Materials management supplier Entegris Inc. recently reported that its sales totaled $98.6 million for its fiscal Q3, a 40 percent increase year over year and 23 percent sequentially.

The Chaska, Minn.-based company's fiscal quarter ended May 29.

The growth in sales came primarily from stronger-than-anticipated sales to the semiconductor market, both for consumable materials and capital-spending driven product lines, the company said. As a result, Entegris recorded net income of $9.2 million, or 12 cents per diluted share, compared to net income of $4 million, or 5 cents per diluted share, in the year ago period and $5 million, or 7 cents per share, in fiscal Q2.

"We are participating in this growth with all of our major product lines and, in most cases we believe that Entegris' semiconductor market sales are growing faster than market drivers indicate," Jim Dauwalter, Entegris president and CEO, said in a statement. "We are achieving gross margins similar to those during the peak of the last semiconductor cycle in our core markets of semiconductor and data storage, even though our sales are still below historic peak levels."

The company anticipates that demand will remain strong for the near future. "Market conditions in the semiconductor industry remain encouraging," said Dauwalter. "We don't expect any significant change over the next few quarters. For our fiscal fourth quarter, we expect sales to remain at third-quarter levels, with a possible increase of up to five percent. We anticipate operating income to improve if sales increase."

In its fiscal Q3 Entegris' gross margin was 45 percent compared to 43.1 percent in the year ago period. On a sequential basis, gross margin improved by 1.5 percentage points Selling, general and administrative expenses for the quarter totaled $25.5 million, an increase of $2.2 million sequentially related principally to accruals for performance-based commissions and incentives, because of higher sales and profitability levels, the company said.