Shares of semiconductor equipment maker KLA-Tencor (KLAC) are up $1.23, or 2.4%, at $53.20, after the company this afternoon reportedfiscal Q2 revenue and earnings per share that topped analysts’ estimates, and said later on its conference call projected Q3 revenue higher as well.
Revenue in the three months ended in December rose 5%, year over year, and fell 7%, quarter to quarter, to $673 million, yielding EPS of 63 cents.
Analysts on average had been modeling $634 million and 56 cents.
CEO Rick Wallace said the quarter’s results were at the upper end of the company’s outlook “in the face of a challenging demand environment.”
For the current quarter, the company sees revenue in a range of $690 million to $750 million, topping the average $714 million estimate. EPS is seen in a range of 70 cents to 90 cents, beating the average 81-cent estimate.
On the conference call, Wallace told analysts that the company saw a 50% quarter-over-quarter rise in orders, to $760 million, with “strong” demand for products forchip foundries and for logic semiconductor manufacturing, with foundry customers making up two thirds of the orders.
“Consumer demand for mobility continues to be the primary force behind semiconductor industry demand,” said Wallace, “with strong unit growth and mobility markets competition and increased cost in complexity fueling our markets today.” The move to mobile computing devices “crowds out the traditional PC markets,” added Wallace, leading to a “period of transition” for logic semiconductors.
He added that although the overall outlook for foundry equipment spending is lackluster, “the market leader in foundry is forecasting an increase in Cap Ex for the year and overall foundry investment remains at a high level,” a reference no doubt to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM), the largest contract chip maker in the world.
Orders for tools for making memory chips were 17% of the total tools orders, but KLA is still waiting for a meaningful improvement in the memory chip market sometime in the latter half of this year.
Total chip industry investment will be down this year, but better in the second half:
Our current view is for the overall industry Cap Ex to be down and in a range of 5 to 10% in calendar 2013 with industry order level stabilizing in the first half of the year and demand momentum building in the second half of the year.
No comments:
Post a Comment