Finisar Lowers Guidance

Finisar (FNSR Quote) lowered its fourth-quarter earnings expectations, citing delays of existing orders by a number of customers and the general economic slowdown, and the company now expects to miss analysts' consensus forecast for the final period of the fiscal year.

For the quarter ending April 30, the company, a maker of fiber-optic subsystems, expects revenue of $50 million to $55 million. As a result, Finisar will report income that will come in between break-even and a penny a share. The earnings guidance excludes merger costs, the amortization of deferred stock compensation and a gain on the company's sale of its Opticity product line. Wall Street expects Finisar to earn 4 cents for the quarter, compared with income of 2 cents in the year-ago period.

Based on the expected results, the company would record total revenue of $187 million to $192 million for the fiscal year. Finisar projected earnings for the year of 12 cents to 13 cents a share, up from 6 cents in the prior year. Analysts expect the company to earn 17 cents.

For fiscal 2002, the company forecast a top line of $275 million to $325 million.