Analog Chip Makers Have Trouble Keeping Intel Recovery Pace
15 Ottobre 2009 - 7:15PM
Dow Jones News
Not all chip makers can expect to see a recovery matching Intel
Corp.'s (INTC) outlook for the rest of the year.
As suggested by the results from analog players Fairchild
Semiconductor International Inc. (FCS) and Cypress Semiconductor
Corp. (CY), chip makers that sell semiconductors for cars, phones
and industrial machines may not recover as quickly as those chip
makers focused primarily on computers. That could lead to a
tempered view of other earnings results, including analog giant
Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN), even if numbers demonstrate
strength.
"For the analog guys, they are very diversified, very broad,"
said ThinkEquity chip analyst Vijay Rakesh.
"Yes, they are seeing strength, they are seeing things
improving," but not at the pace of the PC market, he said.
TI was not immediately available to comment.
On Thursday, Fairchild topped Wall Street expectations with its
third-quarter results and fourth-quarter outlook, and Cypress beat
estimates for last quarter despite swinging to a loss. But despite
optimistic reports, shares of both chip makers fell Thursday, with
Cypress down 1.4% to $10.14 and Fairchild dropping 7.5% to
$8.90.
Additionally, other analog chip makers also saw drops. Texas
Instruments, scheduled to release its third-quarter results Monday,
fell 1.3% to $23.32. RF Micro Devices Inc. (RFMD), set to report
Oct. 27, fell 5.8% to $4.55.
While chip makers like Intel and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
(AMD) primarily sell to customers in a few specific parts of the
technology market, analog chip makers sell products used in
hundreds, sometimes thousands, of applications across all parts of
the economy.
And while Intel serves as a bellwether for technology spending
in general, its outlook for the current quarter, analysts say, may
not accurately reflect what's going on across the semiconductor
market.
For one, the PC market appears to be recovering much faster than
many expected. In the third-quarter, global PC shipments rose 0.5%
from the same period last year, according to research firm Gartner
Inc., besting estimates that called for a 5.6% decline. PC
shipments rose 18% from the second-quarter as well, higher than the
normal seasonal growth between the two quarters.
The growth in PCs, and expectations by manufacturers that
Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) release of its new Windows 7 operating
system next week will help drive PC sales through the important
holiday period, led Intel to project sales for the current quarter
jumping roughly 7.6% from the third-quarter, much higher than Wall
Street expected.
But the recovery in analog revenue will likely take a bit
longer.
"A lot of the analog guys often have a lot of industrial and
infrastructure equipment in it, and that seems to come up later
than computing," said Steve Smigie, analyst with Raymond James. He
added, however, that the stocks of analog chip makers normally
don't wait for the revenue to catch up to others in the sector.
But for TI and others reporting earnings soon, strong outlooks
may not cause a stock jump after the blowout earnings of Intel.
Chip enthusiasm could be weighed down by less-than-stellar results
from customers.
Smigie pointed to Nokia Corp. (NOK) as one example. Shares of
the mobile phone maker fell 11% to $13.64, after disappointing
investors with its third-quarter report.
-By Jerry A. DiColo; Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2155;
jerry.dicolo@dowjones.com