Charles Liang, chief executive officer of Super Micro Computer Inc., during the Computex conference in Taipei, Taiwan, on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. The trade show runs through June 7.
Annabelle Chih | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Super Micro shares plunged 22% on Wednesday to their lowest level since May of last year after the embattled server maker issued disappointing unaudited financials and failed to provide specifics plans to keep its Nasdaq listing.
The stock dropped to $21.55 as of early afternoon and is now down 82% from its high in March, a selloff that’s wiped out about $57 billion of market cap.
Super Micro had its worst week on the market on record last week after the resignation of its auditor, Ernst & Young, the second accounting firm to bow out in under two years. The company faces accusations from an activist of accounting irregularities and that it’s shipped sensitive chips to sanctioned nations and companies, violating export controls.
Super Micro hasn’t filed audited financials since May and is at risk of being delisted by Nasdaq if it doesn’t report results for the latest fiscal year to the SEC by mid-November. The company said late Tuesday, in reporting preliminary results for the first fiscal quarter, that it doesn’t know when it will file annual financials.
On a call with analysts, the company said it wouldn’t discuss any questions related to Ernst & Young’s decision to resign and didn’t address corporate governance issues. CEO Charles Liang said Super Micro was actively in the process of hiring a new auditor.
Analysts at Mizuho suspended coverage of the stock on Wednesday “due to a lack of full financial detailed and audited statements.” Wedbush analysts, who have the equivalent of a hold rating on the stock, said the report left “more questions than answers.”
“Management seems fully focused on finding an auditor and resolving its late filing status,” the Wedbush analysts wrote. “However, we don’t know how significant the hurdles might be in achieving this goal.”
Liang said on the call that the company is “working with urgency to become current again with our financial reporting.”
For the quarter ending Sept. 30, Super Micro said it generated net sales of between $5.9 billion and $6 billion. That’s under analyst expectations of $6.45 billion, but is still up 181% on an annual basis. The company’s business has been booming of late because it ships servers packed with Nvidia’s processors for artificial intelligence.
NVIDIA founder, President and CEO Jensen Huang speaks about the future of artificial intelligence and its effect on energy consumption and production at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 27, 2024.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images
Super Micro shares soared 246% last year after jumping 87% in 2023. The stock peaked at $118.81 in March, shortly after being added to the S&P 500.
Liang said demand is strong for the latest Nvidia GPU, called Blackwell, which started shipping in recent weeks.
When asked by an analyst when Blackwell revenue might show up in Super Micro’s financials, Liang said that “we are asking Nvidia every day,” adding that the companies continue to work together closely.
“Our capacity is ready, but not enough new chips,” Liang said.
Analysts asked if the company’s plans for building Blackwell-based servers had changed, which could suggest that other server makers might receive additional capacity or allocations of Nvidia GPUs at Super Micro’s expense.
“To clarify one of the comments from earlier with respect to Nvidia, we have the deepest of relationships with Nvidia,” CFO David Weigand said. “Now we have multiple state-of-the art-projects in progress and we’ve spoken to Nvidia and they’ve confirmed they’ve made no changes to allocations. We maintain a strong relationship with them, and don’t expect that to change.”
Super Micro’s forecast for the December quarter was also below estimates. The company said revenue will be between $5.5 billion and $6.1 billion, trailing the $6.86 billion average analyst estimate, according to LSEG. Adjusted earnings per share will be 56 cents to 65 cents. Analysts were looking for EPS of 83 cents.
Super Micro said its board of directors had commissioned a special committee to look into Ernst & Young’s concerns. In a three-month investigation, the committee found there was “no evidence of fraud or misconduct” from management, the company said.
“The Committee is recommending a series of remedial measures for the Company to strengthen its internal governance and oversight functions, and the Committee expects to deliver the full report on the completed work this week or next,” Super Micro said, adding that it intends to take all steps to keep its listing on Nasdaq.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/06/super-micro-shares-plummet-after-q4-update-raises-concerns.html
