Apple-supplier Dialog Semi's Q4 sales at bottom of forecast range, shares plunge by more than 3%

Chip designer Dialog Semiconductor, which supplies iPhone maker Apple, reported preliminary fourth-quarter sales at the low end of its target range on January 14, sending its shares down more than 3 percent.

Around 75 percent of Dialog's business is supplying power-management chips to Apple, which warned in November of slow year-end sales and on Jan. 3 issued its first sales warning in 12 years, blaming weaker iPhone sales in China.

Shares in suppliers have been hit as a result, with many forced to revise their guidance lower. Dialog, however, stood by its fourth-quarter revenue forecast and managed - just - to meet it.

The Anglo-German company said unaudited preliminary sales came in at $431 million in the fourth quarter, compared with a guidance range of $430 million-470 million.

Dialog, which struck a $600 million deal in October to transfer people and patents to Apple as part of a push to diversify its business, estimated its cash and cash equivalent at $678 million at the end of 2018, up $199 million year on year.

Its shares were down 3.5 percent at 0818 GMT. Dialog will publish audited results for 2018 on March 6.