FOREX Helping FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC), Margins Up

FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC) has a lot of things going for it, including a favorable Forex impact which has helped the company recently.

That's far from the entire FEI story though, as they have a record backlog and gross margins have been moving higher.

Needham says, "FEI has enjoyed four consecutive quarters of strong bookings, with backlog currently at record levels. Gross margins have been trending higher, and our confidence in mgmt reaching its targeted long-term operating model is growing. The recent decline in the Euro against the dollar benefits FEIC, which has a high level of Euro-related op-ex. As a result of favorable Fx as well as given our expectation that business has remained strong across FEIC's major markets, we are adjusting our Q4 and 2011 numbers higher.

"We are raising our Q4 EPS estimate to $0.38 from $0.35 on revenues of $172.5M, up from $168.6M previously. Given signs of continued strong demand in FEI's major markets and its record backlog at the end of September ($440M), we are increasing our 2011 EPS estimate to $1.35 from $1.22 on revenues of $665M."

Needham maintains their "Buy" rating on FEI, which was trading at $24.70, gaining $0.63, or 2.62 percent at 2:47 PM EST. They increased their price target on them from $27 to $29.