: Lumentum stock sinks nearly 10% after forecast revision

Lumentum Inc. LITE shares dove nearly 10% in after-hours trading Wednesday, following disclosure of an expected shortfall in its fiscal third-quarter revenue. The maker of optical-networking components said in a release that a corporate customer cancelled an order late in the quarter that will cause the company to miss its stated revenue projection. “Late in our fiscal 2023 third quarter, a network equipment manufacturer who represented more than 10 percent of our fiscal second-quarter revenue informed us that due to their inventory management, they would not take the shipments we had originally projected for the quarter,” Chief Executive Alan Lowe said in a statement. In its annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Lumentum disclosed two customers that made up more than 10% of its sales in fiscal 2022, Apple Inc. AAPL and Ciena Corp. CIEN, the latter of which makes networking equipment. Lumentum stated in its most recent quarterly filing that two customers reached the 10% threshold in the quarter, accounting for more than 30% of the company’s revenue apiece, but did not disclose their names. Ciena shares declined 4% in after-hours trading. Lumentum executives stated that they now project third-quarter sales of $380 million to $384 million, down from previous guidance for $430 million to $460 million. Lowe also said that executives “expect a similar level of shipments to this customer in our fiscal Q4 as we saw in Q3,” suggesting the problem will also affect the company’s forecast for the current quarter when Lumentum fully reports results on May 9. Executives also disclosed an increase to their share-repurchase authorization, increasing the amount available to $1.2 billion from $1 billion. Lumentum shares have declined 44.9% in the past year, as the S&P 500 index SPX has dropped 9.4%.

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