Shares of Newport Corp. Fall 23% After Annual Sales Growth Estimate Is Slashed

Newport Corp., which cut its sales forecasts for the year, continued to take its lumps Thursday on Wall Street.

Shares of the Irvine company tumbled $24.50, or 23%, to $83.94 in Nasdaq trading, although most of the slump came Wednesday after regular trading hours.

The company, which makes equipment for producing semiconductors and fiber-optic parts, told analysts that it expects sales to climb 4% this year, far below the 50% increase that it forecast three months ago.

On Wednesday, the shares fell $5.19 to $108.44, then tumbled 17% in after-hours trading.

A Corning Inc. announcement that some customers may order fewer fiber-optic cables in the first half of the year also spooked investors in Newport and other makers of fiber-optic components. Corning, the world’s biggest maker of fiber-optics cables, said that orders may turn sluggish as the U.S. economy slows.

The company forecast first-quarter sales of $1.9 billion to $2 billion, compared with the fourth quarter’s $2.08 billion.

Customers Nortel Networks Corp. and Lucent Technologies Inc. are looking to reduce inventories of fiber-optic components in the first half of this year, Josephthal & Co. analyst Lawrence Harris said.

“I think spending will be a lot slower than the searing rates of growth we saw last year,” said Jim Walline, who manages the $1.5-billion Lutheran Brotherhood Fund and the $40-million Lutheran Brotherhood Growth Fund. “Telecom companies don’t have access to as much capital; cash flows just aren’t as strong.”

Corning’s shares fell $13.88, or 20%, to $56.25 on the New York Stock Exchange. JDS Uniphase Corp., SDL Inc. and Oplink Communications Inc. also retreated.

JDS Uniphase fell $7.88, or 12%, to $55.19; SDL Inc. tumbled $32.94, or 14%, to $199.19; and Oplink dropped $2.69, or 13%, to $18.