REDMOND, Wash. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — April 25, 2019 — Data I/O Corporation (NASDAQ: DAIO), the leading global provider of advanced data and security programming solutions for flash, flash-memory based intelligent devices and microcontrollers, today announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2019.

First Quarter 2019 Highlights

• Net sales of $6.1 million; bookings of $6.2 million
• Gross margin as a percentage of sales of 60.8%
• Net income of $26,000 or $0.00 diluted earnings per share
• Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA)*, excluding equity compensation, of $476,000
• Cash & Equivalents of $14.8 million; no debt
• Repurchased 58,000 shares as part of a $2 million buyback program authorized in October 2018
• Automotive electronics, advanced programming and secure provisioning leadership
  • Automotive represented 55% of bookings for 1Q19
  • Shipped 250^th PSV automated device programming system
  • Key Contract Manufacturer customer win
  • Embedded World 2019 (Nuremberg, Germany) featured Demonstrations and Presentations with SentriX® partners Cypress, Digicert and Microchip
  • Ended 1Q19 with 12 partners and 5 system deployments for SentriX system

*Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure. A reconciliation is provided in the tables of this press release.

Management Comments

Commenting on the first quarter ended March 31, 2019, Anthony Ambrose, President and CEO of Data I/O Corporation, said, “The first quarter was highlighted by strong margins, expense controls, and favorable variances amid the continued down cycle for the industry as capacity is absorbed. Discretionary and variable spending were lower than in the prior year. Data I/O’s financial condition remains strong and we have made continued progress as the global leader in programming and security provisioning solutions. Our long-term growth drivers remain intact and we continue to invest in our future.

“Automotive customers represented 55% of our total bookings for the quarter and we had some exciting automotive customer wins. Data I/O systems are architected to deliver the highest programming performance today and are extensible to meet projected performance requirements in the future. Our announcement of TurboBoost™ in the first quarter, effectively doubling our programming performance in automotive infotainment applications, further enhanced our lead over the competition. We also shipped the 250^th PSV automated device programming system in the first quarter, far exceeding any competitor. We also secured a customer win with a Contract Manufacturer in Southeast Asia where a competitor had been the supplier of choice. Beyond our superior financial strength, we believe the investments being made in our technology and our global support are becoming more evident in the industry as major competitive advantages.

“We are excited by the interest and momentum in our SentriX platform for IoT security. In the first quarter, we shipped our 5^th system for deployment in Europe and expect it to come online in the second quarter. At the Embedded World 2019 trade show in Nuremberg, Germany in February, the transition to security in IoT was a major theme. Data I/O presented alongside our SentriX partners Cypress Semiconductor, and Microchip and DigiCert. As we progress through 2019, we are encouraged by the prospect of expanding our SentriX platform and bringing early customers to revenue. We believe the evolution toward secure programming is inevitable and we have been investing accordingly. At the same time, we will maintain our commitment to operational excellence and further enhance our leadership within the other markets we serve, particularly for automotive electronics, to optimize our financial performance and improve profitability.“

Financial Results

Net sales in the first quarter of 2019 were $6.1 million, as compared with $7.6 million in the first quarter of 2018. The year-over-year decline in sales was a result of strong cyclical demand in 2017 that culminated in $4.0M of backlog at the end of that year as compared with backlog of $1.9 million at December 31, 2018.