Top Financial News
Wed, 09 Aug 2000, 4:49pm EDT
Applied Materials 3rd-Qtr Profit Surges; Orders Reach $3.28 Bln
By Cesca Antonelli
Santa Clara, California, Aug. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Applied Materials Inc., the biggest semiconductor-equipment maker, said fiscal third-quarter profit more than doubled as customers bought more tools to crank out chips for computers and cell phones.
Net income rose to $603.8 million, or 70 cents a share, from $238.3 million, or a split-adjusted 29 cents, a year earlier. Sales in the quarter ended July 30 jumped 83 percent to $2.73 billion from $1.49 billion.
As Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and other chipmakers rush to add capacity, they're snapping up production gear as fast as equipment makers can ship it. New orders at Applied -- which sells machines that handle three-quarters of the chip-manufacturing process -- rose to $3.28 billion, topping the company's target of more than $3 billion.
``There are still aggressive plans out there,'' said Wit SoundView analyst Mike O'Brien. ``The (contract manufacturers) are still spending. A lot of the U.S. logic manufacturers are still spending. The Japanese are starting to come back in.''
The Santa Clara, California-based company was expected to earn 68 cents a share, the average estimate of analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial. Forecasts reached as high as 74 cents.
Applied shares rose 1 9/16 to 72 1/8 on the Nasdaq Stock Market before the report. They've lost 37 percent of their value since touching a high of 115 in April.
quote.bloomberg.com |
