what else is new???????......Finisar Falls After Company Cuts Sales Forecast (Update2)
Sunnyvale, California, Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Finisar Corp. shares fell as much as 28 percent after the maker of parts used in fiber-optic networking equipment reduced its sales forecasts for the fourth quarter and fiscal 2002.
The stock slid $4.50 to $13.56 in late-morning trading after falling as low as $13. Finisar, whose products are used in optical networks and data-storage devices, had fallen 38 percent so far this year.
Finisar is the latest parts supplier to say its customers, network-equipment makers, are canceling or delaying orders to reduce inventories of components. JDS Uniphase Corp. and Corning Inc. also recently cut forecasts for component sales. Finisar's customers include EMC Corp. and Brocade Communications Systems Inc.
``We have an inventory problem to work through, which we think is a two-quarter problem,'' Chief Financial Officer Stephen Workman said in an interview.
Finisar expects sales of $65 million to $70 million in the fourth quarter ending in April, down from its previous forecast of $71 million to $95 million, Workman said. The company had sales of $20.7 million in the year-earlier fourth quarter.
Fiscal 2002 sales will total $375 million to $425 million, down about 17 percent from earlier expectations, he said. Sales in fiscal 2000 totaled $67.1 million.
Third-Quarter Results
Finisar said yesterday it had a fiscal third-quarter loss of $23.9 million, or 14 cents a share, for the period ended Jan. 31, compared with net income of $343,000, or breakeven, a year earlier. Revenue more than tripled to $64.8 million.
Excluding costs for deferred compensation and acquisition- related expenses, the Sunnyvale, California-based company said it would have had profit of $8.9 million, or 5 cents, matching the average estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial.
Finisar reported third-quarter results after the close of regular U.S. trading.
The company also agreed to buy closely held Marlow Industries Inc. for $30 million in cash and $270 million in stock to help expand its high-speed data products. |
