Hurco Reports First Quarter Results for Fiscal Year 2025

Rhea-AI Summary

Hurco Companies (HURC) reported Q1 FY2025 results with a net loss of $4.32 million ($0.67 loss per share), compared to a $1.65 million loss ($0.25 per share) in Q1 FY2024. The quarter included a $2.39 million non-cash tax valuation allowance.

Sales reached $46.41 million, up 3% year-over-year, despite a 1% unfavorable currency impact. Regional performance varied with Americas sales up 9%, Asia Pacific sales increasing 18%, while European sales declined 5%. Orders decreased 20% to $40.09 million.

Gross profit margin contracted to 18% from 22%, while SG&A expenses improved to 22% of sales from 26%. Cash position strengthened to $41.82 million from $33.33 million in October 2024, though working capital decreased to $172.59 million from $180.79 million.

Positive

• Sales increased 3% to $46.41 million
• Strong regional growth: Americas +9%, Asia Pacific +18%
• Cash position improved to $41.82 million from $33.33 million
• SG&A expenses reduced to 22% of sales from 26%

Negative

• Net loss widened to $4.32 million from $1.65 million
• Orders declined 20% to $40.09 million
• Gross profit margin decreased to 18% from 22%
• Working capital decreased to $172.59 million from $180.79 million
• $2.39 million non-cash tax valuation allowance recorded

Insights

Financial Analyst

Hurco's Q1 FY2025 results reveal concerning financial performance with a $4.32 million net loss ($0.67 per share), significantly wider than the $1.65 million loss ($0.25 per share) in Q1 FY2024. While sales increased 3% to $46.41 million, this modest growth is overshadowed by deeply troubling signals in other metrics.

The dramatic 20% decline in orders (falling to $40.09 million) represents a serious warning sign for future revenue, with particularly severe order decreases in the Americas (-30%) and Europe (-18%). This order deterioration suggests customers are delaying capital investments amid economic uncertainty, likely impacting coming quarters.

Gross profit margin contracted significantly from 22% to 18%, reflecting a less favorable product mix with fewer high-performance machine sales and inefficient cost absorption on lower production volumes. SG&A expenses decreased to 22% of sales from 26%, but this cost-cutting wasn't enough to offset gross margin deterioration.

The non-cash tax valuation allowance of $2.39 million against U.S., Italian, and Chinese deferred tax assets is particularly concerning as it indicates management's reduced confidence in generating sufficient future taxable income in these key markets.

The 25% increase in cash position to $41.82 million represents one positive metric, reflecting improved working capital management, but this appears to be driven by inventory reduction rather than operational profitability.

Manufacturing Industry Expert

Hurco's mixed regional performance reveals important shifts in the global machine tool market. The 9% sales growth in the Americas, driven by simpler VM machines and Milltronics toolroom equipment, demonstrates a clear trend toward value-oriented purchases rather than premium offerings. Conversely, the 5% European sales decline, particularly in high-performance VMX machines in France and Italy, indicates persistent industrial weakness in Europe's manufacturing heartland.

Most revealing is the product mix shift toward entry and mid-range machines, suggesting manufacturers are prioritizing essential capacity over advanced capabilities in this economic climate. The strength in toolroom lathes and basic vertical mills typically indicates customers are extending existing equipment lifecycles through supplementary capacity rather than comprehensive shop modernization.

The 18% Asia-Pacific sales growth, particularly in China and India, demonstrates continuing manufacturing investment in these regions despite global headwinds. However, the declining order rates suggest this momentum may be unsustainable.

The severe 30% order decline in the Americas, concentrated in premium VMX machines, indicates North American manufacturers are significantly reducing capital expenditure plans. This widespread postponement of machine tool investments typically precedes broader manufacturing contraction.

While Hurco maintains a strong financial foundation with substantial cash reserves, the company faces a challenging transition period as it adjusts its production capacity and product focus to align with this apparent market shift toward basic, cost-effective machine tools rather than advanced manufacturing systems.

INDIANAPOLIS, March 07, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hurco Companies, Inc. (Nasdaq: HURC) today reported results for the first fiscal quarter ended January 31, 2025. Hurco recorded a net loss of $4,320,000, or $0.67 loss per diluted share, for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025, which included a non-cash tax valuation allowance of $2,385,000 recorded in provision for income taxes, compared to a net loss of $1,648,000, or $0.25 loss per diluted share, for the corresponding period in fiscal year 2024.

Sales and service fees for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 were $46,414,000, an increase of $1,355,000, or 3%, compared to the corresponding prior year period, and included an unfavorable currency impact of $434,000, or 1%, when translating foreign sales to U.S. dollars for financial reporting purposes.

