By Tae Kim

Texas Instruments will be the first major semiconductor company to report this March quarter earnings season after the close on Wednesday.

Tariffs will be the main topic for investors. Wall Street wants some clarity on how the trade war will affect demand this year.

The analyst consensus is for Texas Instruments to report March quarter revenue of $3.91 billion with adjusted earnings-per-share of $1.07. Analysts' estimates for the current quarter's revenue is $4.1 billion.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced exemptions for some imported tech hardware products -- including smartphones, computers, and other items -- from so-called reciprocal tariffs of 145% on China imports. However, chips and electronics are expected to be covered under a new sector tariff that will be announced in the coming weeks, officials said that weekend. China in turn has put tariffs on U.S. chip imports.

On Sunday, KeyBanc analyst John Vinh reiterated his Overweight rating for Texas Instruments stock and reaffirmed his $250 target for the share price.

"We expect TXN to post in-line to slightly better results and in-line guidance, as pull-in activity ahead of the recently announced tariffs appears to be significant enough to be a modest tailwind," he wrote. "Street sentiment on the name is mixed, on concerns over tariffs and still weak end demand in auto and industrial."

The chip maker sells the basic building-block chips that go into products in nearly every sector of the economy from autos and industrials to consumer electronics. Because of the broad-based nature of the company's more-than-100,000 customers, investors consider the company to be a bellwether for the technology industry, and the economy.

Texas Instruments stock is down 22% this year, compared with the 23% drop for the iShares Semiconductor exchange-traded fund.

Write to Tae Kim at tae.kim@barrons.com

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April 23, 2025 00:30 ET (04:30 GMT)

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