Pericom Semiconductor Up Sharply, Up 16% (PSEM)

Pericom Semiconductor PSEM shares are up sharply today, gaining 16.5% to $10.35, a gain of $1.47 on seven times its average daily volume. The company reported third quarter revenues of $39.6 million, up 8% from last year. It reported earnings of 2 cents per share, down from last year, when it reported earnings of 12 cents per share. "We believe the inventory corrections are largely complete as our book-to-bill ratio exceeded 1.0 for the first time in three quarters. We reduced in-house inventory 11% and reduced channel inventory by one week to seven weeks at the end of the third quarter. In addition, sales out of our distribution channel increased by 3% from the previous quarter, signaling healthy end user demand," said Alex Hui, President and CEO of Pericom. "We continue to see strong adoption of our second and third generation serial connectivity and timing products for computer, communication and consumer applications. Our near term outlook is positive for all Pericom product areas and end markets and we expect to resume revenue growth and gross margin improvement in the remaining quarters of CY2011." Pericom Semiconductor Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets digital, analog, and mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs) and frequency control products (FCPs) used in advanced electronic systems.