NEW YORK-The quarterly estimates of Texas Instruments Inc. and Micron Technology dropped in the eyes of two brokerage firms, Salomon Smith Barney and Bear Stearns respectively. Qualcomm Inc., however, enjoyed an AG Edwards upgrade to overweight from equal weight. Its shares bounced after it announced a sunny outlook for its chip sales.
Salomon Smith Barney also downgraded TI to ‘in-line” from outperform. The brokerage cut the estimate for 2003 revenue to $9.6 billion from $10.1 billion. Bear Stearns said Micron’s fourth-quarter loss will drop to 21 cents from 20 cents.
Qualcomm’s share jumped about 4.5 percent.
“The positive scenario laid out at the analyst day (last May) appears to be coming to fruition in Qualcomm like reaching the high-end of earnings guidance each of the last two quarters (of calendar 2002),” noted J.P. Morgan analyst Edward Snyder.
