AEye sees Q1 EPS (13c), consensus (16c)

Sees Q1 revenue $500K-$700K, consensus $1.0M. In its Q4 earnings last night, the company CFO Bob Brown stated: "Now let me address our near-term outlook. We are maintaining a cautious view on the business in the first quarter. We expect revenue for the first quarter to be in the range of $500,000 to $700,000. We have temporarily slowed production of our 4Sight industrial product in Q1 as we complete the second phase of the transfer of production to our manufacturing partner and complete the planned validation of the product built in the production environment. While volumes are expected to be modest in the near term, we are continuing several proof-of-concept deployments of our lidar with key customers, particularly in the ITS market. In response to the uncertain environment we noted earlier, we have been managing our spending carefully. However, we expect our first quarter operating expenses to be up approximately 10% to 15% from the fourth quarter based primarily on the timing of certain development projects. We expect our non-GAAP EPS to be a loss of approximately $0.13 in the first quarter. Let me conclude by saying that while we expect to feel the impacts of a potential recession and ongoing supply chain challenges in the near term, we are well positioned to navigate through this period. The secular backdrop for lidar adoption across the automotive and industrial markets remains compelling. And the feedback we’re getting from OEM customers on Continental’s automotive production and 10 B-sample continues to be very encouraging."