(Reuters) – Shares of warehouse automation company Symbotic fell more than 35% in early trading on Wednesday after the Walmart-backed company delayed filing its annual report citing “material weaknesses” in internal control about your financial reports.
Symbotic said it needed more time to evaluate the financial impacts of correcting a revenue recognition error and its effects on the fiscal year ended Sept. 28, 2024.
The company, which went public in June 2022, builds and operates robotic warehouse systems for retail giants including Walmart (NYSE ), Aim (NYSE:), Albertsons (NYSE:) and C&S Wholesale.
As of January 2024, Walmart owned a 14.5% stake in Symbotic, according to LSEG data.
Last week, Symbotic restated its quarterly financial statements for fiscal 2024, saying that some of its revenue was recognized before the actual period in which it was generated.
Despite initially promising a timely presentation of the annual report, the company said it had later identified additional errors affecting key metrics such as gross profit and net income.
Symbotic expects the total impact of these fixes to reduce its revenue, gross profit and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) by between $30 million and $40 million for the year.
The company's shares, which had fallen about 27% this year through the previous close, were last trading at $24.44. If losses continue, the stock is on track to erase about $7.59 billion from its $21.91 billion market value.
Symbotic has a low free float of just over 86 million shares, or about 15% of shares outstanding, making it susceptible to wild price swings.
The Wilmington, Massachusetts-based firm also cut its forecast for the current quarter: It now expects revenue of between $480 million and $500 million, compared with previous expectations of between $495 million and $515 million.
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