Goldman, UBS Trim Motorola on Lower Handset Forecast

Wireless handset stocks are among the hardest hit names in Tuesday’s market slide, amid signs of softening demand.

UBS analyst Maynard Um this morning trimmed his estimates for Motorola (MOT) Tuesday morning, citing “slightly higher than expected market share losses.” He cut his estimate for Q4 handset units for the company to 40.5 million from 41.6 million. His EPS estimates are trimmed to 24 cents from 25 cents for 2007, and to 63 cents from 64 cents for 2008. For the fourth quarter, which will be reported tomorrow, he goes to 13 cents from from cents, and to $9.39 billion in revenue from $9.5 billion. Um says MOT could look to unload non-core businesses, but that selling them in the current market “may be a challenge.”

Goldman Sachs’ Brantley Thompson also weighed in on Motorola Tuesday morning, asserting that the fourth quarter was likely “challenging” for the company. He sees $9.5 billion in revenue and 12 cents a share, with 41 million handsets shipped. “Inventories in the channel have likely risen in the quarter with Motorola also likely cutting price on higher end and mid-range handsets,” he writes.

Meanwhile, RBC Capital’s Mahesh Sanganeria this morning reports that checks find that Nokia (NOK) has “de-booked” handset-related orders at National Semiconductor (NSM) due to excess channel inventory. Sanganeria cut his price target on National to $24 from $29, and cut his 2008 EPS estimate to $1.53 from $1.54.

Monday, National announced that it is cutting 200 jobs, mostly at wafer fabs in Arlington, Texas and Greenock, Scotland; the cuts amount to 2.6% of the company’s workforce.

In today’s trading:

• Motorola is down $1.28, or 9.6%, at $12.05.
• Nokia is down $1.65, or 5.1%, at $30.95.
• National Semi is down 57 cents, or 2.9%, at $18.80.
• RF Micro (RFMD) is down 20 cents, or 6.1%, at $3.10.
• Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) is down 16 cents, or 2%, at $8.06.
• Research in Motion (RIMM) is down $3.57, or 4%, at $85.01.