Wednesday September 19, 7:52 am Eastern Time
TheStreet.com - Silicon Valley
TriQuint Keeps Hope Alive, Sees Strength in Wireless
Chipmaker reaffirms its earlier statements about the wireless sector picking up.
By Adam Feuerstein
Staff Reporter
Investors couldn't take a warning this week, so TriQuint decided to revise to the upside. During its monthly update call,
the small provider of communications and defense components stuck with its guidance for $80 million in revenue for the
third quarter, but raised its earnings per share projections by a penny to 4 cents. What the heck, while he was at it, CEO
Steve Sharp added a little hope to the mix.
"I don't think our numbers reflect anything that happened since last week, but we certainly continue to reiterate the fact
that customers are giving us more orders and are getting more bullish in the wireless mobile phone business," he said, with
no hems, haws or reservations.
TriQuint and its wireless component cohorts have enjoyed relative stock-price stability in recent weeks as investors
celebrate the return of mobile-phone component orders after months of drought. TriQuint's stock is up a respectable 1%
in the past two tough days of trading.
Sharp said he's seeing "some strength" in wireless CDMA and TDMA components, reflecting a pickup in current
generation wireless systems. He speculated that his company already was beginning to feel a pre-Christmas increase,
which combines with flushed-out inventory levels among the mobile phone makers to create orders.
To spray some whip cream and plunk a cherry on top, TriQuint added that Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERICY - news) is
"beginning to buy for all standards that we work with them on, though certainly not at the levels they were a year ago."
For a company that usually doesn't get included in positive tidbits, it was a welcome addition. Also new to the call was
Sharp's emphasis on TriQuint's military business, which has doubled in importance during 2001 from 5% of revenues to
its current 10% level. |
