The company makes radio frequency data communications products, including the QwikRadio family of RF receivers and transmitters, which include garage door openers, lighting and fan controls, automotive keyless entry, and remote controls; and RadioWire transceivers for applications, such as remote metering, security systems, and factory automation.

Additionally, it provides Ethernet products, which comprise physical layer transceivers, media access controllers, switches, and system-on-chip devices for the digital home and industrial/embedded networking markets.

The company's products address a range of end markets, including cellular handsets, portable computing, enterprise and home networking, wide area and metropolitan area networks, digital televisions, and industrial equipment. Micrel Incorporated sells through a network of independent sales representatives, independent distributors, and stocking representative firms, as well as through a direct sales staff. The company was founded in 1978 and is based in San Jose, California.

Look for a big turnaround in this year's earnings. While the last two have seen declining numbers (2007: 57 cents a share; 2008: 40 cents; 2009: 32 cents), this year, 5 anlaysts have a consensus estimate of 79 cents (with a range of 76 to 81 cents) and next year, 88 cents (with a range of 65 cents to $1). Second quarter earnings will be out on July 22. Expect 21 cents a share, up from 6 cents last year (an increase of 250%). For the third quarter, analysts see 23 cents vs. 11 cents last year in the third.

Revenues should show a healthy bounce as well, going to $303.22 million
this year, up from $218.89 million last year, an improvement of 38.50%. Look for another gain next year, to $315.99 million. In the first quarter of 2010, revenues were up 43% with analysts seeing a similar rise in the second quarter (estimate is up 48.10% to $76.72 million).

The book-to-bill ratio stayed above 1 in the first quarter. That means more new orders came in than were delivered. Customers are restocking their inventories to meet higher demand levels (particularly cellphones). The order backlog is higher than normal and those items will ship in the next few months. Last minute cancelations are unlikely as customers were overly cautious during the downturn. With even a tepid rebound, demand for many of the products that carry Micrel technology will be strong.

Even with better orders, the company isn't sitting on its current product offerings. It recently introduced 21 new analog products, including a number which target the hot mobile sector.

More numbers: Trailing P/E is 27 while the Forward P/E is 12. Price to sales ratio is 2.85. Price to book is 3.51. Operating margin for the last 12 months was 17.81% while Profit margin was 10.23%. Return on equity was 12.59% and Return on assets was 10.65%. There's $83.58 million in cash for $1.34 per share. Total debt is $9.28 million or 4% of capital. Current ratio is 2.78. Book value per share is $3.11. Beta is .86. The 52-week range was $6.94 to $12.43. In the last year, the stock is up 42.11%. There are 62.74 million shares outstanding with a Float of 50.52 million. Insiders own 20.4% of the stock. Institutions have 70%. There is a dividend of 14 cents for a yield of 1.30%.

Aggressive investors like volatile issues. This is one. It traded at $78.60 in 2000, before everything hit the fan. It bottomed out at $4.30 in 2002. Since then it had a range of $4.30 to $18.30, trading between those two numbers many times. The price graph looks like a roller coaster. Now the stock is near the middle of the range. It seems like it wants to go higher. It will...... unless customers see shrinking demand for mobile devices, consumer electronics and computers. Then look out for last minute cancelations.

- Company Web site: www.micrel.com