Applied Materials Inc., the largest maker of chip-making tools, Tuesday said healthy spending on new semiconductor factories more than doubled its revenue and returned it to a quarterly profit.
The Santa Clara, California-based company said it earned $440.6 million, or 26 cents a share in its third fiscal quarter ended Aug. 1, compared to a year-earlier loss of $36.8 million, or 2 cents a share. Net sales rose to $2.24 billion from $1.09 billion in the same period last year.
Wall Street on average was expecting earnings of 25 cents a share on revenue of $2.15 billion, according to a poll of analysts by Reuters Estimates.
The company also said new orders, a measure of future revenue, rose 11 percent from the second quarter to $2.46 billion.
The results were largely in line with expectations, with orders just above the company’s forecast range of 5 percent to 10 percent growth, said Mark FitzGerald, an analyst with Banc of America Securities.
He added that the key for Wall Street will be Applied’s order forecast for the current quarter. He said Wall Street is expecting an order forecast of down 5 percent to up 5 percent, but he noted that some Asian made-to-order chip makers, known as foundries, have been easing off their purchasing plans.
“Some of these big Asian companies, particularly the foundries, are starting to pull back at this point, and that’s been a big part of the mix,” FitzGerald said.