Texas Instruments on the road to nowhere -- for now

Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE:TXN) closed at $31.28 on Friday on normal volume. The stock has been treading water and trading sideways for awhile ... and likely will continue to. TXN will actually have a down sequential year in 2007. Estimates call for revenues of $13.8 billion, down from $14.2 billion last year. Earnings this year are called for at $1.50 per share, down from $1.69 per share last year.

The stock has no momentum behind it and investors are suspicious of fairly aggressive numbers for 2008. Revenue consensus for 2008 is $15.1 billion and earnings per share of $1.85 to $1.88. The catalysts do not appear ready to accelerate for Texas Instruments. TXN is one of the largest semiconductor companies in the world and is ranked second in analog, as well as the leading supplier of DSPs (digital signal processors) to the cell phone market.

The problem TXN is facing, and will continue to face, is pricing pressure in the DSP market. Pricing pressure that is not abating by their push for high-end product generation at Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT). Texas Instruments is a dominant player, but their strength is with the lower end, lower margin cell phones.

With a flat to down revenue and earnings outlook for 2007, and a less than confident outlook for 2008, Texas Instruments shares are going to remain in the narrow trading range.

Georges Yared is the author of Stop Losing Money Today and Baby Boomer Investing.