Early Tech Stocks in Motion

Updated from 7:07 a.m. EST

Texas Instruments(TXN) trimmed its earnings and sales guidance during its mid-quarter conference call. The technology company forecast earnings of 22 cents to 24 cents a share on revenue of between $2.91 billion and $3.03 billion. It had previously predicted earnings of 22 cents to 25 cents a share on sales of $2.9 billion to $3.14 billion. The Thomson First Call consensus estimates calls for earnings of 24 cents a share on sales of $3.041 billion. TI shares were recently down 72 cents to $26.65.

Seagate(STX) forecast third-quarter earnings of 36 cents a share Monday night, about 3 cents above current estimates. The hard-drive maker put revenue at $1.87 billion and gross margin at 23%, both roughly in line with the Wall Street consensus. Seagate raised its quarterly dividend to 8 cents from 6 cents and offered a bullish market assessment, saying "Industry demand this quarter clearly illustrates that disc-based storage has emerged as an enabling platform for the electronics industry beyond general computing." The shares were up 34 cents to $19.17 on Instinet.

Perficient(PRFT) filed a registration statement Monday night with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed public offering of 5,032,600 chares of its common stock. Of the total, 4,250,000 shares will be sold by Perficient and 782,600 by certain non-affiliate selling stockholders. The company intends to use a much of the net proceeds from the offering for future aquisitions and will use a small portion to reduce debt. The stock tanked $1.15 to $8.29 Tuesday morning.

Able Labs(ABRX) said fourth-quarter earnings nearly tripled to $6.2 million, or 32 cents a share, on a 38% jump in sales to $31.4 million. Analysts had been expecting earnings of 28 cents a share on sales of $31.8 million. Able said gross margin rose because of a better product mix, adding that it has seen "increased acceptance of our products by several key customers as a result of the efforts of our sales management team." Shares added 72 cents to $21.76 Tuesday.

C&D Technologies(CHP) announced preliminary fourth quarter earnings after the close Monday. The power storage and conversion company warned it will lose 4 cents to 6 cents a share in the quarter on sales of $122 million. Both are short of Wall Street forecasts, which had called for earnings of 10 cents a share on sales of $124.5 million, according to Thomson First Call.The results were due to lower-than-expected profits in the company's Power Electronics Division and transition costs at the new Reynosa Mexico plant.

Radio programmer Salem Communications(SALM) said fourth-quarter earnings rose from a year ago, but not as fast as Wall Street had hoped. Salem earned $3.7 million, or 14 cents a share, in the quarter, compared with $2.1 million, or 9 cents a share, last year. The latest quarter's bottom line was a penny short of estimates. For the first quarter, the company sees earnings of 6 cents to 8 cents a share, about 3 cents short of estimates on the high end. Salem expects first-quarter revenue as high as $47.2 million, also about $2 million short of the Wall Street consensus. Shares closed at $23.55 Monday.

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