(By Balaseshan) Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ: PLXS) reported a 7% decline in quarterly earnings as manufacturing demand softened across all of its sectors.
Despite results missing consensus, the provider of electronic manufacturing services guided second quarter in line with Street, sending its shares up 3.79% in aftermarket.
Earnings for the first quarter were $16.62 million or $0.47 per share, down from $17.87 million or $0.51 per share last year.
Net sales rose to $530.53 million from $529.65 million.
Analysts, on average, polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a profit of $0.50 per share on revenue of $551.98 million for the first quarter.
For the previous fourth quarter, the company posted adjusted earnings of $0.66 per share on revenue of $594.79 million.
Revenue from Networking/Communications fell 13.5% to $199 million, revenue from Healthcare/Life Sciences grew 16.7% to $133 million. Industrial/Commercial revenue declined 3% to $131 million, while Defense/Security/Aerospace revenue grew 33.3% to $68 million.
Looking ahead into the second quarter, the company expects adjusted earnings of $0.50 to $0.55 per share and revenue of $550 million to $580 million, while Street predicts profit of $0.53 per share on revenue of $561.41 million.
The earnings forecast excludes any unanticipated restructuring charges but includes about $0.08 per share of stock-based compensation expense.
"Taking into account the Juniper exit and the current view of ramps of this new business, our goal is to work our way back to flat revenue for fiscal 2013 compared to fiscal 2012 and strive for modest revenue growth in fiscal 2014," said Dean Foate, President and CEO.
PLXS closed Wednesday's regular session up 1.95% at $25.08. The stock has been trading between $19.63 and $38.50 for the past 52 weeks.