Berenberg slashes target price on Focusrite following profit warning

Analysts at Berenberg slashed their target price on audio products manufacturer Focusrite from 700.0p to 410.0p on Tuesday following the group's profit warning a day earlier.

Focusrite stated on Monday that it expected revenues to no be less than £1550m and adjusted underlying earnings to be between £27.0m and £30.0m for the full year. Consensus expectations were for revenues of £182.0m and adjusted EBITDA of £38.0m.

The business noted continued weakness in content creation, particularly in its Asian markets, with no improvement from the region factored into its new guidance. The primary driver of this weakness was poor end-market demand, with the cost-of-living pressures leading customers to buy cheaper, previous-generation content-creation kits. Weak demand also led the channel to purchase less inventory, which in turn has affected Focusrite.

"We update our forecasts to reflect the updated guidance and lower our price target to 410.0p, as we update our DCF assumptions," said Berenberg.

The German bank added that Focusrite currently trades on 12.6x full-year price-to-earnings ratio.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com