In Friday trading, shares of Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT, Financial) fell more than 8% after reporting second-quarter earnings of $1.22 on revenue of $4.57 billion, up 28.7% year-over-year. The company managed to beat revenue estimations by $120 million and earnings estimates by 8 cents.
Gary Dickerson, the company's president and CEO, said, “Applied’s performance in the second fiscal quarter was another all-time record for the company, which demonstrates strong execution and customer pull for materials solutions that help accelerate roadmaps and bring new devices to market faster."
Further, on a GAAP basis, the gross margin inched up by 0.7 points to 45.8%, and operating income grew by 41% to $1.33 billion or 29.1% of net sales
Looking ahead, in the third quarter of fiscal 2018, the company expects net sales to be between $4.33 billion and $4.53 billion; the midpoint represents an increase of 18% year-over-year. Non-GAAP adjusted diluted earnings per share is expected to be in the range of $1.13 to $1.21; the midpoint represents an increase of 36% year-over-year.
Campbell Soup Company (CPB, Financial)Ă‚ posted third-quarter earnings of 70Ă‚ cents on revenue of $2.13 billion, which was 15.1% higher than the comparable period. The company beat earnings estimations by 9 cents, but fell short of revenue expectations by $10 million.
Moreover, the gross margin decreased from 35.9% to 29.1%. Excluding some items, adjusted gross margin decreased 3.9 percentage points to 32.0%. This reflects the cost inflation and higher supply chain costs, as well as the dilutive impact of recent acquisitions and higher promotional spending.
Looking ahead, Campbell has revised its fiscal 2018, expecting an increase in net sales of 10-11% and adjusted earnings per share of $2.85 to $2.90.
Shares of Baidu Inc. (BIDU, Financial) stock fell on news that Qi Lu will leave his position as chief operating officer. He will continue to serve as vice president of the board of directors. The reason is attributable to “personal and family reasons.”
Disclosure: The author holds no position in any stocks mentioned.
