(Reuters) – Shares of Symbotic slumped more than 13% in extended trading after the robotics vendor forecast current-quarter revenue and adjusted core profit below estimates, hurt by higher costs and slowing deployment of its automation systems.
The Walmart-backed firm builds solutions to automate warehouses using artificial intelligence software and robots that can collect, store and retrieve products. It went public in June 2022 after the company merged with a blank-check firm sponsored by Japan’s SoftBank.
“Looking ahead, improving our deployment process may temporarily slow our revenue growth. However, we expect system costs to decline and gross margin to return to historical levels during our fourth fiscal quarter,” CFO Carol Hibbard said in a statement.
The company said its profit margin for the April-June period was squeezed by elongated construction schedules and implementation costs.
Symbotic, whose shares have fallen more than 30% so far this year, had a market capitalization of about $21 billion at Monday’s close after an 8.2% drop.
Walmart, which is Symbotic’s third-largest shareholder, plans to potentially spend $200 million on self-driving forklifts as part of broader efforts to automate more warehouse operations, sources told Reuters last week.
The company forecast fiscal fourth-quarter revenue between $455 million and $475 million, lower than analysts’ estimates of $516.8 million, according to LSEG data.
It expects adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization between $28 million and $32 million, lower than estimates of $39.6 million.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
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