MINNEAPOLIS - Fargo Electronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:FRGO) today reported net sales of $20,110,000 for the first quarter ended March 31, 2006, an increase of 8% over the $18,657,000 reported in the first quarter of 2005. Net income for the quarter was $2,055,000 compared to $2,149,000 in the same period last year. Earnings per diluted share for the first quarter were $0.16 compared to $0.17 in the first quarter of 2005. The impact of the company's adoption of SFAS 123 (R) Share-Based Payment in the first quarter of 2006 on earnings per share for the quarter was $0.01.
"Fargo has made a solid start to fiscal 2006," said Gary R. Holland, Fargo's president and chief executive officer. "The investments we made in our international sales infrastructure in 2005 showed results in the quarter as international sales increased 36% over the first quarter of 2005. We also continued our focus on innovation with the launch of the HDP600 CR100 card printer/encoder, the industry's only desktop printer able to print full images over the edges on oversized cards. In addition, we introduced the Fargo Software Development Kit, a collection of software development tools that make it easy for most smart card applications to control the necessary encoding functions of Fargo printer/encoders. We believe the outlook for Fargo is positive and we remain optimistic about the future."
