What happened
Investors in mobile Internet of Things company CalAmp (CAMP) had a terrific Friday, with their shares rising 21.9% through the closing bell in response to a tremendous earnings beat.
CalAmp actually reported its Q4 and full-year fiscal 2021 earnings Thursday evening, but Friday was the first chance investors got to trade on the information ... and trade they did ... and for good reason. CalAmp delivered a $0.14 per share pro forma profit for the quarter -- nearly three times the $0.05 analysts said CalAmp was "supposed" to earn.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Sales from continuing operations grew 6% year over year to $81.9 million (or $89.5 million including revenue from CalAmp's discontinued operations -- the divested LoJack North America), and pro forma profits doubled. Granted, the company reported a GAAP loss for the quarter ($0.09 per share). But even that was a much slimmer loss than the $1.16 per share CalAmp lost a year ago.
For the year, CalAmp's sales declined 4% (the LoJack effect, again), but on the plus side, losses were cut by more than half ($0.62 per share). Even better, CalAmp reported positive free cash flow of $21.6 million, versus last year's negative FCF.
Now what
Management said it was "maintaining its policy of not providing quarterly guidance," citing uncertainty due to COVID-19 as the reason. Analysts weren't so shy, however.
According to Wall Street, CalAmp is on track to grow earnings as much as 43% in this fiscal year 2022, to $0.43 per share, reversing 2021's negative earnings year. And all they think CalAmp needs to make that happen is 8% sales growth to $332 million.
Given that CalAmp just finished growing sales 6% in the middle of a pandemic, that doesn't seem like too much of a stretch.
