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STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden's Fingerprint Cards on Thursday repeated its 2014 sales forecast, but postponed break-even to the fourth quarter.
By 0840 Fingerprint Cards' share price was down 2.9 percent at 46.60 Swedish crowns, after hitting a low of 44.50 crowns earlier in the session, compared to a nearly flat Stockholm benchmark index.
The Swedish firm, which makes fingerprint sensors for products such as mobile phones and tablets, expects full-year sales to exceed 500 million Swedish crowns (43.41 million pounds).
"The forecast has become somewhat more of a challenge but we judge we still can reach it," Chief Executive Johan Carlstrom told Reuters.
Carlstrom said 2014 sales are now expected to be weighted even more heavily towards the end of the year than the company had expected when it made its forecast almost a year ago, and said this was due to a greater focus among customers on touch sensors and less focus on swipe sensors.
Carlstrom repeated Fingerprint Cards' market share goal of about 60 percent in touch sensors in 2014 and 50 percent in 2015, excluding those installed by Apple, which makes its own equipment.
He declined to comment on Samsung's choice of suppliers for its upcoming Galaxy Note 4 smartphone. In May Carlstrom told Reuters that Samsung's choice could determine whether Fingerprint Cards' market share will be higher or lower than its goal for 2014.
The company postponed the timing for when earnings would reach break-even by one quarter to the fourth quarter, partly due to the expectation of a late surge in sales and partly because it had contiunued to employ more staff, Carlstrom said.
Sales in the second quarter stood at 44 million crowns and at 62 million crowns for the first six months of the year. The operating loss was 45 million crowns in the quarter, while the company stood by its forecast of a 2014 earnings margin before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation above 20 percent.
Third-quarter revenues were expected in the 50 million to 80 million crowns range.
(Reporting by Olof Swahnberg, editing by Terje Solsvik)