Costa Mesa-based Ceradyne Inc., a maker of bulletproof vests and other products, reported a fourth-quarter profit Tuesday that topped Wall Street’s lowered expectation.
Ceradyne reported a profit of $11.4 million before onetime charges and a gain, down 43% from a year earlier and topping the $8 million expected on average by Wall Street analysts.
In October, Ceradyne braced Wall Street for a lower than expected profit for the rest of 2009.
“We are pleased … to meet our revised 2009 guidance for Q4 and all of 2009,” Chief Executive Joel P. Moskowitz said.
Sales for the quarter came in at $97.6 million, down 30% from a year earlier and below the $102.9 million expected by analysts.
Ceradyne makes ceramic body armor and has been looking to expand sales to other industries including solar energy, aluminum smelting, oil and gas drilling, and other new applications used in the manufacturing of glass and automobiles.
The company boomed a couple of years ago as fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan peaked and drove demand for its body armor.
“During 2009, our management took a number of actions related to the decrease in lightweight body armor sales, as well as to reflect the realities of the global economic downturn,” Moskowitz said.
This month, Ceradyne said it plans to start construction on a 218,000-square-foot plant Tianjin, China, to provide products for China’s solar power industry. The company expects to spend $34 million building the plant.
Ceradyne reiterated its profit and sales outlook for 2010, which is in line with Wall Street expectations.
The company said it forecasts a profit of $15 million to $26 million. Analysts on average expect a profit of $18 million.
Sales are seen by Ceradyne coming in at $380 million to $430 million, with Wall Street expecting $385 million on average.
