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To: Zeev Hed who wrote (24689)	4/13/2000 1:11:00 PM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 25960

Analyst comments on strong KLAC earnings. See comments about demand for inspection equipment for chips below .18 micron..... biz.yahoo.com Thursday April 13, 12:56 pm Eastern Time UPDATE 2-KLA-Tencor beats estimates on record bookings (Changes dateline to New York, adds byline, updates share price, adds analyst's comments in paras 3 and 11.) by Barbara Etzel NEW YORK, April 13 (Reuters) - Chip equipment maker KLA-Tencor Corp. (NasdaqNM:KLAC - news) on Thursday reported a more than three-fold increase in quarterly net income, easily beating analysts' estimates, as order backlog increased substantially and record bookings were recorded. The company's shares rose as high as 82-3/4 in early trading on the Nasdaq stock market and were up 3-5/8 at 81-5/8 at midday. ``Business is very strong, driven by technology and capacity buys,' said Wit SoundView analyst Shekhar Pramanick. KLA-Tencor is one of the equipment makers that is benefiting from a strong cyclical upswing in the semiconductor industry that has sent chip makers scrambling to add production capacity and buy chipmaking equipment. Net income in the fiscal third quarter that ended March 31 increased to $73 million, or 38 cents a share from $21 million, or 11 cents a share in the same period a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial were expecting the company to earn an average of 33 cents a share, with the range of expectations falling in a 29 to 35 cent range. KLA-Tencor, which makes a variety of equipment used to inspect and monitor chips in the production process, achieved record bookings during the quarter and saw order backlog substantially increase. Revenues were $413 million, a 96 percent increase from $211 million in the year-earlier period. Quarterly revenues exceeded Lehman Bros. estimate of $400 million, along with surpassing its earnings per share estimate of 36 cents a share. The San Jose, Calif.-based company said that seven product lines established new quarterly records resulting from demand for the advanced inspection requirements for new technology below 0.18 micron and the transition to copper wiring. Additionally, companies trying to squeeze more chips out of a silicon wafer by moving to 12-inch silicon wafers from 8-inch wafers also have increased demand for KLA-Tencor's products, Pramanick said. Orders were particularly strong from Taiwan and the Asia Pacific region, which includes Singapore, Malaysia and China. U.S. orders continued to be strong, KLA-Tencor said. Gross margins increased to 56 percent during the March quarter from 54 percent in the December quarter.