Perceptron Inc

Perceptron Inc. (NASDAQ: PRCP) is an American company which was founded in 1981. The company has been specialized in laser-based technologies and applications to help reduce variation and cost as well as to improve quality in the manufacturing process. The company, which is headquartered in Plymouth, Michigan, has 14 regional offices worldwide with an employee team of 230 people all around the world. The customers of the company are mainly automobile manufactures, such as Ford, Fiat, Land Rover, Honda, etc.

History

Perceptron Inc. was founded in 1981 with 3 founders from Kettering University. The founders were graduates at that time and they developed a solution which can help to measure and actively seek out and reduce variation in manufacturing process. The solution proved to be efficient and promising. Based on the breakthrough, they founded the company, whose name is Perceptron Inc. Perceptron, Inc. subsequently acquired Autospect, Inc. in February 1997. The company develops and expanded to 14 regional branches worldwide with an employee team of 230 people at present.

In 1989, the company sold 25% of its equity to the Wild Leitz Group in West Germany.

Products

The company specializes in developing, manufacturing, marketing and selling measurement, scanning solutions which are provided to customers in Asian, Europe and North America. The products include AutoScan, Autogauge, AutoGuide, AutoFit and others which are used for measuring, scanning work in the manufacturing assembly.

Operations

Executive Officers
Name	Position/ Title
Mr. John H. Lowry III	Chief Financial Officer and VP of Fin
Mr. Mark S. Hoefing	Sr. VP
Mr. Jeffrey Mark Armstrong	Chief Exec. Officer, Pres and Director
Mr. Heribert Viehweber	VP of Operations & Quality
Ms. Sylvia M. Smith	Principal Accounting Officer, VP and Controller

It is reported that on Oct 31, 2013, the Board of Directors of the Company appointed Jeffrey M.Armstrong to serve as the President and CEO of the company and this decision would come into effect on November 4, 2013. Armstrong is also set to be appointed to Perceptron's board, following the company's Nov. 12 annual meeting. The ex-CEO of the Company was Harry T.Rittenour, who had been working in the position for 6 years and would retire as a consultant to the Company. The Board of the Company was confident of this decision and they believed that the Company would embrace a nice future with leadership of the new CEO.

Finance

The company has a market capitalization of $ 88.07 million and an Enterprise value of 54.57 million. Its 2013 fy revenue is $ 61.11 million. Perceptron Inc. announced its 1st quarter of fy 2014 on Nov. 13, 2013 and reported that the net sales of the period was $12.4 million with a net loss of $588,000, which was less than that of the 1st quarter of fy 2013. Jack Lowry, the company’s CFO explained that the decline of their gross margin was primarily caused by timing differences between recognition of revenue and material and labor costs relevant to the revenue. He hoped that their gross margins could return to the normal level in the following period of fy 2014. It is also expected quarterly sales improvement during the fiscal year, with the second half thought to be considerably larger than the first half in a recovering fiscal 2014.