AMS warns about a slowdown in its sales in the second quarter

ZURICH (Reuters) – AMS, provider, including Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) chips, reported on Monday sales in the bottom of its guidance range in the first quarter and warned that they will slow down on the period April-June due to higher order weak to one of its main customers.

AMS has not specified the name of this client, but the firm’s austrian provides optical sensors and, in particular, the 3D sensor of the iPhone X.

“We are not in a position to talk about a particular customer, but we have seen a activity significantly lower of an important programme for the smartphones and it has a significant impact (…) on the whole enterprise,” said the head of investor relations of AMS, Moritz Gmeiner.

AMS has said they expect a decline of its sales in a range of 220 to 250 million dollars (180 to 205 million euros) in the second quarter against 452,7 million in the first three months of 2018.

The slowdown is related to commands, more low and order forecast lower in the coming months, said Moritz Gmeiner.

AMS has added that the problem would be temporary, and preparations to increase production in the second half of the year were maintained.

The group confirmed its medium-term targets of an annual average growth rate weighted by 60% between 2016 and 2019, and a net margin Ebit 30% from 2019.

Net income came in at 99.9 million in the first quarter, compared with a loss of $ 19.9 million a year earlier.

(John Revill, Marc Joanny for French service)