Why Shares of Semtech Corp. Tumbled Today

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 analog and mixed-signal semiconductor company Semtech crashed on Thursday after the company missed analyst estimates when it reported its first-quarter earnings. At 12:30 Thursday afternoon, the stock was down about 14%.

So what: Semtech reported quarterly revenue of $130.1 million, down 2.1% year-over-year and a few million dollars short of analyst expectations. CEO Mohan Maheswaran pointed to strong demand from the company's enterprise computing and communications markets during the quarter, but cited lower demand from its largest smartphone customer as the main reason why revenue fell short of expectations.

Semtech reported non-GAAP EPS of $0.27, down from $0.32 during the first quarter of last year and a penny short of analyst expectations. On a GAAP basis, the company was break-even for the quarter, a deterioration from the $0.12 of per-share earnings reported during the first quarter of last year.

In addition to missing earnings estimates, Semtech provided disappointing guidance. The company expects second-quarter revenue between $120 million and $130 million, well below the consensus analyst estimate of $141.7 million. Non-GAAP EPS is expected to be between $0.21 and $0.26, also well short of the $0.37 analysts were expecting.

Now what: The disappointing results posted by Semtech sent investors fleeing, and I can't blame them. Falling revenue and profits are never a good thing, especially for a company that trades at around three times sales and more than 50 times earnings. The company did announce that it was increasing its share buyback authorization, from $30 million remaining on the previous one to $100 million, but with debt starting to pile up on the balance sheet, this seems like a poor use of resources to me.

The article Why Shares of Semtech Corp. Tumbled Today originally appeared on Fool.com.

Timothy Green has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.