Sigma Designs posts lower 1Q profit

Semiconductor company Sigma Designs Inc. said Thursday its fiscal first-quarter profit declined 13 percent following what the company mainly attributed to an external inventory correction.

For the three months ended May 3, the company earned $4.7 million, or 16 cents per share, compared with $5.4 million, or 20 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. The per-share results reflect a 10 percent increase in the number of shares outstanding in the 2008 quarter.

Adjusted for various charges, earnings for the latest quarter were $11.7 million, or 40 cents per share.

Revenue rose 58 percent to $56.9 million from $36 million in the prior-year period.

Analysts, on average, were expecting a profit of 42 cents per share on sales of $60.1 million, according to a poll by Thomson Financial. Analysts typically exclude one-time items from their estimates.

Shares tumbled $2.60, or 11.9 percent, to $19.31 in after-hours electronic trading, after closing up 42 cents at $21.91 in the regular session.

The company's system-on-chip products combine semiconductors and software and are used in high definition DVD players, TVs and portable media players.