Chris Diorio, CEO of Impinj, at the 2018 GeekWire Summit. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)

Impinj, the Seattle maker of high-tech tags for connecting billions of items to the internet, is back on a growth trajectory in one key metric, seeing an annual revenue increase for the first time in a year.

Impinj reported net losses of $1.1 million, or $0.05 per share on a quarterly record of $34.4 million in revenue for the third quarter. That’s well ahead of analysts expectations of losses of $0.14 per share on $33.47 million in revenue.

Revenue increased approximately 5.5 percent over a year ago, breaking a streak of annual revenue declines that dates back to the fourth quarter of last year.

“Our third quarter 2018 results marked another quarter of solid execution,” Impinj CEO Chris Diorio said in a statement. “We returned to year-over-year revenue growth and our systems business had a record quarter.”

The momentum of the systems business was powered by connected tag reader devices. Earlier this month, Impinj shipped its 2 millionth connectivity device.

Impinj stock initially spiked 10 percent in after-hours trading but dropped back down toward its closing price of $18.47. For the fourth quarter, Impinj issued guidance of $31 to $33 million in revenue, with losses of $0.10 to $0.17, right in line with analyst expectations.

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