Verigy Shares Fall After 3Q Results, Downgrade

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Verigy Ltd. took a hit Friday after the chip-testing equipment maker posted fiscal third-quarter results ahead of expectations, but was downgraded by a Barclays analyst amid concerns over the sustainability of its wireless and graphics business and other issues.

For the quarter ended July 31, the company posted a net loss of $21 million, or 35 cents per share, compared with a profit of $18 million, or 29 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue fell 51 percent to $87 million from $179 million.

Excluding items, the company lost 24 cents per share in the latest quarter.

Analysts, on average, were expecting a loss of 30 cents per share on sales of $83.3 million, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

Barclays Capital analyst C.J. Muse downgraded the company to "Equal Weight" from "Overweight," citing the wireless and graphics business concerns, growing costs associated with its acquisition of Touchdown Technologies and "uncertainty around (management's) potential plans for recent cash raised in convertible offering."