Greg Volovic, Chief Executive Officer, stated, “We continue to navigate the global markets and changing demand for machine tools to fulfill the needs of our customers. This quarter saw strong demand for our more competitively priced Hurco (VM) machines, Milltronics toolroom lathes and vertical milling machines, as well as Takumi horizontal machines, with year-over-year, first quarter sales increasing by 3% overall, with notable strength in the Americas, where sales grew by 9%, and in the Asia Pacific region, where sales grew 18%. While overall sales increased, order volume in the U.S. softened as some customers appeared to delay capital investments amid broader economic uncertainty. However, our commitment to financial discipline and optimizing operations and working capital have resulted in a significant addition to our cash position and efficient management of inventory levels. While market cycles present challenges, our diverse product portfolio, global reach, and financial strength ensure that we remain a trusted partner, ready to provide customers with the machines they need—when they need them.”

The following table sets forth net sales and service fees by geographic region for the first fiscal quarter ended January 31, 2025, and 2024 (dollars in thousands):

	Three Months Ended
	January 31
	2025	2024	$ Change		% Change
Americas	$18,108	$16,650	$1,458		9	%
Europe	21,614	22,750	(1,136	)	(5	)%
Asia Pacific	6,692	5,659	1,033		18	%
Total	$46,414	$45,059	$1,355		3	%

Sales in the Americas for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 increased by 9%, compared to the corresponding period in fiscal year 2024, primarily due to an increased volume of shipments of Hurco and Milltronics machines. The increase in sales was mostly attributable to increased shipments of VM and toolroom machines, as well as lathes.

European sales for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 decreased by 5%, compared to the corresponding period in fiscal year 2024, and included an unfavorable currency impact of 1%, when translating foreign sales to U.S. dollars for financial reporting purposes. The decrease in European sales for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 was primarily attributable to a decreased volume of shipments of higher performance Hurco VMX machines and lathes in France and Italy, partially offset by increased shipments of higher-performance 5-axis Hurco machines in the United Kingdom and Milltronics vertical milling machines throughout the European region. In addition to the decreased machine sales for the quarter, European sales also reflected a decline in shipment of accessories manufactured by our wholly owned subsidiary, LCM Precision Technology S.r.l. (“LCM”).
Asian Pacific sales for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 increased by 18%, compared to the corresponding period in fiscal year 2024, and included an unfavorable currency impact of 2%, when translating foreign sales to U.S. dollars for financial reporting purposes. The increase in Asian Pacific sales primarily resulted from a higher volume of shipments of Hurco and Takumi machines in China and India.

Orders for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 were $40,085,000, a decrease of $10,133,000, or 20%, compared to the corresponding period in fiscal year 2024, and included an unfavorable currency impact of $374,000, or less than 1%, when translating foreign orders to U.S. dollars.

The following table sets forth new orders booked by geographic region for the first fiscal quarter ended January 31, 2025, and 2024 (dollars in thousands):

	Three Months Ended
	January 31
	2025	2024	$ Change		% Change
Americas	$14,643	$20,796	($6,153	)	(30	)%
Europe	19,370	23,535	(4,165	)	(18	)%
Asia Pacific	6,072	5,887	185		3	%
Total	$40,085	$50,218	($10,133	)	(20	)%

Orders in the Americas for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 decreased by 30%, compared to the corresponding period in fiscal year 2024, primarily due to decreased customer demand for Hurco and Milltronics machines, particularly the higher-performance VMX machines.

European orders for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 decreased by 18%, compared to the corresponding prior year period, and included an unfavorable currency impact of 1%, when translating foreign orders to U.S. dollars. The decrease in orders was driven primarily by decreased customer demand for electro-mechanical components and accessories manufactured by our wholly-owned subsidiary, LCM, as well as decreased customer demand for Hurco and Takumi machines in France and Italy. The decrease in Hurco machines was primarily due to decreased demand for higher-performance VMX and 5-axis machines.

Asian Pacific orders for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 increased by 3%, compared to the corresponding prior year period, and included an unfavorable currency impact of 2%, when translating foreign orders to U.S. dollars. The increase in Asian Pacific orders was driven primarily by an increase in customer demand for Hurco machines in China, partially offset by decreased customer demand for Hurco and Takumi machines in India.

