Amgen Is Area’s Top Public Firm

Producing everything from cancer drugs to skateboards, public companies in Ventura County racked up $3.4 billion in sales last year and demonstrated that the county is rebounding from its aerospace industry losses, a Times study shows.

Amgen Inc., the Thousand Oaks-based biotechnology juggernaut, dwarfs the county’s other publicly traded firms in terms of sales, market value and a host of other financial indicators.

And it ranks as one of the top performing public companies in California, according to The Times 100 study released today.

With a market value of more than $15 billion, Amgen is California’s 10th largest public company. And it is the state’s 11th most profitable, with $717 million in absolute profits in 1996.

The firm placed 35th on The Times 100, a comprehensive ranking of public companies based on five key financial indicators. The report looks at the most recent four quarters available, and for Amgen and a few other companies some of the data is as of March 31.

But economy watchers note that most of the 20 public firms in Ventura County concentrate on computer and telecommunications technology--the modern pursuit of sending data, sounds and images across telephone lines and from computer to computer, feeding a mass hunger for more and more information.

They make things like semiconductors and computer network connectors, devices that have transformed the way we communicate.

Located mostly in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Camarillo, the county’s public companies include a semiconductor company that is one of Wall Street’s favorites, computer networking companies and electronics firms.

Most of them--15 of 20--are growing, posting higher sales in 1996 than during the previous year. Together, the companies show that the high-tech push has reached this county of bedroom communities.

“These are the firms of the 1990s in California--biotech, semiconductors, electronics, Web emergence,” said Mark Schniepp, a UC Santa Barbara economist who tracks the Ventura County economy. “That whole cyber industry started in California. Certainly, Ventura County has its share.”

The relative lack of high-tech companies west of Camarillo is not surprising, Schniepp added. The eastern half of the county has developed as an offshoot of Los Angeles County, capturing high-tech companies as new industries spread, he said.

Publicly traded companies, such as Moorpark skateboard and roller blade maker Variflex Inc., show that Ventura County’s economy on the whole is by no means dominated by technology companies, Schniepp added.

Business diversity helps insulate economies from dramatic downturns that can happen when an area relies too heavily on one industry.

Nonetheless, technology companies were the county’s biggest business stories in 1996:

* Amgen’s stellar 1996 performance includes a statewide ranking of 33 in terms of average return on equity, considered one of the best indicators of a company’s financial health. But its stock price remained flat. Analysts say that is because investors are worried the company continues to produce only two biotech drugs, although more than a dozen are under development.

“The new product is very unresolved at this point. . . . Until there’s greater resolution as to what’s in the pipeline, I think [investors] might stand back,” said Montgomery Securities biotechnology analyst David Crossen.

But a look at the construction underway at Amgen’s Thousand Oaks campus shows the company is bullish on its future growth prospects. Amgen is putting up five new buildings totaling about 775,000 square feet, including a new administrative center.

The company expects to make 500 new hires at its Thousand Oaks headquarters this year and bring Infergen, which fights hepatitis C, to market.

“We plan for success,” said Amgen spokesman David Kaye.

* Continuing a turnaround, Vitesse Semiconductor saw sales rise 57% to $82.8 million and its stock price soar by more than 60%. The company added about 120 jobs at its Camarillo plant in 1996. Vitesse is among the top performing public companies in California, ranked 59 in The Times 100.

Vitesse makes gallium arsenide chips, which make computers run faster with less power than the silicon semiconductors. When it started out in 1984, the company served the supercomputer industry. When that industry crashed, Vitesse moved into the fast-growing telecommunications industry.

“They made a successful switch into data and telecommunications. . . . They’re forward thinking. They could see the markets developing and what their chips could serve,” said Mark Kelleher, an analyst with Fechtor, Detwiler & Co. “I think it’s a great company.”

Of course, not all public companies in Ventura County had reason to celebrate in 1996.

Reddi Brake Supply Corp., a Ventura-based auto parts supplier, has entered bankruptcy proceedings. It ranks No. 1 on The Times list of troubled companies.

The troubled company said it suffered from an inefficient computer system, inadequate training procedures for new employees and an overabundance of inventory that sat on shelves. It has shuttered its 84 warehouses across the U.S.

Moreover, some technology companies struggled, showing that even the hottest industries have their ups and downs.

Camarillo telecommunications company California Amplifier saw sales plunge 20%, and its stock has been battered, dropping nearly 90%.

Still, economists said that on the whole, they like what they see in the county’s public companies.

Cal Lutheran University economist Ali Akbari said the strong performance of Ventura County’s high-tech companies shows that the county is in step with modern industry--and that the county’s economy continues to emerge from some tough post-aerospace years.

