MIAMI—PEN Inc. (OTCQB: PENC), parent company of Nanofilm, reported total revenues were $2.01 million for its third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2016, flat compared with the year-ago period. Gross profit amounted to $631,083, up from $516,449 for the third quarter of 2015.

Gross margin was 31 percent, compared to 26 percent in the year-ago period. The increase in gross margin was attributable to the higher proportion of revenue from the product segment and improved gross margin from the R&D services segment during the quarter, PEN said.

Operating loss was $235,772 in the third quarter of 2016, compared to an operating loss of $732,993 in the third quarter of 2015. Net loss for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2016 amounted to $210,902 compared to a net loss of $757,110 for the year-ago period.

Sales for PEN’s product segment, which includes customized optical and eyewear cleaning and defogging treatments sold under Nanofilm’s Clarity brand, climbed to $1.78 million for third quarter 2016, up 6 percent from year-ago. For the nine month-period, product segment sales were $5.39 million, down 10 percent from the first nine months of 2015. Gross margin in the Product segment in the third quarter of 2016 was 37 percent, compared to 40 percent in the year ago period.

"During the third quarter of 2016, we saw a slight uptick in sales of health and safety products supported a portfolio of Clarity branded products,” said Scott Rickert, PEN's president, chairman and CEO. “More importantly, we maintained gross margin while posting a dramatic improvement in the bottom line and generating positive cash flow from operations.”

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2015, PEN posted total revenues of $6.20 million down 16 percent from revenues of $7.39 million in the first nine months of 2015. Gross profit was $2.15 million in the first nine months of 2016, down 12 percent from gross profit of $2.44 million in the first nine months of 2015.

Gross margin was 35 percent, up from 33 percent in the first nine months of 2015. Net loss for first nine months of 2016 amounted to $456,528 compared to a net loss of $1.52 million for the first nine months of 2015.