Posts related to ‘Semiconductor’

52-Week High Club (AMD, ASMI, ALV, CHS, GGWPQ, LFT, DE)

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) rose over 10% to a yearly high of $7.33 after the computer processor maker announced today that it would offer $500 million in senior notes, the cash from which will be used to purchase its 5.75 percent convertible notes due in 2012.

ASM International N.V. (NASDAQ:ASMI) rose over 5% to a yearly high of $24.69 after the semiconductor equipment maker was upgraded by Fortis Bank Nederland NV.

Autoliv Inc. (NYSE: ALV) rose over 3% to a yearly high of $41.84 after the airbag manufacturer said that production is holding up well in the fourth quarter.

Chico’s FAS Inc. (NYSE: CHS) rose over 14% to a yearly high of $15.43 after the women’s clothes retailer announced 3Q earnings of $0.13 per share, nearly doubling analysts expectations.  

General Growth Properties Inc. (OTC: GGWPQ) rose over 35% to a yearly high of $6.19 after Simon Property Group Inc. (NYSE: SPG) announced that it had hired Lazard Ltd to lookk into buying assets from General Growth.  

Longtop Financial Technologies Limited (NYSE: LFT) rose nearly 10% to a yearly high of $35.30 after the Chinese software developer said that it had added 3.7 million additional American depositary receipts priced at $31.25.

Deer & Company (NYSE: DE) rose over 6% to a yearly high of $52.28 after Jim Cramer recommended buying shares in the tractor maker, arguing that the company would benefit from increased agricultural activity.  

Garrett W. McIntyre

Posted on: November 18, 2009 – 4:15 pm in Agriculture, Autos, Mergers and Buy Outs, Retail, Semiconductor, Technology Companies, , , , , , , ,

52-Week High Club (AGO, SMTL, SINA, TWB)

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE: AGO) over 32% to a yearly high of $28.14 after the company posted earnings of $0.44 per share, beating analysts estimates.  

Semitool Inc (NASDAQ: SMTL) rose over 30% to a yearly high of $11.00 after Applied Materials Inc (NASDAQ: AMAT) agreed to buy the company for $11.00 per share, or $364 million.  

Sina Corp (NASDAQ: SINA) rose over 10% today to a yearly high of $47.95 after the Chinese internet portal beat earnings and projected margin improvements.  

Tween Brands Inc (NYSE: TWB) rose over 11% today to a yearly high o $10.16 after the company posted a profite of $0.58 per share, beating analyst estimates.  

Garrett W. McIntyre

Posted on: November 17, 2009 – 3:56 pm in Financial Stocks, Media, Mergers and Buy Outs, Retail, Semiconductor, Technology Companies, , , , ,

Semitool Becomes Part of Applied Materials (SMTL, AMAT)

Semitool, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMTL) has become the perfect fit for Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT).  Applied has decided to acquire the maker of multi-chamber single-wafer and batch wet chemical processing equipment used in the fabrication of semiconductor devices. The company is being acquired by Applied Materials for $11.00 per share in cash.  The $364 million deal is small enough that it should not bleed too much from Applied Materials’ shares as its market cap is some $17 billion and now that it has earnings behind it.
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Posted on: November 17, 2009 – 8:10 am in Mergers and Buy Outs, Semiconductor, Technology Companies, ,

How High Are Intel Dividend Aspirations (INTC)

Intel LogoIntel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) is defying the old status quo of big technology companies which do not pay what most would consider real dividends.  Today’s quarterly dividend hike to $0.1575 from $0.14 is far from the first hike.  Even when you consider a 2% share gain to $20.20, the old dividend yield was already 2.7%.  The new dividend yield is 3.1% based on today’s share price.  It begs one to ask, “How high does Intel want its payout to be?”
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Posted on: November 16, 2009 – 10:51 am in Dividend, Semiconductor, Technology Companies,

Are Silicon Storage Holders Getting Enough? (SSTI)

Money ImageSilicon Storage Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: SSTI) is trading up on a private equity and management-led buyout.  SST is flash memory maker based in Sunnyvale, California.  While the company has entered into a definitive merger agreement to be acquired for $2.10 per share, it is almost impossible not to wonder (at best) if this price is a fair value to the Silicon Storage shareholders who would be getting cashed out if a majority approves the deal.

