Cree’s (Nasdaq: CREE) stock price has been hammered over the last week despite quarterly financial results that exceeded estimates of financial analysts.
The concern among investors is the Durham company’s ability to sustain its growth in LED lighting, particularly as competitors jump into the consumer LED lighting arena. But Cree CEO Chuck Swoboda took great pains to emphasize the long term growth prospects of LED lighting and Cree’s introduction of a $10 consumer LED light bulb as part of a strategy to position itself as the leader in the space.
“With this (LED light bulb) we have become the standard that most companies are compared to,” Swoboda said during company’s annual shareholders meeting.
Investors apparently liked what Swoboda had to say as the company’s stock closed Tuesday at $61.39, up 1.7 percent from Monday’s closing price.
Swoboda reiterated to investors attending the meeting the points that Cree has emphasized since launching its $10 LED bulb in March. In comparison to traditional incandescent light bulbs, Cree’s LED bulbs generate far less heat, use far less energy and they don’t need to be replaced. In two years, these bulbs pay for themselves.
With Cree’s $10 LED bulbs commercially available only for seven months, Swoboda said it’s still early to assess how the product is doing compared to incandescent lighting. But Swoboda exuded confidence that the lower price will drive sales, particularly as LED awareness grows. On this matter, he addressed concerns about the low price. He said some investors asked him if the less expensive bulbs reflects a low margin product strategy.
“It is not a lower margin product strategy,” he said. “It is a high margin brand strategy.”
An advertising campaign followed the LED light bulb launch and Cree commercials now air during many college football games. One investor spoke up during the meeting to tell Swoboda that she does not watch football and she wondered whether the company would do more to target a broader consumer audience.
Swoboda said that the ad campaign initially targeted live sports because those are the programs where viewers tend to watch the most commercials – they stay on the channel because they don’t want to miss a minute of live sports action. But he added that the company was mindful of the need to broaden its outreach. He said this quarter Cree commercials will start airing on Home and Garden Television, or HGTV.
The $10 LED bulbs help build broad awareness of Cree, which in turn builds the branding of the company. Swoboda cited a study showing the companies perceived as the “voice” of LED lighting. Cree garnered 80 percent of that voice.
“If we look up Cree in five years, it will change how Cree is viewed in the industry and give us a much better opportunity to grow as a company,” he said.
