NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Investors hungry for earnings news may push shares of Applied Materials higher Thursday following news the No. 1 chip equipment maker swung to a quarterly profit.

Applied Materials reported a return to profitability and a sharp increase in sales for its fiscal first quarter, further proof that a recovery for the chip equipment sector is well underway.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based firm reported net income of $82 million, or 5 cents a share, compared to a loss of $66 million, or 4 cents a share a year ago.

Excluding charges, AMAT posted earnings of $200 million, or 12 cents a share, 4 cents ahead of Wall Street's consensus estimate of 8 cents a share. The company reported break-even results a year ago, excluding charges.

Shares of Applied Materials (AMAT: Research, Estimates) rose 5.4 percent to $23.52 in late-day trade on INET electronic brokerage system after having closed at $22.31 on the Nasdaq.

Fellow chip equipment makers KLA-Tencor (KLAC: Research, Estimates), Novellus Systems (NVLS: Research, Estimates), and Lam Research (LRCX: Research, Estimates) received a boost from the news in after-hours trading.

Disappointment surrounding Intuit Inc.'s (INTU: Research, Estimates) third-quarter forecast sent its shares 4.8 percent lower from its $49.19 Nasdaq closing to $46.81 on INET.

Net income, before items, is expected to range from $1.12 to $1.16 per share on revenue of $685 million to $725 million, Intuit said.

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Analysts, on average, expected the software maker to post a profit of $1.23 a share, excluding charges, on revenue of $738.5 million.

Molecular testing company Nanogen Inc. posted a fourth-quarter net loss of $5.9 million, or 25 cents per share, compared with profit of $2 million, or 9 cents per share, for the fourth quarter of 2002.

Investors weren't happy the with results, pushing Nanogen (NGEN: Research, Estimates) shares 5.7 percent lower to $9.80. The stock closed at $10.39 on the Nasdaq.

OmniVision Technologies, Inc. said it earned $17.3 million, or 28 cents a share, for the third-quarter compared with $4.6 million, or 9 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose to $94.5 million from $30.5 million during the same period.

OmniVision's (OVTI: Research, Estimates) shares soared 19.8 percent higher to $30.70 on INET after closing at $25.63 on the Nasdaq.

More earnings are on the way Thursday with DaimlerChrysler (DCX: Research, Estimates), Nextel (NXTL: Research, Estimates), Qwest (Q: Research, Estimates), Target (TGT: Research, Estimates), and Wal-Mart (WMT: Research, Estimates) releasing their quarterly figures before the bell. After-hours action includes earnings reports from Hewlett-Packard (HPQ: Research, Estimates) and Nordstrom (JWN: Research, Estimates).  

--from staff and wire reports