ALTR ($29 ) Results Just Miss Reduced Forecasts
SAN JOSE (Reuters) - Specialty chipmaker Altera Corp. (NasdaqNM:ALTR - news) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter earnings that narrowly missed reduced forecasts and said an industry-wide correction will hurt demand in the short term.
The San Jose-based company said profits before a gain rose 46 percent to $102.7 million, or 25 cents a share, from $70.4 million, or 17 cents a year ago. Sales rose 55 percent to $367.9 million from $237.2 million last year.
Analysts had forecast earnings of 26 cents a share, according to First Call/Thomson Financial, a figure that had been reduced following a sales warning in November.
Including a $102.8 million gain related to the company's sale of its interest in Wafertech, the company posted net income of $205.5 million, or 50 cents per diluted share.
Microchip makers were hurt at the end of last year by a drop in technology spending by businesses and consumers, and many analysts suspect the difficulties will continue through part of 2001.
Altera's inventory is expected to rise to about 7.5 months of product at the end of the first quarter due to a sales slowdown, settling to near its target inventory of 6 months by the end of the second quarter, the company said in a conference call with investors.
Altera, along with its principal rival Xilinx Inc. (NasdaqNM:XLNX - news), warned Nov. 29 that fourth-quarter sales would be little changed from the $395.4 million reported in the third quarter, citing sluggish November sales.
Shares of Altera rose to $34 in afterhours trading from its close of $32-1/4, according to Instinet. The stock had already risen $1-1/6, or 3.4 percent, in regular trading.
Since March, when technology companies were hit hard by investors, shares of Altera have outperformed the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index (^SOXX - news) by 23 percent.
Over the same period, Altera stock had outperformed Xilinx shares by as much 25 percent through September, although that has now been reduced to about 5 percent.
Email this story - View |
