Wireless chipmaker RF Micro Devices (NASDAQ:RFMD) posted knockout Q3 results after the market close yesterday. Investors raised their gloves in victory, bumping the stock up 3% in the after hours on market-leading volume.

RF Micro, whose largest customer is a little Finnish outfit named Nokia (NYSE:NOK), posted a 26.5% gain in revenues from a year ago, driving EPS to $0.06 from $0.02. To counter the skeptics who snort that it's a breeze to show improvement against easy comparisons, RF Micro also announced a 24.3% sequential sales jump. Better yet, the company expects sales momentum to continue with double-digit growth to the low-$180 millions in Q4 and EPS of $0.08-$0.09.

On the quality of earnings front (something you won't see in press release rehashes -- ouch! harsh!), accounts receivables rose about the same as sales while inventories declined. A/R rising at the same or slower rate than sales is one indicator that sales aren't coming at the expense of too-favorable credit terms. Declining inventories as sales jump can show that demand is truly strong -- though too much variance might suggest that management is out of touch with customers, caught without enough product, and foregoing some sales.

RF Micro's $310 million in cash is shy of its $324 million in longer-term debt, but the capital expenditures involved in a move from four-inch to six-inch GaAs wafer production are in the past. This may mean some improvement in gross margins -- noted in this terrific Fool community post showing the company's last five years of sales, cost of goods cold, gross margins, research and development, and net margins.

The stock closed yesterday at $11.42, 151% above its 52-week low in March.

With an enterprise value about 40 times its Q2 run rate of free cash flow and possibly seeing a cyclical upswing, is the company a buy for tech-oriented investors or too richly priced? Hash it out with our Fool community on our happenin' RF Micro Devices discussion board !