Coherent Corp (NYSE:COHR) stock plunges 33.48% (As on August 16, 11:31:46 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company posted better than expected results for the fourth quarter of FY 23 but issued a weaker-than-expected outlook for the quarter and year ahead. Coherent posted a fiscal fourth-quarter net loss of $178.2 million, whereas it recorded net earnings of $43.6 million, in the year-prior period. The company has generated Operating Cash Flow of $182 million, which increased from both the year-ago and the preceding quarter. The company has paid down $121 million of the outstanding debt. The company has delivered operating margin 35.9%, which is primarily driven by lower revenue and short term capacity underutilization Transitory interruption of longer-term expansion trend.

COHR in the fourth quarter of FY 23 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of 41 cents, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of 38 cents, according to Zacks Investment Research. The company had reported the adjusted revenue of $1.21 billion in the fourth quarter of FY 23, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $1.15 billion.

For the current quarter ending in September, Coherent expects its per-share earnings to range from 5 cents to 20 cents. The company said it expects revenue in the range of $1 billion to $1.1 billion for the fiscal first quarter. Analysts tracked by FactSet were modeling 47 cents a share in adjusted earnings along with $1.17 billion in revenue.

For full year 2024, the company expects revenue to be in the range of approximately $4.5 – 4.7 billion and Non-GAAP earnings per share to be in the range of approximately $1.00 – $1.50. Not included in the full year fiscal 2024 revenue guidance is several hundred million dollars of additional revenue related to the recent surge in demand for Datacom transceivers for AIdriven data center buildouts as the supply chain ramps incremental capacity to address industry demand. The FactSet consensus was for $2.45 in adjusted EPS and $4.89 billion in revenue. Further, the forecast “assumes no meaningful improvement in the macroeconomic environment,” including in China. Executives in their shareholder letter cited “challenges associated with customer inventory adjustments and macroeconomic weakness,” which they view as “a transitory interruption of otherwise powerful secular trends,” like artificial intelligence. The company disclosed that some of its larger customers have changed their product plans, while other customers have shifted their capital-expenditure planning to account for higher interest rates.