December 5, 1996 6:30 PM ET

National Semi earns $29.5M in Q3
By Margaret Kane

Strong sales in the networking, wireless and PC markets helped National Semiconductor Corp. report net income of $29.5 million for its fiscal second quarter. That compares with earnings of $79.8 million in the year-ago quarter, the Santa Clara, Calif., company announced today. Sales for the quarter were $661.5 million, compared to $711.6 million a year ago. National CEO Brian Halla cautioned investors not to overreact to the earnings statement. "The strength of sales and new order rates in October and November is encouraging, but we'll wait until after the holidays to take the cork out of the bottle," he said. Halla said the Sunnyvale, Calif., company's book-to-bill ratio, which measures incoming orders against outgoing shipments, was 1.1 for the second quarter. "We would be surprised if orders continued as strong throughout the holiday season - happily surprised," Halla said. Copyright(c) 1996 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company is prohibited. PC Week and the PC Week logo are trademarks of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. PC Week Online and the PC Week Online logo are trademarks of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. Send mail to PC Week