Xilinx
On the bright side, however, the company did manage to grow its top and bottom lines on a sequential basis, which, understandably, came as good news for investors. Besides that, a better-than-expected sales forecast added to the positive investor sentiment, lifting Xilinx's share prices as much as 8% following earnings, only for them to languish back to pre-earnings levels in subsequent days.
Feeling confused by this mixed reception? Let's take a closer look.
Figuring it out
Xilinx's total revenue declined by about 5% from the previous year, clocking in at $559 million. Net income was also lackluster, down by 16% at $134.1 million.
Sales for the company's data processing division remained weak, falling 12% from the previous year due to weak storage sales. The communications division fared no better, as it recorded a 16% decline in revenue. On the bright side, revenues from the industrial sales division increased 10% from the previous year's quarter, followed by a pedestrian 1% rise in the company's consumer and automotive division.
But Xilinx wasn't the only company putting up a muted top-line show. Chip rival Altera
But then again, there seem to be enough reasons to believe that there is still hope for Xilinx.
Looking up
The 5% sequential growth in revenue for Xilinx's communication division, which accounts for more than 40% of the company's total revenue, reveals a positive growth path.
Xilinx's clients, many of which are wireless equipment makers such as Ericsson
Ericsson, which accounted for more than 10% of Xilinx's business in the latest quarter, witnessed higher spending on new-age LTE networks by wireless carriers Verizon
Chipping into the cloud
And that's not all: Xilinx makes components used in super-fast computing products as well, including flash-memory-based SSDs used for enterprise and cloud computing servers. And with the cloud computing market slated to reach a whopping $55 billion within the next two years, according to research firm IDC, Xilinx stands to benefit from the sales of chips used in servers placed in cloud-based data centers.
The Foolish bottom line
Though the semiconductor industry is passing through turbulent times, it seems to be on the verge of an upswing, and Xilinx definitely stands to gain from the trend. Recently, S&P boosted the company's credit rating by a notch to BBB+ based on an improvement in the company's outlook and strong cash flows. I'd certainly keep a close watch on the company and so should you, by adding Xilinx to your free Watchlist.
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