ATML annouces that it will meet or exceed estimates, this news is obviously what held XICOR up today in another TERRIBLE market, i think the sector rotation is slowing down with regards to selling ALL tech stocks and it is turning to some of the other overbought sectors like banks, savings & loans and oil service stocks. Any comments on sector rotation? As i have discussed recently nearly 70% of the semi stocks are on a SELL signal, this means that ALMOST everyone that has sold their semi stock that wants to sell has sold. on the other hand over 90% of the stocks in the aforementioned sectors (banks, s&l's and Oil service) are on a BUY signal, this means that nearly everyone that wants to buy a bank stock has bought and then some. i say and then some because when 90% of any sector is on a buy signal that means nearly all of the bank stocks, the GOOD ones & the BAD ones, have been bought, the same is true when the selling occurs like in the semi sector, the GOOD ones get taken down with the bad ones.
ATML press release
Well no need to wait till Thursday!!
7/8/96 =Atmel Puts 2Q Net At 48c To 50c/Shr, Rev At $260M-$268M
By G. Pascal Zachary
SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--Atmel Corp. (ATML) will meet or slightly exceed analysts' estimates for its second quarter ended June 30, Chief Financial Officer Kris Chellam said. Chellam said Atmel, which is scheduled to report its second-quarter results Thursday, will post net income of 48 cents to 50 cents a share on revenue of $260 million to
$268 million. The consensus estimate has the chip-maker earning 48 cents a share on revenue of $260 million. In the year-ago period, Atmel earned a split-adjusted 26 cents a share, or $24.5 million, on revenue of $145.9 million. The company, based in San Jose, Calif., makes nonvolatile memory chips for a wide range of electronics gear, including cellular phones and computer peripherals such as printers, modems and disk drives.
Chellam also told Dow Jones that Atmel's third-quarter outlook was ''positive,'' citing a book-to-bill ratio for the quarter of more than one, which means new orders exceeded billings for that period. 'That's positive going into the third quarter,'' he said. Chellam warned, however, that changing business conditions are making it more difficult to forecast Atmel's results. ''Lead times have shortened,'' he said. ''Where customers once ordered three to six months in advance, now it's more like two to three months. So the visibility isn't as good.'' The shorter lead times for orders, Chellam said,
stem from the ''perception that prices are coming down.'' But while prices are falling, he said, this shouldn't be a particular concern in a semiconductor industry historically prone to price declines ''because prices are coming down in an orderly fashion.''
Chellam said Atmel's ''diverse'' customer base enabled the company to meet analysts' expectations. ''Weaknesses in some areas are being offset by strengths in others,'' he said. He said growing sales of Atmel's chips that end up in personal computer peripherals are more than compensating for ''somewhat sluggish'' sales of chips that end up in new PCs.
''The peripheral business is strong, driven by the Internet,'' he said. ''More and more people are upgrading their hardware to get onto the Internet, and that means faster modems, bigger hard drives and more memory.''
(END) DOW JONES NEWS 07-08-96
2:16 PM
What i think is interesting is that XICOR has been preaching and anticipating the shortening of lead times for quite some time now.
blaine |
