Texas Instruments shares rallied Wednesday after the chipmaker crushed analyst targets for the fourth quarter and guided higher for the current period. TXN stock jumped on the news.
The Dallas-based company late Tuesday said it earned $2.27 a share on sales of $4.83 billion in the December quarter. Analysts had forecast TI earnings of $1.95 a share on sales of $4.43 billion, according to FactSet. On a year-over-year basis, Texas Instruments earnings rose 26% while sales climbed 19%.
Strong demand for industrial and automotive chips drove TI's results in the quarter, Chief Executive Rich Templeton said in a news release.
For the current quarter, TI expects to earn $2.15 a share on sales of $4.7 billion. That's based on the midpoint of its outlook. Analysts had predicted TI earnings of $1.87 a share on sales of $4.37 billion in the March quarter. In the year-earlier period, Texas Instruments earned $1.87 a share on sales of $4.29 billion.
TXN Stock Breaks Downtrend
On the stock market today, TXN stock rose 2.5% to close at 178.33. During the regular session Tuesday, TXN stock fell 2.5% to 173.96.
TXN stock had been trending lower since early December.
The IBD Stock Checkup tool ranks TXN stock as tenth out of 40 stocks in IBD's Semiconductor Manufacturing industry group. TXN stock has an IBD Composite Rating of 92 out of 99. IBD's Composite Rating combines five separate proprietary ratings into one easy-to-use rating. The best growth stocks have a Composite Rating of 90 or better.
The chipmaking group ranks No. 45 out of 197 industry groups that IBD tracks. IBD trading guidelines recommend focusing on top-rated stocks in leading industry groups.
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