Maxim Integrated Products Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA) reported net revenues of $239.4 million for its fiscal first quarter ending September 29, 2001, a 43.3 percent decrease from the $422.3 million reported for the first quarter of fiscal 2001, and a 24.7 percent decrease from the $318.1 million reported for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2001. Net income for the quarter was $61.3 million compared to $119.1 million last year, a 48.5 percent decrease. Diluted earnings per share were $0.17 for the first quarter, a 48.5 percent decrease from the $0.33 reported for the same period a year ago.
During the quarter, the company repurchased approximately 8.2 million shares of its common stock for $286.6 million and acquired a total of $25.6 million of capital equipment. The company also purchased an additional two million shares of its common stock during the first week of the second quarter of fiscal 2002. Accounts receivable decreased by $53.0 million in the first quarter to $99.5 million due to the decrease in net revenues, and inventories decreased $3.3 million to $159.3 million.
Jack Gifford, chairman, president and CEO, commented, "Allowing that the economic recovery will continue through the next two to three quarters, Maxim performed generally according to our plan for the first quarter of this recovery. Order patterns stabilized early in the first quarter and increased as the quarter progressed. While we are encouraged by the increase in order rates, we remain cautious about our short-term revenue outlook because of customers' backlog situations and their unwillingness to commit to inventories and longer term orders due to short lead times. As lead times begin to creep out, we expect bookings rates to continue to increase. We do expect that our fourth quarter was the bottom of the dot com-induced correction period for bookings, with the first quarter representing the revenue low point. Although we expect second-quarter bookings to exceed first-quarter levels, we estimate that second-quarter revenues and earnings will increase only slightly over first-quarter levels due to available backlog at the beginning of the second quarter."
