Wolfson set for return to profit in next quarter

Shares in the Edinburgh-based group rose to their highest level in two-and-a-half years after it beat second-quarter expectations and reaffirmed its outlook thanks to its chips being designed into 165 phones and electronic products.

Chief executive Mike Hickey said yesterday: "The strong design-in momentum we achieved in 2009 has accelerated in the first half of 2010.

"The design-ins have been across all application areas, with the majority in mobile phones, home entertainment, including home audio, blu-ray and TV, and digital still cameras."

Wolfson's shares have outperformed their technology peers by 68 per cent since the start of the year and closed last night at 180.25p, a rise of 3.25p, or 1.8 per cent.

Wolfson, a producer of mixed-signal semiconductors for consumer electronic products manufactured by international suppliers, posted an eight percent rise in revenue in the second quarter.

It gave its key figures as: Revenue $36m; operating loss $3.8m, against 2.4m in the same quarter last year; and an improvement in gross margin to 51.1 per cent. Its operating loss followed investment in developing new products.

It said it expected third-quarter revenue to be in the range of $47m to $53m, with a return to underlying profitability.