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Apple Supplier Skyworks Cuts Sales and Profit Forecasts

CEO Liam Griffin blamed the lowered outlook on “unit weakness across out largest smartphone customers.”

Apple Supplier Skyworks Cuts Sales and Profit Forecasts
Liam Griffin, president and chief executive officer of Skyworks Solutions Inc., speaks during a Bloomberg West Television interview in San Francisco, California, U.S. (Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Skyworks Solutions Inc., a key Apple Inc. supplier, cut sales and profit forecasts late Tuesday.

Fiscal first-quarter revenue will be about $970 million, down from prior guidance of between $1 billion and $1.02 billion. Earnings, excluding certain items, will be $1.81 to $1.84 a share, versus a previous forecast of $1.91, the company said.

Chief Executive Officer Liam Griffin blamed the lowered outlook for the period ended Dec. 28 on "unit weakness across out largest smartphone customers." He didn’t mention Apple, but the iPhone maker is Skyworks’ biggest customer, accounting for about half of its revenue.

Skyworks gained more than 3 percent in extended trading after the update.

"People were expecting a lot worse," Woo Jin Ho, Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst, said. "Some of the bad news was already baked in and things just seem to have gotten a little bit worse towards the end of the quarter."

Skyworks gave its earlier first-quarter forecast on Nov. 8, a few days before other Apple suppliers began raising concerns about disappointing iPhone sales. That presaged Apple’s first revenue guidance cut in almost two decades, which Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook announced last week.

Skyworks shares have lost about a quarter of their value since the beginning of November. The company, based in Woburn, Massachusetts, will report quarterly results on Feb. 5.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeran Wittenstein in San Francisco at jwittenstei1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net, Alistair Barr, Andrew Pollack

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