MTI Technology Corp, Anaheim, California storage management company, is warning that its revenues and earnings for the first quarter ending July 4 will fall below analysts’ expectations. Preliminary information indicates that that revenues will be in the $53.5m to $56m range, and that diluted earnings per share will be in the $0.16 to $0.18 range. The shortfall shouldn’t be that serious, as the consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call was for $0.17 and Zach’s Investment Research calls for $0.18 – suggestive of very proactive share price management. The company has resurrected the familiar old complaint of poor revenues from European operations to explain the missed target. It said it saw weakness during the fourth quarter which has continued through the first. In addition, MTI said delays in its ability to ship its flagship fiber channel product, the Gladiator 3600, has negatively impacted sales in certain of our domestic markets. The company attempted to mitigate the effects of the delay by accelerating the release of its fiber channel-based Gladiator 6300 this quarter, but the product is part of an overall line that MTI said is still new to its end-user base, and thus the evaluation period has become more drawn out than expected. The company insisted it has identified the problems and will soon be taking appropriate action, but could not be reached for comment on what those actions might be. The company expects to report full results for the quarter during the third week of July.
