Amplicon Shares Down

Amplicon Inc. shares fell 4.4% after the company warned that revenue in its fiscal fourth quarter will fall short of last year’s.

Shares of the Santa Ana company, which rents and sells computers and related equipment, fell 81 cents, to $17.50. Earlier in the day, the shares traded as low as $15.

Amplicon said lagging equipment sales and loss of new business pulled down fourth-quarter revenue, which the company said will probably be 15% less than the $82.3 million from the same quarter a year earlier.

The decline comes even as earnings per share are expected to increase 20% to 22% above last year’s $1.35 a share. Amplicon expects total revenue for the year to be 5% greater than 1997’s $299 million.