SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Cypress Semiconductor Corp.'s fourth-quarter earnings more than tripled as sales of its chips for mobile devices climbed, but that feast has turned into a famine to start the new year.
The reversal in fortune announced Thursday alarmed investors, and Cypress shares plummeted more than 9 percent in afternoon trading. If that holds, it will be the stock's steepest one-day drop in more than three years.
The disappointing first-quarter forecast quickly turned Cypress's strong performance during the final three months of last year into an afterthought.
The company, which is based in San Jose, Calif., earned $31 million, or 18 cents per share, in the period. That compared to net income of $9.1 million, or 5 cents per share, during the same time in 2010.
Excluding certain items unrelated to its ongoing business, Cypress said it earned 32 cents per share. That was 3 cents above the average estimate among analysts surveyed by FactSet.
Fourth-quarter revenue increased 10 percent from the previous year to $242 million. That's the highest revenue level that Cypress has booked during the fourth quarter since the technology boom in 2000. The revenue was also about $5 million above analyst projections.
Cypress has been benefiting from the mobile computing craze that is driving sales of smartphones and computer tablets.
But there has been a major drop in orders in Cypress' chips in the first quarter, partly because none of its customers are scheduled to release tablets during the period. Other tablets and electronic readers relying on Cypress' technology are due out later this year, but the revenue from those devices isn't expected to be booked until the second half of 2012.
As a result, Cypress told analysts during a Thursday conference call that its first-quarter revenue will range from $200 million to $210 million — a decline of 10 percent to 14 percent from the same period last year. Analysts had been expecting first-quarter revenue of about $228 million.
Cypress shares shed $1.80, or 9.4 percent, to $17.36 in Thursday's afternoon trading. The stock hasn't suffered such a big percentage decline since November 2008.
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