First off, the company is being acquired by Prophet Equity LP’s Technology Resource Holdings, Inc. as well as by members of Silicon Storage’s management team.  The $2.10 price is also only a 13% premium to yesterday’s close.  It seems some believe that the private equity and management-led buyout will have to pony up more.  Shares are above the buyout price.
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Posted on: November 13, 2009 – 3:00 pm in Corporate Governance, Management Change, Mergers and Buy Outs, Private Equity, Semiconductor, Shareholder Issues, Technology Companies,

Tech Giants Now Hold ~$265 Billion Cash To Spend (HPQ, COMS, INTC, AMD, MSFT, CSCO, AAPL, GOOG, ORCL, JAVA, QCOM, EMC, YHOO, DELL, AMZN, EBAY, ONT, BRCD, JDSU, STAR, VMW)

You have already seen the Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) buyout of 3Com Corporation (NASDAQ: COMS).  But this week before that deal was announced we covered how mergers in the technology sector have been very slow to develop over the scale in which we and others think is possible for the sector.  After the Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) settlement with Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), the tally of cash that is now estimated would be an implied $265 billion that is available for the tech giants in our 24/7 Wall St. Real-Time 500 to make acquisitions.

The giant cash balances are held by Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), and Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL), assuming nothing happens with Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA).  But players like QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), and eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) are either all sitting with large amounts of cash or will be very soon.

We have broken out these technology, IT, software, and Internet companies by the cash amount they hold or what they have in a soon-to-be cash balance.  Of course only a fraction of this cash will be used for mergers.  But there is also a ton of room here for dividends and of course the share buybacks.

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Posted on: November 12, 2009 – 11:31 am in Consumer Electronics, Cramer, Dividend, Editor's Picks, Internet, Large Cap Stocks, Mergers and Buy Outs, PC Companies, Private Equity, Rumors, Semiconductor, Software, Stock Buybacks, Technology Companies, Telecom, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Applied Materials 360-Degree View Before Earnings (AMAT, SMH, USD)

AMAT LogoApplied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) is on deck for earnings this afternoon right after the market closes. The chip equipment giant, and relatively new solar player, is the king of its sector to most traders and investors and will potentially have an impact on all the chip equipment stocks in the sector.  Estimates from Thomson Reuters are $0.03 EPS and $1.32 billion in revenues for its October quarter, which is also its year-end with estimates of -$0.14 EPS and $4.80 billion in revenues.

Applied Materials does represent about 13.55% of the Semiconductor HOLDRs (NYSE: SMH) ETF, but only represents about 5% of the Ultra Semiconductor ProShares (NYSE: USD) ETF.  We will be looking to its fiscal-2010 comments more than this last quarter.
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Posted on: November 11, 2009 – 12:12 pm in Alternative Energy, Earnings, Semiconductor, Technology Companies, , ,

Tech Titans Still Have $269 Billion Cash For Deals (MSFT, CSCO, AAPL, GOOG, INTC, HPQ, QCOM, EMC, VMW, YHOO, DELL, ORCL, JAVA, AMZN, EBAY)

The recovery is on and mergers are happening, yet the technology sector has been slow to make deals.  Despite some deals already having taken place from the technology giants and that $260 billion cash balance which was there in the middle of last quarter is even larger now.  The tally for cash by our count is now right around $269 billion.  We looked through the top market caps of technology companies in our 24/7 Wall St. Real-Time 500 and this list is expanded now that some issues have been resolved in all the companies.  The stocks in this group are Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL), Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA), Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), and eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY).

These few tech companies with the $269 billion cash that could be deployed for mergers, acquisitions, or the good old dividends are also listed before tallying up credit lines, factoring, debt sales, and other creative financing methods.  We have listed the suppositions and counting methods for each one to illustrate how much is available at each company.
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Posted on: November 10, 2009 – 1:07 pm in Consumer Electronics, Dividend, Editor's Picks, Internet, Large Cap Stocks, Mergers and Buy Outs, PC Companies, Private Equity, Rumors, Semiconductor, Technology Companies, Value Investing, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Earnings on Deck This Week (ERTS, ENER, PCLN, SQNM, TYC, AMAT, M, JWN, WMT, DIS)

bull-and-bear-image2Earnings season has wound down now with over 85% of the S&P 500 Index having reported.  Still, there are some key companies posting their quarterly results and some companies were screened out of this list which are still actively traded or widely held stocks.  Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENER), Priceline.com Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLN) and Sequenom Inc. (NASDAQ: SQNM) are on deck Monday. Also this week are earnings from Tyco International Ltd. (NYSE: TYC), Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT), Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE: M), are Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN). Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) are our two DJIA components reporting this week.

