Shares of Monolithic Power Systems (NASDAQ: MPWR), a specialist in manufacturing integrated circuits for controlling power systems, surged 17.2% through 10:55 a.m. ET Thursday morning, after the company beat expectations for fourth-quarter earnings last night.

Heading into its Q4 report, analysts had forecast the semiconductor company would earn $2.85 per share on sales of $452 million. In fact, Monolithic earned $2.88 per share on sales of $454 million -- a small beat to be sure, but still a beat.

Not all the news was good however. While better than expected, Q4 sales actually declined 4.4% year over year, and gross profit margins on those sales contracted by 290 basis points, to 55.3%.

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Source Fool.com