I guess this explains things pretty well, but we still might buy it cheaper tomorrow. Patience friends.
Fairchild Semi (FCS) 15 9/16 -1: Fairchild Semi said today that Q1 sales may be somewhat down from Q4, which is expected to be approximately $490 mln, in line with previous
guidance. Like ChipPAC which warned last night, Fairchild Semi is attributing the weakness to customers' inventory-driven backlog adjustments. FCS did qualify their Q1 warning by
adding that a strong Christmas sell-through could prove the guidance too conservative. Furthermore, the company expects stronger sales in Q2 and despite the anticipated Q1
softness, 2001 should see overall sales growth of about 20%. Assuming they hit their $490 mln Q4 target, that puts 2001 sales over the $2 bln mark. This announcement is a reflection
of industry wide conditions, not anything company-specific. Fairchild Semi's product portfolio as well as geographic distribution are among the widest and most diverse in the industry.
Their semiconductors include power, analog & mixed signal, interface, logic, and optoelectronics products. They serve end markets for computing, communications, automotive,
consumer and industrial applications and are extremely balanced with 33% of sales into communications applications, 31% into computing and storage applications, and 36% into
consumer and industrial applications. Geographically, their revenue base breaks down as follows: Asia/Japan 48%, Americas 23%, Korea 16% and Europe 13%. Today's news
should not come as a surprise to anyone who watches the semiconductor industry, and we think the potential sales slowdown has largely been priced into the shares over the past
three months. We continue to like the story at Fairchild Semi and although the next few quarters may not see any strong upward movement in the shares, we see fantastic long term
value at these depressed levels. - Matt Gould, Briefing.com |
