Fairchild Shares Climb After Raymond James Upgrade

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of chip maker Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc. ticked higher Wednesday after Raymond James upgraded the company on signs of better-than-expected orders and sales growth.

"We believe they are now starting to close the gap between their shipments and end-demand," Raymond analyst J. Steven Smigie said in a note, boosting the shares to "Strong Buy" from "Outperform."

"We think demand is coming in better than expected, but also that Fairchild is increasing penetration into" the computing and handset markets, he added.

Smigie now expects the South Portland, Maine, company's loss for the year to amount to 11 cents per share, compared with a previous estimate of a 20-cent-per-share loss. The average forecast is a loss of 25 cents, according to Thomson Reuters.

Shares jumped 37 cents, or 3.9 percent, to $9.82 in afternoon trading.