Super Micro tumbles after reporting disappointing results, boosts full-year sales outlook
Super Micro Computer just released results for its fiscal Q1, the three months ended September 30, and they’re a top- and bottom-line miss — but with very strong sales guidance for the current quarter and a boost to the full-year outlook.
Shares are sinking in after-hours trading.
The Q1 results:
Net sales: $5 billion (compared to an estimate of $6.1 billion and guidance of about $5 billion).
Adjusted diluted net income per share: $0.35 (estimate: $0.41, guidance: $0.40 to $0.52).
Its fiscal Q2 guidance:
Net sales: $10 billion to 11 billion (estimate: $8.1 billion).
Adjusted diluted net income per share: $0.46 to $0.54 (estimate: $0.62).
The server giant took away some of the suspense from these results by announcing preliminary figures on October 23, saying Q1 net sales would be about $5 billion, which it attributed to “recent design wins in excess of $12 billion, requesting delivery in the second quarter of fiscal year 2026” — that is, the quarter we’re currently in. That figure was far short of the consensus estimate and its previously issued guidance for the quarter.
(Hilariously, the consensus estimate only went down to $6.1 billion from $6.5 billion after that release).
At that time, President and CEO Charlies Liang reiterated expectations for $33 billion in sales for fiscal year 2026. Management has now upped that full-year sales outlook to $36 billion. Analysts were expecting $32.6 billion.
Pushing back the timing of expected sales has been a common theme for Super Micro this calendar year.
“Though large deals tend to come with bigger discounts, the company has yet to draw a line on pricing in its effort to win them, as 2Q’s outlook implies a 7.5% gross margin vs. 9.3% in 1Q,” Bloomberg Intelligence senior industry analyst Woo Jin Ho wrote. “Though the company raised the full-year forecast by at least 9%, unless its pricing strategy changes, we don’t believe earnings will follow.”