Hurco Reports First Quarter Results INDIANAPOLIS, March 6,

INDIANAPOLIS, March 6, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hurco Companies, Inc. (Nasdaq: HURC ) today reported results for the first fiscal quarter ended January 31, 2015. Hurco recorded net income of $3,766,000, or $0.57 per diluted share, for the first quarter of fiscal 2015 compared to net income of $2,369,000 or $0.36 per diluted share, for the corresponding period in fiscal 2014.

Sales and service fees for the first quarter of fiscal 2015 were $50,972,000, a slight increase from the same period in the prior year. However, sales and service fees for the first quarter of fiscal 2015 were adversely affected by an unfavorable currency impact of approximately $3,578,000, or 7%, when translating foreign sales to U.S. Dollars for financial reporting purposes.

The following table sets forth net sales and service fees by geographic region for the first quarters of fiscal 2015 and 2014 (in thousands):

European sales increased during the first quarter of fiscal 2015 by 9% compared to the corresponding prior year period. European sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2015 were adversely affected by an unfavorable currency impact of approximately $3,365,000, or 12%, due primarily to a weaker Euro and Pound Sterling when translating foreign sales to U.S. Dollars for financial reporting purposes. The year-over-year improvement in European sales was primarily driven by increased shipments of higher-performance machines in Germany, France and Italy. North American sales decreased in the first quarter of fiscal 2015 by 9%, reflecting lower order levels in comparison to the same period in the prior year, as many customers took advantage of promotional activities for the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014. Asian Pacific sales decreased in the first quarter of fiscal 2015 by 21% compared to the corresponding prior year period, primarily due to a large multiple machine order received in the prior year period from a customer in China.

Orders in the first quarter of fiscal 2015 were $45,009,000, a decrease of $12,085,000, or 21%, compared to the corresponding period in fiscal 2014. The following table sets forth new orders booked by geographic region for the first quarters of fiscal 2015 and 2014 (in thousands):

European orders for the first quarter of fiscal 2015 decreased by 29% compared to the corresponding period in fiscal 2014 primarily due to softening market conditions, particularly in Eastern Europe. European orders for the first quarter of fiscal 2015 were adversely affected by an unfavorable currency impact of approximately $2,878,000, or 9%, due primarily to a weaker Euro and Pound Sterling when translating foreign orders to U.S. Dollars for financial reporting purposes. North American orders for the first quarter of fiscal 2015 decreased by 5% compared to the corresponding period in fiscal 2014, as many customers took advantage of promotional activities at the IMTS during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014. The year-over-year decrease in Asian Pacific orders of 15% was due primarily to a large multiple machine order received in the prior year period from a customer in China.

Hurco's gross profit for the first quarter of fiscal 2015 was $16,547,000, or 32% of sales, compared to $13,919,000, or 27% of sales, for the corresponding prior year period. The increase in gross profit was attributable to increased sales in Europe of higher-performance machines and improved leverage of fixed costs over higher production levels in comparison to the corresponding prior year period.

Selling, general and administrative expenses for the first quarter of fiscal 2015 were $10,454,000, or 21% of sales, compared to $10,600,000, or 21% of sales, in the corresponding period in fiscal 2014. Selling, general and administrative expenses were favorably impacted by approximately $474,000, or 4%, when translating foreign expenses to U.S. Dollars for financial reporting purposes.

The effective tax rate for the first quarter of fiscal 2015 was 35%, compared to 28% for the corresponding prior year period, due to changes in the geographic mix of income and loss among tax jurisdictions.

Cash and cash equivalents totaled $59,855,000 at January 31, 2015, compared to $53,846,000 at October 31, 2014. Working capital, excluding cash and cash equivalents, was $85,831,000 at January 31, 2015 compared to $90,105,000 at October 31, 2014. The decrease in working capital, excluding cash, was primarily due to decreases in accounts receivable and the impact of translating foreign currencies to U.S. Dollars for financial reporting purposes.

Michael Doar, Chief Executive Officer, stated, "We continue to focus on shareholder return and investing in new products for our customers. Increased sales, excluding the impact of currency, and improved earnings reflect our discipline and financial stability despite challenging market conditions. We continue to expand our product line as we are confident these new products will enable us to fulfill the needs of more manufacturers worldwide. Additionally, we have begun the transition to our new control technology that we introduced at the International Manufacturing Technology Show last year. The new control features and numerous enhancements offer efficiencies that we expect to improve profitability for our customers."

Hurco Companies, Inc. is an industrial technology company that designs and produces interactive computer controls, software and computerized machine tools and machine tool components for the worldwide metal cutting and metal forming industry. The end market for the Company's products consists primarily of independent job shops and short-run manufacturing operations within large corporations in industries such as aerospace, defense, medical equipment, energy, transportation and computer equipment. The Company is based in Indianapolis, Indiana, with manufacturing operations in Taiwan, Italy, and China, and sells its products through direct and indirect sales forces throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. The Company has sales, application engineering support and service subsidiaries in China, England, France, Germany, India, Italy, Poland, Singapore, South Africa and the United States of America. Web Site: www.hurco.com

Certain statements in this news release are forward-looking statements which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, among others, the cyclical nature of the machine tool industry, changes in general economic and business conditions that affect demand for our products, the risks of our international operations, changes in manufacturing markets, innovations by competitors, the ability to protect our intellectual property, breaches of our network and system security measures, fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, increases in prices of raw materials, quality and delivery performance by our vendors, our ability to effectively integrate acquisitions, negative or unforeseen tax consequences and governmental actions and initiatives including import and export restrictions and tariffs.

Sonja K. McClelland Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer & Chief Financial Officer 317-293-5309