From Briefing.com: 4:33PM Advanced Energy beats by $0.06, beats on revs; guides Q2 EPS in-line, revs in-line (AEIS) 11.94 -0.29 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.06 per share, excluding the impact of $2.6 million in restructuring charges recorded in the first quarter, $0.06 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.00); revenues fell 23.2% year/year to $105.8 mln vs the $100.07 mln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q2, sees EPS of $0.11-0.14 vs. $0.13 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees Q2 revs of $114-120 mln vs. $112.90 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
4:20PM Integrated Device beats by $0.02, beats on revs, announces acquisition of Fox Electronics for ~$30 mln (IDTI) 6.73 +0.00 : Reports Q4 (Mar) earnings of $0.05 per share, $0.02 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.03; revenues fell 17.7% year/year to $119.1 mln vs the $117.3 mln consensus. Co states, "Our Q4 results reflect improving trends in our communications and enterprise computing businesses, and underscore increased traction of our new product categories as revenue from new products increased to 13 percent from 10 percent in the prior quarter. In addition, gross margins were 300 basis points better than expected, highlighting improved product mix and lower inventory reserves." Co also announced that it acquired Fox Electronics, a leading global supplier of frequency control products (FCPs), in an all-cash transaction for approximately $30 million, of which $26 million was paid at closing. Fox Electronics' revenue was approximately $23 million in calendar year 2011, and the company is profitable.
4:14PM PLX Tech misses by $0.06, misses on revs- co to be acquired (PLXT) 3.98 -0.08 : Reports Q1 (Mar) loss of $0.12 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.06 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.06); revenues fell 9.6% year/year to $25.4 mln vs the $26.84 mln consensus.
4:07PM PLX Tech to be acquired by Integrated Device (IDTI) for approx. $7.00/share (PLXT) 3.98 -0.08 : IDTI and PLXT announced that they have signed a definitive agreement pursuant to which IDT will acquire PLX. Under the terms of the agreement, unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies, IDT will acquire all of the outstanding shares of PLX common stock pursuant to an exchange offer, followed by a second step merger. In the acquisition, PLX stockholders will receive (i) $3.50 in cash and (ii) 0.525 shares of IDT common stock for each PLX common share outstanding. Based on IDT's closing stock price on April 27, 2012, the transaction is valued at approximately $7.00 per PLX share and results in a total transaction value of approx $330 mln. IDT currently projects the transaction to be accretive to non-GAAP earnings by the third fiscal quarter of 2013 with more significant accretion by fiscal year 2014, in each case based on an assumed closing during the first fiscal quarter of 2013... Under the terms of the merger agreement, PLX may solicit superior proposals from third parties for a "go shop" period of 30 calendar days continuing through May 30,
4:16PM LDK Solar to file extension for 2011 Form 20-F (LDK) 3.18 +0.22 : Co announced that it will file a Form 12b-25 to extend the filing date of its Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2011. The co is unable to file its Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2011 on or before the prescribed due date of April 30, 2012 because it needs additional time to finalize certain items in its fourth quarter 2011 financial results, primarily caused by the changes in market conditions, including an impairment analysis of long-lived assets and an assessment of inventory write-downs and provisions for certain receivables. The company anticipates that the Form 20-F will be filed on or before May 15, 2012.
4:10PM Rudolph Tech misses by $0.04, beats on revs (RTEC) 10.80 -0.12 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.09 per share, $0.04 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.13; revenues fell 9.7% year/year to $45.7 mln vs the $44.7 mln consensus. Co states, "First quarter 2012 gross margin was 52 percent, as compared with 53 percent in the fourth quarter 2011. The decrease in margin in the quarter was primarily due to lower software sales and an increase in lower margin transparent metrology product sales in the quarter."
4:08PM PMC-Sierra beats by $0.01, misses on revs (PMCS) 7.07 -0.07 : Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.06 per share, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.05; revenues fell 16.1% year/year to $132.1 mln vs the $133.62 mln consensus. Co states, "...We expect sequential improvement in our business in Q2 and a stronger second half of 2012."
