A handful of big Orange County technology companies reported mixed earnings for the recently ended quarter.
Santa Ana’s Ingram Micro Inc., the top distributor of technology and electronics, saw quarterly sales climb and gave a positive outlook for the current quarter.
Ingram’s sales were $8 billion, up 11% from a year earlier. The company said it benefited from stronger European currencies relative to the dollar.
Profits were about $52 million, down about 3% from the year ago quarter.
Ingram took a $15 million charge during the quarter related to a Securities and Exchange Commission probe. It warned investors of the one-time charge last month.
Regulators are looking into transactions between 1998 and 2000 with McAfee Inc., a maker of antivirus software formerly known as Network Associates.
The SEC said Ingram Micro failed to maintain adequate records for some of the transactions.
The company gave a sunny outlook for the third quarter.
Ingram could see profits rise more than 20% from a year ago because of strong demand in Asia and other regions.
The company said it expects third quarter profits of $67 million to $71 million on sales of $8.3 billion to $8.5 billion.
Analysts had expected profits of about $64 million on sales of $8 billion for the current quarter.
Ingram also said its president and chief operating officer, Kevin Murai, plans step down at the end of 2007 in order to care for his extended family in Toronto.
Alain Monie, executive vice president and president of Ingram Micro Asia-Pacific, is set to fill the position as of Aug. 1.
Management of Ingram’s Asia-Pacific region will be split among two regional executives who are set to report to Monie, the company said.
Murai joined Ingram nearly two decades ago as a manager of its Canadian IT department, then rose through the ranks to head of North American operations before he was promoted to president in 2004.
He was once in the running for the top job, which ended up going to CEO Gregory Spierkel in 2005.
Shares of Lake Forest-based Western Digital Corp. rose afterhours after the company reported bigger profits for the June quarter.
Shares of the disk drive maker were up about 3% in afterhours trading.
Sales were about $6 billion, up 26% from a year earlier.
Profits totaled $585 million, helped by a tax benefit of about $147 million this year.
Western Digital upped its shipments by 32% during the quarter, the company said.
Some 46% of sales came from what Western Digital calls “newer market products,” including drives for notebook computers, consumer electronics and its branded product line sold at stores.
That’s up from 34% a year go. The rest of its sales are from drives sold mainly to PC makers.
Shares of Aliso Viejo-based QLogic Corp., a maker of gear that speeds up data through computer networks, fell on a 10% dip in profits during the June quarter.
The stock closed down about 2% and then fell another 2% in afterhours trading.
Sales for the June quarter were about $139 million, up 2% from the year ago quarter. The bulk of sales came from QLogic’s host bus adapters and host channel adapters.
Revenues from its silicon products business slumped 62% as the company looked to transition out of selling chips and parts to manufacturers and go after selling entire systems for computer networks.
Profits including charges from stock based compensation, acquisitions and other expenses totaled $19 million, down about 10% from a year earlier.
Without the charges, QLogic saw about $30 million in profits.
