KLA-Tencor Corp.'s (KLAC) fiscal fourth-quarter earnings edged up 1.2% as the company saw a lower provision for income taxes that offset higher costs and flat revenue. KLA-Tencor, which makes systems that monitor semiconductor wafer production, saw its revenue increase only slightly in the fiscal third quarter as product revenue clocked minimal gains and service revenue declined.
In the latest period, product revenue, which represents the vast majority of the top line, was almost stagnant, edging up just 0.3%. Service revenue was down 1.3%.
For the quarter ended June 30, KLA-Tencor reported a profit of $247.9 million, or $1.46 a share, up slightly from $245 million, or $1.43 a share, a year earlier.
Excluding acquisition-related charges and other items, earnings slipped to $1.49 from $1.50 a year ago.
Revenue was flat at $892.5 million.
KLA-Tencor earlier this month said revenue would be toward the high end of its range of $840 million to $900 million. It also said it expected per-share earnings to be above its April estimate of between $1.20 and $1.38. At the time, it said bookings for the quarter were about $827 million, within its earlier estimate of $775 million to $950 million.
Gross margin narrowed to 59.5% from 60.1% on higher costs. Engineering, research and development expenses were up 18%, while total expenses were up 4.7%.
The company's income tax provision was $58 million, down from $89 million a year ago.
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Q4 2012 Results - Earnings Call Transcript excerpts:
seekingalpha.com
Now for some additional perspective on the near-term demand picture. As we noted at SEMICON West, the industry demand outlook for the rest of calendar year 2012 has backed off recently due to a combination of weaker memory forecast and some softening in near-term foundry demand. As a result, industry observers are now expecting full-year industry CapEx to be down in the range of 10% to 15% in 2012. However, looking past this current pause, we believe the factors which are helping sustain the high levels of CapEx investment seen in this cycle remain in play.
We expect September quarter bookings to be in the range of $625 million to $775 million. Guidance for revenue in September is in the range of $700 million to $760 million, and non-GAAP earnings per share are projected to be in the range of $0.75 to $0.95 in the quarter.
Total backlog at the end of Q4 decreased by $106 million from March 31, and we ended the quarter with about $1.2 billion in systems backlog.
...I feel reasonably confident that what we're seeing is a softening or a pause and we'll see resumed growth. I think the caveat in all this, the obvious caveat is the macro, which nobody really has a good way to predict at this point. |
