Logitech, a maker of peripherals for personal computers and mobile devices, beat expectations for its fiscal fourth quarter but guided below views for sales in the current fiscal year. Logitech stock fell on Tuesday.
The device maker late Monday said it earned an adjusted 99 cents a share on sales of $1.01 billion in the quarter ended March 31. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected earnings of 67 cents a share on sales of $960 million. On a year-over-year basis, Logitech earnings jumped 98% while sales increased 5%.
Before its March-quarter report, Logitech's sales had declined for nine consecutive quarters on a year-over-year basis.
For its fiscal 2025, Logitech expects to generate sales of $4.3 billion to $4.4 billion. The midpoint of $4.35 billion is below Wall Street's target of $4.39 billion. In the just-finished fiscal 2024, Logitech produced sales of $4.3 billion, down 5%.
Logitech Stock Drops After Report
On the stock market today, Logitech stock slid 1.3% to close at 78.39.
"We delivered a strong fourth quarter, with a return to growth and expanded gross margins," Chief Executive Hanneke Faber said in a news release. "Growth was broad-based across all regions and key categories."
She added, "We start fiscal year 2025 with a focus on sustainable, profitable growth supported by several long-term trends that present opportunities for our business: new ways of working, gaming, and transformational AI."
Offers 'Prudent' Guidance
In an interview with Investor's Business Daily, Faber said Logitech's full-year guidance takes into account current uncertainties in the market.
"It's prudent to be a little cautious on the full-year outlook until we know a little bit more," she said.
She added, "In the short term, there is definitely reason for optimism. At the same time, we've just come off two years of declines and there's still a lot of macro uncertainty."
Logitech should get a boost from a PC refresh cycle currently underway, she said. And the AI PC trend could provide fuel to that upgrade cycle, Faber said.
Headsets Fastest-Growing Category
The best-performing product categories for Logitech in fiscal Q4 were headsets, keyboards and combos, and gaming.
Gaming peripherals were Logitech's largest category in the March quarter with sales of $273.5 million, up 7% year over year. Keyboards and combos were the second biggest category with sales of $216.2 million, up 15%.
Headsets were the fastest-growing category with sales up 16% to $45.5 million.
Logitech stock ranks third out of 15 stocks in IBD's computer hardware and peripherals industry group, according to IBD Stock Checkup. It has an IBD Composite Rating of 82 out of 99.
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