Fairchild Semiconductor Posts In-Line Q1 Earnings, Sales Beat Views

reported in-line earnings for the first quarter on Thursday. The San Jose, California-based company posted quarterly net income of $1.1 million, or $0.01 per share, versus a year-ago loss of 9.3 million, or $0.07 per share. Excluding items, the company's earnings rose to $0.11 per share from $0.04 per share. Its revenue gained 3.4 percent to $355.7 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.11 per share on revenue of $350.33 million. Gross margin widened to 30.4 percent from 30.3 percent in the year-earlier period. The average estimate among 6 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.11 per share and revenue of $353.12 million. "We grew sales in the first quarter at the high end of our expectations while maintaining flat distribution channel inventory," said Mark Thompson, Fairchild's chairman, president and CEO. "Order rates remain strong and we have a higher backlog level than a quarter ago, which supports our guidance for the second quarter. Our manufacturing consolidation is on schedule to be completed early this summer and we expect it will drive significant improvement in our profitability going forward." For the current quarter, the company projects revenue of $360 million to $380 million, versus analysts' estimates of $367 million. Fairchild Semiconductor shares rose 0.42 percent to $19.07 in pre-market trading.