Analog Devices slips as Needham downgrades on order-cancellation issues
sefa ozel/E+ via Getty Images

Analog Devices (NASDAQ:ADI) was down by 1%, Thursday, after Needham analyst Quinn Bolton cut his rating on the company due to concerns about business slowing down for the signal-processing chipmaker.
Bolton took down his rating on ADI (ADI) to hold from buy due to the company saying it is seeing a growing number of orders being cancelled. On Wednesday, ADI (ADI) said it expects its fiscal fourth-quarter sales to be in a range of $3.05B to $3.25B, which Wall Street analysts had earlier forecast the company to report sales of $3.1B. 
However, ADI (ADI) officials tempered any enthusiasm among investors by saying that "economic uncertainty" is coloring its longer-term outlook. By the time U.S. stock markets closed on Wednesday, ADI (ADI) shares had fallen by 5%.
Bolton said ADI's (ADI) outlook, which came along with its fiscal third-quarter report, suggested that "ADI, and the semiconductor industry in general, is just beginning to see the start of a broader slowdown."
Bolton noted that ADI's "cancellations and order slowdown occurred across multiple end markets," and that the company's backlog of orders is expected to extend into the first half of 2023.
Wall Street analysts and Seeking Alpha authors each currently have a consensus buy rating on ADI's (ADI) stock, while ADI (ADI) has a strong buy rating from Seeking Alpha's quant system, which historically outperforms the stock market.