STOCKS TO WATCH: Dallas Semi, Liberate, Micron Technology, NetIQ
Expect the following technology stocks to be among Thursday's most actively traded issues: Dallas Semiconductor, Liberate Technologies, Micron Technology and NetIQ.
The chipmaker will be active Thursday after warning that its first-quarter sales will fall 30 percent from the fourth quarter when it posted sales of $130.1 million.
Analysts were expecting sales of $128.1 million in the quarter.
Company executives said canceled and rescheduled orders were responsible for the shortfall.
In the year-ago quarter, Dallas Semi recorded sales of $117.6 million.
Its shares closed up 66 cents to $28.16 before falling to $25.70 in after-hours trading.
Liberate should move higher Thursday after topping analysts' estimates in its third quarter.
Liberate posted a loss of $8.9 million, or 9 cents a share, on sales of $14.4 million.
First Call consensus expected it to lose 12 cents a share in the quarter.
Including special charges, such as amortization, warrants and deferred stock compensation, Liberate's loss was $70.4 million, or 68 cents per share, compared with a loss of $18.7 million, or 22 cents, for the same quarter last year.
Its shares fell 19 cents to $7.13 ahead of the earnings report before moving up to $8 a share in after-hours trading.
Micron Technology shares will be worth watching after announcing it turned a slight profit in its second quarter but would have to delay releasing the final results until next week.
The memory-chip manufacturer was expected to report its second-quarter results after the bell Wednesday but instead told investors that it will report the numbers next week because it still needs to collect financial information from Micron Electronics (Nasdaq: MUEI), the PC maker that is majority owned by Micron Technology.
Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) shares added $1.41 to $42.01 ahead of the earnings report before moving up to $43.80 in after-hours trading.
In past quarters, Micron Electronics has reported its quarterly results ahead of Micron Technology.
Micron Technology executives did say that it posted a slight profit in the quarter on sales of $1.05 billion, down from a profit of $352 million, or 58 cents a share, on sales of $1.8 billion in its first quarter.
First Call consensus pegged Micron Technology for a loss of a penny a share in the quarter.
During a conference call with analysts, Micron executives said average selling prices of its dynamic random access memory chips (DRAMs) fell 50 percent from the first quarter while gross profit margins tumbled to 19 percent from 49 percent in the quarter.
The e-business software developer will be active after warning that it will miss analysts' estimates in its third quarter.
Company executives told analysts to expect a profit of between 13 cents and 17 cents a share in the quarter on sales of between $37 million and $40 million.
Its shares closed off $1.88 to $20.13 ahead of the warning before sliding to $17.63 in after-hours trading.
NetIQ is planning to merge with WebTrends (Nasdaq: WEBT).