Wireless backhaul solutions developer Ceragon Networks Ltd. (Nasdaq: CRNT; TASE:CRNT) today lowered its guidance for the first quarter of 2013, the second consecutive quarter the company has done so. The share price fell 8% in early trading on Nasdaq to $3.90, giving a market cap of $144 million, after falling 8.2% on the TASE to NIS 14.17.
Ceragon cut its revenue guidance to $89-91 million from $95-105 million. It forecasts GAAP-based loss per share guidance of $0.36-0.39, and non-GAAP loss per share of $0.15-0.18 (a net loss of $5.5-6.5 million). The new guidance is far below the analysts' consensus of earnings per share of $0.02 (a net profit of $733,000) on $101.7 million revenue.
Ceragon's revenue and profit warning follows Friday's warning by Radware Ltd. (Nasdaq:RDWR), another company controlled by the Zisapel brothers's RAD Group.
"Our revenues will not reach the low end of our guidance for the first quarter of 2013 because it is taking longer than we expected to close certain deals," said Ceragon president and CEO Ira Palti. "We experienced a level of bookings in the first quarter lower than we would have expected based on seasonal weakness, reflecting operators' cautious approach, despite the need for additional capacity.
"We expect the re-evaluation of some aspects of customers' business models, as well as continued intense budget scrutiny, to cause longer sales cycles to persist, even though the second quarter bookings are likely to show some improvement for seasonal reasons. We will provide more color during our regularly scheduled quarterly call on May 6."
Ceragon blamed its previous warning, for the fourth quarter of 2012, on delays in the approval procedure by a customer. For the same reason, the company revised downward its financial reports for the three preceding quarters of 2012. The company posted $447 million revenue in 2012, unchanged from 2011. It posted a GAAP-based net loss of $23.4 million, but it broke even on a non-GAAP basis.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 8, 2013
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