Texas Instruments Q1 Profit Rises - Update

(RTTNews) - Analog chip maker Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN), Wednesday reported a small increase in profit for the first quarter, as better cost control helped offset a 5 percent drop in revenues. Earnings for the quarter trumped analysts' expectations, as did revenue.

Dallas, Texas-based Texas Instrument's profit for the first quarter improved 2 percent to $668 million or $0.65 per share from $656 million or $0.61 per share last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.62 per share.

Revenues for the quarter fell to $3.01 billion from $3.15 billion in the same quarter last year. Twenty-nine analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $2.98 billion for the quarter.

Revenue was down 5 percent due to weakness within the personal electronics market, which declined as expected, the company said.

Analog revenue declined 8 percent while Embedded Processing revenue grew 8 percent.

"Gross margin of 60.6 percent was a new record, reflecting the quality of our product portfolio, as well as the efficiency of our manufacturing strategy, including the benefit of 300-millimeter Analog production," Chief Executive Rich Templeton said.

Looking forward to the second quarter, Texas Instruments expects earnings of $0.67 to $0.77 per share on revenues of $3.07 billion to $3.33 billion. Analysts currently estimate earnings of $0.71 per share and revenues of $3.18 billion.

TXN closed Wednesday's trading at $59.92, up $0.52 or 0.88%, on the NYSE. The stock further gained $0.74 or 1.23% in the after-hours trade.