We have included Thomson Reuters consensus estimates and included performance and other important color where applicable.  We have shown the share performance since the March 9 close that traders mark as the official end date of the bloody bear market.  One issue to consider is that we used the performance since June 30 to keep consistency for our prior previews even though some of the quarter-ends this coming week are technically August 31.
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Posted on: November 8, 2009 – 10:26 am in Alternative Energy, Calendar, Cult Stock, Earnings, Green Biz, Retail, Semiconductor, Short Interest, , , , , , , , , ,

SanDisk Smokes Estimates (SNDK)

SanDisk LogoSanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) was already a screamer as shares were up a massive 300% from their 52-week lows due to a return to profitability in the June quarter (2 quarters early).  The flash memory leader just posted earnings of $0.75 in non-GAAP EPS and $935 million in revenues.  Thomson Reuters had estimates of $0.26 EPS and $787.9 million in revenues.
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Posted on: October 20, 2009 – 4:18 pm in Earnings, Semiconductor, Technology Companies,

Texas Instruments (TXN)

Tex Inst. LogoTexas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) just reported its quarterly earnings. On a non-GAAP basis, the chip giant’s earnings were $0.42 EPS and revenues were down 15% at $2.88 billion.  Thomson Reuters estimates were $0.39 EPS and $2.82 billion in revenues. Orders were down 4% to $3.11 billion, but that is actually up 11% sequentially.
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Posted on: October 19, 2009 – 4:34 pm in Earnings, Semiconductor, Technology Companies,

Major Tech Earnings on Deck (AAPL, TXN, SNDK, STX, WDC, YHOO, EBAY, VMW, EMC, AMZN, BRCM, JNPR, SYNA, MSFT)

This week is going to make last week’s earnings flood look like elementary school.  We have the floodgates opening for technology, web, software, hardware, and IT, and 24/7 Wall Street has previewed 14 of the top technology stocks that are on deck to report earnings this coming week:  Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN), SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK), Seagate Technology (NASDAQ: STX), Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY), VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM), Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), Synaptics Inc. (NASDAQ: SYNA), and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT).

We have provided the first details for earnings, Thomson Reuters consensus data, added color of our own on the earnings trends, listed key issues to watch, and included the performance from the June 30 close and from the March 9 close that traders are using as the key pivotal turning day where the bear market died and a new bull market run began.
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Posted on: October 17, 2009 – 11:25 am in Calendar, Earnings, Internet, Semiconductor, Technology Companies, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) Results May Not Be Good For PCs

TVThe immediate reaction to Intel’s (NASDAQ:INTC) results, which were better than expected, is that they signalled an improvement in the PC industry. Intel provides about 70% of PC chips.

The world’s largest chip company said it was comfortable with industry estimates that PC sales will grow 10% worldwide next year. Growth is one thing. Profitability another. Read More »

Posted on: October 14, 2009 – 5:27 am in Earnings, PC Companies, Semiconductor, Technology Companies, , , ,

Intel Bedazzles (INTC, SMH, USD)

Intel LogoIntel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) has just reported earnings and gave guidance for the quarter ahead.  The processor giant posted $0.33 EPS and $9.39 billion in revenues.  Consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters were $0.28 EPS and $9.04 billion in revenues.  Gross margin also came in 57.6%, above expectations of 54%.  Intel gave guidance of  $10.1 billion in revenues, plus or minus $400 million; it also gave guidance for 62% gross margin, plus or minus 3 points.  Next quarter’s estimates from Thomson Reuters are $0.34 EPS on $9.51 billion in revenues.
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Posted on: October 13, 2009 – 4:20 pm in Earnings, Semiconductor, Technology Companies, , ,

Intel To Set Tech Earnings Pace (INTC, AMD, SMH, USD)

Intel LogoIntel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) reports earnings after the close of trading today and is the first of the tech giants to report.  Consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters have actually come up a bit in recent days on rounding higher.  We now show that consensus estimates are $0.28 EPS and $9.04 billion in revenues (up from $0.27 and $9.02 billion last week).  Intel does generally offer guidance and next quarter estimates are $0.34 EPS on $9.51 billion in revenues.   What we want to look at are what the charts, analysts, and stock options are factoring in.

  • While we will be looking for direct comparisons in Microsoft, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) is the most directly tied to the company because of processors.  And in ETF-Land, Intel’s weighting in the Semiconductor HOLDRs (NYSE: SMH) is approximately 23% and it is 29.1% of the weighting of the Ultra Semiconductor ProShares (NYSE: USD).

