Texas Instruments said Tuesday that its second-quarter profit nearly tripled from the year-earlier period, but its revenue fell short of Wall Street forecasts.

The company said results in the current quarter could be better than Wall Street expectations, but the chief financial officer, Kevin March, said revenue in the second quarter was hurt because one customer ordered fewer chips than expected.
“They did not pull the inventory we’d expected in the quarter,” Mr. March said, without identifying the customer.

Stock in Texas Instruments, which makes chips for a broad range of consumer and commercial products, rose 78 cents, or 3.15 percent, to close at $25.55 on Monday, but fell nearly 5 percent, to $24.30, in after-hours trading.

The company said profit rose to $769 million, or 62 cents a share, from $260 million, or 20 cents a share a year earlier. Revenue rose to $3.50 billion from $2.46 billion, but fell short of the $3.52 billion analysts forecast.

The company forecast third-quarter earnings of 64 cents to 74 cents a share on revenue of $3.55 billion to $3.85 billion. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of 64 cents a share on revenue of $3.6 billion.

Mr. March said the company expected broad-based strength in demand to push up revenue and earnings in the third quarter.

A version of this article appeared in print on July 20, 2010, on page B4 of the New York edition.