STOCKS TO WATCH: J.D. Edwards, TriQuint, Xilinx
Expect the following technology stocks to be among Tuesday's most actively traded issues: J.D. Edwards, TriQuint Semiconductor and Xilinx.
The business software developer should be active after it topped analysts' estimates in its first quarter, earning $191,000, or break even on a per share basis, on sales of $217.7 million.
Analysts were expecting it to lose a penny a share in the quarter.
In the year-ago quarter, J.D. Edwards earned $31,000, or break even on a per share basis, on sales of $231.7 million.
Including charges, it posted a loss of $152,000, or break-even, compared with a loss of $4.4 million, or 4 cents a share, in the year-ago period.
A month after the chipmaker told analysts that its first-quarter sales and earnings were on track, TriQuint did an about-face Monday.
TriQuint, which makes chips for the wireless telecommunications and data communications industries, told Wall Street to expect sales of $80 million in the first quarter and earnings of only 14 cents a share.
First Call Corp. consensus was expecting TriQuint to earn 23 cents a share on sales of $94 million in the quarter.
TriQuint shares closed up 25 cents to $19 ahead of the warning before falling to $18.88 in after-hours trading.
Ahead of Monday's warning, Merrill Lynch analyst Shawn Foley cut the chipmaker's earnings and sales estimates. Foley also cut the stock's 12-month price target to $50 a share from $75 a share.
"We believe this is due to the company experiencing continued push-outs and cancellations from broadband customers such as Nortel and handset customers such as Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson," Foley wrote in a research note.
Merrill Lynch also lowered its estimate for TriQuint's earnings in 2002 from $1.20 a share to $1.02 a share, well below the current consensus estimate of $1.23 a share.
Xilinx shares will be on the move Tuesday after it warned that its fourth-quarter sales will fall 15 percent from the $450.1 million it recorded in the third quarter.
Company executives said February resales were down compared to November as customers continue to defer orders or cancel existing orders in response to the slowing economy and inventory saturation.
First Call Corp. consensus pegged Xilinx for a profit of 27 cents a share on sales of $481.2 million in the fourth quarter.
In a prepared release, Xilinx said North America resales for the first two months of the quarter were down more than 20 percent from the third quarter while international resales were flat with the prior quarter.
The company did not provide any additional guidance regarding earnings for the quarter or the rest of fiscal 2001.