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Some Orange County publicly traded companies warned about the negative effects of President Donald Trump’s tariffs while a long-time defense contractor shrugged them off, citing its manufacturing prowess in the U.S.
That was only a sample of the news that Orange County’s publicly listed companies revealed last week as EV maker Rivian Automotive Inc. trimmed its annual delivery forecast, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. poached a top executive from rival Taco Bell and medical device maker Masimo Corp. revealed a $650 million bath on a consumer investment bet made by its founder. Here’s a quick recap of a pivotal week among prominent publicly traded firms with headquarters in OC:
Rivian Cuts Deliveries
Rivian topped Wall Street’s expectations for the first quarter and earnings but the third highest valued publicly traded company based in OC lowered 2025 targets for vehicle deliveries.
The company’s new guidance includes deliveries of between 40,000 units and 46,000 units, down from guidance of 46,000 and 51,000 deliveries foreseen in early April.
Rivian said that while it has 100% U.S. vehicle manufacturing, it “is not immune to the impacts of the global trade and economic environment.
“The company’s guidance represents management’s current view on evolving trade regulation, policies, tariffs and the overall impact these items may have on consumer sentiment and demand,” Rivian said in a May 6 earnings statement.
While revenue only increased 3% to $1.24 billion, the EV maker reported gross profit of $206 million, its second consecutive quarter of gross profit; in last year’s first quarter, it reported a gross loss of $527 million. Hitting that first quarter gross profit milestone has unlocked an expected $1 billion investment from Volkswagen Group.
Shares fell 5.8% to $12.72 and a $14.6 billion market cap on the trading day after its May 6 announcement; shares are up 7% for the year to date (Nasdaq: RIVN).
Masimo’s $650M Bath
Masimo is officially giving up the dream of founder and prior Chief Executive Joe Kiani to expand into consumer devices such as watches and hearing aids that would feature medical-grade technology.
Kiani spent $1 billion in 2022 to acquire Sound United, a consumer audio business; the acquisition shocked investors who caused the company’s market cap to fall $5.2 billion in one day. It also led to a proxy battle where Kiani, once called the Steve Jobs of MedTech, was ousted as chairman last September. He resigned as CEO a week later.
Masimo on May 6 said it entered into an agreement to sell its Sound United consumer audio business to Harman International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., for $350 million.
“Since I took over as CEO, a key objective has been refocusing our business to ensure we are allocating time and resources to areas of unmet clinical need and driving growth and operational efficiencies,” Katie Szyman, Masimo CEO effective Feb. 12, said in a statement.
The Irvine-based medical device maker, which will return to selling principally to hospitals, also blamed Trump’s tariffs for some of its current problems. In an effort to reduce its U.S. costs, the company last year opened its second largest facility—a 329,000-square-foot facility in Malaysia. It also operates manufacturing facilities in Mexico, China and Japan.
“Our updated guidance incorporates a $33 to $37 million increase to cost of sales for fiscal 2025,” the company reported and said the various tariff-weighted estimates exclude factors such as “potential inflationary impact on labor or component costs.”
“The large tariff burden isn’t unexpected (we’d identified MASI as one of the more exposed companies on our list) and doesn’t embed mitigation offsets,” according to Piper Sandler analyst Jason Bednar in a report to investors.
To further cloud its bad week, Masimo on May 7 revealed that it was hit by a cyberattack that forced its manufacturing facilities to operate at less than normal levels, temporarily impacting its ability to fulfill orders, according to a regulatory filing.
Shares in Masimo, the fifth most valuable publicly traded company based in OC, fell 7% to $150.11 and an $8.1 billion market cap in the subsequent trading session; the shares were down 9.2% year to date (Nasdaq: MASI).
Skyworks’ Bullish Q3 Outlook
Irvine-based chipmaker Skyworks Solutions Inc. said second fiscal quarter revenue fell 8.9% to $953 million, slightly more than analysts’ estimates. The semiconductor sector is facing growing challenges due to President Trump’s tariffs, which are bound to cut imports and lead to global economic turmoil.
Skyworks in February also disclosed a likely decline in future business from Apple Inc., its biggest customer. However, Apple on May 1 said a majority of its devices shipped into the U.S. during the current quarter will be made in India and Vietnam rather than China.
On May 7, Skyworks, the fourth most valuable company in OC, turned more bullish than analysts expected. It anticipates fiscal third quarter revenue of $920 million to $960 million, with adjusted earnings per share at $1.24. Analysts expected $1.05 a share on revenue of $917.7 million.
