Sep. 9--Texas Instruments Inc. has narrowed its projections for third-quarter revenue and profits.

The Dallas-based company now says that sales will be between $3.33 billion and $3.47 billion. Profits will be between 42 cents and 46 cents per share.

The new projections, which were released after markets closed Tuesday, fall exactly in the middle of older, broader projections that TI made in late July.

They trim $70 million off the high and low end of the initial revenue projections and one penny off the high and low estimates of earnings per share.

The new estimates appear entirely in line with what outsiders were expecting.

Before the announcement, analysts, on average, were predicting that TI would make 44 cents a share on sales of $3.4 billion this quarter.

During last year's third quarter, however, Texas Instruments made far more: 52 cents a share on revenue of $3.66 billion.

TI's initial third-quarter estimates disappointed analysts who had, on average, had expected the company to make 51 cents a share on sales of $3.56 billion.

During regular trading before the announcement, TI shares fell 67 cents to $21.71.

Investors seem to be responding to a new note from Raymond James, which downgraded TI stock from "strong buy" to "outperform."

The analyst downgraded the company -- despite his belief in its long-term prospects -- because TI faces "short-term headwinds."

Those headwinds include a weak global economy, slowing sales of smart phones worldwide and particularly lousy sales projections from TI's largest customer, Nokia.

Another challenge came last month when the communications equipment giant Ericsson announced a partnership with a TI competitor called STMicroelectronics.

Combined, all these factors -- along with general bearish sentiments on Wall Street -- have caused TI stock to drop by about 25 percent since mid-July

-----

To see more of The Dallas Morning News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dallasnews.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, The Dallas Morning News

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NYSE:TXN, NYSE:RJF, NYSE:NOK, NASDAQ-NMS:ERIC, NYSE:STM,