August 09, 2012–Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (TSEM) dropped the most in a year after the maker of customized chips reported a second-quarter loss and said this quarter’s sales will fall short of analysts’ estimates.

The shares of the Migdal Haemek, Israel-based company fell 13 percent, the most since August 2011, to 36.30 shekels at the close in Tel Aviv. Tower tumbled 14 percent to $8.84 at 11:07 a.m. in New York, headed for the biggest drop since December 2008. EZchip Semiconductor Ltd. (EZCH) plunged 22 percent, the most since October 2008, to 118 shekels after second-quarter sales missed estimates by about 50 percent. Israel’s benchmark stock index lost 0.3 percent.

Tower posted a loss of $9.4 million compared with a profit of $1.7 million a year earlier, according to a statement filed with the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange today. Third-quarter sales will be between $152 million and $162 million, Tower said in the statement. The mean estimate of three analysts is for sales of $174 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“The guidance is disappointing and it doesn’t look like they will get the $200 million in fourth-quarter sales that investors were expecting,” Eran Jacoby, head of research at DS Securities & Investments Ltd., said by phone from Tel Aviv. “This is overshadowing margin improvements they’ve been making.”…Read More>>

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