Walter -<<Anybody hear the conference call?>>
Yes. The outlook for the next quarter, Q3FY98, was consistent with the range of analysts' eanings predictions that Scott posted.
Beyond the sequential quarterly increase in net profit margin from 37% to 37.2% of revenues that can be calculated from the newswire reports, the gross margin fluctuated down slightly from from 71.4% to 71.2% and the pretax operating margin improved from 50.7% to 51.0%. All of these margins lead the industry.
The book to bill was stronger than 1 and the order backlog in place for the coming quarter covered more than 50% of the expected shipments , a normal level and consistent with the previous quarter. Lead times were constant at 4 to 6 weeks and ASP (average selling price) was also constant.
Korea was weak, but expected to improve. At 4 to 5% of revenues, Korea by itself can't significantly directly impact results, as in total it is a couple months of revenue growth (my interpretation). Japan remains stagnant, but Taiwan, Europe and the US were strong.
In general, the outlook was for a strong second half of FY98, to follow a strong first half. Of course, there can be no immunity from future economic conditions both regional and global, but a cautious optimism seemed to be the watchword.
Regards, Don |