Mattson Technology (MTSN) has received a follow-on order for its Millios millisecond annealing system from a semiconductor manufacturer. The system will be used for the volume production of advanced logic devices.
NVIDIA (NVDA) announced the GeForce GTX 690, the world's fastest consumer graphics card.
4:30 pm : April ended on a modestly lower note, perhaps appropriately since it marked the first monthly loss for the S&P 500 since November.
Stocks had a four session streak of gains and a run of four straight monthly gains snapped today. Motivation to bid stocks higher was undermined by news that Spain's economy is officially in recession and then participants were dealt some lackluster domestic data. Personal spending increased by 0.3% during March, but that's a slower clip than the 0.5% increase that had been expected, on average, among economists polled by Briefing.com. The smaller-than-expected increase came despite a stronger-than-expected pickup in personal income, which increased by 0.4% when a 0.2% increase had been widely anticipated. As for core personal consumption expenditures (PCE), they increased by 0.2% month over month, as had been broadly expected. Separately, the latest Chicago PMI reading came in at 56.2, which is well below the 60.0 that had been expected broadly.
Earnings reports were anything but stellar. Humana (HUM 80.59, -7.23) was among the more widely held names to report, but its earnings mess was met with a concerted selling effort that sank the stock some 8% to a 2012 low. Merck (MRK 39.24, +0.78) offered the Health Care sector support by pushing higher in response to news that it won a patent infringement lawsuit.
There were a couple of impressive performances in the midst of marred broad market action. Sunoco (SUN 49.29, +8.38) spiked to a multi-year high because of news that it will be acquired by Energy Transfer Partners (ETP 49.63, +1.71) in a deal that values shares of the former at $50.13 per share. That news inspired interest in a handful of oil and gas refiners and marketers, helping the broader Energy sector work its way up to a 0.5% gain, which is second only to the 0.6% gain staged by Telecom. Barnes & Noble (BKS 20.75, +7.07) settled at a session low, but still booked a gain of about 50% on the back of news that the company has entered a strategic partnership with Microsoft (MSFT 32.01, +0.03) to accelerate the transition into e-reading.
Advancing Sectors: Telecom +0.6%, Energy +0.5%, Utilities +0.2%
Declining Sectors: Health Care -0.1%, Consumer Staples -0.3%, Consumer Discretionary -0.5%, Financials -0.6%, Materials -0.7%, Industrials -0.9%, Tech -0.9%DJ30 -14.68 NASDAQ -22.84 NQ100 -0.6% R2K -1.0% SP400 -0.8% SP500 -5.45 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 855/1.60 bln/1680 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1181/846 mln/1841
11:03 am Technology sector lower today along with market
The tech sector is trading lower today, inline with losses in the broader market. Semiconductors is showing relative strength in the tech space, however, with the Philly Semi Index trading only 0.3% lower. MU (+1.1%) is a notable leader in that chip index, while STM (-3.7%) is under pressure. Among other major indices, the SPY is trading 0.5% lower today, while the QQQ is 0.5% lower and the NASDAQ is trading 0.6% lower on the session. Among tech bellwethers, AAPL (-1.8%) is showing notable strength, while T (+0.7%) is showing strength.
In earnings this morning, Chinese gamers CYOU (+7.9%) posted a beat and inline guidance, while SOHU (-7.8%) reported a beat with below consensus guidance. In news, BKS (+64.8%) and MSFT (+0.2%) announced the formation of a strategic partnership in a new BKS subsidiary. BKS and MSFT have settled their patent litigation, and moving forward, Barnes & Noble and Newco will have a royalty-bearing license under Microsoft's patents for its NOOK eReader and Tablet products. Among rumors, DMD (+22.8%) was in talks to go private over the weekend, DMD prevented bid from private equity firm, according to reports.
There were no notable analyst upgrades this morning in the tech space. Among downgrades, however, PAY (-10.0%) was downgraded to Sell at Deutsche Bank and NOK (-1.1%), TSYS (-8.1%), and ALU (-3.1%) were downgraded at RBC Capital. SBAC (+0.6%) is one of the few notable names in tech scheduled to report quarterly results today after the close. |
