Analog Devices predicts 50% sales growth in fiscal 2001

NORWOOD, Mass. -- Analog Devices Inc. here predicted a 7-to-10% sequential increase in revenues during the company's current fiscal quarter, which ends in January, and the chip company said it expects sales to grow 50% in fiscal 2001 year over $2.58 billion in the 2000 period.

"Given our high backlog and strong new orders during the fourth quarter ended Oct. 28, we believe we can achieve 7-to-10% sequential revenue growth in the first quarter of fiscal 2001," said Jerald G. Fishman, president and CEO of Analog Devices. "Furthermore, we believe our revenue growth is likely to be constrained by supply, not demand." In releasing the company's results for the fiscal fourth quarter and just-ended 2000 period, Fishman on Tuesday predicted fiscal 2001 revenues would exceed $3.8 billion.

The Norwood company posted sales of $806 million for its fiscal fourth quarter, an increase of 87% from $431.0 million in the period last year. Analog Devices' net income in the quarter was $206.3 million vs. $73.2 million in the three-month period last year. The company's earnings-per-share of $0.54 beat Wall Street's consensus of $.50, according to a survey of financial analysts by First Call/Thomson Financial.

For the entire fiscal 2000 year, Analog Devices reported revenues grew 78% to $2.58 billion compared to $1.45 billion in the previous year. The company's net income for the year was $588.8 million vs. $204.8 million in fiscal 1999.

"Analog products revenues increased 68%, while DSP products revenues rose 115%," said Fishman, referring to the 2000 year. "Our revenue growth was well ahead of the market's growth, both for the year and our fourth quarter. Based on these results, we believe ADI has become the industry's fastest-growing analog and DSP IC supplier," he added, referring to the company's battle in digital signal processing with rivals Texas Instruments, Lucent, and Motorola.