Friday, October 26, 2012

This Morning: Cutting F5, CSCO, Were iPhone Builds Way Low Last Q?

Here are some things going on this morning in your world of tech:

If it’s a Friday, which it is, then it must be time for some more estimate cuts. Networking equipment is front and center this morning.

ThinkEquity’s Rajesh Ghai this morning cut his price target on F5 Networks (FFIV) to $122 from $135, while reiterating a Buy rating, after cutting his revenue estimate for the year to $1.39 billionf rom $1.397 billion and cutting his EPS to $4.51 from $4.52. He expects the company to meet the consensus expectations for the June-ending fiscal Q3, which stands ou $353 million and $1.14, but to “assume a conservative stance” with respect to Q4, which he models as $377.5 million and $1.25.

And Sterne Agee’s Shaw Wu cut his estimates for Cisco Systems‘s (CSCO) fiscal year ending this month to $45.8 billion in revenue from a prior $46 billion, writing that “we are picking up that sales cycles are lengthening meaning it is taking longer to close deals. What we are hearing is that customers are not necessarily canceling projects but scaling back and/or pushing them out.”

Cisco shares this morning are up 14 cents, or 0.8%, at $16.12. F5 shares are down $1.13, or 1.2%, at $92.34.

Last night gave the cutters more ammunition in general: Printer maker Lexmark (LXK) pre-announced that its revenue in the June-ended Q2 will come in lower than expected, dropping 12% versus a prior estimate for a 7% to 9% decline. EPS, excluding some costs, of 87 cents to 89 cents, will be below the 97 cents the Street has been modeling.

JP Morgan hardware analyst Mark Moskowitz this morning reiterates an Underweight rating on the stock, writing that “Shares of Lexmark already have been under pressure in recent days, but we think the size of the 2Q miss and the prospects of another downward reset or two to out- quarter estimates stand to drive more investors out of the stock. ”

Lexmark shares are down $2.42, or 10%, at $21.89.

Apple (AAPL) is again coming under scrutiny today, as Avian Securities’s Blaine Carroll, who doesn’t follow Apple but follows suppliers Triquint (TQNT) and Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), writes that the builds of the iPhone in the June quarter may have been much less than expected last quarter. While expectations started out at 30 million to 35 million last quarter, but he now thinks it may have been just 20 million. Carroll hasn’t had any information from the chip makers, but rather his “checks” with people in the industry.

Carroll cut his estimates for Skyworks and Triquint. He rates Skyworks shares “Positive” and rates Triquint shares “Neutral.”

To be clear, Carroll is not making a prediction of how much Apple sold last quarter or will sell this quarter, but rather how much was requested for manufacturing. Current consensus stands at 28 to 30 million iPhones sold last quarter.

Triquint shares are up 6 cents, or 1.2%, at $5.13, while Skyworks stock is up 39 cents, or 1.5%, at $26.71.

Apple stock is up $3.49, or 0.6%, a5 $602.39.

In case you missed it, DigiTime’s Jessie Shen this morning reports that wireless chip maker Qualcomm (QCOM) has signed a deal with GlobalFoundries, which also supplies Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), citing a report in the Chinese-language paper Commercial Times. Qualcomm this year has been grappling with a shortage of capacity at its usual supplier, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM).

Qualcomm shares today are up $1.11, or 2%, at $54.84. TSM stock is up 11 cents, or 0.9%, at $12.91.

Also in case you missed this, Bloomberg’s Lu Wang and Julia Leite last night wrote that the takeover of the�Dow Jones Industrial Average�by McGraw-Hill and CME Group�could mean a shake up in the listings that could see Kraft�(KFT) dumped from the index and Apple added, depending on whether and how the new owners change index membership rules.

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