Texas Instruments Q4 Profit Rises - Update

(RTTNews) - Analog chip maker Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN), Wednesday reported an increase in profit for the fourth quarter, as better cost control helped offset a 1 percent drop in revenues. Earnings for the quarter trumped analysts' expectations, but revenue fell shy of estimates.

Dallas, Texas-based Texas Instrument's fourth-quarter profit rose to $836 million or $0.80 per share from $825 million or $0.76 per share last year. On average, 31 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.69 per share for the quarter.

Revenues for the fourth quarter fell 1 percent to $3.19 billion from $3.27 billion in the same quarter last year. Thirty analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $3.20 billion for the quarter.

Chief Executive Rich Templeton said, "Gross margin of 58.5 percent, a new record, reflects the quality of our product portfolio as well as the efficiency of our manufacturing strategy, including the benefit of 300-millimeter Analog production."

Templeton said the company experienced slowing demand within a sector of the personal electronics market late in the quarter.

Analog segment revenue for the quarter dropped 2 percent to $2.07 billion, while embedded processing segment revenue rose 4 percent to $700 million. Other revenue fell 13 percent to $416 million.

Looking forward to the first quarter, Texas Instruments expects earnings of $0.57 to $0.67 per share on revenues of $2.85 billion to $3.09 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimate earnings of $0.64 per share on revenues of $3.12 billion.

TXN closed Wednesday's trading at $50.67, down $0.03 or 0.06%, on the NYSE. Teh stock, however, gained $1.33 or 2.62% in the after-hours trading.