Gross profit for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 was $8,290,000, or 18% of sales, compared to $9,695,000, or 22% of sales, for the corresponding prior year period. The year-over-year decrease in gross profit as a percentage of sales was primarily due to the lower volume of sales of vertical milling machines in the Americas and Europe where we typically sell more of our higher-performance VMX series machines and lathes. Additionally, gross profit was negatively impacted by the allocation of fixed costs on lower margin sales and lower production volumes.

Selling, general, and administrative expenses for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 were $10,382,000, or 22% of sales, compared to $11,515,000, or 26% of sales, in the corresponding fiscal year 2024 period, and included a favorable currency impact of $84,000, when translating foreign expenses to U.S. dollars for financial reporting purposes. The year-over-year reduction in selling, general and administrative expenses for the quarter reflected lower levels of discretionary spending, reduced sales commissions, and reduced employee health insurance costs.
Income tax expense for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 was $2,041,000, compared to an income tax benefit of $601,000, for the corresponding prior year period. The year-over-year change was primarily due to a $2,385,000 non-cash valuation allowance recorded on our Italian, U.S. and China deferred tax assets, as well as changes in geographic mix of income and loss that includes jurisdictions with differing tax rates, and discrete items related to unvested stock compensation. Because we have a valuation allowance recorded against our Italian, U.S. and China deferred tax assets, we did not record a tax benefit of $1,153,000 for our U.S., Italy and China pre-tax losses for the three months ended January 31, 2025. The valuation allowance recorded during the first quarter of fiscal 2025 reflected a full valuation allowance of the U.S. and Italian deferred tax assets and was recorded after evaluating changes to tax laws, statutory tax rates, and our cumulative three-year income (loss) levels for the U.S. and Italy for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025.

Cash and cash equivalents totaled $41,820,000 at January 31, 2025, compared to $33,330,000 at October 31, 2024. Working capital was $172,591,000 at January 31, 2025, compared to $180,788,000 at October 31, 2024. The decrease in working capital was primarily driven by decreases in inventories and accounts receivable, net, partially offset by an increase in cash and cash equivalents.

Hurco Companies, Inc. is an international, industrial technology company that sells its three brands of computer numeric control (“CNC”) machine tools to the worldwide metal cutting and metal forming industry. Two of the Company’s brands of machine tools, Hurco and Milltronics, are equipped with interactive controls that include software that is proprietary to each respective brand. The Company designs these controls and develops the software. The third brand of CNC machine tools, Takumi, is equipped with industrial controls that are produced by third parties, which allows the customer to decide the type of control added to the Takumi CNC machine tool. The Company also produces high-value machine tool components and accessories and provides automation solutions that can be integrated with any machine tool. The end markets for the Company's products are independent job shops, short-run manufacturing operations within large corporations, and manufacturers with production-oriented operations. The Company’s customers manufacture precision parts, tools, dies, and/or molds for industries such as aerospace, defense, medical equipment, energy, transportation, and computer equipment. The Company is based in Indianapolis, Indiana, with manufacturing operations in Taiwan, Italy, and the U.S., and sells its products through direct and indirect sales forces throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The Company has sales, application engineering support and service subsidiaries in China, the Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, the U.S., and Taiwan. Web Site: www.hurco.com

Certain statements in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, among others, the cyclical nature of the machine tool industry; uncertain economic conditions, which may adversely affect overall demand, in the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific markets; the risks of our international operations; governmental actions, initiatives and regulations, including import and export restrictions, duties and tariffs and changes to tax laws; the effects of changes in currency exchange rates; competition with larger companies that have greater financial resources; our dependence on new product development; the need and/or ability to protect our intellectual property assets; the limited number of our manufacturing and supply chain sources; increases in the prices of raw materials, especially steel and iron products; the effect of the loss of members of senior management and key personnel; our ability to integrate acquisitions; acquisitions that could disrupt our operations and affect operating results; failure to comply with data privacy and security regulations; breaches of our network and system security measures; possible obsolescence of our technology and the need to make technological advances; impairment of our assets; negative or unforeseen tax consequences; uncertainty concerning our ability to use tax loss carryforwards; changes in the SOFR rate; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other public health epidemics and pandemics on the global economy, our business and operations, our employees and the business, operations and economies of our customers and suppliers; and other risks and uncertainties discussed more fully under the caption “Risk Factors” in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We expressly disclaim any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contact:    Sonja K. McClelland
                Executive Vice President, Treasurer, & Chief Financial Officer
                317-293-5309

