Jabil Issues 1st-Quarter Warning, 4th-Quarter Results Meet Reduced Outlook
Dow Jones Online News, Thursday, September 20, 2001 at 17:53
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Jabil Circuit said fiscal first-quarter earnings from operations won't meet analysts' expectations, as the company posted a 76% plunge in fourth-quarter net income. The quarter's results came in at the low end of the contract manufacturer's lowered expectations.
At 4 p.m. EDT on the NYSE, shares of Jabil were down a penny at $15. In after-hours trading, the stock slipped to $13.45, according to Island ECN.
In a conference call, company executives said Jabil should earn 11 cents to 13 cents a share on revenue of $900 million to $950 million. The mean estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call was for Jabil to earn 16 cents a share.
For the quarter ended Aug. 31, the maker of circuit boards and other types of electronic components reported net income of $11.2 million, or six cents a diluted share, compared with $47.1 million, or 24 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding acquisition-related expenses and restructuring charges, Jabil said it would have earned $26 million, or 13 cents a share.
Revenue fell 11% to $944.1 million from $1.07 billion a year earlier.
When the company released its fiscal third-quarter results in June, Jabil warned that it expected earnings of 13 cents to 15 cents a share on revenue of $950 million to $1.05 billion. At the time, the Thomson Financial/First Call estimates were for earnings of 19 cents a share on sales of $1.19 billion.
In a prepared statement, Chief Financial Officer Chris Lewis the company called fiscal 2001 an "extremely challenging year." Nonetheless, President and Chief Executive Tim Main said Jabil is "gaining share with our top customers as many move to reduce their total number of suppliers." Jabil makes products for large technology companies such as Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell Computer.
Jabil also announced that it has signed a three-year manufacturing pact with Intel to assume production of certain peripheral products. The deal will expand Jabil's manufacturing technology and expand its low-cost Asian manufacturing.
As part of the pact, Jabil will buy a plant in Penang, Malaysia that Intel had acquired as part of its purchase of Xircom. The 150,000-square foot operation will add about 900 people and includes inventory and buildings.
The transaction is slated to close in the fiscal first quarter, pending approval from various Malaysian governmental agencies.
Jabil added it "is aggressively pursuing strategic acquisition opportunities."
During the conference call, Mr. Main said his outlook for the year anticipates only a "modest" economic impact from last week's terrorist attacks, with no major disruptions in supply chains or end demand. But he acknowledged that the actual impact "will not be known for some time."
Executives also said they see their business leveling out in the coming months and predicted "a more stable environment" for fiscal 2002. |
