Analog Devices surges on earnings, analyst comments

Analog Devices rallied up 7 1/2, or 9 percent, to 90 3/8 Wednesday, one day after the chipmaker shattered analysts' estimates in its third quarter.

In the quarter, Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI) earned $164.5 million, or 43 cents a share, on sales of $701 million.

First Call Corp. consensus expected it to earn 37 cents a share in the quarter.

On Wednesday, Goldman Sachs, UBS Warburg, Banc of America Securities and Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown all raised their estimates on the chipmaker.

Banc of America Securities analyst Rick Whittington raised his fiscal 2001 earnings estimate to $2.60 a share from $2.20 a share.

Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown analyst Erika Klauer upped her fiscal 2001 target to $2.40 a share from $2 a share and boosted her 12-month price target to $108 a share from $97 a share.

Goldman Sachs' Joe Moore raised his fiscal 2000 estimate to $1.49 from $1.35 a share and 2001 estimate to $2.40 from $1.75 a share.

UBS Warburg bumped its fiscal 2001 estimate to $2.40 from $1.90 a share and raised its price target to $120 a share to $100 a share.

The $701 million in sales marks an 85 percent improvement from the year-ago quarter when it earned $54.6 million, or 15 cents a share, on sales of $378.8 million.

"The continuing very strong demand for high-performance signal processing ICs used in a very broad range of applications resulted in Analog's exceptional revenue growth in the third fiscal quarter," said CEO Jerald Fishman in a prepared release. "ADI's growth in these two key product areas was again well ahead of the markets' growth, which we believe provides clear evidence of our continuing gains in market share in both product areas."

Last quarter, ADI officials told Wall Street to expect strong sales and earnings this quarter.

In the second quarter, ADI returned a profit of 32 cents a share on sales of $581 million.

ADI shares moved up to a 52-week high of 100 in June after falling to a low of 22 in last August.

All 19 analysts tracking the stock rate it either a "buy" or "strong buy."

First Call Corp. consensus expects it to earn $1.35 a share in the fiscal year.