Cepheid Falls After Cutting Sales Forecast: San Francisco Mover

Cepheid Inc. (CPHD), a maker of medical tests, plunged the most in two months after cutting its third- quarter sales forecast.

Cepheid declined 10 percent to $35.18 at the close in New York, its biggest one-day drop since July 20.

Sales for the quarter will be $79 million to $81 million, the Sunnyvale, California-based company said in a statement yesterday. Interruptions in the supply of Xpert cartridge parts will postpone more than $5 million in orders past the end of the quarter, Cepheid said. The company left its full-year sales forecast unchanged at $333 million to $347 million.

“We have notified customers that we are working diligently to fulfill orders as quickly as possible, but this will take several more weeks, pushing fulfillment of some orders from the third quarter into the fourth quarter,” Chief Executive Officer John Bishop said in a statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Drew Armstrong in New York at +1-212-617-8933 or darmstrong17@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net