What happened

Shares of Dublin, Ireland-based Adient (ADNT -0.32%) are down 19.8% as of 1:40 p.m. EST after management reported fiscal first-quarter 2019 earnings this morning. Adient earned $0.31 per share, pro forma, versus Wall Street's expectation of $0.48. Q1 sales of $4.16 billion fell just short of the Street consensus of $4.17 billion.

So what

And that's the good news. The bad news is that actual GAAP results for this manufacturer of vehicle seats (for cars and trucks) showed a loss for the quarter -- $0.18 per share -- and $272 million in negative free cash flow to boot, despite sales declining just 1% year over year.

Check out the latest Adient earnings call transcript.

Red arrow crashing into floor.

Adient shares are crashing through the floor. Image source: Getty Images.

Now what

As for the remainder of this fiscal year, Adient gave new guidance today, predicting that full-year sales will come in between $16.5 billion and $16.7 billion. Taken at the midpoint, this suggests sales will weaken further as the year progresses, ending up about 5% below 2018 levels, and "adjusted EBITD" is likewise expected to "decline vs. FY18."

Although management didn't say how much earnings will decline, it appears investors aren't interested in waiting around to find out.