Lucent Technologies said today its fiscal first-quarter loss would be larger than Wall Street expects as sales keep falling because of the slump in capital spending by telecom carriers.
But the telecommunications equipment maker said it believes the current quarter, ending later this month, will mark the low point of the current market downturn, and it expects a return to profitability and positive cash flow next year.
Lucent said it expects a first-quarter loss from continuing operations, which excludes a range of costs, of between 23 cents and 26 cents per share.
It said this is in line with earlier projections of a loss smaller than the loss of 27 cents a share reported for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2001.
Wall Street analysts were looking for a loss of between 9 cents and 24 cents per share, with a mean forecast of a loss of 17 cents, according to research firm Thomson Financial/First Call.
Lucent said first-quarter 2002 revenue will fall to between $3.1 billion and $3.4 billion, from $4.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2001.