By Nathan Vifflin
April 23 (Reuters) - STMicroelectronics reported first-quarter results above market expectations on Thursday, pointing to signs of recovery in its key semiconductor markets, and forecast further growth in the second quarter.
The Franco-Italian chipmaker's shares rose by up to 10% in early trading, before easing to 8.5% by 0800 GMT.
"In Q1, despite the macroeconomic uncertainty, we saw improving demand with strong booking and normalized inventory in distribution," CEO Jean-Marc Chery
said in a statement.
STMicro is one of Europe's largest chipmakers and a bellwether for the automotive and industrial semiconductors sector, where customers have spent recent years digesting excess, post-pandemic inventory and cutting new orders.
It reported revenue of $3.10 billion for the first three months of the year, versus the $3.04 billion expected by analysts polled by LSEG. Operating income was $171 million, above market expectations of $165.8 million.
"The upside to revenues seems to have come from continued strength at Apple, datacenters, LEO-related systems and the acquisition of NXP's MEMS sensor business," Jefferies said in a note to investors.
The company also forecast second-quarter revenue of $3.45 billion, above market expectations of $3.21 billion.
Jefferies analysts wrote STMicro is likely at the early stages of a market upturn, with further upgrades to estimates expected in future quarters.
(Reporting by Nathan Vifflin in Gdansk; Editing by Matt Scuffham and Milla Nissi-Prussak)
