By Jaspreet Singh
(Reuters) – Microchip Technology forecast third-quarter revenue and profit below estimates on Tuesday, indicating a sluggish demand from automotive customers amid economic uncertainty, sending its shares down about 4% in extended trading.
Chipmakers that get orders from automotive and industrial customers have been struggling as these customers are clearing excess inventory, which they had built during the pandemic to avoid a supply crunch.
CEO Ganesh Moorthy said the September quarter results of the company were consistent with its forecast as the customers continue to clear inventory amid a weak economy, which is intensified by its European industrial and automotive customers.
“While substantial inventory destocking has occurred, we continue to face macro uncertainties in what is historically our seasonally weakest quarter,” Moorthy said.
Microchip’s products include mixed-signal microcontrollers, which combine both analog and digital components on a single chip to better handle continuous signals, such as temperature and binary signals, for data analysis and communication tasks.
“Management noted some positive signs, including flat sequential bookings and normalized cancellation rates, which could potentially signal a bottom formation in the market, albeit with limited visibility,” said Angelo Zino, senior equity analyst at CFRA Research.
Last month, rival STMicroelectronics trimmed its revenue forecast for the third time this year due to weak demand from industrial clients, and said that the growth of its largest division depends on expansion in China.
The company forecast net sales between $1.03 billion and $1.10 billion for the third quarter ending in December, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $1.18 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
It expects quarterly adjusted profit per share between 25 cents and 35 cents, compared with estimates of 46 cents.
Net sales for the second quarter ended Sept. 30 came in at $1.16 billion, marginally beating estimates of $1.15 billion.
The company reported adjusted profit per share of 46 cents in the quarter, which also beat estimates of 43 cents.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; editing by Alan Barona)
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