IRobot Corp. slumped to a three-year low after casting aside its strategy to pass along some tariff-related costs to U.S. consumers after the price increase hampered growth.
The maker of the Roomba vacuum cleaner vowed to “aggressively” keep pursuing an exemption from the duty and is diversifying its manufacturing outside of China to trim its costs. The Bedford, Massachusetts-based company on Tuesday narrowed its annual revenue and earnings forecasts and said profitability could suffer into next year.
The overseas growth may provide a glimpse of what the company’s performance could look like minus tariffs, Piper Jaffray analyst Troy Jensen said. “But until US/China trade issues get resolved, we believe iRobot will continue to struggle in their biggest market, making it a hard stock to own,” said Jensen, who rates the stock neutral with a $51 price target.
The company said it may still take several more quarters before it receives word whether an exemption is granted, as more than 30,000 applications are awaiting review.
IRobot also warned that the tariffs and price roll backs would cut into profits into next year, and forecast fourth-quarter gross margin about 40%, below the average estimate of 44.1% compiled by Bloomberg. And while cutting prices may help iRobot maintain its market share, price-based competition and “price-elastic consumers may be viewed negatively by investors,” JPMorgan analyst Mark Strouse said.
The company plans to move some manufacturing to Malaysia from China to help skirt the tariffs. It plans to start production of one product model there in the new year, and may add additional products as needed, company executives said on the conference call Wednesday.
Still, the company’s attempts to diversify manufacturing outside China is “limited in capacity and unlikely to provide any near-term relief to gross margins,” Piper Jaffray’s Jensen said.