Extreme Networks shares hit 5-year low after fiscal 3Q miss

Shares of Extreme Networks Inc., which makes components for computer networks, hit a five-year low Thursday after fiscal third-quarter results missed Wall Street expectations and an analyst slashed his rating.

The stock dropped 16 cents, or 5.1 percent, to $2.98 in afternoon trading. Earlier in the session shares hit a low of $2.79.

For the period ended March 30, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Extreme Networks posted a loss of $160,000, or less than one cent per share, compared with a loss of $2.4 million, or 2 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Excluding stock-based compensation expenses, profit was $1.1 million, or a penny per share.

Revenue slipped 4 percent to $82 million from $85.1 million.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial forecast, on average, profit of 5 cents per share on revenue of $91.6 million.

"We experienced growing demand throughout most of the quarter, particularly for our newer products, but were impacted by what we believe were customer delays in purchases in the last two weeks of the period," especially in the Americas, Mark Canepa, president and chief executive officer, said in a release.

JMP Securities analyst Samuel Wilson downgraded Extreme Networks to "Market Perform" from "Market Outperform" due in part to his "view that management simply refuses to take the steps to fix the problems."

He lowered his fiscal 2008 earnings estimate to 11 cents per share from 19 cents per share, below Wall Street's 18 cents per share estimate, citing the tough economic outlook for the remainder of the year.