ATLANTA -- Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. (NYSE: SFA - News) today reported first quarter earnings of $55.9 million, or $0.36 per share, on sales of $452.7 million. Compared with last year's first quarter, sales increased by $57.0 million, or 14 percent, and earnings increased by $13.2 million, or 31 percent.

Good First Quarter Results

First quarter bookings were $397.8 million, an increase of $36.4 million, or 10 percent, from the first quarter of last year, but a decrease of $142.6 million, or 26 percent, from last quarter.

Subscriber product bookings were $305.2 million, an increase of 24 percent from the comparable period of last year but a 26 percent sequential decline. Bookings of transmission products were $92.6 million, a decrease of 20 percent from last year and 29 percent from last quarter.

Backlog at the end of the quarter was $442.4 million, an increase of 23 percent from the first quarter of last year but a decrease of 11 percent sequentially. The backlog contains orders for approximately 1.1 million Explorer® digital set-tops.

Sales of $452.7 million increased by $57.0 million, or 14 percent from the same period a year ago, but declined slightly compared with the preceding quarter. Sales of subscriber products increased 21 percent from last year's first quarter to $333.2 million but decreased slightly sequentially. In the first quarter of fiscal year 2004, the company sold 1.032 million Explorer digital set-tops and 416 thousand WebSTAR(TM) cable modems. Sales of transmission products of $119.5 million were down slightly from both last year and last quarter.

Gross margin in the first quarter was 36.6 percent of sales, a decrease of 60 basis points from last year and 20 basis points from last quarter. As compared to last year and last quarter, lower selling prices in the quarter just ended were partially offset by cost reductions and insurance proceeds related to a fire at a vendor's production facility in fiscal year 2004.

First quarter earnings were $55.9 million, or $0.36 per share, on sales of $452.7 million. First quarter earnings increased $13.2 million from the comparable period of the preceding year, when the company reported earnings of $42.7 million, or $0.28 per share. Earnings declined by $14.4 million, or 20 percent, compared with the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2004, which included an after-tax gain of $16.0 million related primarily to a federal income tax settlement for certain fiscal years prior to 2003.

Scientific-Atlanta Inc.