Applied Materials doubles earnings

Applied Materials Inc., the world's biggest maker of semiconductor-production equipment, said first-quarter profit more than doubled after it delivered more machines to memory-chip companies.

Net income rose to $403.5 million, or 29 cents a share, from $142.8 million, or 9 cents, a year earlier, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company said. Sales increased 23% to $2.28 billion in the three months ended Jan. 28.

Chief Executive Mike Splinter bucked expectations by forecasting that orders would rise in the current period, helped by deals with makers of both dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, and flash memory.