LONDON (Reuters UK) - Microchip designer ARM met market expectations for third-quarter revenue and earnings and said it was encouraged by rising confidence among its chipmaker customers.
ARM, whose chip designs are in Apple's iPhone and Nokia's N97, said on Tuesday that revenues rose 5 percent rise to 75.2 million pounds and EPS fell 40 percent to 0.53 pence.
Analysts were expecting revenue of 73.7 million pounds and EPS of 0.5 pence, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Pretax profit was 7.7 million pounds, down from 15.8 million a year earlier.
The Cambridge-based company, whose designs are used by chip makers Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Samsung, said shipments, measured a quarter in arrears, had bounced back 75 percent from the second quarter as customers restocked.
Chipmakers, led by ARM rival Intel, have been increasingly optimistic about a tech sector recovery before the holiday season, though U.S. maker Broadcom said on Thursday it remained cautious.
ARM said it expected to report year revenue in dollar terms at least in line with market expectations.
The firm said it had signed a record 28 processor licences in the quarter; 13 for smartphone and mobile computers and 15 for digital products such as automotive, digital TVs, microcontrollers and networking.
Shares in the firm have rallied 72 percent since the start of the year and closed at 149.2 pence on Monday, valuing the company at about 1.9 billion pounds.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Rhys Jones/Will Waterman)
