National Semiconductor Q3 sales up

National's third quarter sales were 5% higher than the Q2 2010 and 24% higher than last year's third fiscal quarter. The company says that stronger demand for its analogue products in industrial markets, served primarily through distributors, drove the increase, while sales to wireless handset customers were down seasonally following the holidays. In addition, National continued to improve its manufacturing cost performance with a gross margin of 67.3% in the third quarter increased from the 65.3% gross margin achieved in the second quarter of fiscal 2010. National announced that its total bookings increased 5% sequentially, as order rates increased from direct OEM customers as well as from distributors. "Driving revenue growth is our new charter here at National Semiconductor," said Don Macleod (pictured), National's president and chief executive officer. "Our sequential and year-on-year revenue growth demonstrates top-line improvement, driven by both our core analog business and traction in several new emerging areas." National is projecting revenues to be between $375m and $390m in the fourth quarter of fiscal.