News

LTC Reports Improved Sales and Profits

January 20, 2003 by Jeff Shepard

Linear Technology Corp. (LTC, Milpitas, CA) announced that net sales for its second quarter ended December 29, 2002, were $145,045,000, an increase of 20 percent over net sales of $121,266,000 for the second quarter of the previous year. The company also reported net income for the quarter of $56,163,000, or $0.18 diluted earnings per share, an increase of 22 percent from $45,965,000, or $0.14 diluted earnings per share, reported for the second quarter of last year.

A cash dividend of $0.05 per share will be paid on February 12, 2003, to stockholders of record on January 24, 2003. During the quarter, the company generated $63 million in cash and short-term investments. In addition, cash and short-term investments at December 29, 2002, include $16 million in unrealized gains on investments that the company classifies as available-for-sale, but in practice primarily holds to maturity.

Robert Swanson, chairman of the board and CEO, stated, "We grew this quarter slightly over the previous quarter and significantly over the similar quarter in the prior year. We continue to be strongly profitable as demonstrated by our 39-percent return on sales and also strongly cash flow positive. We have turned in these good results during difficult economic times. Lead times and backlog are low and customers continue to order only to near-term demand. Therefore, confidently and accurately forecasting short-term future results continues to be difficult. However, the March quarter is customarily stronger for us and we expect some improvement in demand. Consequently, we estimate that sales and profits will grow in mid single digits, three percent to seven percent, from the December quarter."