Wireless communications products supplier TriQuint Semiconductor Inc's third-quarter profit met market expectations, helped partly by a growth in its networks market, but weak revenue and a fourth-quarter forecast below expectations sent shares down 21 percent.

One handset customer based in Korea is making a material adjustment in its demand to burn off excess inventory, which is impacting TriQuint, the company said on a conference call.

Certainly it will influence our numbers, but I am still forecasting growth in handsets going forward, Chief Executive Ralph Quinsey said.

I don't see it as being a significant enough headwind to slow our growth in handset revenue, he added.

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics Inc are among the company's major customers in South Korea.

TriQuint earned $10.5 million, or 7 cents a share, in the third quarter compared with $11.8 million, or 8 cents a share, a year ago.

Excluding items, the company, which supplies equipment to the latest version of Apple Inc's iPhone, earned 10 cents a share, while analysts were expecting 10 cents a share.

Revenue dipped 7 percent to $173 million, below analysts' expectations of $177.8 million.

The company's handset business, which constitutes nearly half of its revenue, was flat sequentially.

CDMA was down more than any other business, the CEO said, adding that it was about 30 percent lower sequentially.

For the fourth quarter, TriQuint forecast earnings of 10 cents to 12 cents a share, excluding items, on revenue of $175 million to $185 million.

Analysts were expecting the company to earn 13 cents a share, before items, on revenue of $188 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company is 91 percent booked to the midpoint of revenue outlook for the fourth quarter, it said.

Shares of Hillsboro, Oregon-based TriQuint were down 21 percent at $6.37 in trading after the bell. They closed at $8.10 Wednesday on Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Manasi Phadke in Bangalore; Editing by Vikram S Subhedar and Unnikrishnan Nair)

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