SanDisk Lowers Q4 Revenue Outlook On Weak Sales Of Retail, INAND Products

(RTTNews) - Flash memory card maker SanDisk Corp. (SNDK) on Monday lowered its revenue outlook for the fourth quarter, citing weaker than expected sales of retail and iNAND products. The company's shares are down more than 8 percent in pre-market trades.

For the fourth quarter, Milpitas, California-based SanDisk now forecasts total revenue of about $1.73 billion, lower than its previous revenue forecast range of $1.80 billion to $1.85 billion. On average, twenty eight analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report revenues of $1.84 billion for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

SanDisk now projects adjusted gross margin for the fourth quarter to be about 45 percent, down from its previously guided range of 47 percent to 49 percent.

SanDisk will publish its fourth-quarter fiscal 2014 financial results press release on Wednesday, January 21, 2015.

The company makes removable cards, embedded flash products, USB flash drives and solid-state drives used in place of hard disk drives.

In mid-October, SanDisk reported a 5 percent decline in profit for the third quarter from last year, as higher costs and expenses more than offset a 7 percent increase in revenue.

The company's net income for the third quarter was $262.7 million or $1.09 per share, down from $276.9 million or $1.18 per share in the year-ago quarter. Revenue for the quarter rose to $1.75 billion from $1.63 billion in the same quarter last year.

SNDK closed Friday's trading at $96.99. In Monday's pre-market activity, the stock is down $8.49 or 8.75 percent to $88.50.