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To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (28195)1/24/2006 3:26:33 PM
From: Donald Wennerstrom  Respond to of 95622
 
Qualcomm rises on high hopes for quarterly outlook

January 24, 2006 12:56:29 (ET)

<<NEW YORK, Jan 24 (Reuters) - The shares of mobile chip and technology license firm Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM,Trade) rose about 2 percent on Tuesday a day ahead of its earnings report, on investor expectations for a strong current quarter outlook.

ThinkEquity analyst Mike Burton said investors were cheered by strong customer growth at the No. 2 U.S. provider Verizon Wireless, which uses Qualcomm technology and by news from rival chipmaker Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN,Trade).

"The indication on demand is that demand is pretty solid," said Burton, who also cited expectations for first quarter growth at Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd ((005930.KS)), a mobile phone maker that uses Qualcomm chips.

Texas Instruments said late on Monday it had difficulty meeting strong demand in the fourth quarter, due to late delivery of manufacturing equipment and it forecast first quarter growth in line with expectations.

Qualcomm dominates the market for chips in phones based on CDMA, a wireless technology popular in the United States and other parts of the world. It plans to report its fiscal first quarter earnings Wednesday afternoon.

Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications (VZ,Trade) and Vodafone Group Plc ((VOD.L)), said on Tuesday it added 2 million subscribers in the fourth quarter.

Qualcomm shares were up 90 cents at $47.82 in early afternoon trading on Nasdaq.

On average analysts expect it to post earnings of 38 cents per share on revenue of $1.76 billion, according to Reuters Estimates. Analysts expect fiscal second quarter earnings of 36 cents per share on revenue of $1.73 billion.>>



To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (28195)1/24/2006 7:47:14 PM
From: etchmeister  Respond to of 95622
 
Hi Don - this needs to be qualified and quantified:
TI blamed the revenue shortfall on a shortage of assembly test equipment at its chip manufacturing facilities. This created a bottleneck that prevented the company from shipping as many chips as it had promised its customers, the company said.

"If you look at what changed from the midquarter update in December, at that point we were planning on certain assembly expansion in test equipment that frankly we weren't able to get in on time," investor relations manager Ron Slaymaker told analysts during a conference call following the release of the financial results.

The company has ordered more equipment to rectify the problem, but Slaymaker acknowledged that the constraints could continue to affect the company in the current quarter, particularly if demand does not slow down.

I also like to refresh your memory about TI being CSFB's poster child on reducing capex (for equipment). Please see Bruce post.
WS's attitude towards capex is frustrating. It's hardly viewed as a long and midterm means to improve revenue and profitability - no capex is viewed as a necessary evil that drags down margins for the next couple quarters. So once again we get that blah blah margin have peaked rahrah.
Analyst hate steady growth combined with reduced up and down swings like the devil hates holy water.

Top Line Light at TI

By Alexei Oreskovic
TheStreet.com Staff Reporter
1/23/2006 8:15 PM EST
Click here for more stories by Alexei Oreskovic

Updated from 5:23 p.m. EST

Texas Instruments (TXN:NYSE - commentary - research - Cramer's Take) beat the Street by a penny as fourth-quarter revenue jumped 14% on strength in the company's semiconductor division.

Still, the top line was at the low end of the company's guidance, as manufacturing constraints caused TI to leave some money on the table.

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The company said Monday that it earned $655 million in the fourth quarter, or 40 cents a share, including a 3 cents-a-share charge related to stock-option expensing. Sales were $3.59 billion, within the $3.56 billion to $3.71 billion range the company provided in its December guidance update, but below the $3.63 billion midpoint.

The average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson First Call projected $3.64 billion in fourth-quarter revenue with 39 cents EPS, including the option expense.

TI blamed the revenue shortfall on a shortage of assembly test equipment at its chip manufacturing facilities. This created a bottleneck that prevented the company from shipping as many chips as it had promised its customers, the company said.

"If you look at what changed from the midquarter update in December, at that point we were planning on certain assembly expansion in test equipment that frankly we weren't able to get in on time," investor relations manager Ron Slaymaker told analysts during a conference call following the release of the financial results.

The company has ordered more equipment to rectify the problem, but Slaymaker acknowledged that the constraints could continue to affect the company in the current quarter, particularly if demand does not slow down.

"We're going to have to keep working hard just to keep up," he said.

Demand for the company's semiconductors was strong enough in the fourth quarter that TI saw revenue in the division increase 15% year over year, to $3.23 billion, even with the capacity constraints. Wireless and high-performance analog chips were the main engines of growth, as the consumer appetite for cell phones and electronics gadgets remained strong.

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