Tech Shares Tepid Amid Blowout Earnings

• By the tickerspy.com Staff
• On 10:07 am EDT, Tuesday October 20, 2009

After a pair of top tech stocks beat expectations yesterday, investors are showing little interest in their competitors.

Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN - News) reported third-quarter earnings of $538 million or 42 cents a share yesterday, topping analysts' EPS estimates by 3 cents, and sending shares higher in the premarket. After seeing a "strong sequential increase in demand," according to president and CEO Rich Templeton, the company issued fourth-quarter EPS guidance of between 42 and 50 cents a share, which is two cents better than consensus expectations on the low end.

TI noted that this was the second consecutive quarter of 20% growth in its analog segment, which makes chips found in digital music players and other consumer gadgets. Continued growth and optimism for the fourth quarter is good news for components of the Analog and Mixed Signal Semiconductor Stocks Index, which prior to today's open was lagging the S&P by -4% over the last month.

Sigma Designs (NASDAQ: SIGM - News) and ON Semiconductor (NASDAQ: ONNN - News) are among the semi stocks showing strength today, and LSI (NYSE: LSI - News) set a positive trend after bouncing fractionally in either direction to start the day. The former two are still trailing LSI significantly over the last month.

Meanwhile, Fremont, California-based Volterra Semiconductor (NASDAQ: VLTR - News) is off by more than -10% after meeting expectations with 19 cents in Q3 adjusted EPS. Reuters noted that Intel's (NASDAQ: INTC - News) better-than-expected report raised the bar for the sector.

Elsewhere in the tech sector, better-than-expected iPhone, Mac, and iPod sales helped Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL - News) earn $1.82 a share in the third quarter, 40 cents better than analysts expectations. Computer competitor Dell (NASDAQ: DELL - News) and handheld rival Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM - News) are both moving only fractionally on the news.

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