Clarence Granger
Analyst · ThinkEquity
Thanks, Casey. As anticipated, we experienced a revenue and earnings decline in the fourth quarter. However, I am very pleased that UCT was able to beat the high end of our revenue and earnings guidance and that we are now able to project a significant business recovery in Q1 2012.
As discussed in our Q3 earnings call, we did see a reduction in demand from our semiconductor equipment and high-brightness LED customers, with LED being the most significant quarter-over-quarter market decline. Despite this, UCT beat our high end of revenue and earnings per share guidance projected at the beginning of the quarter.
We had projected guidance of $75 million to $80 million in revenue and 0 to $0.02 earnings per share. We were able to beat this guidance significantly, achieving $86.9 million in revenue and $0.06 earnings per share prior to the reversal of the valuation allowance.
As Casey mentioned earlier, we were also able to further grow our balance sheet. Our cash levels are at an all-time high of $52 million, an increase of $14.1 million quarter-over-quarter. We anticipate that we will continue to grow cash over the next several quarters, along with continuing our inventory level reductions.
Additionally, 2011 was a year in which we achieved record revenues of $452.6 million.
I'll now review highlights of our activities for the fourth quarter. As stated earlier, we saw a sharp decline in the high-brightness LED market. During the fourth quarter, UCT shipped orders of $672,000 for LED-related gas delivery subsystems. This compares to a revenue of $15.8 million for similar products during the third quarter. As we discussed last quarter, we have seen a sharp decline in demand within the MOCVD market due to an over inventory situation at all of our major LED customers. We do not anticipate that this situation will correct itself until the latter part of 2012.
Even though our shipments declined drastically during Q4, we did achieve revenue levels within the LED market of approximately $42.7 million during 2011. And although the decline in the LED forecast has been disappointing, UCT is well positioned with our customers on their newest generation products, which should greatly benefit us when end market demand begins to recover.
During the fourth quarter, revenue from our Asian manufacturing operations increased from 28% of total UCT revenue in Q3 to 29% in Q4. This was mostly due to the decline in the manufacturing of LED-related gas delivery systems, which are primarily built within our U.S. manufacturing sites. We anticipate continued ramping of our Asian operations as a percentage of total revenue during 2012. As mentioned in previous calls, this is a result of our customers' continued plans to migrate more of their supply chain to Asia.
As part of UCT's ongoing diversification strategy, we are pleased to announce our business relationship with a new customer, Bruker Corporation. Bruker is a billion-dollar manufacturer of scientific instruments that support customers in life science, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, clinical and molecular diagnostics research, as well as in materials and chemical analysis in various industry and government applications. UCT has already made initial shipments to Bruker and is now qualified on one product. We anticipate shipments to them during the next year to be in the $1 million to $3 million range with significant potential growth opportunities thereafter.
During our Q3 earnings call, I discussed the fact that one of our recent customers, FEI Corporation, has communicated to UCT that they intend to bring their U.S. manufacturing back under their management within the next few quarters. I am now able to communicate that we have negotiated an official transition date of April 1, 2012. Most UCT employees in Portland, Oregon are in the process of transitioning to FEI, and we anticipate that we will stop providing FEI manufacturing services at the end of Q1 2012. We will, however, continue to see an income stream from FEI through Q3 2012 by assisting in all ways necessary in this transition period and after. This income stream will be approximately equal to the profit that we would have made had we continued manufacturing for FEI through Q3 2012. We are disappointed in FEI's decision, but we are confident that we will continue to find other long-term outsourcing partners such as the opportunity mentioned above with Bruker Corporation.
I'd now like to shift to our guidance for the first quarter of 2012. In the first quarter, we are projecting an increase in revenue and EPS. Our revenue guidance for the first quarter is $105 million to $110 million with earnings per share in the range of $0.15 to $0.18. As Casey discussed earlier, the tax rate for the first quarter should be modeled at 24%.
In summary, during the fourth quarter of 2011, UCT experienced an 18% decline in revenue quarter-over-quarter, but significantly outperformed the earnings guidance we provided at the beginning of the quarter. Also, over the past 2 quarters, we have experienced a greater than 35% decline in revenue due to declining industry demand, yet we have remained profitable. We consider this a testament to the flexibility of our business model. And next quarter, we are projecting the beginning of a recovery in industry demand.
Looking forward, we are excited about continued growth in Asia. And although we are experiencing a change in our relationship with FEI, we do see expanded business opportunities with other customers both existing and new.
In closing, 2011 was a year of record revenue for UCT and we are confident that 2012 will be another strong year for the company.
With that, operator, we would now like to open the call for questions.