IRobot Corp.’s stock fell 10% to $79.85 in after-hours trading after the company swung to a second-quarter loss and lowered financial projections for the year, citing a chip shortage that’s hampered many industries.
Chief Executive Colin Angle said the company wasn’t able to fulfill about $17 million in orders due to pandemic-related shipping disruptions in southern China in late June and warned of similar order-fulfillment issues in the second half of the year.
“To manage through this short-term turbulence, we are focused on carefully managing channel and product mix, adjusting promotional activities, qualifying new alternative suppliers, optimizing inventory levels and reducing our second-half spending plans,” he said, adding that he expects second-half profitability to be aided by the expected reinstatement of a tariff exclusion covering all of 2021.
The Massachusetts-based company, known for its Roomba automated vacuum cleaner, said it now expects a profit of $1.02 to $1.89 a share, or $2.25 to $3.15, on $1.55 billion to $1.62 billion in revenue for the year that ends on Jan. 1. That’s down from its earlier forecast of $1.85 to $2.10 a share in profit, or $3 to $3.25 a share as adjusted, and $1.67 billion to $1.71 billion in revenue.
On Wednesday, iRobot IRBT, -0.59% reported a loss of $2.76 million, or 10 cents a share, for the quarter ended July 3. Last year, it reported a profit of $58.6 million for the comparable period.
Revenue rose to $365.6 million from $279.9 million despite supply-chain challenges.