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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lindelgs who wrote (5763)	10/4/2000 11:19:36 PM
From: lindelgs	Respond to of 65232

October 4, 2000 6:55pm Micron tops 4Q estimates, sees strong holiday demand By Sergio G. Non ZDII Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) easily topped Wall Street expectations in the fourth quarter and told analysts to expect a typically strong holiday season. After market close Wednesday, the memory chip giant reported fiscal fourth quarter earnings of $727 million, or $1.20 per share. First Call's survey of 26 analysts predicted a profit of 96 cents per share for the quarter ended Aug. 31. Shares of Micron traded at 47.25 in afterhours activity on the Island electronic communications network, following the release of quarterly results. Micron stock closed Wednesday's regular trading at 46.9375, up 3.875 for the session. Latest News on MU WRAPUP-U.S. stocks, dollar rise as bonds, oil fall... Micron tops 4Q estimates, sees strong holiday demand... UPDATE 1-Micron Technology's Q4 net easily tops forecasts... MU: News Profile Chart Estimates Also Wednesday, Micron said it has called for the redemption of $740 million in 6.5 percent convertible notes held by Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN). Those notes may be converted into 24.7 million shares of Micron. Fourth quarter revenue increased to $2.6 billion, a 138 percent gain year-over-year and an improvement of almost 43 percent from the third quarter. The company credited rising DRAM prices -- about 30 percent higher from the third quarter -- for boosting fourth quarter net income. During an afternoon conference call with analysts, Micron executives said 128 megabit memory modules sold for $15 apiece during the fourth quarter. Gross margin for Micron's chip operations rose to 58 percent from 43 percent in the third quarter. DRAM prices have fallen a bit since the quarter ended; Micron currently sees spot market prices ranging between $13 and $14.50. However, despite worries from Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) and PC vendors about a slowdown in European demand, Micron said it still expects the holiday season to produce the kind of strong demand it has in the past. But don't expect the fourth quarter's growth in DRAM bit shipments to continue. Micron expects the first quarter will have just single digit sequential growth, in percentage terms, for bit shipments. That figure was 20 percent in the fourth quarter. DRAM shipment growth will slow as the company shifts production to 0.15 micron sizes, and as more wafer starts are used for SRAM and flash memory chips used in communications devices, executives said. SRAM and flash currently constitute about 10 percent of Micron's business, but the company expects that to rise to 20 percent within three quarters. Micron expects to have about 50 percent of its wafer production converted to 0.15 micron by year's end. Almost all of Micron's memory shipments in the first quarter will be PC 100, PC 133 or upcoming double data rate DRAM, the company said. Demand for RDRAM from Rambus (Nasdaq: RMBS) remains low, Micron executives said. Rambus is currently feuding with Micron and other memory chip makers over the validity of certain DRAM patents issued to Rambus. Micron's PC business saw a 15 percent revenue improvement sequentially, and a 35 percent increase in unit sales. Gross margin in PCs fell to 12 percent from 13 percent in the third quarter. For the full fiscal 2000, Micron reported net income of $1.5 billion, or $2.56 per share, on revenue of $7.3 billion. zdii.com