California Amplifier Posts Loss of $138,000

California Amplifier Inc., a Camarillo company that makes components for home satellite dishes and other microwave communication devices, said it had a loss of $138,000 in the fourth quarter that ended Mar. 2, contrasted with a profit of $43,000 a year before. The company’s sales for the period climbed 29% to $3.25 million from $2.52 million a year ago.

For the year that ended Mar. 2, the company had a net loss of $508,000 compared with a profit of $226,000 a year earlier.

California Amplifier, which recently has nearly ceased military sales to focus on commercial products, attributed the fourth-quarter loss to increases in spending for research and development and to the cost of introducing new products. The full-year loss also included a third-quarter writeoff stemming from the move away from of military sales.

In a statement, chief executive Barry W. Hall said the company “did not meet our profit objectives” because “the discontinuance of the defense products business was more costly than anticipated.” But he added that commercial sales in the fourth quarter were 77% higher than a year earlier.