Aware, Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter and 2018 Financial Results

BEDFORD, Mass., Feb. 12, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Aware, Inc. (NASDAQ: AWRE), a leading supplier of biometrics software and services, today reported financial results for its quarter and year ended December 31, 2018.

Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2018 was $4.1 million compared to $3.1 million in the same quarter last year. Operating income in the fourth quarter of 2018 was $0.3 million compared to an operating loss of $0.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2017. Net income in the fourth quarter of 2018 was $0.6 million, or $0.03 per diluted share, which compares to a net loss of $0.6 million, or $0.03 per diluted share, in the same period a year ago.

The increase in revenue and operating income in the current three month period compared to the corresponding period last year was primarily due to higher services sales, and to a lesser extent higher software maintenance sales and lower total costs and expenses. This was partially offset by lower patent related income from an unaffiliated third party this quarter.

Revenue for the year ended December 31, 2018 was $16.1 million compared to $15.5 million in 2017. Operating income for 2018 was $0.4 million compared to $1.1 million in 2017. The increase in revenue was primarily due to: i) higher services revenue related to the software license agreement we entered into with a system integrator in the second quarter of 2018 for a large project; and ii) higher maintenance revenue. The increase in revenue was partially offset by: i) lower software license sales primarily due to a large imaging software license sale to a medical imaging customer in 2017 whereas there was no such sale in 2018 that was partially offset by higher biometrics software sales in 2018; and ii) no royalty revenue in 2018. Lower operating income was primarily due to lower patent related income from an unaffiliated third party in 2018 that was partially offset by higher revenue in 2018 and lower total costs and expenses in 2018.

Net income for the year ended December 31, 2018 was $1.2 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, which compared to net income of $1.0 million, or $0.05 per diluted share in 2017.

Kevin Russell, Aware's chief executive officer and president, said "2018 was a year of improved revenue due to higher biometric software license, maintenance and services sales and a continuation of investments in product and business development to strengthen our position as a leading global supplier of biometrics software and solutions. In 2018, we had a large license sale of our Knomi(TM) mobile biometric authentication solution to a large commercial customer as well as additional licenses to multiple other customers. We were also pleased about the selection to provide our BioSP(TM) software and services for the United Kingdom Government biometric matching platform. We also made enhancements to multiple product offerings including our face, voice and fingerprint solutions. As we look to the future, we continue to be encouraged by the interest in and the worldwide opportunities for our biometric solutions in the government, commercial and mobile markets."

About Aware
Aware is a leading provider of biometrics software products and development services to governments, system integrators, and solution providers globally. Our products include SDKs, software components, workstation applications, and a modular, centralized, service-oriented platform. They fulfill a broad range of functions critical to biometric authentication and search, including face, fingerprint, iris, and voice capture, sample quality assurance, data compliance, capture hardware peripheral abstraction, centralized data processing and workflow, subsystem connectivity, and biometric matching algorithms. The products apply biometrics to enable identity-centric security solutions for applications including banking and payments, border management, credentialing and access control, intelligence and defense, and law enforcement. Aware is a publicly held company (Nasdaq: AWRE) based in Bedford, Massachusetts.

See Aware's website for more information about our biometrics software products.

Safe Harbor Warning
Portions of this release contain forward-looking statements regarding future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties, such as estimates or projections of future revenue and earnings, and the growth of the biometrics markets. Aware wishes to caution you that there are factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results indicated by such statements.

Risk factors related to our business include, but are not limited to: i) our operating results may fluctuate significantly and are difficult to predict; ii) we derive a significant portion of our revenue from government customers, and our business may be adversely affected by changes in the contracting or fiscal policies of those governmental entities; iii) a significant commercial market for biometrics technology may not develop, and if it does, we may not be successful in that market; iv) we derive a significant portion of our revenue from third party channel partners; v) the biometrics market may not experience significant growth or our products may not achieve broad acceptance; vi) we face intense competition from other biometrics solution providers; vii) our business is subject to rapid technological change; viii) our software products may have errors, defects or bugs which could harm our business; ix) our business may be adversely affected by our use of open source software; x) we rely on third party software to develop and provide our solutions and significant defects in third party software could harm our business; xi) our operational systems and networks and products may be subject to an increasing risk of continually evolving cybersecurity or other technological risks which could result in the disclosure of company or customer confidential information, damage to our reputation, additional costs, regulatory penalties and financial losses; xii) our intellectual property is subject to limited protection; xiii) we may be sued by third parties for alleged infringement of their proprietary rights; xiv) we must attract and retain key personnel; xv) we rely on single sources of supply for certain components used in our hardware products; xvi) our business may be affected by government regulations and adverse economic conditions; xvii) we may make acquisitions that could adversely affect our results, and xviii) we may have additional tax liabilities.

We refer you to the documents Aware files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically the section titled Risk Factors in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 and other reports and filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Aware, Knomi and BioSP are trademarks or registered trademarks of Aware, Inc. Any other trademarks appearing herein are the property of their respective owners.

                                             
       
              AWARE, INC.

                                  
            
         CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME

                                
            
         (In thousands, except per share data)

                                             
       
               (unaudited)




                                                                    Three Months Ended                  Year Ended
                                                   December 31,                    December 31,



                                                    2018                    2017                   2018     2017




     Revenue:



         Software licenses                       $1,456                  $1,407                 $8,038   $9,139



         Software maintenance                     1,404                   1,301                  5,397    4,923



         Services                                 1,198                     335                  2,696    1,259



         Royalties                                                          17                            144




                Total revenue                     4,058                   3,060                 16,131   15,465






     Costs and expenses:


          Cost of software licenses                                                                20      274



         Cost of services                           479                     102                  1,220      601



         Research and development                 1,527                   1,885                  7,105    7,769



         Selling and marketing                      943                     969                  4,178    3,907


          General and administrative                 834                     934                  3,296    3,389



             Total costs and expenses              3,783                   3,890                 15,819   15,940






     Patent related income                           68                     159                     69    1,582






     Operating income (loss)                        343                   (671)                   381    1,107



     Other income                                                                                         36



     Interest income                                257                     120                    844      401



      Income (loss) before provision
       (benefit) for income taxes                    600                   (551)                 1,225    1,544


      Provision (benefit) for income taxes          (39)                      8                    (8)     543




     Net income (loss)                             $639                  ($559)                $1,233   $1,001







      Net income (loss) per share - basic          $0.03                 ($0.03)                 $0.06    $0.05


      Net income (loss) per share - diluted        $0.03                 ($0.03)                 $0.06    $0.05






      Weighted-average shares - basic             21,534                  21,559                 21,545   21,814


      Weighted-average shares - diluted           21,608                  21,636                 21,605   21,877

                               
       
                AWARE, INC.

                           
     
         CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

                             
       
                (In thousands)

                               
       
                (unaudited)




                                                      December 31,       December 31,

                                                              2018                2017





             ASSETS


     Cash and investments                                  $51,612             $51,608


     Accounts and
      unbilled
      receivables, net                                       5,289               3,818


     Property and
      equipment, net                                         4,085               4,304


     Deferred tax assets                                     5,171               5,071


     All other assets,
      net                                                      284                 234





     Total assets                                          $66,441             $65,035









             LIABILITIES AND
              STOCKHOLDERS'
              EQUITY




     Accounts payable and
      accrued expenses                                      $1,445              $1,569


     Deferred revenue                                        3,099               2,932


     Total stockholders'
      equity                                                61,897              60,534





     Total liabilities
      and stockholders'
      equity                                               $66,441             $65,035


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SOURCE Aware, Inc.