Bookkeeping: Selling Most TriQuint Semiconductor (TQNT) on Raised Guidance

TriQuint Semiconductor (TQNT) has not been acting well of late, but this morning raised guidance and the stock is up about 7%.  I am going to use the opportunity to sell almost all remaining shares, in the low $6.20s, and then assess how the stock acts from here.  We had reduced our exposure as the stock has not been participating in the rally early in 2010, so on our remaining shares (cost basis just over $6.30) we are taking a very small loss - but far better than the situation yesterday when the stock was in the $5.70s and sitting right on the 200 day moving average.

At this point I'd like to see the stock make a new recent high, i.e. over $6.50 before adding back to the position.  If it cannot, we'll just dump the last remaining 0.1%.  For whatever reason, the market does not like this company much right now - despite what appears to be relatively solid fundamentals.  However, you can see another stock building a long sideways base, from which it will eventually move sharply one way or the other.  Yesterday it looked poised to "break out" to the downside, today - back to the top end of this 6 week range... how quickly things can change.

Today's increase in guidance - full report here.

• Radio frequency chip maker TriQuint Semiconductor Inc. raised its fourth-quarter earnings forecast Wednesday, helped by better-than-expected sales. The company now expects to report earnings of 9 cents to 10 cents per share and revenue of $190 million. Excluding special items, it expects earnings of 12 cents to 13 cents a share.  That's up from a previous forecast the called for adjusted earnings of 10 cents to 12 cents per share and sales of between $175 million and $185 million.
• Analysts, who typically exclude special charges from their estimates, expected earnings of 11 cents per share and sales of $180.9 million, according to a Thomson Reuters poll.

Long TriQuint Semiconductor in fund; no personal position