Interest expense.
Our interest expense decreased by $0.3 million to $0.6 million for the three months ended September 28, 2018, compared with $0.9 million for the three months ended September 29, 2017. The decrease was primarily due to a decrease in the average balance of our bank borrowings.
Foreign exchange gain (loss), net.
We recorded foreign exchange gain, net of $3.1 million for the three months ended September 28, 2018, compared with $1.9 million loss for the three months ended September 29, 2017.
Income before income taxes.
We recorded income before income taxes of $29.7 million for the three months ended September 28, 2018, compared with $22.8 million for the three months ended September 29, 2017.
Income tax expense.
Our provision for income tax reflects an effective tax rate of 6.7% and 6.3% for the three months ended September 28, 2018 and September 29, 2017, respectively. The increase was primarily due to the fact that we had higher income subject to tax during the first quarter of fiscal year 2019 as compared to the same period in fiscal year 2018.
Net income.
We recorded net income of $27.9 million, or 7.4% of total revenues, for the three months ended September 28, 2018, compared with $21.0 million, or 5.9% of total revenues, for the three months ended September 29, 2017. The increase was mainly due to (1) the $1.4 million reversal of the remaining portion of share based compensation expenses recorded in fiscal 2018 for performance share units granted to our executives due to the unlikelihood that the performance targets would be achieved; (2) net increase of interest income and expenses of $ 0.7 million; and (3) net increase of foreign exchange gain of $5.0 million.
Other comprehensive income.
We recorded other comprehensive income of $87 thousand, or 0.0% of total revenues, for the three months ended September 28, 2018, compared with other comprehensive income of $0.6 million, or 0.2% of total revenues, for the three months ended September 29, 2017.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Cash Flows and Working Capital
We primarily finance our operations through cash flow from operations. As of September 28, 2018 and September 29, 2017, we had cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities of $352.4 million and $263.3 million, respectively, and outstanding debt of $63.4 million and $67.0 million, respectively.
Our cash and cash equivalents, which primarily consist of cash on hand, demand deposits, and liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, are placed with banks and other financial institutions. The weighted-average interest rate on our cash and cash equivalents for the three months ended as of September 28, 2018 and September 29, 2017 was 1.9% and 0.9%, respectively.
Our cash investments are made in accordance with an investment policy approved by the Audit Committee of our board of directors. In general, our investment policy requires that securities purchased be rated A1,P-1, F1 or better. No security may have an effective maturity that exceeds three years. Our investments in fixed income securities are primarily classified asavailable-for-sale and are recorded at fair value. The cost of securities sold is based on the specific identification method. Unrealized gains and losses on these securities are recorded as other comprehensive income (loss) and are reported as a separate component of shareholders’ equity.
During the three months ended September 28, 2018, we repaid a term loan of $0.8 million under our Facility Agreement; as a result, as of September 28, 2018, we had a long-term borrowing of $63.4 million under our Facility Agreement. We anticipate that our internally generated working capital, along with our cash and cash equivalents will be adequate to repay these obligations. To better manage our cash on hand, we held investments in short-term marketable securities of $132.4 million as of September 28, 2018.
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