HILLSBORO, Ore. (AP) ? TriQuint Semiconductor Inc., which makes chips for cell phones, said Wednesday that its third-quarter earnings sank as demand for its products fell and the year-ago quarter included a large tax benefit.
TriQuint beat analyst views for the quarter, but gave guidance for the current quarter that falls below Wall Street expectations. The company’s shares shed 17 percent in after-hours trading.
TriQuint earned $16.2 million, or 9 cents per share, in the quarter that ended Oct. 1. The company earned $112 million, or 69 cents per share, in the same quarter a year earlier.
In the third quarter of 2010, TriQuint’s results were boosted by a $73.4 million income tax benefit. The company’s tax benefit was $4.5 million in the more recent period.
Excluding one-time items, TriQuint earned 11 cents per share in the third quarter. That is a penny more than the average estimate of analysts polled by FactSet.
Revenue fell 9 percent to $216 million; analysts expected $214 million in revenue.
For the fourth quarter, TriQuint predicted adjusted net income of between 6 and 8 cents per share on $215 million to $225 million in revenue.
Analysts had been expecting 14 cents per share on $232 million in revenue.
The company’s shares fell $1.21, or 17 percent, to $5.96 in after-hours trading following the release of the earnings report. The stock rose 29 cents, or 4.2 percent, to $7.17 in regular trading.
