Stock of the Week: Altera Corp.

Altera Corp. (ALTR) primarily makes programmable logic devices (PLD). Its customers are in the consumer, industrial, and storage sectors and its markets its products through distributors and sales personnel.

The stock recently got a nice boost after releasing strong second-quarter results. Earnings per share came in at 32 cents, 18.5% ahead of the consensus estimate. This was the third quarter in a row in which earnings beat estimates by at least 17%. Additionally, the company raised its sales guidance midpoint for the third quarter.

Other metrics were excellent as well during the quarter. These datapoints were taken directly from the press release: First half cash flow from operating activities was $226.8 million. Altera repurchased 65,000 shares of its common stock during the second quarter at a cost of $1.4 million. To date during the third quarter, Altera has r