Motorola shares fall after earnings miss
But analysts say current quarter looks promising, even though third-quarter numbers fell short.
The stock dropped $1.19 to $23.66 on the New York Stock Exchange. However the decline was not as sharp as the fall of 8 percent in post-market trade after the report Tuesday night.
While third-quarter sales disappointed, analysts said current-quarter prospects looked good as Motorola ramps up sales of new phones such as the
"Krzr, Rizr and 3G Razr variants are arriving just in time to refresh the Motorola line-up and we see handset momentum (and average selling prices) returning on those launches," Cowen analyst Matthew Hoffman said in a research note.
Some of the phones began to ship in the third quarter.
Motorola said Tuesday its third-quarter revenues rose 17 percent to $10.6 billion, but fell short of analyst estimates and its own forecasts.
Handset sales fell 1.3 million short of its own 55 million target in the quarter.
The company forecast fourth-quarter sales of $11.8 billion to $12.1 billion, with the mid-point below the average analyst estimate of $12.05 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.
Some analysts said the guidance could be conservative.
Motorola said profit fell 45 percent to $968 million, or 39 cents, from a year ago, when it posted 39 cents of unusual gains.