A long weekend is always a good time to send bad news over the wires, hoping that either nobody will see it or that they’ll forget they saw it by the next business day. MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. (NYSE: WFR) tried it by announcing preliminary results for its first quarter 2009. Traders did not exactly let it go unnoticed.
The company expects revenues of $214 million, down almost 50% from revenues of $425.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. Analysts had expected revenues of just over $225 million, so MEMC has missed even those lower predictions.
Even worse, the company anticipates gross margins of just 9%, as opposed to previous expectations of gross margins at 20%.
That’s just awful, and the stock is getting hammered in pre-market trading, down around 10% so far.
Paul Ausick
April 13, 2009
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