Costa Mesa-based body armor maker Ceradyne Inc. lowered its 2008 guidance Wednesday due to an unexpected delay in an Army contract.
The delay comes from a protest filed by an unidentified competitor to the Government Accounting Office over a contract for the vests.
The Army has an option to override the protest, but if it doesn’t the delay will impact Ceradyne’s fourth-quarter earnings, the company said.
Ceradyne’s specially designed ceramic material is used for body armor for troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as by dental and solar panel industries. It has a publicly traded market value of $960 million.
With the delay, Ceradyne sees its 2008 earnings of $112 million to $126 million, down from a previous forecast of $124 million to $126 million.
Its revenue forecast was revised to $710 million to $750 million, down from previous guidance of $740 million to $750 million.
Despite the lower outlook, Ceradyne’s stock was up more than 3% in midday New York trading, likely as part of a rebound after heavy selling earlier in the week on the heels of a downgrade from Stanford Research.
