Earnings Preview: National Semi

National Semiconductor (NSM) is expected to report Q1 earnings before market open Friday, Sept. 5,  with a conference call scheduled for 11:30 am ET.

Guidance

The consensus estimate is 34c for EPS and $468.89M for revenue, according to First Call.

Analyst Views

RBC Capital expects Q1 results to be in-line with its estimates of 34c and $472M, and in-line with the company guidance of $460M to $475M. RBC expects the company to report weak bookings during the August quarter with a book-to-bill less than parity. Accordingly, the firm does not expect National Semi to guide better than flattish revenues for Q2, significantly below RBC's and consensus expectations of up 3% and 4%, or $487M and $488M, respectively. RBC thinks it is likely that the company takes a conservative view of the turns orders and guides November revenues down sequentially. Considering recent negative sentiment on the handset segment, RBC believes the Street will not be surprised by below-consensus guidance.

Key issues for the conference call: Comments about global demand for cell phones and portable devices; bookings in the quarter and going forward; book-to-bill commentary; comments regarding order turns, in which the Street expects to be lower; details on the state of the semiconductor industry; gross and operating margin guidance.