UDC reports Q4 2013 results

Universal Display reported their financial results for Q4 2013. Revenues were $49.5 million (including $20 million in license fees from SDC). Total 2013 revenues were $146.6 million (up 75% from 2012). UDC ended 2013 with $273 million in cash, up from $244 in the end of 2012.

UDC also issued a guidance for 2014 - $190 to $205 million. SDC's royalty fees will be $50 million in 2014 (up from $40 in 2013). They expect most of the growth from 2013 to be in the second half of the year - due to capacity increase at SDC and LGD's Gen-8 OLED TV fab.

During Q4, the company recognized $1.5 million from Seiko Epson. This license fee was moved to current revenue since Seiko Epson is "really not going to move forward on OLED at this time". It's not clear what this means. Seiko Epson did sign an agreement with Merck to co-develop printable OLEDs in October 2012 (even though it seems that the collaboration actually started in 2010). Perhaps SE is still developing OLEDs but not together with UDC, or perhaps they are mostly into printing technology which does not require UDC's participation or perhaps the company is not doing any OLED work at all.

Finally, UDC still does not see meaningful growth in OLED lighting in the next few years. They expect revenue from lighting to be less than 10% of the revenues in 2014 (I estimate that it is actually a much lower percentage).

Source: UDC, Seeking Alpha (and here's a good summary of the CC on OLED-Info's investment board)

Disclosure: the author of this post holds some shares in Universal Display

Posted: Feb 28,2014 by Ron Mertens