Paul, Management was pressed numerous times to provide guidance but they refused. However, by beating around the bush, one of the analysts was able to get a better-than-nothing feel. And it's convincing that CCMP will have sequentially down quarter(s) again. You see, management did say that in the March quarter, Jan was strong, Feb was weaker, and weakest in March. The only other critical data point they provided is that there's no further decline in orders through the first 3 weeks of April. In other words, business is running at the slowest pace of the Mar. quarter (Q2). Needless to say, that implies a sequentially down Q3. On the expense side, there'll be an increase due to a $1 million committed for new hires.
The analysts are sharpening their pencils as we speak, I think EPS for Q3 will be slashed to 25-29 cents, down from consensus of 43 cents.
Regards,
Tom |
