Two Big Semiconductor Warnings (TXN, ALTR)

You have been hearing about forecasts coming down for the fourth quarter and for the full 2012 outlook in many cases by research groups.  Today’s news pretty much sums it all up.  Warnings have been issued by both Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) and Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR).  So much for those great earnings and sales improvements.

As far as Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN), the semiconductor maker lowered its fourth quarter to $0.21 to $0.25 EPS on revenues of $3.19 to $3.33 billion.  The prior outlook that had been offered up was $0.28 to $0.36 EPS and a range of $3.26 to $3.54 billion in revenues.  The explanation is as you might expect, “The reductions are due to broadly lower demand across a wide range of markets, customers and products, except for Wireless applications processors.”

Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) has now forecast a drop sequentially of 13% to 16% from its third quarter sales after having previously guided lower by only about 7% to 11% sequentially.  At the mid-point of the range, this translates to a sequential drop of 14.5% rather than a prior expected drop of 9%.  Altera’s excuse, “The revenue outlook has deteriorated across all major vertical markets, including both large and small customers. With the exception of North America, which will benefit from rising military sales, all geographic regions will be weak. As the quarter has progressed, economic uncertainty, macroeconomic concerns, and, in some instances, lower than planned sales have resulted in customers reducing demand on Altera.”

Do either of these forecasts give you any great expectations of PC and device growth in technology? 

Texas Instruments was down 2.5% at $29.92 today and shares are now down another 5.9% at $28.02 in the after-hours session.  The 52-week trading range is $24.34 to $36.71.

Altera was down 2.45% at $35.48 today and shares are now down another 4.7% at $33.80 in the after-hours session.  The 52-week trading range is $30.39 to $49.59.

There goes Christmas in Chip-land.

JON C. OGG