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Technology Stocks : Novellus -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sonki who wrote (2523)	12/17/1999 9:38:00 PM
From: KM	Respond to of 3813

Play it again Sam Friday December 17, 8:22 pm Eastern Time Novellus says Q4 to beat estimates, splits stock SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec 17 (Reuters) - Novellus Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:NVLS - news), a maker of equipment for manufacturing computer chips, said on Friday that booming sales meant its fourth quarter profits would beat Wall Street estimates ''substantially''. The San Jose, Calif.-based company said revenues for the three-month period would come in at around $190 million, with sales for the first half of next year topping $500 million. ''Because of the significant increase in bookings we have experienced this quarter, we now expect to substantially exceed consensus street estimates for revenues and profits,'' Chief Financial Officer Robert Smith said in a statement. Smith gave no exact figures for expected earnings, but the company was expected to earn 65 cents a share for the fourth quarter, according to First Call/Thomson Financial, which compiles analyst estimates. Novellus also declared a three-for-one split of its common stock, with a record date of Dec. 30 and payment to be made around Jan. 15. The split would give Novellus about 240 million authorized common shares and about 120 million shares outstanding, it said without elaborating. Earlier on Friday, Merrill Lynch raised its earnings per share forecast for Novellus to $1.75 from $1.72 for this year, and to $4.00 from $3.35 for next year. ''Penetration at accounts where they were historically weak such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Intel are producing big market share gains,'' Merrill said. Shares in Novellus rose 8-31/32 to 85-11/32 on the Nasdaq trading system on Friday. The earnings announcement was made after the close of U.S. markets.