Texas Instruments, which makes the chips used in about half the world's cell phones, narrowed its fourth-quarter outlook, saying it expects sales and profits toward the higher end of its previously announced range of expectations, an Associated Press report said.
The Associate Press report quoted Ron Slaymaker, the company's vice president of investor relations, as saying that sales of chips for cell phones and other wireless devices remained below usual seasonal trends.
Texas Instruments' biggest customer, Nokia and Ericsson have recently moved to buy chips from other suppliers.
But Slaymaker said the outlook for wireless had improved since October, and that overall inventories of semiconductors were lean, a good sign for chip makers, the report said.
The Dallas-based company said sales would range between $3.50 billion and $3.66 billion, compared with the prior range of $3.40 billion to $3.68 billion. Analysts were predicting $3.56 billion, the report said.
The company's shares rose $0.19 to $32.67 in regular trading before the announcement. In about an hour of extended trading, they rose $1.58, or 4.8%, to $34.25, the report further said.