Shares of Coherent Corp. COHR plunged 12.2% toward a three-year low in premarket trading Wednesday, after the optical components and lasers company reported fiscal third-quarter profit that fell well short of expectations and provided a downbeat outlook as revenue suddenly decelerated. The company swung to a net loss for the quarter to March 31 of $33.5 million, or 24 cents a share, from net income of $31.9 million, or 28 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share fell to 58 cents from 95 cents, well below the FactSet consensus of 82 cents. Revenue grew 49.8% to $1.24 billion, but missed the FactSet consensus of $1.34 billion. “We started the third quarter with optimism based on a strong backlog, but we experienced a sudden and unexpected deceleration in revenues in the second half of the quarter when some of our larger customers requested us to delay scheduled shipments which primarily affected our revenue in the Networking Segment as those customers began adjusting their inventory levels,” said Chief Executive Officer Vincent Mattera. For the fiscal fourth quarter, the company expects adjusted earnings per share of 33 cents to 43 cents, below the FactSet consensus of 85 cents, and guides to revenue of $1.125 billion to $1.175 billion, compared with expectations of $1.34 billion. The stock has already dropped 24.7% over the past three months through Tuesday, while the S&P 500 SPX has edged up 0.7%.
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