Zoltek shares hit year-low on weaker Q3 results

(Reuters) - Shares of advanced materials firm Zoltek Cos Inc (ZOLT.O) fell as much as 22 percent Tuesday, a day after the company's third-quarter results missed market expectations by a wide margin.

"The interruption of the strong growth trends we have experienced over the past several years was disappointing," Chief Executive Officer Zsolt Rumy said.

The company said the sequential decline in sales was due in part to reduced shipments against two major wind contracts, the timing of shipments between the periods and lower technical fiber sales.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Stuart Bush said the core wind end-market growth thesis of Zoltek was diminishing, because of limited new turbine customers and reduced demand from key customers Vestas (VWS.CO) and Gamesa (GAM.MC).

Bush said the company's filing also reveals a six-month delay in new fiber line production at a Mexico plant to the end of December, highlighting either an operational or demand problem.

"We believe the road-map for growth is more complicated, requiring a more blended ramp of adoption of carbon fiber across several industries," Bush added.

He downgraded the stock to "underperform" from "sector perform" and reduced the price target to $15 from $28

For the latest quarter ended June 30, net income was $4.8 million, or 12 cents a share, compared with $5.0 million, or 17 cents a share, a year ago.

Revenue rose 12 percent to $45 million from a year ago, but fell about 9 percent from the previous quarter.

Analysts expected the company to earn 27 cents a share, excluding exceptional items, on revenue of $58.1 million for the quarter, according to Reuters Estimates.

Shares of the company were trading down about 14 percent at $15.67 Tuesday on Nasdaq. They hit a year low of $14.30 earlier in the day.

(Reporting by Abhishek Chanda in Bangalore; Editing by Anil D'Silva)