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Dow Jones Business News

Applied Materials Posts Weaker 2nd-Quarter Results

Tuesday May 13, 4:56 pm ET

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Applied Materials Inc. (NasdaqNM:AMAT - News) swung to a net loss in its fiscal second quarter due to its latest restructuring effort.

For the quarter ended April 27, the semiconductor-equipment maker late Tuesday reported a net loss of $62.1 million, or four cents a share, compared with year- earlier net income of $52 million, or three cents a share.

Revenue fell 4.3% to $1.11 billion from $1.16 billion.

Applied Materials announced in March it would cut 2,000 jobs, or 14% of its work force, and consolidate facilities in Santa Clara and Austin, Texas. Along with cutting other costs and refocusing product-development efforts, the moves resulted in second-quarter charges of $151.7 million.

Excluding those charges, the company said it would have earned $44.8 million, or three cents a share, topping a mean estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call (News - Websites) by a penny a share.

New orders plunged 42% to $971 million. In a prepared statement, Chairman James C. Morgan said that while chip makers "remain cautious," they are continuing to "invest in advanced technologies as they balance their need to develop the most-advanced process capabilities with the uncertainties in the global economy and the impact of near-term weakness in chip demand."

Applied Materials, the biggest maker of semiconductor equipment, has been slammed along with other chip-equipment companies as manufacturers pare back their budgets due to tepid demand for high-tech products like personal computers. The chip-equipment industry is often a leading indicator of the overall health of the technology sector, and chip makers in particular.

-Kevin Kingsbury; Dow Jones Newswires; 609-520-4367

http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/030513/1656001497_1.html