Altera posts higher 4th-quarter profit, sales, driving shares higher after hours

Altera 4Q profit jumps; shares up after hours

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Chip maker Altera Corp. said Tuesday its fourth-quarter profit improved, driven by higher demand across all of its markets.

The results were better than Wall Street had expected, and shares rose in after-hours trading.

Altera recorded fourth-quarter profit of $103 million, or 34 cents per share, up from a profit of $83 million, or 28 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 16 percent to $365 million from $314.5 million.

Analysts, on average, expected profit of 29 cents per share on sales of $334.9 million, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

“The fourth quarter produced extraordinary growth driven by customer program ramps and better end demand across all of our markets,” said John Daane, Altera’s president, CEO and chairman, in a statement.

For the full year, the company earned $251.1 million, or 84 cents per share, down 30 percent from $359.7 million, or $1.18 per share, in the previous year.

Revenue fell to $1.2 billion from $1.37 billion.

For the first quarter, Altera expects sales to grow by 5 percent to 10 percent sequentially, which implies revenue of $383.3 million to $401.5 million.

Analysts forecast revenue of $338.5 million, which represents a decline of 7 percent.

Shares of the San Jose, Calif.-based company rose $1.06, or 5 percent, to $22.25 in after-hours trading. The stock earlier ended regular trading down 14 cents at $21.19. It has ranged from $13.92 to $23.26 over the past year.