Don't Mess With Texas Instruments. Unless You Want to Buy Some Chips. Like, All of Them.

Texas Instruments (TXN) this evening reported Q3 sales and profit per share just short of estimates. The company said sales in the quarter fell 8 percent, year over year, to $3.38 billion, with profit per share of 43 cents. That was more or less in line with the company’s midquarter update back on Sept. 9, but below analysts’ expectations for $3.4 billion and 44 cents.

The outlook for the current, December-ending quarter is grim indeed. The company forecast sales in a range of $2.83 billion to $3.07 billion, and profit per share of 30 cents and 36 cents; analysts have been expecting profit of 43 cents on sales of $3.34 billion.

TI chairman, president and chief executive Rich Templeton commented, “In anticipation of declining demand, we reduced our own inventory aggressively in the third quarter, which brought factory utilization down and put additional pressure on our profitability.”

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