Sunnyvale, Calif. — SanDisk more than doubled its total revenue in its traditionally slower first quarter, while net income nearly tripled.
First quarter total revenue climbed 122 percent, hitting $386.9 million, up from $174.5 million in the year-ago period, while net income soared to $63.6 million from $24.9 million.
Product sales in the first three months, ended March 28, increased 118 percent, reaching $338.8 million, up from $155.4 million in the same three months in 2003. License and royalty revenue in the first quarter moved up to $48.2 million, an increase of 152 percent over the year-ago $19 million.
With average price per megabyte sold in the first quarter declining 19 percent, compared to the same three months a year ago, SanDisk gross margin slid to 40 percent, compared with 42 percent in the fourth quarter of 2003. Product gross margin was 32 percent, compared with 36 percent in the previous three months.
SanDisk reported that total megabytes sold in the first quarter increased 172 percent year-over-year, with sales of its Cruzer line of USB Flashdrive products climbing 76 percent over the last three months of this past year.
Looking ahead to the second quarter of 2004, the company expects total revenue to range from $400 million to $420 million, with this range driven by newly implemented price reductions as well as the traditional pick-up in retail sales heading into the early summer promotional season. Total annual revenue should come in between $1.6 billion and $1.8 billion, said SanDisk.
License and royalty revenue in the second quarter should hit a range of $40 million to $42 million, while gross margin should remain at about 30 percent for the remainder of the year.
