National Instruments Plans 19% R&D Headcount Increase

Coming off a 4Q that showed a new quarterly revenue record and results exceeding guidance, National Instruments Corp. (NI) late Monday announced plans to increase total headcount by 17 percent and R&D headcount by 19 percent.

The hiring plans were stated in NI's report on 4Q 2010, a quarter that showed revenue of $250 million, a 24 percent increase compared to 4Q 2009. The sales exceeded the company's October guidance of between $230 million and $244 million.

NI noted that its large order business, defined as orders greater than $20,000, grew 22 percent sequentially in 4Q. Backlog increased by $5 million from September 30, 2010, to December 31, 2010.

"We are extremely pleased by our impressive finish to 2010, and this increases our confidence in aggressively investing in long-term growth," said Alex Davern, EVP, COO, and CFO, in a statement. "As part of our investment for 2011, we are budgeting to increase our R&D personnel by 19 percent and our field sales force by 24 percent. Overall headcount is budgeted to increase by 17 percent; however, the incremental cost of these additions will be partially offset by an expected reduction in our variable compensation in 2011."

The hiring continues to grow NI's staff. When compared to Q4 2005, NI's Q4 2010 R&D headcount was up by nearly 50 percent and field sales headcount was up by more than 70 percent. Headquartered in Austin, NI has more than 5,200 employees and direct operations in nearly 40 countries. The company also has the employeer honor of being named a "best company to work for." Indeed, this year marked NI's 12th consecutive time on FORTUNE magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list.

NI also reported 4Q virtual instrumentation and graphical system design product sales were up 24 percent year-over-year. NI instrument control product sales were up 20 percent year-over-year in the quarter. Product revenue was $234 million, up 24 percent year-over-year, and software maintenance revenue was $16 million, up 21 percent year-over-year.

"I am extremely pleased with the significant demand we saw for our products through 2010," said Dr. James Truchard, NI co-founder, president, and CEO, in the statement. "I believe our long-term focus on innovation and our expanding product and services portfolio have created significant new opportunities for NI, and I believe our customers are seeing great value in our integrated platforms such as NI LabVIEW, PXI, and CompactRIO."

For full year 2010, NI reported record revenue of $873 million, up 29 percent year-over-year. The company also reported record annual revenue for NI CompactRIO, RF, and PXI modular instruments.

Looking to 1Q, NI expects year-over-year revenue growth, with revenue expected to be between $230 million and $244 million, up from 1Q 2010's $202 million.

National Instruments