27 Apr 12. FLIR Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLIR) announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2012. Revenue was $348.5m, down 7% compared to first quarter 2011 revenue of $376.0m. Operating income in the first quarter was $68.3m, compared to $76.3m in the first quarter of 2011. First quarter 2012 net income was $48.1m, or $0.31 per diluted share, compared with net income of $51.3m, or $0.32 per diluted share in the first quarter a year ago. Cash provided by operations in the first quarter was $49.0m. During the quarter, the Company repurchased 1 m shares of its common stock at an average price of $25.39 per share. Revenue from the Company’s Commercial Systems division increased 4% from the first quarter of 2011, to $202.3m. Within the Commercial Systems division, revenue from the Thermal Vision and Measurement segment was $155.7m, an increase of 7% over the first quarter results last year. Commercial Systems’ Raymarine segment contributed $46.6 m of revenue during the first quarter, down 8% from the prior year. Revenue from the Company’s Government Systems division decreased 19% from the first quarter of 2011, to $146.1m. Within the Government Systems division, revenue from the Surveillance segment was $114.6m, a decrease of 24% from the first quarter of 2011. Revenue from Government Systems’ Detection segment was $19.4m, an increase of 8% compared to the first quarter of 2011. Government Systems’ Integrated Systems segment contributed $12.2m of revenue during the first quarter, a decrease of 5% from the prior year. The Company’s backlog of firm orders for delivery within the next twelve months was approximately $457m as of March 31, 2012, an increase of $2m during the quarter. Backlog in the Government Systems division was $312m, decreasing $2m during the quarter. Backlog in the Commercial Systems division was $145m, up $4m during the quarter.
“While not up to our standards, first quarter performance was about as anticipated,” noted Earl Lewis, President and CEO of FLIR. “A difficult market environment impacted our Government Systems business, but we successfully stabilized backlog as Government Systems orders equalled revenue for the quarter. Our Commercial Systems business was slow in the first quarter, however, we continue to expect improved results as we go through the year. It is clearly our task to improve in the future, and we believe these efforts will show in the second half of 2012.” Based on financial results for the first three months of 2012 and the outlook for the remainder of the year, FLIR is reaffirming its outlook for earnings per share for the full year 2012. Management expects net earnings to be in the range of $1.60 to $1.70 per diluted share, and revenue for the full year 2012 to be in the range of $1.55bn to $1.65bn.

23 Apr 12. Prosecutors from Naples were in Switzerland on Monday gathering evidence for a probe into Italian state-controlled aerospace and defence company Finmeccanica for allegedly setting up slush funds for bribes, judicial sources said. Prosecutors Vincenzo Piscitelli and Francesco Curcio were being escorted by local authorities in Lugano, Switzerland, to collect evidence in an attempt to verify money flows through Swiss accounts, the sources said. The sources would not give any further details or name any banks. The Swiss searches were connected to new developments in the investigation and followed statements made by the former head of institutional relations at Finmeccanica, Lorenzo Borgogni, who last spoke to prosecutors last week, according to the sources. Finmeccanica was not available for comment. (Source: Reuters)

26 Apr 12. L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: LLL) reported diluted earnings per share (diluted EPS) of $2.01 for the quarter ended March 30, 2012 (2012 first quarter), compared to $1.85 for the quarter ended April 1, 2011 (2011 first quarter). Net sales of $3.6bn decreased 0.4% compared to the 2011 first quarter. Key wins for the quarte