“Compared to Silicon Valley, this is not a lot,” Akbari said. “But compared to Ventura County in 1990, this is healthy, welcome news.”

* SPECIAL SECTION: The Times ranks and profiles public companies statewide. Business, Part II

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1996 Performance of Public Companies

Company: Amgen Inc.

City: Thousand Oaks

Industry: Biomedical

1996 sales (in millions): $2,307.4

Percent sales change: 14.9%

Market capitalization: $15,260.1

52-week stock price change: 0.4%

****

Company: Xircom Inc.

City: Thousand Oaks

Industry: Computer networking

1996 sales (in millions): $229.7

Percent sales change: 77.4%

Market capitalization: $202.5

52-week stock price change: -31.2%

****

Company: Whittaker Corp.

City: Simi Valley

Industry: Aerospace, data networking

1996 sales (in millions): $227.5

Percent sales change: 28.4%

Market capitalization: $105.9

52-week stock price change: -59.6%

****

Company: Eltron International

City: Simi Valley

Industry: Bar code label technology

1996 sales (in millions): $88.5

Percent sales change: 71.5%

Market capitalization: $143.6

52-week stock price change: -26.9%

****

Company: Vitesse Semiconductor

City: Camarillo

Industry: Semiconductors

1996 sales (in millions): $82.8

Percent sales change: 57.0%

Market capitalization: $997.0

52-week stock price change: 61.9%

****

Company: Semtech Corp.

City: Thousand Oaks

Industry: Semiconductors

1996 sales (in millions): $65.4

Percent sales change: 6.0%

Market capitalization: $152.4

52-week stock price change: 133.7%

****

Company: Variflex Inc.

City: Moorpark

Industry: In-line skates, skateboards

1996 sales (in millions): $60.7

Percent sales change: -24.3%

Market capitalization: $30.5

52-week stock price change: -36.7%

****

Company: Reddi Brake Supply Corp.

City: Ventura

Industry: Automobile parts

1996 sales (in millions): $60.2

Percent sales change: 6.3%

Market capitalization: $2.2

52-week stock price change: -97.4%

****

Company: Diodes Inc.

City: Westlake

Industry: Semiconductors

1996 sales (in millions): $56.0

Percent sales change: -3.7%

Market capitalization: $44.6

52-week stock price change: -11.1%

****

Company: LTC Properties Inc.

City: Oxnard

Industry: Real estate

1996 sales (in millions): $54.9

Percent sales change: 54.4%

Market capitalization: $386.7

52-week stock price change: 14.8%

****

Company: California Amplifier

City: Camarillo

Industry: Telecommunications

1996 sales (in millions): $49.3

Percent sales change: -20.0%

Market capitalization: $46.8

52-week stock price change: -87.6%

****

Company: ACT Networks Inc.

City: Camarillo

Industry: Computer networking

1996 sales (in millions): $44.8

Percent sales change: 79.0%

Market capitalization: $106.9

52-week stock price change: -57.7%

****

Company: DDL Electronics Inc.

City: Thousand Oaks

Industry: Electronics

1996 sales (in millions): $42.0

Percent sales change: 66.6%

Market capitalization: $21.6

52-week stock price change: -55.9%

****

Company: View Tech Inc.

City: Camarillo

Industry: Telecommunications

1996 sales (in millions): $23.9

Percent sales change: 189.6%

Market capitalization: $13.2

52-week stock price change: -49.2%

****

Company: BioSource International

City: Camarillo

Industry: Biomedical

1996 sales (in millions): $15.9

Percent sales change: 84.9%

Market capitalization: $62.4

52-week stock price change: 2.6%

****

Company: Interlink Electronics

City: Camarillo

Industry: Electronics

1996 sales (in millions): $15.0

Percent sales change: 33.5%

Market capitalization: $25.7

52-week stock price change: -16.7%

****

Company: AML Communications Inc.

City: Camarillo

Industry: Telecommunications

1996 sales (in millions): $14.2

Percent sales change: 176.4%

Market capitalization: $20.8

52-week stock price change: -72.7%

****

Company: Biopool International

City: Ventura

Industry: Biomedical

1996 sales (in millions): $8.0

Percent sales change: 20.4%

Market capitalization: $19.0

52-week stock price change: 18.8%

****

Company: Advanced Photonix Inc.

City: Camarillo

Industry: Phototechnology

1996 sales (in millions): $6.8

Percent sales change: -12.4%

Market capitalization: $16.1

52-week stock price change: -46.7%

****

Company: PerfectData Corp.

City: Simi Valley

Industry: Computer, office products

1996 sales (in millions): $5.9

Percent sales change: -3.2%

Market capitalization: $6.4

52-week stock price change: 78.5%

Source: Market Guide, Lake Success, N.Y.