Veeco Instruments gets hammered after surprise warning:
The list of book-cookers has again been updated.
Visit lbcapital.ckt1.com
Veeco:
biz.yahoo.com
Veeco sees lower than expected Q3, Pres/COO resigns
NEW YORK, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Veeco Instruments Inc (NasdaqNM:VECO - news) said on Thursday it expects third-quarter sales and earnings to come in below expectations, adding that the firm's president and chief operating officer (COO) Christine B. Whitman had resigned.
Veeco, which makes semiconductor equipment, said it sees earnings of 18 cents to 22 cents for the quarter ended September 30, compared with diluted earnings of 29 cents in the year-ago period.
Analysts on average expected Veeco to earn 40 cents per share, according to First Call/Thomson Financial. The company said it had previously expected third-quarter earnings of 38 cents to 42 cents per share.
The company now expects fourth-quarter sales of about $110 million and sees earnings of 32 cents to 37 cents for the quarter, chairman and chief executive Edward Braun said in a statement. Braun also announced Veeco's 2001 forecast of about $570 million in revenues and earnings of $2.40 to $2.50 per share.
President and COO Whitman, who came to Veeco from semiconductor equipment vender CVC when it acquired CVC in May, has resigned to pursue other interests, Veeco said.
Whitman, who had previously served as president and CEO of CVC, has also left the company's board, but plans to continue as a consultant to Veeco over the next several months. Braun will now resume the role of president, which he held before Whitman joined Veeco, a company spokeswoman said.
Plainview, N.Y.-based Veeco said third-quarter sales climbed about 7 percent to $93 million, but came in below its expectations of $104 million for the quarter. Last year, Veeco had third quarter sales of $87 million, the spokeswoman said.
The company said the lower sales and earnings were mainly due to its recently-acquired CVC division, which had a $7 million sales shortfall due to delayed orders and shipments from data storage and speciality semiconductor customers, resulting in a 15-cent drop in third-quarter earnings per share.
Veeco said it was also hit by higher costs at its Commonwealth Virginia ion beam deposition operations, which were relocated to its Plainview facility as of September 30.
The company said it had taken ``corrective actions,'' including the restructuring of the CVC management team and more downsizing of CVC operations ``to better reflect the current order rate.''
The company's Ion Tech subsidiary saw a 50 percent rise in revenue from the prior quarter, but had delayed shipments during the last weeks of the quarter, which led to a 5-cent earnings per share miss for the period.
Despite the lower-than-anticipated third quarter results, Veeco said it had a record $175 million in orders during the third quarter, up more than 100 percent from the prior year and up 32 percent from second quarter 2000.
Shares of Veeco closed at $102-17/32 on Thursday afternoon, before the sales results, earnings expectations and resignation were announced. The shares have traded between $24-7/16 and $122-1/4 during the last 52 weeks. |
