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The Money Man Behind Rick Santorum: Who Is Foster S. Friess?The fourth quarter turned out to be a good one for National Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: NSM) and Brown-Forman Corp. (NYSE: BF.B), producer of Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey. On Thursday, both companies reported results that beat Wall Street forecasts.
For the quarter ended May 5, National Semiconductor, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip maker, reported net income of $83.2 million, or 34 cents per share. Revenue rose to $462 million from $455.9 million in the year-ago period.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected income of 26 cents per share on revenue of $449.5 million.
For the full fiscal year, National Semiconductor recorded net income of $332.3 million, or $1.26 per share, and revenue slipped to $1.89 billion from $1.93 billion.
The company also forecast fiscal first-quarter revenue of $460 million to $475 million, compared to analysts' expectations of $451.2 million.
Shares of National Semiconductor rose 78 cents, or 3.6%, to close at $22.66, and climbed another $2.13, or 9.4% in after-hours trading.
Liquor producer Brown-Forman said its fourth-quarter profit rose 48% since last year to $99.1 million, or 81 cents per share, in part on higher demand for Jack Daniels and Finlandia vodka. Those earnings easily beat the 69 cents per share expected by analysts. Net sales for the three months ended April 30 rose 12% to $772.3 million.
For the fiscal year, the Louisville-based company surpassed $3 billion in net sales for the first time in its 138-year history. The company also said its net income rose 13% to $439.8 million, or $3.56 per share, beating the $3.44 consensus projection by Wall Street analysts.
Brown-Forman forecast earnings for the current year to range from $3.73 to $3.98 per share. The consensus prediction by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial is for earnings of $3.84 a share.
Shares climbed almost 9% Thursday to close at $78.47, not far off its 52-week high of $79.88 last August.
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