Tellabs chops forecasts

Tellabs warned after the bell Wednesday that its first-quarter and fiscal 2001 sales and earnings will fall short of analysts' estimates.

The maker of voice, data and video network equipment said it now expects to record sales of between $830 million and $865 million in the quarter and earnings of between 35 cents and 38 cents a share.

First Call consensus pegged Tellabs for a profit of 38 cents a share on sales of $876 million.

Company executives blamed the shortfall on slow sales in its Cablespan business as well as its inability to recognize sales from shipments of its Titan 6500 systems.

Tellabs (Nasdaq: TLAB) shares increased $1.69 to $45.69 before the warning and then fell to $40.13 in after-hours trading.

It now expects fiscal 2001 sales of between $4.35 billion to $4.4 billion and earnings of between $2.12 and $2.17 a share, slightly below previous estimates of $4.4 billion and $2.17 a share, respectively.

Separately, Tellabs said it closed the acquisition of Future Networks, a voice and cable modem technology company. Goodwill related to the purchase will dilute earnings by 4 cents a share in 2001 and 5 cents a share in 2002.

Last quarter, Tellabs met analysts' estimates when it posted a profit of $232 million, or 56 cents a share, on sales of $1 billion.

The stock moved as high as $76.94 in July before falling to a low of $37.63 in October.

Twenty-three of the 27 analysts following the stock rate it either a "buy" or "strong buy."