National Semi Posts a Lower-Than-Expected Loss

National Semiconductor hit the high end of its expectations when it reported third-quarter results for its fiscal 2002 during Thursday trading.

The analog chipmaker notched $369.5 million in revenue, near the top of its guidance of sales between $350 million to $370 million and beating Wall Street consensus estimates of a $363.8 million finish, as gathered by Thomson Financial/First Call.

Losses at the company totaled 21 cents a share for the quarter, a tribute to the still-tough business environment but much better than Street projections of a shortfall of 27 cents a share. A year ago, in the third quarter of fiscal 2001, National enjoyed $475.60 million in revenue and a 27-cent-a-share profit.

CEO Brian Halla drew confidence from a 1% sequential increase in revenue for the quarter ended Feb. 24, 2001, bucking the typical seasonal downturn in January and February. "We not only increased National's bookings by 22% sequentially, but we also grew orders year over year and had a positive book-to-bill for the first time in six quarters," Halla said.

Bookings were the high point of the quarter, jumping 22% from the second quarter and also improving by 16% compared with the third quarter of last year. February was especially strong for the chipmaker, led by products for the display, wireless, thin-client and DVD segments.

PC strength lagged those areas for National. As investors have heard from several companies, the number of orders placed and delivered upon within the same third quarter increased at National from the second to third quarters, spurring on new business but maintaining the limited visibility that hurt technology companies in 2001.

National expects a 6% to 9% revenue increase to a range of $392 million to $403 million in the fourth quarter, solidly above current estimates of $379 million. The company will improve gross margins to narrow its losses, as well. National pegged a 36% gross margin in the third quarter, slightly higher than the second quarter's 35.3% level.