Profit Halved at Synaptics

Sales and earnings slumped at Synaptics (SYNA), but the company still topped the Street's expectations.

The maker of PC and electronics interfaces earned $4.8 million, or 18 cents a share, in its fiscal second quarter, which ended Dec. 31. Net income was less than half what the company posted a year ago, when it earned $9.7 million, or 33 cents a share.

Sales fell 14% to $48.6 million year over year.

Excluding stock options costs, Synaptics would have earned $7.5 million, or 27 cents a share.

On this basis, analysts polled by Thomson First Call were expecting the company to earn 24 cents a share on $48.44 million in sales in the quarter. The company had forecast in October that it would post sales ranging from $46 million to $50 million.

Looking forward, the company expects sales of between $42 million and $45 million in its current quarter.

Wall Street had previously predicted that the company would post earnings of 19 cents a share on sales of $43.78 million. In the same period last year, the company earned $11.7 million, or 38 cents a share, on $56.7 million in sales.

The company formerly was a major supplier to Apple(AAPL) for the click wheel in its iPods and the touch pad notebook computers, but Apple chose last year to rely on different vendors for those devices.

Investors sold off the company's stock on the earnings news; in recent after-hours trading Synaptic shares were off $3.71, or 12%, to $27.13. Earlier in the day, the company's stock closed regular trading up $1.34, or 4.5%, to $30.84.

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