Financial performance of the machine vision industry

Since most vision companies are privately held it’s hard to glean much information about profitability and growth, though it’s useful to pick out the general trends. For most companies, first half reporting season is upon us, so over the next couple of weeks I intend to share and comment on whatever financial news I can pick up.

First off is Datalogic, parent of PPTVision. In a brief press release issued July 16^th they comment that “the Industrial Automation Division … registered like-for-like growth of over 8%.” Industrial Automation is the division that includes both PPT and Accu-Sort, although as those acquisitions are still being digested it’s a little early to draw any firm conclusions. Nevertheless, 8% sounds good.

July 26^th was when Teledyne Dalsa reported their second quarter results. Dalsa is wrapped up in their Digital Imaging group, which reported revenue of $110.0m, up 15% from Q2 ’11. However, profit dipped 7.9% to $28m. If there was an explanation of this, I didn’t pick up what it was.

Conclusions?

Sales continue to grow, though more modestly than when we were in the rebound years. As for profitability, well I think we’ll have to wait for more detailed information for that. Cognex report next week, Basler and Augusta Technologie (parent of camera-maker AVT) the week later. So check back soon for my perspective on industry trends.