UPDATE 1-OmniVision Q1 profit falls; says CFO to retire

(Recasts, adds details, share movement)

Aug 28 (Reuters) - OmniVision Technologies Inc (OVTI.O), which makes semiconductor image sensor devices, posted a lower quarterly profit, hurt mainly by reduced average selling prices, and forecast a weak second-quarter revenue.

OmniVision also said its Chief Financial Officer Peter Leigh would retire on Sept. 30 and promoted Anson Chan, currently vice president of finance, as its new chief financial officer.

For the quarter ended July 31, the company earned $6.2 million, or 12 cents a share, compared with $13 million, or 23 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding stock-based compensation expense, it earned 25 cents a share.

Revenue rose by $1.2 million to $174.3 million.

Gross margins declined sequentially to 25.2 percent from 27.2 percent due to lower average selling prices and a less favourable product mix.

Analysts on average had expected the company to earn 15 cents a share on revenue of $171.4 million, according to Reuters Estimates.

The company expects second-quarter earnings of 13 cents to 25 cents a share, excluding items, on revenue of $160 million to $180 million.

Analysts were looking for a profit of 22 cents a share on revenue of $190.8 million.

Shares of the Sunnyvale, California-based company were up 3 percent in trading after the bell. Earlier, they lost more than 5 percent amid volatile trading. In regular session Thursday on Nasdaq, the stock fell 3 percent and closed at $10.84. (Reporting by Deepti Govind in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)