Skyworks also announced Mark Dentinger, who most recently served as CFO of Veritas Technologies of Santa Clara, has been appointed chief financial officer, effective on June 2, succeeding Kris Sennesael, who stepped down on May 9. Skyworks also said industry veteran Todd Lepinski has been appointed senior vice president, sales and marketing, also effective June 2.
Sennesael’s exit comes after the departure of longtime CEO and President Liam Griffin, who stepped down in the beginning of February and stayed on as an adviser for three months. Griffin was succeeded by Philip Brace, formerly the executive chairman of wireless company Inseego Corp. in San Diego.
Shares rose less than 1% to $67.29 each and a market cap of $10.3 billion in the trading session after the announcement (Nasdaq: SWKS).
Chipotle Goes Poaching
Intrigue last week hit two of the nation’s most popular Mexican restaurant chains, which are both based in Orange County.
Irvine-based Taco Bell Global Chief Operating Officer Jason Kidd jumped to cross-county rival Chipotle, according to an announcement on May 6.
Kidd will be COO at Chipotle, the largest publicly traded company based in OC, with a starting date of May 19. Kidd joins the Newport Beach-based chain to oversee nearly 3,800 restaurants and 130,000 employees as of March. Before he joined Taco Bell in February 2024, he was president of Hearing Lab Technology LLC for three years. Most of Kidd’s career was spent at Sam’s Club, where he held several leadership roles in operations, merchandising, planning and supply chain. He also spent six years at 99 Cents Only Stores as senior vice president, operations then president and COO.
Taco Bell is owned by Louisville, Kentucky-based Yum Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM), which also owns Irvine-based Habit Burger & Grill.
Chipotle on April 23 announced first quarter revenue increased 6.4% to $2.9 billion as comparable same stores sales dropped 0.4%, the first such decrease since 2020. Yum Brands on April 30 reported Taco Bell’s systemwide sales climbed 11% to $3.98 billion.
In the trading session after the news about Kidd, shares of Chipotle climbed 2.5% to $51.64 and a $69.6 billion market cap; shares were down about 14% year to date (NYSE: CMG). Yum Shares were up 0.8% to $149.48 and a $41.6 billion market cap.
Viant Sales Slowing
While many fret about the future of TV and streaming, digital ad company Viant Technology Inc. in Irvine said first-quarter revenue rose 32% to $70.6 million, above the company forecast of $65 million to $68 million.
“With unique exposure to secular tailwinds and differentiated technology, we believe Viant is well positioned to outperform the broader advertising industry,” CEO Tim Vanderhook said in releasing results for the quarter ended March 31.
Furthermore, the company sees an opportunity due to a recent court decision that called Google a monopoly and could result in that company’s divestiture of key assets like DoubleClick and Google AdX.
“Any regulatory action taken to limit Google’s illegal market dominance will improve Viant’s competitive positioning,” Vanderhook told analysts on a conference call. “In our view, an open market for YouTube is the most beneficial outcome.”
Still, the company, which went public in 2021, hinted that some consumer goods and retail advertisers might be slowing down their spending. The company forecast second quarter revenue would climb at a slower pace—19% at the midpoint of $77 million to $80 million.
“It is only very recently that we have seen a small number of advertisers adjust their plans, redirecting ad spend from the second quarter into the latter part of the year,” Vanderhook said.
Investors reacted by sending the shares down 12% to $13.11 and an $825 million market cap; shares were down 25% year to date (Nasdaq: DSP).
Ducommun—No Tariffs Worries
Airplane components maker Ducommun Inc. in Santa Ana presented adjusted first quarter earnings of 83 cents per share on May 6, easily topping the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 59 cents each. Revenue climbed 2% to $194.1 million.
“An excellent start to 2025 for Ducommun,” CEO Stephen Oswald said in a statement. “Strength in our defense business helped us overcome the anticipated weakness in commercial aerospace production rates.”
Oswald, unlike other OC executives, said the company doesn’t expect tariffs to have “a significant impact on our financial outlook.
“We are largely a U.S. manufacturer with U.S. workers and our domestic facilities generate more than 95% of Ducommun’s revenue,” he said.
Wall Street rewarded the 176-year-old company—the oldest continuously running company in California—with an immediate stock jump. Shares increased 4.6% to $63.68 and a $947 million market cap; the shares are up 3% year to date (NYSE: DCO).
Staff writers Yuika Yoshida and Emily Santiago-Molina contributed to this report.