Omnivision Misses, Street Reacts

Omnivision Technologies (OVTI), which makes camera chips for cell phones, Thursday afternoon reported sales and profit for its fourth fiscal quarter ending April 30 that missed analysts’ estimates on both counts. Sales fell 25% to $169 million from the year-earlier period, well below analysts’ $176 million estimate, while profit per share, excluding some costs, came in at 27 cents, trailing an average estimate of 32 cents.

Chief executive Shaw Hong sought to put the best face on the fall in sales, stating that ”Although revenues for our fourth quarter were somewhat weaker during our seasonally slow period of the year than we had expected, we finished off a stellar year in which our revenues grew by more than 50%.” He vowed to spend the new fiscal year focusing “on developing new technology, strong marketing, delivery of volume production and the highest quality of service to our customers.”

Well, not from the looks of its forecast. The company says it expects to have sales in the first fiscal quarter of $170 million to $190 million, with the average estimate being exactly $190 million. Profit could also be light, with EPS expected in a range of 27 cents to 40 cents, the midpoint of which range would be below the 36-cent average estimate of analysts.

Omnivision shares are down almost 4% at $15.88 in the after-market, after falling 3.5% during the regular session.