Texas Instruments Inc (TXN)

[Eric]

TI (TXN) Looks Good

... I Think ...

... and so far the Street seems to think so, too ...

Opened today at $22.51 and closed at $22.92

After Hours: Last $24.23 __ Change +$1.31 __ Volume 1.511 Mil

Up $1.72 (+7.6%) today.

[Initially up AH $1.22 to $24.14 from $22.92 close about 5 minutes after PR]

http://tinyurl.com/dbkso

So far so good (but devils in da detail) ... CC at 4:30 PM CDT

* EPS at $0.24 (top of guided range beating by a penny)

* Revenue of $2.972 billion (down~6% sequentially), up 1.2% year/year , and towards top end of guidance but marginally below consensus of $2.99 bln.

* Sequentially gross and operating profit margins increased despite the decline in revenue. TI's gross profit margin expanded 2.6 percentage points to 44.9 percent of revenue (v. 44.3% street expectations), and TI's operating margin increased 1.3 percentage points to 16.7 percent of revenue.

* Inventories declined slightly from the Q4, when they were significantly reduced by $100 million.

* Having adjusted inventories to desired levels during Q4, TI increased production in its demiconductor factories in the first quarter to realign factory output with its shipments.

* Issues in line guidance for Q2: Sees EPS of $0.25-0.29 vs. $0.26 consensus; sees Q2 revs of $3.00-3.24 bln vs. 3.18 bln consensus.

Wireless & Stock Repurchase

"While the overall environment for cell phones will likely support a lower growth rate than last year, we continue to have high expectations for our wireless operations in 2005. In the first quarter, TI's wireless revenue grew 15 percent from a year ago and declined 14 percent sequentially following a strong fourth quarter. Recent market reports have confirmed that TI is the world's top provider of semiconductors used in the wireless market, and we expect to gain additional share this year in the fast-growing market for 3G UMTS modems based on the strength of our digital signal processors. ... "TI aggressively repurchased its common stock during the quarter, and we are now more than halfway through the $3 billion of repurchase plans announced in September and January." - Rich Templeton, CEO

Initial Reaction Odds and Ends

Can Texas Instruments End Tech's Blues? ... Leading maker of chips for cell phones reports better than expected 1Q earnings, boosts guidance. ... in a written statement, TI's president and chief executive officer Richard Templeton said that "the market environment is improving." ... TI said it now expects earnings for the second quarter to be between 25 cents a share and 29 cents a share. The midpoint of 27 cents a share is one penny ahead of the current consensus of 26 cents a share, according to Thomson/First Call. TI added that it expects sales to be in a range of $3 billion to $3.24 billion. The $3.12 billion average is slightly below Wall Street's estimates of $3.16 billion but investors seemed to focus more on the fact that the high end of the range is above the consensus estimate. Shares of TI (Research) surged nearly 6 percent after hours - Paul R. La Monica, CNN/Money -

Texas Instruments Profit Up 12 Pct ... Its earnings for the quarter were at the top end of the range it gave last month, welcome relief to tech investors after a spate of disappointing earnings news from tech firms including IBM. - ObviousNews.com, Canada -

Chip stocks were on the move Monday evening as Texas Instruments Inc. shares gained nearly 6% after the company beat earnings estimates by a penny a share ... Texas Instruments shares (TXN) traded up to $24.20 after the third-largest maker of computer chips reported a higher first-quarter profit of $411 million, or 24 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $367 million, or 21 cents a share. Sales were flat at $2.97 billion. The per-share results topped analysts' consensus forecast by 1 cent. - Scott Banerjee, Market Watch via IBD -

"Considering the negative sentiment that has come into the market and the chip sector in particular, this is relatively good news ... the guidance isn't bad. There were expectations that it could be worse." - William Conroy, Sanders Morris Harris." -

Texas Instruments beats by $0.01, issues in line guidance (TXN) 22.92 +0.16:Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.24 per share, $0.01 better than the Reuters Estimates consensus of $0.23; revenues rose 1.2% year/year to $2.97 bln vs the $2.99 bln consensus. TXN reports gross margin 44.9% vs 44.3% street expectations. Co issues in line guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $0.25-0.29 vs. $0.26 consensus. - Briefing.com -

Texas Instruments (TI), one of the world's biggest chip makers, has reported a rise in quarterly profits. The announcement may ease concerns that earnings growth in the technology industry has stalled and help stop a slide in European and US share prices. ... Those figures topped analysts expectations and come after tech industry bellwether IBM, and firms such as Samsung and Philips had disappointed investors. Also helping buoy sentiment was TI's forecast that profit and sales would continue to climb in the current quarter. - BBC -

- IC -