Motorola Inc. shares continued dropping Thursday, hitting their lowest level since 1992 amid concerns that cellphone demand will be hurt by spreading weakness in the economy.
Motorola’s stock closed at $4.56 Thursday, down 66 cents or nearly 13%. Adjusting for splits and dividends, shares are at their lowest price since July 9, 1992.
Earlier this week, New York-based Morgan Stanley analyst Scott Campbell reduced his estimate for worldwide cellphone shipments to 4% growth this year, down from 8%. He also predicted Motorola would lose 2 percentage points of market share in the third quarter and that revenue will be $7.56 billion, below the Wall Street consensus estimate of $7.84 billion, according to Thomson First Call.
New York-based analyst Maynard Um of UBS said this week that he now expects cellphone shipments this year to grow 3% from 2007 levels, down from an earlier estimate of 6% growth. Though he raised his estimate of Motorola’s unit shipments in the third quarter, he cut his estimate of the Schaumburg, Ill.-based company’s 2008 earnings to 5 cents per share from 8 cents per share. The consensus estimate is 7 cents per share.
John Pletz is a reporter for Crain’s Chicago Business, a sister publication to RCR Wireless News. Both publications are owned by Crain Communications Inc.
