
TI Tightens Fourth-Quarter Outlook
NEW YORK (
) --
Texas Instruments
(TXM)
tightened its fiscal fourth-quarter outlook after Tuesday's closing bell, saying it now sees earnings of 61 to 65 cents a share on revenue ranging from $3.43 billion to $3.57 billion.
The chip giant's previous guidance was for a profit of between 59 and 67 cents a share for the three months ending Dec. 31 on revenue of $3.36 billion to $3.64 billion. The current average estimate of analysts polled by
Thomson Reuters
is for earnings of 63 cents a share in the December period on revenue of $3.497 billion.
Shares of TI finished Tuesday's regular session at $33.41, up 1.4%. At that level, the stock was up more than 26% so far in 2010. Its high of $33.64 on Tuesday was a new 52-week peak and it came on strong volume of more than 19.5 million vs. the issue's trailing three-month daily average of 14.2 million. In a positive technical sign, the shares have now broken nearly 10% above their 50-day moving average of $30.70 and more than 25% beyond a 200-day moving average of $26.51.
Wall Street is pretty well split on Texas Instruments these days. Exactly half of the analysts covering the company have bullish ratings of either strong buy (10) or buy (10). The majority of the remainder (16) have hold ratings along with a few bears coming in at underperform (3) and even sell (1).
While valuation could be a concern going forward as the stock is already trading above the analysts' median 12-month price target of $32, the forward price-to-earnings multiple on the shares is a reasonable 13X.
In extended trading, the stock ticked slightly lower to $33.11 on volume of more than 360,000, according to
Nasdaq.com
.
--
Written by Michael Baron in New York.
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