SAN FRANCISCO—The best thing about Freescale Semiconductor Inc.'s first quarter financial report Thursday (April 19) is that it suggests an end to semiconductor industry downturn, at least for Freescale, according to the chip company's top executive.
Though Freescale's sales in the quarter declined on both a quarterly and annual basis, the company projected that sales would grow in the second quarter. According to Rich Beyer, Freescale's chairman and CEO, the company's bookings, order backlog and backlog trajectory all improved during the first quarter.
"It looks like we as a company have come out of the downturn," said Beyer, who Freescale announced Thursday
plans to retire once the company chooses a successor. "That's always the more interesting and more fun part of the semiconductor cycles."
Freescale (Austin, Texas) reported first quarter sales of $950 million, down 6 percent from the previous quarter and down 20 percent from the first quarter of 2011.
Freescale reported a net loss in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for the quarter of $9 million, or 4 cents per share, wider than the previous quarter net loss of $6 million but narrowed compared to a net loss of $148 million in the first quarter of 2011. The GAAP net loss for the first quarter included $28 million in charges associated with completion of new financing, Freescale said.
Freescale's sales for the quarter came in below consensus analysts' expectations of $961 million, but the company's net loss per share was narrower than the 6 cents per share analysts' called for, according to Yahoo Finance.
EDITDA— earnings before the deduction of interest, tax and amortization expenses—fell to $183 million in the first quarter, down 15 percent from the previous quarter and down 36 percent compared to the year ago quarter, Freescale said.
For the second quarter, Freescale said it expects sales to grow to between $975 million and $1.03 billion, up 3 to 8 percent sequentially. Beyer said the company expects broad-based increases across a number of markets.
At the high end, Freescale's second quarter guidance was in line with consensus analysts' expectations, according to Yahoo Finance.