National Instruments Announces Record Quarterly Revenue

AUSTIN, Texas -- April 20, 2000 -- National Instruments (NASDAQ:NATI), a leading supplier of computer-based measurement and automation products, today announced record revenue of $94.1 million for its first quarter of 2000, which is up 28 percent from $73.7 million in the first quarter of 1999.

"Q1 was an outstanding quarter for NI and is a tribute to our strategic vision and our business model," said Dr. James Truchard, CEO and President of NI. "Our strong 28 percent revenue growth was broad based across regions, industries, and products. Our aggressive investments in R&D and the Web have produced more applications for our products, more loyalty from our growing customer base, and more efficiency throughout our operations."

NI investments in R&D produced a healthy stream of new products in the first quarter. NI expanded its real-time product offering with the introduction of LabVIEW Real Time (RT) running on the Company's PXI/CompactPCI industrial computer platform. By expanding LabVIEW RT to operate on PXI, NI customers now can create user-defined, high-performance distributed instruments and industrial machines that fully leverage the benefits of the PC and Internet revolutions.

Also in the first quarter, NI announced a major new software product called Measurement Studio. Measurement Studio is a major upgrade for LabWindows/CVI, which is second only to NI's LabVIEW in popularity among programmers in the measurement industry. Measurement Studio upgrades the popular C language environment of LabWindows/CVI and also expands capabilities to include tools for use with the Visual C++ and Visual Basic programming languages found in Microsoft's Visual Studio.

Driven by these and other new products, net income for the quarter was $12.7 million, up 27 percent from $10.0 million a year ago. NI reported basic earnings per share of $0.25 for the first quarter of 2000 compared to basic earnings per share of $0.20 in the first quarter of 1999. The Company reported diluted earnings per share of $0.24 on 53.4 million weighted average shares outstanding, compared with diluted earnings per share of $0.19 on 51.3 million weighted average shares outstanding in the first quarter of 1999.

"The first quarter of 2000, with 28 percent revenue growth, was our eighth consecutive quarter of record revenue," said Alex Davern, CFO of NI. "In the past two years, NI has successfully delivered a consistent financial performance with 20 percent compound annual growth on both the top line and the bottom line while increasing our investment in R&D by 60 percent."

About National Instruments
NI manufactures hundreds of software and hardware products that leverage industry-standard computers and Internet technology for measurement and automation applications.

NI stock is traded on the Nasdaq National Market System under the symbol NATI. Investment information may be obtained from the company's Investor Relations Department at (512) 683-5090 or by sending e-mail to nati@ni.com or on the Web at ni.com/nati

On Thursday, April 20, 2000 at 4 p.m. CDT, interested parties may listen to the NI quarterly conference call live on the Web by registering on the Company's Web site at ni.com/call Beginning Thursday, April 20, 2000 at 7 p.m. CDT through Thursday, April 27, 2000 at 12 a.m. CDT, interested parties also may listen to a replay of the NI quarterly conference call by visiting the Company's Web site at ni.com/call or by calling (719) 457-0820; confirmation code #381386. This release may contain "forward-looking statements" (as defined under securities laws), which are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the expected results. The Company directs you to documents filed with the SEC for risks associated with the Company's future performance.

The condensed consolidated statement of income and balance sheets to follow.

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