| 3:11PM Kulicke & Soffa Earnings Preview (KLIC) 15.86 -0.55: Kulicke & Soffa is scheduled to report Q4 results Monday morning, with consensus ests standing at ($0.11) in EPS and $131.3 mln in sales. Soundview expects the co to release stronger than expected numbers of ($0.06) in EPS and $134 mln in sales, and reminds investors that KLIC's main competitor in the equipment biz, ASM Pacific, reported continued strength in back-end equipment orders, which should bode well for KLIC; also, with the continued under-investment in backend equipment, firm believes quarterly bookings will continue to improve going into 2004. On the other hand, Morgan Stanley estimates the co will report ($0.14) and $128 mln; despite robust demand, firm believes the co is constrained by shortages of several key parts, and thus upside to rev guidance will be limited (although the co is likely to guide to positive growth in Q1); regarding bookings, firm is concerned that customers may decide to take a breather in Dec and Jan after the recent surge of orders, and as such the strength in Q4 bookings may not continue into Q1 (demand should pick up again after the Chinese New Year in Jan, however). |
