fingerprint cards suffers fresh setback withweak outlook former stock market star fingerprint cards(fpc) reported earnings below expectations and gave a bleak outlook for the start ofthe year, dealing further blows to the swedish biometrics company. shares dropped as much as 8 percent on thursdayafter falling 15 percent so far this year,
apple stock price drop today, with the departure of a board member lastmonth following alleged unauthorized disclosure of inside information also weighing. fpc said it expected first-quarter revenuesto be "materially weaker" than a year ago because of an inventory build-up in the supplychain, a component shortage affecting its
customers and growing competition. the firm did provide some solace for investorsby proposing a dividend of 2 crowns per share for 2016. it said dividend over time should at leastequal 30 percent of net profit. it stuck to its revenue guidance for the yearas a whole but critics questioned whether it could regain lost ground. "i don't see how fpc will manage to reachits full-year revenue guidance given the weak start of the year," said inge heydorn, fundmanager at sentat asset management, who holds a short position in fpc shares.
the 20-year-old swedish firm had its big breakthroughin 2015 when demand for fingerprint sensors in smartphones and tablets soared after othermanufacturers followed the lead of apple, which bought its own sensor maker, authentec,in 2012. fpc's share price surged around 1,600 percentin 2015 due to soaring demand from smartphone makers, but declined almost 50 percent lastyear as competition increased. ceo christian fredrikson told reuters he expectsa market share above 50 percent in 2017, down from between 55 and 60 percent in 2016, withdual sourcing -- smartphone makers which seek more than one supplier -- an important reason. fpc has 20-30 competitors globally and itsmain rivals include goodix, silicon valley-based
synaptics and taiwan's egis technology. the company posted an operating profit of548 million swedish crowns ($63 million), lower than the 620 million seen by analystsin a reuters poll, but up from 518 million in the year-ago quarter. fpc repeated its 2017 full-year revenue guidanceof between 7.5 to 9.5 billion crowns. analysts had on average expected 2017 revenueof 7.9 billion crowns as a surprise profit warning for 2016 in december dented confidencein the company's forecasts.
