Ciena Lowers Sales Projection As Two Customers Cut Spending
By JOHNATHAN BURNS
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK -- Ciena Corp. slashed sales projections for the current fiscal second quarter. The optical-switch maker said revenue will be in the neighborhood of $100 million -- about $48 million below previous expectations.
In 4 p.m. trading Thursday, Ciena shares were down $1.10, or 13%, to $7.60 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
The anemic outlook came as the company posted weak first-quarter results that were roughly in line with the company's outlook, which it lowered earlier this month.
During a conference call, Ciena officials said spending plans by two of the company's historically most important customers have softened their spending plans.
Chief Executive Gary Smith said one of the customers is "an ongoing situation," while the other customer's spending plans were revised as recently as Wednesday. "I would characterize it as very recent information," he said.
Early Tuesday, Ciena reported a fiscal first quarter loss of $70.6 million, or 22 cents a share, compared with net income of $53.2 million, or 18 cents a share, a year earlier.
Ciena said the adjusted loss for the first quarter, which excludes restructuring costs, deferred stock compensation charges, payroll taxes on stock option exercises, amortization of intangibles and net losses on equity investments, was $56.7 million, or 17 cents a diluted share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call were expecting a loss of 20 cents a share.
Revenue fell 54% to $162.2 million from $352 million a year earlier.
For the second quarter, the company didn't provide a per-share estimate, but Chief Financial Officer Joe Chinnici did say that operating expenses would be flat to up sequentially in the fiscal second quarter.
Write to Johnathan Burns at johnathan.burns@dowjones.com
Updated February 22, 2002 1:55 p.m. EST |
