Palm's Outlook Brings Pain

Palm's(PALM Quote) fourth-quarter operating profit beat Wall Street estimates, but the company's outlook for its first fiscal quarter was considerably below analysts' expectations.

Shares of Palm sagged nearly 6% in recent after-hours trading to $15.61.

Palm said Thursday that net income for the quarter ended May 31 fell to $15.4 million, or 15 cents a share, from $27.2 million, or 25 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, Palm earned 17 cents a share, beating Thomson Financial estimates of 15 cents a share.

Revenue fell slightly to $401.3 million from $403.1 million, missing analysts' estimate of $406.6 million.

For the first quarter, Palm said it expects to earn 7 cents to 9 cents a share before items on revenue of $335 million to $365 million.

Analysts had expected earnings of 14 cents a share on revenue of $392.8 million.