Big Gain From Settlement of Suit; Stock Split Planned : Texas Instruments Reports Turnaround

Texas Instruments, rebounding from red ink last year, said Thursday that it earned a profit of $83.8 million in the first quarter and will split its stock three-for-one.

The quarterly profit compares to a loss of $23.8 million in the year-ago quarter. Sales rose 11% to $1.3 billion.

Income included a $108-million gain from settlement of the company’s patent infringement suit against six Japanese companies.

Analysts attending the company’s annual shareholders meeting here said they were not surprised by the results. They praised the stock-split decision, saying it will make the company’s shares more attractive to a wider range of investors.

On the New York Stock Exchange, TI’s stock closed Thursday at $197.25 a share, up $2.

The company’s geophysical operations continue to be troubled, but losses in that segment narrowed “substantially,” said Jerry Junkins, president and chief executive. The company’s semiconductor operations, however, emerging from an 18-month worldwide recession, made a profit on higher sales.

It did not disclose the actual results of its divisions.

Junkins told shareholders that he believes the industry upturn will be sustained, citing TI estimates of a 15% growth to nearly $10 billion in the U.S. semiconductor sales this year.

He added that sanctions the Reagan Administration is scheduled to impose today on Japanese semiconductor manufacturers “are necessary to the extent it shows the resolve of the United States to do something” about alleged dumping of Japanese computer chips in this country.

“I think there is interest on the part of the Japanese government to comply” with a bilateral trade agreement on semiconductors, Junkins said, but it was repeated apparent violations of this U.S.-Japanese agreement that prompted President Reagan on March 27 to call for tariffs on Japanese imports in retaliation.

Junkins said that although TI has complied with Japanese government requests to cut back production of memory chips at its Miho, Japan, plant by 11% in the current quarter, he does not agree with the attempts to curtail dumping by cutting production.

“There is a danger we’ll find an artificial shortage,” he said.