On todays conference call, QLogic president and CEO H.K. Desai said that Fujitsu and Sun each make up 18 percent of the companys Fibre Channel sales, while Hitachi accounts for 11 percent. In addition, he added, out of IBM, Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), and Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL), the company expects two out of three to become 10 percent customers next year. We are expanding our customer base, he said. Slowly, well get more 10 percent customers.
Not all of QLogic's outlook was positive, however. Following what it called significant margin growth over the past two quarters, the company said it expects its gross margins to decline over the coming quarter. For the March quarter, the company saw its gross margins increase from 62.5 percent to 65.9 percent.
Revenues for the quarter also rose, jumping to $120.6 million compared with $90.8 million for the same quarter last year. Before charges -- which were primarily non-cash related expenses in connection with sales discounts for stock warrants and mergers -- QLogic reported fourth quarter earnings of $31.3 million, compared with its pro-forma earnings a year ago of $21.1 million.
For the full year 2003, QLogics earnings nearly doubled to $103.5 million, or $1.09 per share, from $70.7 million, or 74 cents a share for 2002. Revenues for the year jumped 28 percent to $440.8 million from $344.2 million a year earlier.
Desai said on the call that all of the companys major product segments experienced growth during the quarter. Fibre Channel sales did especially well. Accounting for 71 percent of QLogics total revenue during the fourth quarter, this segment increased 44 percent to $86 million compared to the year-ago quarter.
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