What happened
Call it Plantronics or call it Poly (POLY) -- whatever you want to call it, this company just disappointed investors in a big way, and its stock is down 20.5% as of 10:20 a.m. EDT Friday.
Last night, Poly, formerly Plantronics and Polycom, announced it will officially change its ticker symbol to "POLY" on the New York Stock Exchange, after 17 years trading under the ticker symbol "PLT." That's not why investors are selling the stock today, however.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Investors are selling off Poly stock because the company also announced last night that despite beating estimates on sales and earnings in fiscal Q4 2021, it's probably going to miss estimates by a pretty big margin in Q1 2022.
Specifically, in fiscal Q4 2021, Poly reported pro forma earnings of $1.23 per share and $476 million in total revenue, exceeding expectations for $0.93 and $456 million, respectively. The video conferencing equipment manufacturer recorded 17% sales growth year over year in Q4 as the pandemic continued to rage, encouraging workers to work from home, and earned a $0.25-per-share profit according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
A combination of the pandemic winding down in some markets, however, and a global semiconductor chip shortage that's causing "ongoing tightness in our supply chain" is hindering the company's ability to execute, meaning that the current fiscal Q1 2022 won't be as robust.
Now what
Poly now says that revenue in fiscal Q1 2022 will range only from $410 million to $430 million, which is less than the $441 million that Wall Street wanted to see. Pro forma profits will range from $0.35 to $0.55 per share, versus an analyst consensus of $0.82 per share.
And Poly gave no guidance at all for what its GAAP earnings might look like. No wonder investors are upset.
