Reuters: Hot Stocks: Optos profit drops 90 pct on lower sales of eyecare devices; shares plunge

Reuters: Hot Stocks Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Optos profit drops 90 pct on lower sales of eyecare devices; shares plunge May 16th 2013, 08:50 Thu May 16, 2013 4:50am EDT May 16 (Reuters) - Medical technology company Optos Plc reported a 90 percent fall in its first-half profit and said 2013 revenue and operating profit would be lower than last year, citing weaker-than-expected sales of its Daytona and 200Tx eyecare devices. The company's shares lost as much as a third of their value in Thursday morning trading, touching a two-and-a-half year low of 108.2 pence. "Optos' interims don't make pretty reading and we anticipate putting through substantial downgrades to take account of lower revenue and EBIT guidance," Investec Securities analyst Sebastien Jantet, who has a "sell" rating on the stock, said. Adjusted profit before tax fell to about $700,000 in the six months to March 31, from $6.9 million a year earlier. Revenue fell 15 percent to $73 million. "While the Daytona pipeline has improved and the restructuring announced today will help full-year 2014 estimates, even the revised guidance is a stretch in our view," Jantet said. Optos said it would close an R&D facility in Canterbury and a manufacturing site in Miami, and would record related costs of about $2 million in the second half. Optos, which focuses on the manufacture of devices used to diagnose and treat diseases in the retina of the eye, said it expected to sell 1,000 to 1,200 units of Daytona this year. It sold 400 devices in the first half. Optos stock was down 18 percent at 131 pence at 0820 GMT, making it the biggest percentage loser on the London Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Brenton Cordeiro in Bangalore; Editing by Don Sebastian) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions