Posts for Ticker ‘ALTR’

Dividend War Comes to the Chip Sector (AMAT, INTC, XLNX, ALTR, TXN, QCOM, BRCM, MRVL, AMD, MU, KLAC)

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) is off its highs but still higher on the day after the company raised its dividend and announced a share buyback plan.  The company’s board of directors boosted the quarterly dividend from $0.06 to $0.07 and authorized a share buyback plan of up to $2 billion over the next 3-year period.  What is more important than just a buyback and dividend raise is what it does for the semiconductor sector.  The chip sector is very divided as you have circuits, communications, PCs, and the cap-ex side of the equation.  And more.

Today’s news on top of other recent dividend hikes and share buyback hikes is only going to add more pressure for other chip stocks to increase their dividend payments and perhaps to keep buying back stock.  Here we are looking at Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC), Xilinx Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX), Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR), Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN), QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL), Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD), Micron Technology Inc. (NYSE: MU), and KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ: KLAC).  We wanted to compare dividend yields, some brief history, and a potential of whether other dividend hikes will be coming down the road in the various aspects of semiconductors.

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Posted on: March 8, 2010 – 12:04 pm in Dividend, Semiconductor, Shareholder Issues, Stock Buybacks, , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Analyst Caution Calls (ANF, AEO, ADI, AA, ALTR, CL, LEAP, PMCS, XLNX)

These are this Tuesday’s top analyst downgrades and cautious research calls we have seen from Wall Street analyst reports:

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) Started as Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO) Started as Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI) Cut to Neutral at BofA/Merrill.
Alcoa (NYSE: AA) Cut to Underperform at BMO.
Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR) Cut to Neutral at BofA/Merrill.
Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL) Cut to Neutral at BofA/Merrill.
Leap Wireless (NASDAQ: LEAP) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
PMC-Sierra (NASDAQ: PMCS) Cut to UNderperform at BofA/Merrill.
Xilinx (NASDAQ: XLNX) Cut to Neutral at BofA/Merrill.

You are invited to join our free daily email distribution list from 24/7 Wall St. to hear about ongoing day trader and options trader alerts, analyst upgrades and downgrades, stock and market rumors, Buffett and guru investor news, M&A and IPOs, and more.

JON C. Ogg

Posted on: January 12, 2010 – 8:41 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , ,

Cramer’s Technology Tsunami Picks for 2010 (GOOG, AAPL, AMT, CCI, SBAC, SWKS, ALTR, CY, XLNX, AMZN, CSCO, ERTS, QCOM, INTC)

Tonight on CNBC’s MAD MONEY, Jim Cramer continued with his stock picks for 2010 based on investment themes.  We have already seen energy shortage picks, counter-terrorism and homeland security picks, and international ADR picks; and tonight Cramer gave his high-hope technology picks in the “tech tsunami” theme for 2010.  First, Cramer denies that a war between Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) will only have one winner.  Other mobile web build-out and expansion winners as theme stock picks for 2010 are American Tower Corp. (NYSE: AMT), Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE: CCI), SBA Communications Corp. (NASDAQ: SBAC), Skyworks Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: SWKS), Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR), Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (NYSE: CY), Xilinx inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX), Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAD: CSCO) that is now deep into wireless and in advanced communications. Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC).

Many of these stocks share the notion that they are close to 52-week highs and some are close to 2008 highs.  This list is also somewhat different than the list given in our “top picks from everyone” linking to a December 8, 2009 story with TheStreet.com’s top tech picks for 2010.  A brief note on each stock and the reason Cramer likes these follows herein.
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Posted on: January 7, 2010 – 6:49 pm in Analyst Calls, Cramer, Internet, Semiconductor, Technology Companies, Telecom, Video Games, WiMAX, Wireless, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Day Trader Alerts (AMR, XLNX, ALTR, NTES, PALM, STX)

These are this morning’s top pre-market day trader alert stocks and active trader stock.  We have more detailed data and analysis on historic price, volume, and trends with a link through on each stock at VSInvestor.com:

AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR) is holding up rather well considering it boosted its secondary offering size considerably.

Xilinx, Inc. (Nasdaq: XLNX) is soaring enough on its September guidance that it is also lifting Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR).

Netease.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTES) is down on a single block trade of over 437,000 shares.

Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) is holding up rather well considering its juiced up secondary.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ: STX) is up close to 4% on higher guidance.

You can join our open email distribution list which goes out several times per week for top day trader alerts, analyst upgrades and downgrades, IPO’s, key secondary offerings, guru investor data on Buffett and others, mergers, and more.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: September 23, 2009 – 8:52 am in After-Hours Activity, Pre-Market Activity, Trading Alert, , , , , ,

Brighter Morning for Chip Stocks (INTC, MRVL, ALTR, PWER, TXN)

money-stack-imageWe are seeing a mixed lot of news in chip-land for semiconductor stocks this morning, but the news we have seen so far looks like it is getting the week off to a more stable start for the chip sector.  We have news from Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL), Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR), Power-One, Inc. (NASDAQ: PWER), and Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN).
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Posted on: June 22, 2009 – 7:14 am in Analyst Calls, Semiconductor, , , , ,

Analysts Changing Semiconductor Ratings (ALTR, AMCC, ASML, BRCM, LSCC, MRVL, WFR, MU, PMCS, STM, XLNX)

We have seen many semiconductor and circuit calls this morning with upgrades and downgrades from Wall Street analysts.  Here are some of these upgrades and downgrades:

Altera (ALTR) Cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley.
Applied Micro Circuits (AMCC) Cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley.
ASML (ASML) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Broadcom (BRCM) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Lattice Semiconductor (LSCC) Cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley.
Marvell Tech (MRVL) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
MEMC (WFR) Raised to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Micron Technology (MU) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
PMC-Sierra (PMCS) Cut to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
STMicroelectronics (STM) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Xilinx (XLNX) Cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: May 18, 2009 – 6:45 am in Analyst Calls, Semiconductor, , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Analyst Upgrades (ABMD, ALTR, SNP, JCI, MDAS, SQNM, ZNT)

money-stack-image24These are some of the top analyst upgrades and positive research calls we are seeing this Thursday morning with about two hours until the market opens:

  • Abiomed (ABMD) Raised to Hold at Jefferies.
  • Altera (ALTR) Started as Buy at Piper Jaffray.
  • China Petroleum (SNP) Raised to Buy at UBS.
  • Johnson Controls (JCI) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
  • MedAssets (MDAS) STarted as Buy at ThinkEquity.
  • Sequenom (SQNM) Started as Outperform at JMP Securities.
  • Zenith National Insurance (ZNT) Started as Buy at Sun Trust Robinson Humphrey.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: March 12, 2009 – 6:51 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , ,

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ALTR, XLNX, BMRN, FWLT, PALM, VRTX, EIX, MGM, POM, TIF)

These are the top 10 analyst calls we have seen this Wednesday morning with about two hours until the market opens:

  • Altera (ALTR) and Xilinx (XLNX) Raised to Overweight at Global Crown.
  • Biomarin Pharma    (BMRN) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
  • Foster Wheeler (FWLT) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
  • Palm (PALM) Raised to Buy at Piper Jaffray.
  • Vertex Pharm (VRTX) Raised to Accumulate at ThinkEquity.
  • Edison (EIX) Cut to Market Perform at Wachovia.
  • MGM Mirage (MGM) Cut to Hold at KeyBanc.
  • Pepco Holdings (POM) was downgraded at both Barclays and at Wachovia.
  • Tiffany (TIF) target cut by over 60% to $21.00 at HSBC.

JON C. OGG
March 4, 2009

Posted on: March 4, 2009 – 7:53 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Altera: Less Bad May Actually Be Good Enough (ALTR)

dram-image1Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) issued a mid-quarter update after the close of trading today.  What is interesting is that things might not be quite as bad as the company rxoected  The news is far away from being good news, but sometimes “less bad is good enough.”
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Posted on: March 2, 2009 – 4:56 pm in China, Earnings, Semiconductor,

Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ALTR, AMZN, BCE, BIIB, LEAP, PDLI, CLUB, VAR, AUY)

Money_stack_pic_2It is still fairly thin in analyst upgrades and downgrades as this week marks the return of investment banking and research departments from what is nearly a two-week hiatus.  Here are the few stand-out calls we have seen early this morning with more than two hours to the open:

  • Altera (NASDAQ: ALTR) Raised to Outperform at Wachovia.
  • Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
  • BCE (NYSE: BCE) Cut to Sector Perform at Scotia.
  • Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • Leap Wireless (NASDAQ: LEAP) Raised to Outperform at Wachovia.
  • PDL BioPharma (NASDAQ: PDLI) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan
  • Town Sports International (NASDAQ: CLUB) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
  • Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
  • Yamana (NYSE: AUY) Cut to Buy at TD.

Jon C. Ogg
January 5, 2009

Posted on: January 5, 2009 – 7:36 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , ,

Bracing For Data From 3 More Chip Stocks (TXN, NSM, ALTR)

Today may be a fairly important news day after the close for semiconductor stocks.  We have a mid-quarter update from Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) and an earnings report from National Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: NSM).  After the close we should also get a mid-quarter update from Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR). As you can imagine by the recent market and the slate of warnings from technology companies, the expectations have already been brought down. The question is how much softer data that traders are willing to accept.

