Applied Materials’ second quarter earnings beat expectations thanks to rapid growth in China From Investing.com

Investing.com — Applied Materials on Thursday reported better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter earnings, driven by strong growth in China as chip demand continues to grow amid the artificial intelligence (AI) wave. .

Applied Materials Inc (NASDAQ:) fell more than 1% in the after-hours following the news.

For the three months ended April 28, adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) increased to $2.09 from $2.00 a year earlier, and revenue increased from $6.63 billion to $6.65 billion. That beat analysts’ expectations for EPS of $1.99 and revenue of $6.54 billion.

China sales more than doubled in the second quarter to $2.83 billion from $1.41 billion a year ago, while U.S. sales fell to $853 million from $1.11 billion a year ago. .

Adjusted gross margin increased to 47.5% from 46.8% in the year-ago quarter.

Looking ahead to the fiscal third quarter, the company forecast fiscal second quarter adjusted EPS of $1.83 to $2.19 per share, with revenue of approximately $6.65 billion and plus or minus $400 million. This compares to Wall Street estimates of adjusted earnings of $1.97 per share for revenue of $6.59 billion.