Texas Instruments says chip demand stabilizing, sees revenue above Street

A worker prepares to load a silicon wafer machine in a clean room at the Texas Instruments semiconductor fabrication plant in Dallas, Texas.

Jason Janik | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Texas Instruments forecast first-quarter revenue above market expectations on Wednesday on signs of stable demand for microchips, indicating that a prolonged slowdown in the semiconductor industry was bottoming out.

The Dallas, Texas-based company, the first big chipmaker to report in this earnings cycle, is expected to benefit from an uptick in demand for its chips used in 5G infrastructure building and autonomous vehicles.

The stabilization in business comes following five straight quarters of revenue declines.

“This is quite typical as a cyclical downturn in the semiconductor industry normally lasts between 4-8 quarters, depending on how severe the macro decline is,” said Tore Svanberg, an analyst at Stifel.

Texas, whose broad lineup of products makes it a proxy for the chip industry, said it expects first-quarter revenue between $3.12 billion and $3.38 billion, above analysts' expectations of $3.21 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Excluding items, the company earned $1.12 per share in the fourth quarter, above Wall Street expectation of $1.02.

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Revenue dropped 10% to $3.35 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31, but came in above the average analyst estimate of $3.22 billion.

Shares of the company fell 1.3% in extended trading after closing up nearly 2% on Wednesday. The stock gained nearly 36% in 2019.

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