International Rectifier Corp.  (IRF) Trade Now »     Rate IRF  -  Discuss IRF  -  Add to Watch List        

Nobody cared much about International Rectifier's (irf) announcement in early July that it had canned its CFO and head of international sales and marketing in the wake of an investigation into "accounting irregularities." At first, as I wrote at the time, its stock went up on the news. But it got clobbered last week after its CEO was put on leave while the investigation continues.

International Rectifer (IRF) this afternoon reported better-than-expected results for its fiscal fourth quarter ended June 28.

For the quarter, the company posted revenue of $159.6 million, down 18.6% year over year, but up 16.2% sequentially, and ahead of the Street at $146.6 million. The company posted GAAP profits of $29.1 million or 41 cents a share, but that includes a host of one-time items; my back of the envelope match suggests the company suffered a non-GAAP loss of $39.1 million or 55 cents a share. The Street had been looking for a loss of 59 cents a share.

International Rectifier (IRF) shares are getting clobbered this morning on concerns about the chip maker’s weakening margins - and a downgrade of the shares by Citigroup’s Terence Whalen.

Citigroup analyst Terence Whalen today launched coverage on 11 analog semiconductor stocks - and he’s bullish on most of them. Whalen writes that the stocks “fit squarely in the sweet spot of the analog cycle’s time-return vectors.” In other words, he writes, risk-reward on the stock looks good with EPS estimates being revised upward and sales growing. He notes that the stocks are up 16% over the last four weeks, and 29% since the November bottom on the SOX, but contends they could rally another 25% over the next six months.