Stay-at-Home Sparked 10% Q2 Rise in TI's Q2 Personal Electronics Business

Though Texas Instruments Q2 revenue of $3.2 billion was down 12% from a year earlier, it wasn't "the depth of the decline we saw in the 2008 financial crisis,” said Dave Pahl, head of investor relations, on a Tuesday evening earnings call. “We remain cautious on how the economy might behave over the next few years.” The main “weakness” was in automotive, down about 40% sequentially and from a year earlier, he said. “Excluding automotive, TI was up 8% sequentially and down 3% versus a year ago. The automotive market appears to have bottomed in May as North American and European assembly plants resumed operations.” TI’s personal electronics business was up more than 20% from Q1 and about 10% higher than the 2019 quarter, he said. “This can best be explained by work-from-home trends and TI being in a position to support unforecasted demand in the quarter.” Short lead times and high availability “are important capabilities that allow us to continue to support customers' near-term and unforecasted demand,” said Chief Financial Officer Rafael Lizardi. “Our product portfolio of mostly long-lived parts affords us to have a steady hand and therefore, we will take a similar approach to our factory operating plan again in third quarter.”