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Posted on: October 13, 2009 – 12:25 pm in ETF, Earnings, Semiconductor, Technology Companies, , , ,

Tech Titans Holding $260 Billion In Cash (DELL, PER, ORCL, JAVA, MSFT, AAPL, IBM, GOOG, CSCO, INTC, HPQ, QCOM, EMC, YHOO)

The economy is obviously getting better, so long as you are not one of the unemployed or about to lose your job.  Now with more than a 50% rally from the March lows and a Dow Jones Industrial Average challenging the 10,000 level, suddenly everyone wants to put on their investment banker hats again and look for buyers and buyout candidates after deals are announced.  This week’s Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) deal for Perot Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: PER) was a $3.9 billion acquisition versus $12.7 billion in cash and equivalents held at the end of the quarter.  The Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) deal for Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) is valued at $7.4 billion, or $5.6 billion net of Sun’s cash and debt.  We went back through our list from September 2, 2009 where we noted that outside of the financials  in the 20 largest US companies had a cash hoard of $335 billion that could be used for mergers and acquisitions, and that is not accounting for lines of credit, stock or debt that could be sold, and other means of financing a deal.  While nowhere near all of the cash will ever be used, many companies could pay big dividends before any tax changes.

So we wanted to look through the technology sector and after we looked through the top 100 markets caps in our 24/7 Wall St. Real-Time 500 we added a few new additions in the tech sector that still had over $5 billion in cash.  Out if the $335 billion from those in the top twenty, we broke out Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL).  Even after a huge rally, $335 billion and then some could go a very long way for strategic and bolt-on acquisitions as a positioning strategy for the next decade.  Now, going further down the list of the top 100 companies with $5 billion or more in cash from tech companies alone adds in Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO). When we tally up all the cash, there is over $260 billion available from these few tech companies that could be deployed for mergers, acquisitions, or the good old dividends.  Again, that is before tallying up credit lines, factoring, debt sales, and other financing methods.
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Posted on: September 25, 2009 – 6:41 am in Consumer Electronics, Dividend, Editor's Picks, Internet, Large Cap Stocks, Mergers and Buy Outs, PC Companies, Private Equity, Rumors, Semiconductor, Software, Technology Companies, Value Investing, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Celebrating a Dud at Texas Instruments (TXN)

Tex Inst. LogoTexas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) has come out in a mid-quarter update and raised its guidance.  The new quarterly guidance is $0.37 to $0.41 EPS on  $2.73 to $2.87 billion in revenues.  The prior guidance was $0.29 to $0.39 EPS and $2.5 to $2.8 billion in revenues.   Thomson Reuters has estimates at roughly $0.35 EPS and $2.69 billion in revenues.
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Posted on: September 9, 2009 – 4:46 pm in Earnings, Semiconductor,

Cree Raising Cash (CREE)

Money Stack ImageCree, Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE) is raising cash.  The company, which makes lighting-class LEDs, LED lighting, and semiconductor solutions for wireless and power applications, announced that it is selling 11,000,000 shares of its common stock.   Before any price adjustments this comes to a level of $422.4 million.
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Posted on: September 8, 2009 – 4:38 pm in Secondary Offering, Semiconductor,

Intel Guidance Highlights Peers & Comps (INTC, AMD, MSFT, NVDA, MU, DELL)

Intel LogoIntel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) is raising guidance this morning.  What is interesting is that this may actually highlight the strength among its peers and competitors more than it drives Intel shares alone.  The guidance was raised based upon “stronger than expected demand for microprocessors and chipsets.”

The processor giant now sees Q3 revenue of $9.0 billion, plus or minus $200 million.  This is above its prior target of $8.5 billion plus or minus $400 million.  Thomson Reuters had estimates at $8.55 billion.

Intel stock is up 4.5% at $20.35 on about 5.2 million shares.  But the real strength is on rival Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), which is also supposedly seeing stronger demand from all the PC and netbook demand out there.  AMD shares are up 5.2% at $4.45 on right at 1 million shares.

And what about Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT)?  Windows 7 has to at least be a part of this as the increased demand for processors since it is probably not all going into Linux suddenly… Its shares are up 2.2% at $25.22 on only about 400,000 shares.  This may actually be a trading disappointment to some.
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Posted on: August 28, 2009 – 9:31 am in PC Companies, Semiconductor, Technology Companies, Trading Alert, , , , , ,

Applied Materials Skates Past Estimates (AMAT)

amat_logoApplied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) has reported results for its fiscal third quarter and its net sales were $1.13 billion.  The non-GAAP net loss was $2 million, or break-even per share; the GAAP net loss was $55 million, or -$0.04 EPS.  While this is showing sales down by one-third of last year, this is actually above estimates.  Thomson Reuters had estimates pegged at -$0.08 non-GAAP EPS and $958+ million in revenues.
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Posted on: August 11, 2009 – 4:16 pm in Earnings, Semiconductor,