Zebra Technologies, a maker of enterprise systems for tracking and managing inventory and assets, early Tuesday beat Wall Street's targets for the second quarter but guided below views for the current period. ZBRA stock plunged after the report.
The Lincolnshire, Ill.-based company earned an adjusted $4.61 a share on sales of $1.47 billion in the June quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet expected Zebra earnings of $4.22 a share on sales of $1.445 billion. On a year-over-year basis, Zebra earnings rose 1% while sales climbed 7%.
For the current quarter, Zebra forecast sales growth of 2% to 4% year over year. Wall Street was predicting third-quarter sales of $1.51 billion, up 5%.
It predicted adjusted earnings per share of $4.35 to $4.65 in the September quarter. The midpoint of $4.50 missed analyst views for $5.08.
For the full year, Zebra now expects sales growth of 4% to 6%. Wall Street was looking for 2022 sales of $5.94 billion, up 5.5%. Zebra said the strong U.S. dollar is crimping its sales growth by creating unfavorable foreign exchange rates.
ZBRA Stock Has Middling Composite Rating
On the stock market today, ZBRA stock plummeted 9.8% to close at 323.32. On Monday, ZBRA stock rose 0.2% to 358.43.
Zebra makes rugged mobile computers, bar code scanners and printers, and RFID tracking tags that link to enterprise systems to enable real-time visibility of inventory and other assets. It offers systems for retail, e-commerce, health care, manufacturing, transportation and other industries.
"We have a strong order backlog and robust pipeline of business that supports solid growth in the second half of 2022," Chief Executive Anders Gustafsson said in a news release.
He added, "For the full year, we are maintaining our sales outlook and adjusting EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) margin to the low end of our previous outlook to reflect the impact of the stronger U.S. dollar and the recent Matrox Imaging acquisition."
ZBRA stock ranks ninth out of 37 stocks in IBD's Electronics-Miscellaneous Products industry group, according to IBD Stock Checkup. It has a middling IBD Composite Rating of 49 out of 99. The Composite Rating scores a stock's key growth metrics against all other stocks regardless of industry group.
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