Texas Instruments Raises Guidance

Texas Instruments

, the world's largest maker of analog chips, raised its first-quarter sales and profit guidance on Thursday after the closing bell. The company said that it sees earnings per share between $0.28 to $0.32 on sales of $2.8 billion to $2.91 billion. This compares to the company's previous guidance calling for EPS of $0.24 to $0.32 on sales of $2.69 billion to $2.91 billion. Currently, Wall Street analysts have consensus EPS estimates of $0.29 on revenue of $2.81 billion for Texas Instruments' fiscal first-quarter. Stifel Nicolaus analyst Tore Svanberg told Bloomberg that the better outlook from the company comes as customers look to build inventory ahead of an expected uptick in demand. “Order rates are still improving, from obviously a low level,” said Svanberg. “The industrial market and especially automotive is showing some strength. We're still very early in the process.”