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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (5150)	1/23/2003 6:02:06 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25522

5:09PM KLA-Tencor comments on overall '03 equipment spending (KLAC) 36.41 +0.21: -- Update -- On call, says that, overall, it believes semiconductor capital equipment spending will increase about 10% in 2003 KLA-Tencor sees March quarter orders about flat Thursday January 23, 5:37 pm ET NEW YORK, Jan 23 (Reuters) - KLA-Tencor Corp. (NasdaqNM:KLAC - News), a maker of tools used to produce microchips, said Thursday it expected new orders to be roughly the same in the quarter ending in March as in the quarter that ended in December. The company also said in a conference call it expected earnings of about 12 cents a share in the third quarter, ending in March, and quarterly revenue of about $300 million. Analysts were expecting a third-quarter profit in the range of 4 cents to 20 cents a share, with an average estimate of 11 cents, according to a poll of 25 analysts by market tracker Thomson First Call.

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (5150)	1/24/2003 8:49:14 AM
From: Jeffrey D	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25522

TSMC and UMC expected to cut capital expenditures this year. Jeff << Taiwan's TSMC, UMC seen posting lacklustre Q4 profit Reuters, 01.24.03, 6:40 AM ET By Michael Kramer TAIPEI, Jan 24 (Reuters) - The world's two largest contract chip makers, Taiwan's TSMC <2330.TW> and rival UMC <2303.TW>, are expected to post lacklustre quarterly results next week, and analysts foresee an industry recovery only in the second half of 2003. "We are in the very early cycle of recovery. It's just that the recovery is taking a pause," said Nomura Securities semiconductor analyst Rick Hsu. "The slowdown will persist until the second or third quarter of this year." Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) (nyse: TSM - news - people) is expected to show a 19 percent year-on-year decline in fourth-quarter net profits on January 28, according to a consensus of forecasts by Multex. An unexpected rush of Christmas orders for mobile handset chips from clients such as Motorola (nyse: MOT - news - people) and Texas Instruments (nyse: MOT - news - people), as well as graphics chips for Nvidia (nasdaq: MOT - news - people), prevented worse and lifted earnings by 15 percent from the third quarter, analysts said. The world No. 2 contract chipmaker, United Microelectronics Corp (nyse: UMC - news - people) is expected to eke out a small fourth-quarter profit on January 29. That would reverse a year-ago-loss but mark a 93 percent drop from its third-quarter profit, analysts said. Both companies are expected to cut capital expenditure from last year's levels, a disappointing move for chip manufacturing equipment makers such as Applied Materials (nasdaq: AMAT - news - people) and ASM Lithography <ASML.AS>. Analysts forecast TSMC's 2003 capex will fall to about US$1.2 billion from US$1.65 billion in 2002, while UMC's may drop to US$500 million from US$800. Last week, chip giant Intel Corp (nasdaq: INTC - news - people) slashed its capex for this year by about 20 percent from the US$4.7 billion in 2002. The glory days for contract chipmaking may be over as it gradually becomes a mature industry, analysts say. "There will be growth, there's no doubt about it," said Kishore Suratkal, semiconductor analyst at Deutsche Securities. "But it will not be anything more than normal growth for any company coming out of an economic downturn." Investors appear to share these fears. TSMC shares slumped 46.4 percent last year, sending the company's price-earnings ratio to about 27 times consensus earnings forecasts from growth-stock levels around 40. UMC stock's fell 52.6 percent last year. Demand for chips used in colour mobile phones and wireless broadband Internet connections sustained TSMC and UMC amid dismal 2002 sales of personal computers, still the largest source of demand for semiconductors. "These are incremental improvements. They don't change the way people do things," Suratkal said. "It's going to be a long time before we see a new product that can kick-start this cycle again." Suratkal called TSMC current valuations fair, but not cheap. Its shares slipped 2.18 percent to T$49.40 on Friday. The following table compares consensus estimates for TSMC and UMC's fourth-quarter net profits with actual results in the previous quarter and the year-ago period (net in millions of Taiwan dollars, change in percent). Q402 (Est'd) Q302 q/q change Q401 y/y change TSMC 3,630 3,160 +15 pct 4,514 -19 pct UMC 90 1,424 -93 pct 3,753 loss n/a The following table compares consensus estimates for TSMC and UMC's 2002 earnings per share with actual results in 2001 and estimates for 2003 (in Taiwan dollars, 2001 EPS is unadjusted). 2001 (actual) 2002 (est'd) 2003 (est'd) TSMC T$0.83 T$1.21 T$1.90 UMC T$0.24 loss T$0.42 T$0.69 (Consensus forecasts from Multex Global Estimates) (US$1 = T$34.7) Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service