Analog Devices Tops Expectations on Demand for Consumer Products

Chip maker Analog Devices Inc. easily topped expectations in its latest quarter, powered by demand for products including smartphones and tablets.

Shares rose 3.6% in premarket trading, adding to the 2.3% gain notched this year through Monday's close.

Analog Devices, widely known as ADI, specializes in chips that convert radio and other analog signals into digital form. Its products are used in a broad array of electronic equipment, including factory-automation systems and portable electronic devices.

The Massachusetts-based company—one of Apple Inc.'s key suppliers—last year bought fellow chip maker Hittite Microwave Corp. for $2.45 billion, in a move to expand into areas including high-frequency antenna chips. Due to costs associated with the acquisition, among other items, ADI reported a decline in fiscal fourth-quarter profit to $96.3 million, or 30 cents a share, from year-earlier earnings of $108.7 million, or 34 cents.

Excluding one-time items, though, per-share profit rose to $1.03 from 69 cents. Revenue grew 13% to $978.7 million. Analysts projected earnings of 83 cents a share on $910 million in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters.

Sales were driven by a surge in revenue from ADI's consumer segment, where revenue more than tripled to $317.4 million and represented about a third of the top line. That increase offset declines in other segments: communications revenue dropped 23% to $159.8 million while sales in both the industrial and automotive units edged 2% lower.

For the current quarter, ADI said it expects to book 65 cents to 73 cents in adjusted earnings per share, bracketing the 71 cents analysts have predicted. The company sees $805 million to $855 million in sales, compared with the $835.4 million analysts have anticipated.

Write to Lisa Beilfuss at [e-mail]

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 24, 2015 09:55 ET (14:55 GMT)

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