Strong Sales Expected for Ethan Allen

Ethan Allen (NYSE: ETH) jumped 7% after providing a preliminary view of its first quarter. The company gave investors a quick look at first quarter (ending September) numbers ahead of its Oct. 26 analyst day. Although earnings will be 7 cents less than expected due to higher marketing expenses, sales are strong and higher than estimates. Investors chose to excuse the higher expenses as they are partly related to the company’s launch of a Disney inspired line of furniture. Growth in orders written, an indicator of future sales, is up a strong 8%.

Installed Building Products (NYSE: IBP) announced the acquisition of East Coast Insulators. The company provides installation services to residential and commercial customers in the Virginia, West Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland markets through two Virginia locations. CEO Jeff Edwards said in a statement: “With $20M of annualized revenues, East Coast Insulators has a large presence within strong and growing markets, and this acquisition will help expand our presence in the mid-Atlantic region.”

Integrated Device Technologies (NSDQ: IDTI) has seen its stock slump due to its supplier relationship with Samsung. You’ve likely seen the news that Samsung is recalling and halting production of its Note 7 Smartphone, which IDTI makes some components for. While this is obviously bad news, the company has often mentioned that smartphone revenue is a relatively small part of its business. It does not list Samsung as a 10% customer as would be required by the SEC (a company must list in its 10K any customer that makes up 10% or more of its business). Right now think it’s a great buy. I recommended the stock for its automotive exposure via its ZMDI acquisition which is working out quite well.


Lattice Semiconductor (NSDQ: LSCC)  has also been hit by the Samsung news but its profits should be secure.  Samsung represented 9% of Lattice’s revenue in 2015 but has been dropping precipitously over time. In fact for the year 2015 Samsung bought $36 million of product from Lattice, half of what it purchased the previous year. Lattice is not dependent on Samsung for future growth and has diversified its customer base. I do not think Lattice’s numbers are at risk due to the problems at Samsung. As Lattice chips were found in a recent tear-down of Apple’s newest iPhone, it may actually benefit from the problems at Samsung as more consumers shift over to iPhones.

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