Flextronics Falls Short

Flextronics International

(FLEX) - Get Report

on Tuesday posted a decline in sales and profit for the third quarter attributable to charges and higher expenses.

On a GAAP basis for the quarter ended Dec. 31, net income fell to $42 million, or 7 cents a share, from net income of $99 million, or 17 cents, in the year-earlier period.

Excluding items, the electronics manufacturing services company posted a profit of $118 million, or 20 cents a share compared with net income of $116 million and break-even on a per-share basis in the year-ago quarter.

That was a penny better than analysts' estimates gathered by Thomson First Call.

Sales were $4.19 billion in the latest quarter, down from $4.3 billion a year ago. Analysts had been forecasting third-quarter revenue of $4.06 billion.

Investors sent shares down 30 cents, or 2.9%, to $10.16 in recent after-hours trading.

The Singapore-based company sees fourth-quarter earnings of 15 cents to 16 cents, compared with Street estimates of 16 cents, on revenue of $3.5 billion to $3.7 billion. Analysts were looking for $3.7 billion in sales for the quarter.

The guidance reflects the delay in transferring the

Nortel Networks

( NT) operations in Calgary to Flextronics.

Quarterly GAAP earnings share are expected to be lower than the guidance provided by roughly 2 cents reflecting quarterly amortization expense, and by approximately a penny to 6 cents, reflecting restructuring and other charges.

Shares of the company closed the regular session down 4 cents to $10.46.