 2010, compared to $0.51 for the fourth quarter of 2009 and $0.31 for the third quarter of 2010.

Revenue for full-year 2010 was $280.1 million, a decrease of 20.9% from $354.2 million for 2009. GAAP gross profit margin was 43.4% for 2010, compared to 47.7% for 2009. GAAP full-year 2010 diluted earnings per share from continuing operations was $0.56, compared to full-year 2009 diluted earnings per share from continuing operations of $1.41.

Non-GAAP gross profit margin was 43.6% for full-year 2010, compared to 48.4% for 2009. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share from continuing operations was $0.69 for full-year 2010, compared to $1.61 for 2009.

A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP results is provided in the tables included in this release.

Business Outlook

"I am very pleased with our fourth quarter 2010 revenue, margin, and EPS results," said Manouch Moshayedi, STEC's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "We surpassed our guidance for the fourth quarter and have set the stage for a successful first quarter 2011. Moreover, we had our best quarter ever for shipments of our flagship Zeus ^{IOPS ®} Solid-State drives (SSDs) with Zeus ^IOPS revenues for the fourth quarter of 2010 increasing to $74.9 million from $74.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, and from $59.1 million in the third quarter of 2010.

"During 2010, we expanded our leading position in the Enterprise-SSD market increasing the number of our Enterprise-Storage and Enterprise-Server customers that have qualified our SSDs. In addition, we executed on our strategy to diversify our customer base by increasing the number of OEM SSD customers that contributed 10% or more of our revenue to three for full-year 2010 compared to one such customer for full-year 2009.