Exar swings to fiscal 4th-quarter loss on charge

The stock retreated $1.10, or 12.2 percent, to $7.91 in afternoon trading. Shares have traded in a 52-week range of $6.50 to $15.24.

For the quarter ended March 30, Exar swung to a loss of $172.4 million, or $3.77 per share, from a profit of $1.3 million, or 3 cents per share, in the same quarter a year earlier. Results in the latest quarter include an impairment charge of $165.2 million related to the company's August purchase of Sipex Corp., an electronics components maker.

Excluding special items, the company recorded an adjusted loss of $1.7 million, or 4 cents per share.

Analysts, who typically exclude one-time items from their estimates, predicted a loss of a penny per share.

Sales rose nearly 51 percent to $18.4 million from $12.2 million.

For the full fiscal year, Exar recorded a loss of $195.9 million, or $4.55 per share, compared with a profit of $8 million, or 22 cents per share, a year earlier.

Sales rose to $67.9 million from $54.6 million.

For the first quarter, Exar forecast sales between $29 million and $31.5 million. Analysts expect $33.2 million in revenue.

Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Rick Schafer, who rates the stock "Underperform," is looking for more concrete signs of improvement and said the company's revenue outlook was "light."

"With expectations for the Sipex business ratcheted down and a new CEO in place, we continue to await signs of improved execution and further insight into the strategic direction of the company before changing our opinion," Schafer wrote in a client note.

Last month, the company named Pedro Rodriguez president and chief executive to replace former President and Chief Executive Ralph Schmitt, who resigned in 2007.