Linear Technology Corp. (Milpitas, CA) announced that net sales for its third quarter ended March 31, 2002, were $130,155,000, a decrease of 54 percent from net sales of $282,021,000 for the similar quarter of the previous year. The company also reported net income for the quarter of $51,480,000, or $0.16 diluted earnings per share, a decrease of 59 percent from $125,703,000, or $0.38 diluted earnings per share, reported for the same quarter of last year.
The company is increasing its quarterly dividend from $0.04 to $0.05 per share. The payment will be on May 15, 2002, to stockholders of record on April 26, 2002. During the quarter, the company generated approximately $17.0 million in additional cash and short-term investments, net of spending approximately $37.0 million to purchase 1,000,000 shares of its common stock.
Robert Swanson, chairman of the board and CEO, stated, “For the first time in several quarters all of the critical financial trends showed healthy improvement. Sales and profits grew sequentially 7 percent and 12 percent, respectively, over the previous quarter. Bookings, which exceeded sales, grew in all major geographical and major end markets. Even at these reduced sales levels from last year, we continue to be strongly profitable with a 40 percent after-tax return on sales. In January we discontinued production in our oldest wafer fabrication plant. The associated costs had been previously provided for in past financial statements, and therefore, no special one-time charges were required.”