Hurco Companies, Inc.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(In thousands, except per share data)
	Three Months Ended
	January 31,
		2025				2024
	(unaudited)
Sales and service fees	$	46,414			$	45,059
Cost of sales and service		38,124				35,364
Gross profit		8,290				9,695
Selling, general and administrative expenses		10,382				11,515
Operating (loss) income		(2,092	)			(1,820	)
Interest expense		58				131
Interest income		94				156
Investment income		161				59
Other (expense) income, net		(384	)			(513	)
(Loss) income before taxes		(2,279	)			(2,249	)
(Benefit) provision for income taxes		2,041				(601	)
Net (loss) income	$	(4,320	)		$	(1,648	)
(Loss) income per common share
Basic	$	(0.67	)		$	(0.25	)
Diluted	$	(0.67	)		$	(0.25	)
Weighted average common shares outstanding
Basic		6,459				6,483
Diluted		6,459				6,483
Dividends per share	$	-			$	0.16
OTHER CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA
	Three Months Ended
	January 31,
Operating Data:		2025				2024
	(unaudited)
Gross margin		18	%			22	%
SG&A expense as a percentage of sales		22	%			26	%
Operating (loss) income as a percentage of sales		-5	%			-4	%
Pre-tax (loss) income as a percentage of sales		-5	%			-5	%
Effective tax rate		-90	%			27	%
Depreciation and amortization	$	710			$	908
Capital expenditures	$	556			$	832
Balance Sheet Data:	1/31/2025				10/31/2024
Working capital	$	172,591			$	180,788
Days sales outstanding		50				49
Inventory turns		1				1
Capitalization
Total debt		--				--
Shareholders' equity		198,143				207,172
Total	$	198,143			$	207,172

Hurco Companies, Inc.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(In thousands, except share and per share data)
	January 31,				October 31,
		2025				2024
ASSETS	(unaudited)
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents	$	41,820			$	33,330
Accounts receivable, net		28,355				36,678
Inventories		139,736				153,037
Derivative assets		525				323
Prepaid and other assets		6,119				5,209
Total current assets		216,555				228,577
Property and equipment:
Land		1,046				1,046
Building		7,381				7,381
Machinery and equipment		25,383				28,106
Leasehold improvements		4,248				4,667
		38,058				41,200
Less accumulated depreciation and amortization		(29,903	)			(32,404	)
Total property and equipment, net		8,155				8,796
Non-current assets:
Software development costs, less accumulated amortization		7,235				7,044
Intangible assets, net		722				763
Operating lease - right of use assets, net		11,443				11,313
Deferred income taxes		617				1,349
Investments		8,414				8,216
Other assets		2,690				2,585
Total non-current assets		31,121				31,270
Total assets	$	255,831			$	268,643
LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY
Current liabilities:
Accounts payable	$	22,322			$	24,951
Customer deposits		3,228				4,308
Derivative liabilities		1,817				705
Operating lease liabilities		3,881				3,829
Accrued payroll and employee benefits		6,266				7,786
Accrued income taxes		1,451				866
Accrued expenses		4,013				4,258
Accrued warranty expenses		986				1,086
Total current liabilities		43,964				47,789
Non-current liabilities:
Deferred income taxes		49				53
Accrued tax liability		537				537
Operating lease liabilities		7,917				7,852
Deferred credits and other		5,221				5,240
Total non-current liabilities		13,724				13,682
Commitment and contingencies		-				-
Shareholders' equity:
Preferred stock: no par value per share, 1,000,000 shares authorized; no shares issued		-				-
Common stock: no par value, $.10 stated value per share, 12,500,000 shares authorized; 6,644,286 and 6,548,838 shares issued and 6,483,990 and 6,435,624 shares outstanding, as of January 31, 2025 and October 31, 2024, respectively		648				644
Additional paid-in capital		61,728				61,500
Retained earnings		157,102				161,422
Accumulated other comprehensive loss		(21,335	)			(16,394	)
Total shareholders' equity		198,143				207,172
Total liabilities and shareholders' equity	$	255,831			$	268,643

FAQ

What caused Hurco's (HURC) net loss to widen in Q1 2025?

The increased loss was primarily due to a $2.39 million non-cash tax valuation allowance and lower gross margins from reduced sales of higher-performance machines.

How did Hurco's (HURC) regional sales perform in Q1 2025?

Americas sales grew 9%, Asia Pacific increased 18%, while European sales declined 5%, resulting in overall 3% sales growth.

What was Hurco's (HURC) order intake trend in Q1 2025?

Orders decreased 20% to $40.09 million, with Americas down 30%, Europe down 18%, and Asia Pacific up 3%.

How much cash does Hurco (HURC) have as of January 31, 2025?

Cash and cash equivalents totaled $41.82 million, up from $33.33 million in October 2024.