Motorola's Q3 doesn't cut it

Motorola took a kicking yesterday night when analysts decided a 17 percent rise in third quarter sales just wasn’t enough.

The comms vendor turned in revenues of $10.6bn for the quarter ending September 30, up 17 per cent on the year. However, Wall St’s spreadsheet meisters had been expecting $11.07bn.

Motorola’s forecast for the fourth quarter didn’t give them any further cheer – its expects revenues of $11.8bn to $12.1bn, and didn’t give an earnings forecast. The Wall St consensus, as of yesterday afternoon, is for $12.1bn with earnings per share of $0.39.

Earnings at the company were $968m, down from $1.8bn. However, Motorola said this in line with expectations.

Chairman and CEO Ed Zander said GSM infrastructure sales had been weaker than expected in the quarter, due to delays in capital spending.

Sales at its mobile devices segment were up 26 per cent to $7bn, with operating earnings of $819m. The networks and enterprise segment turned over $2.78bn, up slightly on the previous year, with operating earnings of $378m. Connected home solutions, whatever they are, brought in $812m, up 9 per cent, with operating earnings of $21m.®