Numerex Corp. (Nasdaq: NMRX), a single-source provider of secure wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) network services and solutions, today announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2009.

Key financial metrics for the first quarter of 2009 include:

• A year-over-year growth rate of 60 percent in recurring M2M service revenues, excluding analog service revenue recorded in the first quarter of last year. Analog service was decommissioned in the United States and Canada beginning in March of 2008. Numerex reported total consolidated service revenues of $7.0 million in the first quarter of 2009 compared to $6.8 million in the same period last year which included analog service revenue.
• Gross margin for the three months ended March 31, 2009 was 41.9 percent compared to 31.2 percent during the same period last year. The continuing increase in wireless service revenue drives an overall margin improvement since service revenues have a significantly higher gross margin than those achieved through the sale of hardware.
• Total operating expenses were $6.6 million during the quarter ended March 31, 2009 compared to $6.4 million for the first quarter of 2008. Excluding litigation-related legal fees, expenses were lower during the current quarter by approximately $500,000 compared to the same period last year reflecting reductions in administrative headcount, travel, consulting services, facility expenses, as well as other related costs.

"We are pleased with the first quarter's performance highlighted by the continued growth in digital connections and long-term recurring service revenues," said Stratton Nicolaides, chairman and chief executive officer of Numerex.  "During the quarter, digital connections reached 758,000 compared to 449,000 reported at the end of first quarter of 2008. Our previously announced strategy to focus our resources on generating higher-margin service revenues and de-emphasize hardware-only sales is working well. The breadth of M2M activity witnessed towards the end of last year and to date has exceeded expectations. We have signed over 25 master service agreements with a variety of customers since the beginning of the year and have several more in the queue for processing."  

Specific accomplishments since our last results press release in late February earlier this year and more can be found at this site.