Fingerprint Cards lowers sales projections, shares slump

Fingerprint Cards has lowered its sales projection for 2013 to US $12.04M-16.5M (SEK 80 – 110 M), from its earlier forecast of US $19.56M-$28.59 (SEK 130-190M) and upon the news, its stock price dropped sharply.

According to the company, it believes that its sales will total SEK 20—30 M during the third quarter of 2013 and SEK 30—50 M during the fourth quarter of 2013. Sales in the second quarter of 2013 totaled SEK 20.6 M, which is in line with earlier forecasts.

Fingerprint Cards says there are two main reasons for the change in sales projections. One is the delay of a few major projects involving swipe sensory technology, from the latter half of 2013 and the first half of 2014. The other is that several of the company’s OEM customers have chosen to evaluate area sensor technology as an alternative to the swipe, which has delayed the lauch of these projects by at least half a year.

Customer activity continues to be very high, the company says.

In combination with lower revenues, this means that FPC will not be profitable this year, though it does make a point to say “the conditions for achieving healthy profitability in 2014 are excellent.”

According to a report in Bloomberg, the company stock has fallen the most is has in nearly four months, following the release of its lowered sales forecasts.

“The shares fell as much as 18 percent, to 35.60 kronor, their steepest intraday decline since April 8 and the lowest price since June 3,” Bloomberg reports. “The stock fell 4.6 percent as of 10:02 a.m. local time, valuing the company at 2.1 billion kronor ($314 million). So far this year, the shares have gained 243 percent.”

Reported previously, Fingerprint Cards recently expanded into South Korea and Taiwan and announced the appointment of two new Technical Managers.

Article Topics

fingerprint  |  Fingerprint Cards  |  fingerprint sensors  |  smartphone  |  swipe sensor