Applied posts $2.9 billion sales in quarter; orders reach $3.28 billion

Applied posts $2.9 billion sales in quarter; orders reach $3.28 billion
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Applied Materials Inc. today reported an 81% increase in net sales to a record $2.92 billion in the company's fiscal fourth quarter, ended Oct. 29, compared to $1.61 billion in the period last year. Sequentially, Applied Materials' revenues were up 7% from $2.73 billion in the company's fiscal third quarter.

The world's largest supplier of semiconductor production equipment posted a record net income of $664 million, or $0.77 per diluted share, compared to $303 million, or $0.37 per share, in the fiscal fourth quarter last year. Applied's earnings beat Wall Street's consensus by one cent, based on a survey of financial analysts by First Call/Thomson Financial.

During a conference call today with financial analysts, Applied Materials officials predicted that the company's revenues in the current quarter would be nearly flat with the sales in the fiscal fourth quarter. Applied is expecting net sales to be in a range of $2.9 billion to $2.95 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2001, said Joseph R. Bronson, senior vice president and chief financial officer. He also indicated that earnings would also be flat with income in the just-ended quarter at $0.75-0.78 per share. Applied is expecting its book-to-bill ratio to come in at slightly over 1.1 in the current quarter, said the CFO.

Applied said its new orders in the just-ended quarter totaled a record $3.6 billion, which was an increase of 10% from $3.28 billion in the third fiscal quarter.

For the full 2000 fiscal year, Applied reported net sales of $9.56 billion, an increase of 88% from $5.10 billion in fiscal 1999. The company's ongoing net income (excluding one-time charges) was $2.05 billion vs. $757 million in the 1999 fiscal year.