Shares of Newport Beach-based Conexant Systems Inc. and Costa Mesa’s Emulex Corp. fell sharply Tuesday on analyst downgrades for the technology companies.
Shares of chipmaker Conexant were off 13% at the end of trading Tuesday on a market value of $227 million.
Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Allan Mishan lowered Conexant to “perform” from “outperform” after word Monday that chief executive Daniel Artusi had stepped down.
The analyst called Artusi’s departure “unexpected.” His previous rating was based on Artusi’s cost cutting and scaling down of products.
“The unexpected departure of CEO Dan Artusi is likely to interrupt Conexant’s turnaround, which was the entire basis for our thesis and recommendation,” Mishan wrote in a note to clients.
Conexant named D. Scott Mercer, a board member and former Western Digital Corp. and Adaptec Inc. executive, as its new leader.
Mishan said he feared Mercer would attempt to keep Conexant’s “oversized scale and market focus.”
Conexant makes chips for high-speed Internet connections, set-top boxes, modems and other products.
Emulex, a maker of electronics for data storage networks, saw its shares fall about 6% at the close of trading Tuesday on a market value of $1 billion.
Wachovia analyst Aaron Rakers predicted a weak current quarter in downgrading the stock.
Rakers lowered his rating to “market perform” from “outperform.”
Two of Emulex’s key customers, IBM Corp. and EMC Corp., may have cut back on their orders, according to the analyst.
