Shares of Smart Global Holdings (NASDAQ: SGH) plunged about 15% after the company missed earnings and sales estimates for the fourth quarter of 2019 and weaker-than-expected outlook for 1Q20. Smart Global reported adjusted earnings of $0.50 per share on sales of $278.4 million. Analysts had expected specialty memory company to post earnings of $0.67 per share on sales of $285.04 million for Q4 2019.
SGH stock, which ended up 2.13% at $25.41 today, was trading down about 17% in the extended trading hours. On a GAAP basis, the company reported earnings of $0.24 per share compared with earnings of $1.28 per share in the prior-year quarter. Weakness in the supply chain services business resulted in lower-than-projected fourth quarter 2019 results.
When reporting the third quarter 2019 results, the Newark, California-based firm had projected Q4 2019 adjusted earnings to come in the range of $0.55 and $0.65 per share and GAAP EPS in the range of $0.33 to $0.43. Sales for the fourth quarter ending August 30, 2019, was eyed in the range of $270 million to $280 million.
Commenting on the fiscal 2019 results, CEO Ajay Shah said, “In the second half of fiscal 2019 component pricing in the memory market declined significantly, which primarily impacted our business in Brazil and, to a lesser extent, our Specialty Memory Products, and resulted in overall revenues in fiscal 2019 declining year-over-year by 6%.”
For the first quarter of fiscal 2020 ending November 2, 2019, Smart Global projected adjusted earnings to be between $0.65 and $0.78 per share and GAAP EPS of $0.30 to $0.40. Sales for the first quarter is touted to be between $275 million and $285 million.
Shares of Smart Global have declined 14% so far in 2019 and 12% in the past 52 weeks.