In brief: Logitech has shared preliminary financial results for the holiday quarter that more or less mirror the broader PC market, and it’s not great news for investors. For the quarter ending December 31, 2022, Logitech logged preliminary net sales of between $1.26 billion and $1.27 billion. That is down between 22 and 23 percent in US dollars compared to the same period a year earlier.
Operating income checked in at between $171 million and $176 million, which is down between 33 and 35 percent compared to the $263 million generated in the same quarter a year ago.
Logitech CEO Bracken Darrell said they were disappointed in the preliminary results, adding that they reflect challenging macroeconomic conditions including a slowdown in sales to enterprise customers. Based on these softer figures and continued uncertainty in the supply chain due to the ongoing Covid outbreak in China, the peripheral maker is lowering its full-year outlook.
Logitech’s previous fiscal year 2023 outlook included between $650 million and $750 million in non-GAAP operating income and between negative eight and negative four percent sales growth. The adjusted outlook is now between $500 million and $600 million, and between negative 15 percent and negative 13 percent sales growth.
The Swiss-based peripheral maker was one of several businesses that benefited during the pandemic. As companies shifted to work-from-home models to remain afloat during lockdown, sales of PCs and accompanying accessories like keyboards and mice skyrocketed. With the pandemic mostly behind us, demand for PCs and accessories has cooled considerably.
Shares in Logitech are down roughly 20 percent on the news.
Earlier this week, IDC said global shipments of traditional PCs dipped 28.1 percent in the holiday quarter compared to the same three-month period in 2021. In fact, the decline was comparable to the fourth quarter of 2018 when Intel was struggling with CPU inventory.
IDC expects certain segments of the PC market to start recovering by the end of this year with broader growth to follow in 2024.
Image credit: Patrick Campanale, Matheus Bertelli