Texas Instruments provided a revenue forecast for the March quarter that was significantly below expectations, citing softness in the autos and industrial sectors. Its shares fell in after-hours trading.
“During the quarter we experienced increasing weakness across industrial and a sequential decline in automotive,” CEO Haviv Ilan said in a statement detailing the results.
For the December quarter, the semiconductor company reported earnings per share of $1.49, compared to Wall Street’s consensus estimate of $1.47, according to FactSet. Revenue came in at $4.08 billion, which was about in line with analysts’ expectations of $4.12 billion. But Texas Instruments gave a revenue forecast range for the current quarter of $3.45 billion to $3.75 billion—which was below the consensus of $4.05 billion.
The chip maker sells the basic building-block chips that go into products in nearly every sector of the economy from autos and industrials to consumer electronics. Because of the broad-based nature of the company’s customers, investors consider the company to be a bellwether for the technology industry, and the economy.
Texas Instruments
shares dropped 3.6% to $168 following the release.
On a conference call with investors and analysts, management said the demand environment remains weak and that they expect customers to continue to reduce chip inventories.
Texas Instruments shares stock are roughly flat over the past 12 months, compared with the 50% rise for the
iShares Semiconductor
exchange-traded fund.
Write to Tae Kim at [email protected]
Read the full article here
