Texas Instruments Smashes Quarter, Wall Street Erupts

0:00It's April 28, Durham news today starts now, AI powered and ready. Texas Instruments just smashed its best quarter ever, sending shares of nearly 20%. Bank of America jumped in with a buy rating upgrade from Neutral, and hiked the price target to $320 from $200.35. Analysts see the chipmaker kicking off a fresh wave of free cash flow that Wall Street ain't fully pricing yet. First quarter sales clock $4.825 billion, blowing past the $4.5 billion midpoint guide, and up 18 point. 6% from last year. Gross margins hit 58%, operating margins 47.8%, both way above expectations. For the second quarter, they guide $5.2 billion at the midpoint with Gross margins climbing to 59%. Wall Street hyped, with both a analyst boosting earnings forecast for 2026 through 2028 by 21, 31, and 33%.

1:01They call it a structural shift, not just a one-off beat. Industrial revenue surged, 30% year over year. Aerospace and defense holding steady as ever, and data center sales doubled to 11%. Of the mix, hinting at AI power plays ahead. CEO Havibe Lan says customer inventories are normalizing, demands picking up across the board, with major design wins in industrial and auto. That 300-millimeter fab expansion in Texas stays on track for lasting cost edges. Still, risks linger like the 7.5 billion silicon labs buy out, adding debt and pausing buybacks, plus choppy auto demand tied to China EV. Shifts. TIs, flipping the script from heavy spending to payoff mode, balance sheet sets a rebound as cash flows in. Keep eyes on how this multi-year pivot plays out in a volatile market.