Itron Inc., the Liberty Lake-based maker of automated utility-meter reading technology, reported this afternoon fourth quarter 2012 net income of $16.0 million, or 40 cents a diluted share, up substantially from a net loss of $54.6 million, or $1.35 a share, in the year-earlier quarter.

For all of 2012, the company reported net income of $108.3 million, or $2.71 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $510.2 million, or $12.56 a share, in 2011.

Profits rose despite a $119 million drop in revenue, to $523 million in the fourth quarter compared with $642 million in the year-earlier period. The drop in revenue occurred largely in the energy segment as the company completed more than $1.5 billion of OpenWay pilot projects in North America.

Unfavorable changes in foreign currency exchange also hurt revenues.

Philip Mezey, Itron's president and CEO, said in a press release, "While total revenues declined in the quarter compared to last year, our base business revenues excluding these large OpenWay contracts grew 6 percent."

Separately, Itron rebought about $6.7 million of its own stock during the quarter. At year-end, the company had bought back about 2 million shares of its own stock, or 5 percent of all company shares, since a repurchase program began in fall of 2011.