Ceragon Networks Cuts Q1 Revenue Outlook - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Ceragon Networks Ltd. (CRNT), a wireless hauling specialist, Wednesday announced updated revenue guidance for the first quarter of 2014 in the range of $70 million to $73 million, below the company's earlier guidance of $83 million to $93 million. For the first quarter, five analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect revenues of $88.19 million.

The expected reduction is primarily due to the company's decision not to ship and install equipment for a certain customer until completing the renegotiation of payment terms.

A secondary factor affecting first-quarter revenue was a higher than expected proportion of IP-20 products in bookings for the quarter. Some of the orders were received too late in the quarter to ship within the quarter because manufacturing for the new products was ramping and had not reached full productivity.

Ira Palti, President and CEO of Ceragon, said, "Our revised revenue expectations for the first quarter are unrelated to demand, which is improving. Bookings increased over 25% sequentially in Q1, to a level above the high end of our original revenue guidance. Thus, our book-to-bill ratio improved significantly, even though Q1 is typically a seasonally weaker quarter for bookings.''

On April 1, Ceragon signed an agreement with Eltek ASA, to settle all claims, counter claims, legal proceedings, and any other contingent or potential claims regarding alleged breaches of representations and warranties contained in the purchase agreement governing Ceragon's acquisition of Nera Networks from Eltek in January 2011. Following the agreement, Ceragon expects to receive $17 million in cash during the second quarter.

Final results for the first quarter are scheduled to be released on May 8.