Altera: Less Bad May Actually Be Good Enough (ALTR)

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 26, 1:19AM EDT · Published Mar 2, 4:56PM EST

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dram-image1 Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) issued a mid-quarter update after the close of trading today. What is interesting is that things might not be quite as bad as the company rxoected The news is far away from being good news, but sometimes “less bad is good enough.”

The company had forecasted that first quarter revenue would fall sequentially between 15% to 25%. The company now expects sequential revenues to be down 15% to 20%. Five percent won’t exactly merit an excuse to storm the beaches, but it is far better than what could have been an even worse decline. This also sounds as though it may be a company specific news rather than an indication that the sector’s fortunes are improving.

Altera cited that its “improved outlook” is largely attributable to better-than-expected demand from OEMs for Chinese 3G wireless networks. The company pointed out that its first quarter sales outlook remains muted due to slowing global business conditions.

Analysts expect revenue of $253.8 million for this quarter ending March 31. The lowest estimate is $245 million, so it looks as though some analysts may ratchet up their forecasts. Altera closed down 5% at $14.56 today. Shares are up marginally after the close.

Jon C. Ogg
March 2, 2009

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

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A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.