Joe Osha Although Quotations

What we see happening is a bottoming to the rate of change in the semiconductor business, which has been negative and less capacity being added by the fourth quarter, which is also good. So, although companies themselves are still very conservative we think that the worst is past in terms of the downturn here.

Although the company is executing in terms of cost control, we think margin contractions at the gross margin level will continue through the second quarter as well, which we had not factored in.

Although one could argue that Analog Devices' upbeat outlook merits raising the number even further, we would prefer to wait and see how growth shapes up over the year as Analog Devices catches up with its backlog and the current feeding frenzy for Analog Devices products dissipates.

It is very hard to find any evidence of a real end to the upturn that began in late 1998. Although we see little to support semiconductor stock prices during the next two months, we strongly believe that the sector will be hitting new highs before the end of the year.