Shares of Broadcom Corp. finished down about 5% Friday, a day after the Irvine chipmaker gave a murky outlook for the current quarter.
“Mixed outlooks from a few of our larger customers are causing a lower than normal level of visibility into our near-term results,” Chief Executive Scott McGregor said.
An UBS analyst downgraded Broadcom’s shares Friday from “buy” to “neutral.”
The word came as Broadcom reported first-quarter results.
The company saw profits plunge by nearly half and had flat revenue versus a year earlier. The results still beat the expectations of analysts, who had tempered their views given the industry’s buildup of unsold chips going back to last year.
Using standard accounting, Broadcom’s profits were $61 million, down from about $118 million a year earlier.
Excluding stock compensation, acquisition costs and other charges, profits were $175 million, down from about $222 million in the year-ago quarter.
Wall Street was expecting Broadcom to have profits of about $148 million before charges.
The company reported revenue of $901.5 million, above expectations of $897 million.
