With tight budgets continuing to constrain its healthcare markets, Allied Healthcare Products (Nasdaq: AHPI) reported a modest profit in the third quarter of fiscal year 2011 and further improvement in its year-over-year performance.
Net income for the quarter ending March 31, was about $60,000, or 1 cent per basic and diluted share, compared to $37,000, or zero cents per share, for the previous year's quarter. For the first three quarters of the fiscal year, net income was about $90,000, or 1 cent per basic and diluted share, versus a loss of $685,000, or negative 9 cents per share, for the previous year's first three quarters.
Sales were essentially flat. For the third quarter, sales totaled about $11.3 million, slightly below the $11.6 million of the prior year's quarter. For the first three quarters of the fiscal year, sales were about $34.7 million, about $300,000 above the previous year's level.
Commodity prices for materials such as brass continued to increase in the third quarter. However, Allied offset most of the effect of those increases with cost containment efforts in other areas of the business.
Allied also reduced selling, general and administrative (SG&A) costs significantly. In the third quarter, Allied cut SG&A costs by more than $210,000, or about 8 percent, compared to the previous year's third quarter.
"Our customers at all levels face tough budget challenges," said Earl Refsland, Allied president and chief executive officer. "We have managed our company accordingly and are well positioned for a return to more normal markets."
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