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Posted on: December 8, 2008 – 1:50 pm in Earnings, Semiconductor, Technology Companies, , ,

Early Bird Technology Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ARUN, PMCS, RVBD, ALTR, CTRP, PMTC, SNWL, XLNX)

These are some of the key analyst upgrades and downgrades from Wall Street that we have seen so far this morning in technology stocks:

  • Aruba Networks (ARUN) Raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs.
  • PMC-Sierra (PMCS) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
  • Riverbed Tech (RVBD) Raised to Neutral at UBS.
  • Altera (ALTR) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
  • Ctrip.com (CTRP) Cut target to $45 from $62 at Goldman Sachs.
  • Parametric Tech (PMTC) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
  • SonicWALL (SNWL) Cut to Neutral at Baird.
  • Xilinx (XLNX) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Jon C. Ogg
October 29, 2008

Posted on: October 29, 2008 – 6:16 am in Analyst Calls, Technology Companies, , , , , , , ,

Major Short Selling Changes in Semiconductors (AMD, ALTR, AMAT, BRCM, INTC, MRVL, NVDA, ONNN, QCOM, RFMD, SNDK, TXN)

There was a very mixed bag in short selling in the semiconductor sector.  What was interesting was the huge increase in the bets against NVIDIA because it was so far after the drop.  Most semiconductor short interest changes were single digit changes, but there were some like Intel (INTC), Broadcom (BRCM), and Marvell (MRVL) which saw double-digit declines in the short selling.

Semiconductors                             Aug 29       Aug 15       Change
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)   96,448,009   93,448,833     3.21%
Altera Corporation (ALTR)           24,489,350   27,131,688    -9.74%
Applied Materials (AMAT)           35,667,917   38,882,398    -8.27%
Broadcom Corporation (BRCM)   18,665,240   21,124,120   -11.64%
Intel Corporation (INTC)              68,683,066   82,558,529   -16.81%
Marvell Technology (MRVL)         27,344,321   34,936,078   -21.73%
NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA)         47,152,516   22,476,738   109.78%
ON Semiconductor (ONNN)         45,366,451   46,383,159    -2.19%
QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM)           28,468,030   27,539,572     3.37%
RF Micro Devices (RFMD)            25,883,073   26,620,564    -2.77%
SanDisk Corporation (SNDK)        28,764,413   27,813,854     3.42%
Texas Instruments (TXN)               24,653,691   26,440,098    -6.76%

Jon C. Ogg
September 11, 2008

Posted on: September 11, 2008 – 1:55 pm in Semiconductor, Short Interest, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Altera Benefits from “Beat & Raise” (ALTR)

Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR) reported earnings of $0.32 EPS on a 7.1% revenue gain to $359.9 million.  First Call consensus estimates were $0.27 and $346.7 million.  It also issued upside guidance for Q3 with revenue growth at "flat to down 3%" or about $349 to 360 million versus $350.5 million estimates. 

Altera also closed up 1% in normal trading and its shares are up over 7% additional at $20.60 in after-hours.  Its 52-week trading range is $16.21 to $26.24.

Jon C. Ogg
July 15, 2008

Posted on: July 15, 2008 – 4:03 pm in Earnings, Semiconductor,

Short Interest: NASDAQ Semiconductor Stocks (June, 2007)

Stock Tickers: QQQQ, NVDA, MXIM, AMAT, INTC, KLAC, MCHP, SNDK, ISIL, ALTR, ATML, LLTC, NVLS, ONNN, XLNX, IDTI

This pretty much confirms the rise in the June-2007 short interest of NYSE-listed chip stocks that we observed last week.  Here is the short interest for June 2007 versus May 2007, and we noted the change on each.

Stock (Ticker)                                          June        May    Change
NVIDIA (NVDA)                                        20.7M    11.7M    +76.5%
Maxim Integrated Prod. (MXIM)            11.9M    9.16M    +29.8%
Applied Materials (AMAT)                        53M    41.59M   +27.48%
Intel (INTC)                                            100.1M    81.2M    +23.3%
KLA-Tencor (KLAC)                              21.14M    17.1M    +23.2%
Microchip Tech.    (MCHP)                     8.77M    7.64M    +14.8%
SanDisk (SNDK)                                   24.57M   21.58M   +13.9%   
Intersil Corp. (ISIL)                                 7.86M     7.76M     +1.2%
Altera (ALTR)                                           22.1M     21.9M     +1%
Atmel (ATML)                                           10.6M     9.70M     +9.9%
Linear Tech (LLTC)                                18.4M     18.4M      flat
Novellus (NVLS)                                     15.1M      15.3M     -1.1%
ON Semiconductor (ONNN)                 24.1M      25.5M    -5.7%
RAMBUS (RMBS)                                               7.62M        8.27M      -7.9%
Xilinx (XLNX)                                           21.28M    23.9M      -10.9%
Integrated Device Tech. (IDTI)              4.27M     5.56M     -23%

The NASDAQ 100 Trust (QQQQ) saw its short interest rise more than 26%, with its short interest carried at 197.6 million shares in June compared to 156.6 million in May.

Jon C. Ogg
June 27, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: June 27, 2007 – 3:45 am in Semiconductor, Short Interest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,