Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our conference call for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2012. I am Jamie Simms, Chief Financial Officer, and with me here, as noted, is Patrizio Vinciarelli, our CEO.
Today, we issued a press release summarizing our financial results for the fourth quarter and all of 2012. This press release is available on the Investor page of our website, vicorpower.com. We have also filed a Form 8 K and our amendment to our scheduled TO with the Securities and Exchange Commission in association with issuing this press release. I remind all of you today’s conference call is being recorded and is the copyrighted property of Vicor Corporation.
I also remind you various remarks we may make during this call may constitute forward looking statements for purposes of the Safe Harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those explicitly set forth or implied in our statements. Such risks and uncertainties are discussed in our most recent forms 10 K and 10 Q filed with the SEC. Please note the information provided during this conference call is accurate only as of the date of the call. Vicor undertakes no obligation to update any of the statements made during this call and you should not rely upon them after the conclusion of the call.
A replay will be available beginning at midnight tonight through March 13. The replay dial in number is 888 286 8010 and the listener pass code is 17127574. In addition, a webcast replay of the call will be available on the Investor Relations page of our website beginning shortly after its conclusion.
I will start this evening’s call with a review of our financial performance for the fourth quarter and Patricia will follow with comments on current performance, after which we will take your questions. As set forth in this afternoon’s press release, Vicor reported an after tax loss for the fourth quarter of $4.8 million, representing a loss of $0.12 per basic share. Vicor’s consolidated revenue for the fourth quarter of 2012 decreased to $50.4 million compared to $53 million for the third quarter, representing a sequential decline of 4.8%. The fourth quarter figure compares to revenue of $58.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2011, representing a year over year quarterly decline of 13.9%.
International revenue decreased 4.8% quarter to quarter and represented 50.8% of total revenue, a decline from 52.1% for the third quarter of 2012 and 53.7% for the fourth quarter of 2011. We experienced another sequential double digit percentage increase in recognized sell through revenue associated with shipments by our stocking distributors. The absolute figures are relatively small, but the trend continues to be positive.
Consolidated gross margin declined to 39.3% compared to 43.4% for the third quarter, although a meaningful portion of the relative decline was attributable to an increase in inventory reserves which I will describe in a moment. The other drag on gross margin percentage was the impact of reduced volume, particularly within V*I chip. Overall changes in average unit cost and average selling price were favorable sequentially, but offset by an unfavorable shift in mix.
Consolidated operating expenses as reported for the fourth quarter increased sequentially 7.6%. The fourth quarter total included both the gain from the settlement of insurance litigation, which was approximately $2 million, and the charge of approximately $2 million for the impairment of goodwill.
Financial reporting standards require that we record these unusual events as part of operations. However, since they largely offset one another, the as reported figure approximately represents the trend in recurring operating expenses. The sequential increase in total operating expenses was driven by higher marketing and sales expenses, notably compensation, travel, and advertising, and higher research and development expenses, notably compensation and the consumption of materials and supplies.
Total head count, at 1,046 as of December 31, was slightly up sequentially and year over year. However, there has been a shift in the makeup of our employees as we have expanded our marketing and sales team while reducing our manufacturing head count, thereby shifting our overall compensation higher. As disclosed in our press release last week, based on our assessment of our cost structure and expected capacity requirements for the foreseeable future, we reduced head count by 50 on February 12 bringing our current total to 996.
As we communicated in our press release of November 26, we expected at that time to break even for the fourth quarter with an expected loss associated with operations offset by the gain associated with the settlement of insurance litigation that we recorded in October. Our actual loss associated with operations was larger than forecast, and we also recorded several large non cash charges, which I will now describe. We recorded a $1.36 million increase in inventory reserves as a charge to cost of goods sold, primarily for inventories of raw materials and components we deemed as excess and obsolete.
Over 3 quarters of the charge was for V*I chip raw material and component inventories associated with products for which we had earlier forecast reasonable revenue during 2012 and 2013. However, due to extended delays in receipt of purchase orders and limited visibility into when we might actually consume these parts, they did not pass our mathematical excess and obsolete tests. We also recorded a $2 million impairment charge to reduce to zero the carrying value of goodwill associated with our acquisition in 1998 of Vicor Japan Company Limited, our Japanese subsidiary.
Financial reporting standards require us to annually assess the carrying value of goodwill, which can be complex and very subjective undertaking. With this year’s exercise, we concluded the carrying value inclusive of goodwill exceeded the fair market value of the subsidiary. The other significant charge for the fourth quarter was associated with the write off of our deferred tax assets associated with state level activity. Financial reporting standards require us to assess the carrying value of deferred tax assets based on the likelihood the company over an extended forecast period would be able to offset future taxable income with the deferred tax assets.
While we concluded our federal level deferred tax assets were viable, we also concluded our state level deferred tax assets were not as they have different applicability. This write-off totaled $1.5 million and is reflected in our calculation of our fourth quarter provision for income taxes. Given the assumed non recurring nature of these charges, we have chosen not to present non GAAP pro forma financials as we do not believe the charges as described above will be recurring, are complex, or otherwise cloud investors’ view of our underlying operating performance requiring a non GAAP pro forma presentation and the associated reconciliation to our financials.
Our quarterly pretax loss including interest income, foreign exchange loss, and a loss in the estimated value of our auction rate securities was $4.3 million, a decline from the $366,000 pretax income earned in the third quarter. Despite the pretax loss for the fourth quarter, we have recorded a provision for income taxes of 398,000 reflecting the reduction of the value of state level deferred tax assets described above.
Our consolidated effective tax rate for 2012 was 46.6%. It was 48.3% for the 3 quarters ended September 30, 2012. Please note our provision as recorded through 2012 does not reflect any benefit from federal research and development tax credits as Congress did not renew this credit until January '13. As such, our first quarter 2013 provision for income tax will reflect the full credit that would have been recorded through 2012.
For the fourth quarter, our consolidated net loss before backing out any after tax profit from the consolidated subsidiaries in which we hold minority interest was $4.7 million compared to $280,000 for the third quarter. As stated, our consolidated net loss available to Vicor’s shareholders, in other words, as reported after backing out the subsidiary net income, was a loss of $4.8 million. This compared to net income available to Vicor’s shareholders of $191,000 for the third quarter of 2012. Due to rounding, the fourth quarter loss per share rounds up from $0.115 to $0.12.
Quarterly cash flow from operations increased to $2.9 million from the prior quarter’s $1.4 million, reflecting a $3 million favorable swing in net working capital based on reductions in accounts receivable and inventories. Capital expenditures for the quarter increased slightly from $2.1 million to $2.6 million, but reflected maintenance activity, not an expansion of capacity. We do not anticipate a meaningful change in our capital expenditures in the coming quarters. Cash was essentially unchanged for the quarter.
Turning to the consolidated balance sheet, our receivables portfolio remains in excellent shape with days sales decreasing to 49 days, down from the third quarter’s level of 51 days. Consolidated inventories quarter to quarter were stable before the aforementioned increase in reserve, increasing $438,000. Reflecting the reserve, annualized inventory turns stood at 3.9, essentially unchanged from third quarter. As of year end, we had $84.6 million in cash and equivalents. We also hold long term investment securities carried at an estimated fair value of $6.7 million. Included in this long term total, our auction rate securities with a par value of $6.1 million, carried at a book value of $5.0 million, representing 81.6% of par.
That concludes my prepared remarks regarding our financials. Now, I’ll turn the call over to Patrizio.