Wednesday, July 23, 2008

MEMC Whiffs Q2; Guidance Disappoints; Trouble At Italy Plant; Fire In Texas Facility; Stock Plunges

Compare this headline to my own amateur efforts.
From Barron's Tech Trader Daily:

There is all kinds of trouble this afternoon for MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR), maker of silicon wafers and raw polysilicon used int he semiconductor and solar sectors.

For starters, the company whiffed Q2. Revenue of $531.1 million was well short of Street estimates of $557.9 million. Non-GAAP profits of 92 cents a share missed the Street consensus of $1 by 8 cents. MEMC noted that the results were a bit below the bottom of its targeted range.

The company said in June it suffered “the premature failure of a relatively new heat exchanger” at its Merano, Italy facility, reducing Q2 polysilicon output by 5%. MEMC said that in May and early June it looked like strong output from its Pasadena, Texas plant positioned the company to exceed the upper end of its its targeted revenue range, but that “unfortunately, a loose pipe fitting caused a fire at the company’s Pasadena facility”>>>MORE

And that's after begging our forbearance:
Bracing For The Earnings Deluge

About a zillion tech earnings reports are about to hit the tape.

Trading higher headed into the news: AMZN, CRUS, LSI, SY, WFR.
Trading down into the news: SIRF, SANM, TQNT, ARBA, BIDU.

And there are plenty of others.

I’ll post on many of them; stand by for a busy afternoon.

He's already gotten three more posts up in the time it took me to lift half of one of his.