National Semiconductor Corp said it had a fiscal first-quarter loss as sales of chips used in wireless devices and personal computers fell by almost half amid a weakening economy.
The loss for the quarter ended Aug. 26 was US$54.6 million, or US$0.31 a share, compared with net income of US$144.2 million, or US$0.74, a year earlier, said company spokesman Bill Callahan.
Sales fell 47 percent to US$339.3 million from US$640.8 million.
National Semiconductor's chips are found in a variety of electronic devices from cellphones to PCs. Consumers are spending less on those products, helping to slow the US economy to a 0.2 percent annual growth rate in the April-to-June period, its worst performance since the 1993 first quarter.
The company expects a "comparable" loss in the current quarter, wider than forecasts, while predicting sales to rise 5 percent to 7 percent from the previous period.
"The consumer is key in any recovery, but we are getting more and more evidence that the last quarter may have been the bottom in revenue," said Seth Dickson, a Lehman Brothers Inc analyst, who rates National Semiconductor "market perform" and does not own the shares.
Shares of the Santa Clara, California-based company, which fell US$0.27 to US$29.95 before the announcement, rose US$0.30 to US$30.52. The shares have gained about 52 percent this year.
The company said it expects sales in the current quarter to rise to between US$355 million and US$365 million. The chipmaker was expected to have sales of US$356 million, the average estimate of analysts surveyed by IBES International Inc. In the second quarter of last year, sales were US$595 million.
National Semiconductor expects a fiscal second-quarter loss comparable to the first-quarter loss of US$0.31 a share. That's wider than the expected loss of US$0.21 a share, the average estimate from Thomson Financial/First Call.
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