TI’s Less Than Terrific

Investors hoping that Intel’s blow-out results last week were good news for rest of the chip sector received a bit of a letdown late Monday when Texas Instruments reported quarterly results that were generally below analysts’ expectations.

TI reported earnings of 43 cents a share after factoring out tax benefits, and sales rose 3% from the year-ago quarter to $3.27 billion. The results were in the middle of the lowered outlook the company gave last month, and the sales number was a hair below estimates.

Digital signal processor sales declined 3% on lower cell phone sales, which were foreshadowed by Nokia’s disappointing results last week. But analog sales were strong, up 20% year-over-year.

TI’s second-quarter guidance of $3.24-$3.5 billion in revenues and 42 to 48 cent earnings were at the low end of Wall Street estimates of $3.44 billion and 48 cents, according to Thomson Financial.

“Given uncertainty in the near-term economy, we have become more conservative with our outlook for the second quarter,” CEO Rich Templeton said in a statement.

TI shares declined 2% in late trading after rising 3% ahead of the report. Also in late trading, Netflix plunged on its outlook.

Stocks were mixed during the day, as disappointing results from Bank of America weighed on financial stocks, but the Nasdaq managed a small gain.

Packeteer was a big winner, up 13% on a buyout agreement with Blue Coat.

Yahoo posted a small gain ahead of its results due out late Tuesday, while Apple gained more than 4% on bullish analyst comments ahead of its results on Wednesday.

Openwave fell on lowered guidance and a new CFO.

The Nasdaq rose 5 to 2407, the S&P lost 2 to 1388, and the Dow fell 24 to 12,825. Volume declined to 3.42 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.65 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by an 18-14 margin on the NYSE, and by a 16-12 margin on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 43% on the NYSE, and 54% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 122-71 on the NYSE, and 61-106 on the Nasdaq.