I don't follow MO nor do I invest in it, but I was surprised looking at the Yahoo profile which says that MO has only $1.38B in cash. A drop in the ocean compared with MSFT's 40B, or even AMAT's 4.8B. That can't be correct.
biz.yahoo.com
Also, Analysts More Cautious on Chip Sector Prospects.....I would never have guessed.
Analysts More Cautious on Chip Sector Prospects
Wednesday September 4, 1:50 pm ET
By Duncan Martell
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Analysts are increasingly worried that semiconductor companies will have to ratchet down already cautious financial guidance as the industry tracks a slow and uneven recovery from a sharp downturn.
National Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:NSM - News), a broad-based chip firm often seen as a useful gauge for the sector, on Wednesday added to the wary mood when it warned that current-quarter revenue would fall short of expectations.
While the company reported fiscal first-quarter results that met diminished expectations, it cautioned that early indications of consumer demand for the holiday season were not strong.
The next key event for the sector comes on Thursday when Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - News), the world's largest chip maker, issues its mid-quarter business update.
Already, several analysts have cautioned that they expect Intel, which gets about 80 percent of its revenue from the personal computer sector, to lower its third-quarter revenue guidance to the low end of the range. In July, Intel said it expected third-quarter revenue of $6.3 billion to $6.9 billion.
"We expect Intel to be cautious when it issues comments regarding the third quarter outlook on Thursday," Merrill Lynch analyst Joseph Osha wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday.
Osha also cut his 2002 earnings-per-share estimate for Intel to 51 cents from 55 cents and trimmed his 2003 estimate to 76 cents from 86 cents.
The third quarter for Intel is the most back-end loaded of all quarters, with typically 40 percent of its revenue coming in the last half of that quarter, analysts said.
But this year, the company appears even more reliant on late-quarter demand, analysts said.
"We think that this year, it is even more back-end loaded than usual due to the poor demand seen so far and the lack of future orders," wrote Dan Niles, an analyst at Lehman Brothers, in a note to clients.
SHARES EDGE LOWER, GLOBAL CHIP MAKERS CAUTIOUS
Intel shares were off 1 percent, or 16 cents, to $15.70 in mid-afternoon trade.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor index (Philadelphia:^SOXX - News) was initially up slightly at the start of trading, then fell, and in mid-afternoon trade was down almost 2 percent.
Global chip makers meeting in Shanghai on Wednesday said 2003 could be tough on their profits as low corporate demand for computer technology amid global economic uncertainty keeps chip prices under pressure.
Executives from Infineon Technologies AG (XETRA:IFXGn.DE - News) and Micron Technology Inc (NYSE:MU - News) told Reuters that shaky stock markets and U.S. threats of action against Iraq were convincing firms to put information technology spending on hold, hurting chip prices.
"Profits, at least initially, are going to stay under pressure (in 2003) because of the prices, but we see looking backward that volumes have picked up on a global basis, especially in Asia," said Peter Bauer, executive vice president for sales and marketing at German chipmaker Infineon.
Infineon, the world's sixth-largest chip maker in terms of sales, was less upbeat on Wednesday about the rest of 2002 than it was in July when it reported an operating loss of 107 million euros ($106.6 million).
"We don't see a major change in terms of high growth coming back in the next one or two quarters," Bauer said.
U.S.-based Micron, which designs and makes memory chips, said the Christmas season would offer some relief to this year's results as consumers buy digital cameras, video game consoles and personal computers.
"But to be honest, until we really see an uptick in corporate IT spending, I'm not terribly bullish," Mike Sadler, Micron's sales director, told Reuters.
Other chip makers, however, have repeated their own growth forecasts in recent days.
Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE:TXN - News), the No. 1 maker of chips for wireless phones, on Wednesday left its outlook for the third quarter unchanged, as the company reiterated its expectation of 5 percent revenue growth over the second quarter.
Also on Wednesday, one of the largest custom chip makers, LSI Logic Corp. (NYSE:LSI - News), backed its earlier forecast for 10 percent revenue growth in the third quarter from the $438 million in the second quarter.
(Additional reporting by Erin Prelypchan in Shanghai) |
