Shares of Costa Mesa-based Emulex Corp., a maker of electronics for data storage networks, slumped on Thursday after the company gave a tepid outlook for the current quarter.
Investors sent shares down more than 4% in afterhours trading on a recent market value of $1 billion.
For the March quarter, Emulex said it’s expecting to post adjusted profits of $7 million to $9 million, down about 70% from the year ago quarter and just short of analysts’ expected profits of $10 million.
The company said it’s looking for sales of $108 million to $112 million, up about 2% from the year ago quarter and in line with analysts’ expectation of $111 million in sales.
The conservative outlook comes on the heels of Emulex’s December quarter results, which beat Wall Street’s expectations.
Emulex reported sales of $114 million, up 5% from a year ago and just ahead of analysts’ expectation of $113 million in sales.
Excluding onetime items such as stock compensation, write-downs on assets and other charges, Emulex posted $13 million in profits, down 7% from a year earlier and beating analyst’s expected $11 million in profits.
Emulex makes adapter cards, switches and other gear that speeds up the flow of data on corporate storage networks.
It’s biggest rival is Aliso Viejo-based QLogic Corp., which reports results on Jan. 27.
