It's fine to talk about high performance, but the kind that all of us really crave is measured in terms of stock appreciation. That might just apply to Linear Technology (NASDAQ:LLTC), a high-performance analog leader that's still ripe for the picking.
To understand why I thought Linear had a good third quarter, I may need to explain. If you're not familiar with the company or the space, you might be thinking: "Huh, revenue was down 4% from last year ... margins were down ... income was down .he's crazy!"
Here's the deal, though. First, while reported revenue was down, there was royalty revenue in the year-ago period that wasn't repeated this year. So actual product sales were up by 11%, and up sequentially. Likewise on the margins -- royalty revenue is usually high-margin revenue, and that interferes with the annual comparisons, but you see a nice sequential improvement.
Looking ahead, I still like how this company is positioned for the long haul. It has a highly efficient approach and is well diversified across a range of sectors. What's more, it has relatively light exposure to PCs -- a market that Intersil (NASDAQ:ISIL) is targeting for growth but that doesn't seem so healthy these days, in light of the performances by Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Dell (NASDAQ:DELL).
I'm going to want to wait for the 10-Q to fully update my valuation model, but I think there's money to be made here. Fellow high-end analog maker Maxim (NASDAQ:MXIM) also looks quite interesting, though, so make sure to survey the field before committing to a single idea.
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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).
