VTSS ($24 lose $21 1/2 ) revs down 25% drop with demand for chips
By Kevin Krolicki
LOS ANGELES, April 16 (Reuters) - Vitesse Semiconductor Inc. (NasdaqNM:VTSS - news) on Monday reported its first quarterly drop in revenues in over eight years after experiencing a ``dramatic'' slowdown in sales of chips for communications and data storage.
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The Camarillo, Calif.-based company also cautioned that revenues for the current quarter would fall further from that depressed level, but said it would emerge from the six-month slump with better visibility on future demand.
The warning of a sharp and prolonged decline in demand touched off a sharp drop in the company's shares in after-hours trade. Vitesse, which had closed at $24.05 on Nasdaq ahead of the announcement, fell more than 9 percent on Instinet to $21.85.
``This was a very disappointing quarter,'' Vitesse President and CEO Lou Tomasetta said in a statement. ``For the first time in over eight years, we experienced a sequential decline in revenues.''
Revenues for the company's second quarter ended March 31 were down 26 percent from the first quarter to $121.8 million, at the low end of the company's own reduced forecast.
Vitesse posted a pro forma profit, excluding amortization and deferred compensation, of $18.8 million, or 10 cents a share, compared with $47.6 million, or 25 cents in the prior quarter.
Analysts on average had forecast Vitesse to earn 10 cents a share, according to Thomson Financial/First Call. On March 26, Vitesse slashed its sales forecast for the second quarter to between $120 million and $125 million and halved its per-share profit forecast to 10 to 11 cents from 21 to 22 cents.
Tomasetta said that Vitesse had seen ``a dramatic reduction'' in demand from customers in communications and data storage during the past quarter.
In a conference call with investors, Tomasetta warned that revenues for the current quarter would total between $90 million and $110 million, extending the slowdown in communication chip sales that began in the March quarter.
The company forecast pro forma earnings per share between 3 cents and 7 cents for its third quarter, at the low end of current analysts forecasts.
``I have never seen a drop as precipitous as the one we saw from the end of February to the beginning of April,'' Tomasetta said.
Although that slump may continue, the company's ability to forecast demand should improve as customers grapple with their own inventory management issues, he said. ``We expect that we should get better visibility going out of this quarter,'' he told analysts.
Vitesse shares have tumbled from a year-high of $95.19, along with many other communications chipmakers due to weak demand and a slowing U.S. economy.
The stock, a component in the S&P 500 index (^SPC - news), has fallen some 54 percent since the start of the year, underperforming the benchmark Philadelphia Stock Exchange semiconductor index (^SOXX - news), which is almost unchanged on the year.
Vitesse makes semiconductors for optical networking equipment used in the telecommunications industry and for storage area networks, used by a range corporations for data storage. |
