Newport Corp.:

The Irvine high-precision components maker said first-quarter profit more than tripled, easily beating expectations, as sales to the optical communications and semiconductor equipment markets soared.

The Irvine company earned $3 million, or 30 cents a share, up from $914,000, or 10 cents a share, a year earlier. Wall Street analysts had been expecting Newport to report a profit of 24 cents per share, according to a survey by First Call/Thomson Financial. Sales rose 55% to $45.6 million.

Sales to the fiber optic communications market more than tripled to $16.7 million from a year ago and sales to chip makers rose 150% to $5.7 million.