Why Vicor Stock Plummeted by 23% on Wednesday

Power module specialist Vicor's (NASDAQ: VICR) was looking anything but powerful on Wednesday, as its shares lost more than 23% of their value. The culprit was a quarterly earnings report that investors found not to their liking, to put it mildly. Vicor's slide came on a not-bad day for stocks overall, which saw the S&P 500 index close up marginally (by almost 0.2%).

Improvements in key line items, but...

Vicor published its first-quarter earnings after market hours on Tuesday, and the market's blowback was strong the following day. The report revealed that revenue was just shy of $94 million for the period. Although this number was 12% higher than the first quarter of 2024's result, it landed notably short of the average analyst estimate of over $97 million.

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The situation on the bottom line was more discouraging. Again, the result was better, but it still missed the consensus projection. Vicor's GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) net income was $2.5 million ($0.06 per share), far better than the $14.5 million loss the company posted in the year-ago quarter. Yet, the clutch of analysts tracking the stock were expecting far better, with a collective $0.29 per-share profit estimate.

First-quarter fumble

While Vicor's performance improved on a year-over-year basis compared to the final frame of 2024, its first quarter didn't look so hot. In the earnings press release, the company quoted CEO Patrizio Vinciarelli as saying, "Revenue and gross margins declined sequentially, with reduced income from a licensee transitioning to a new generation of unlicensed products."

Compounding this, investors are generally nervous about how the current trade war will play out. Device makers, such as Vicor, are considered particularly vulnerable due to potentially higher costs for components.

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Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.