Lattice Semi Raises Sales Guidance Range

Updated from 5:32 p.m. EDT

SAN FRANCISCO -- Lattice Semiconductor(LSCC Quote) bumped up the low end of its first-quarter sales guidance, sending its shares up in extended trading Thursday.

The Hillsboro, Ore., maker of programmable chips said it expects sales in the current quarter to be up 3% to 5% from the fourth quarter's $53.1 million, instead of its initial estimate of a 1% to 5% sequential increase.

Lattice also said it would take a $1.8 million restructuring charge in the current quarter, of which $1.3 million relates to its previously announced plan to lower operating expenses by vacating leased space.

The remaining $500,000 of the charge will go toward severance costs for CEO Steve Skaggs, whose resignation was announced last month.

Lattice, which competes with larger programmable chip makers Xilinx(XLNX Quote)and Altera(ALTR Quote), is trying to regain its footing after a rough 2007 in which sales declined 7% and the company swung to a $240 million loss on a hefty goodwill impairment writeoff.

The company's stock is down roughly 50% since September. Shares of Lattice were up 6%, or 16 cents, at $2.81 in extended trading Thursday.

Know What You Own: Lattice operates in the semiconductor industry, and some of the other stocks in its field include Altera (ALTR Quote), Actel (ACTL Quote), Broadcom (BRCM Quote), Qualcomm (QCOM Quote) and (symbol Quote) (TXN Quote). These stocks were recently trading at ($17.01, 2.74-%), ($13.16, -1.42%), ($17.27, -3.57%), ($38.80, -3.60%) and ($27.95, -3.69%) respectively. For more on the value of knowing what you own, visit TheStreet.com's Investing A-to-Z section.