6/6t8:07 Co in News

Companies in the New:

NSM:

NSM National Semi: Color on quarter (22.66 )
RBC says order growth was reported higher than they expected resulting in May rev at high end of guidance and Aug guidance beating firm's/consensus expectations. Higher than guided GM allowed May EPS beat consensus. Mgmt set expectation for EPS growth of 15-20% for the new fiscal year FY09. Firm raises their tgt to $25 due to increased EPS expectations while retaining a Sector Perform rating due to management's expectation of a tame revenue growth rate... Thomas Weisel note that in the quarter, business strengthened with book-to-bill increasing to above 1 as bookings grew 12% q/q to surpass billings. Flow of bookings in the quarter was seen as consistent and more linear than in the prior quarter. Internal inventories increased slightly from 82 days to 86 days but overall supply chain remains lean as distribution inventory days fell to 9.0-9.5 weeks from 9.5-10 weeks last quarter. Firm notes rev growth in F4Q08 was driven by strengthening in broad-based demand.


NSM National Semi: Summary of conference call (22.66 +0.78) -Update-
On the call, NSM says that it would not be unreasonable to grow earnings 15-20% this year, which would equate to approx $1.41-$1.51 vs. the $1.24 consensus. For 1Q09, the company is forcasting gross margins of 65-66%. NSM states that it continues to make positive progres on gross margins, partially due to the modernization impact at its factories and from product mix. NSM believes that not all the good news is factored into margins yet from the factory modernization. The company is currently at 70% utilization, which it feels it can improve on to driver margins even higher. NSM says it is entering the qtr with a higher level of backlog, inventories remain low, and most of its markets are reasonably strong. Co states that demand remains fairly routine at this point, but says rising gas prices could be a concern. The company is expecting approx $90-$94 mln in R&D spending for Q1. On the current share repurchase program, NSM has $256 mln remaining.

MPWR:

MPWR Monolithic Power: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing dislcoses 5.6% stake in 13G filing (26.82 )
In a filing out earlier this morning, the TSM filed a new position in the co.