Why Peregrine Shares Imploded

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Peregrine Semiconductor (NASDAQ: PSMI  ) have fallen 14% so far today, tripping circuit breakers and having its stock halted after swinging and missing at everything it could in its fourth-quarter earnings report.

So what: Peregrine reported revenue of $63 million, and earnings per share of $0.19. Although the revenue total was slightly ahead of the $62.4 million consensus, EPS came in $0.02 worse than what analysts were looking for. More importantly, the first quarter is now projected to generate revenue in the $43 million to $46 million range, well below the $58.1 million sought by analysts. Gross margin will be in line with this quarter's 43.6% result, as Peregrine expects it to fall in the 43% to 44.5% range.

Now what: Oppenheimer downgraded Peregrine's stock to Hold as a result of the weak guidance, and the firm indicates that Peregrine has lost out on a key iPad Mini component placement to Skyworks Solutions (NASDAQ: SWKS  ) . The threat of the much larger Skyworks dominating this component relationship with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) gives Oppenheimer analysts cause for great concern. Peregrine's forward weakness does nothing to ameliorate this concern, and investors trying to squeeze in, while everyone else stampedes for the exits, might just get trampled.

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