Technology

Analyst Says Bull Market Will Not End With Top Tech Stocks So Cheap

The market has had a spectacular run since the March 2009 lows, and many of the perma-bears and short-sellers who have been pounded are breathlessly trying to break the market by saying how rich technology stocks are pricewise. A new research report from Oppenheimer points out that the current common investor perception is that the information technology sector is jammed with sky-high multiples. The fact is, the majority of the sector trades below the market’s overall current median.

In the report the Oppenheimer team also points out that historically, when tech trades at a big discount to consumer staples, the market has further room to run. They highlight 15 stocks that trade below the overall market multiple, which is about 18 times 2015 earnings for the S&P 500. We picked four that also pay solid dividends and are rated Outperform at Oppenheimer.

Avago Technologies

Originally a part of Hewlett-Packard, Avago Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: AVGO) and gets a huge chunk of its business from Apple and Samsung. Avago Technologies is a big provider in the cloud/hyperscale data center and networking segment. In fact, the company recently announced it will demonstrate its latest optical transceiver technologies for next generation data center and enterprise storage applications. As data center networks transition to 100G speeds to support higher bandwidth demands, technical challenges emerge across various levels of the network from storage endpoints to servers to top-of-rack and core switches.

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Avago Technologies is also expected to be a huge winner in the fast growing 4G LTE market in China. Some analysts on Wall Street feel that the market could more than triple over the next few years and drive between 300 million to 400 million devices by 2017. Some on Wall Street are predicting that 2015 earnings will rise an astonishing 600%.

Investors are paid a 1.3% dividend. The Oppenheimer price target for this top stock is $140. The Thomson/First Call consensus price target is $141.35. Shares closed Friday at $123.33.

Broadcom

This chip giant is another top supplier to both Samsung and Apple, and the second half of this year could bring it even more earnings growth. Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) supplies touch-screen controller chips for the iPhone 6. Many Wall Street analysts feel that the company will implement the shareholder-friendly strategic changes that the company unveiled last December at an analyst day meeting, and that will be the most significant price moving point for the stock. With a wide range of dynamic and innovative products that serve a wide swath of business, the stock is a solid bet.

The company recently announced a new family of 5G Wi-Fi Wave 2 solutions for enterprise wireless access points. The expanded portfolio delivers the quality, reliability and capacity required for all segments of the enterprise and cloud WLAN markets, including campus, education, hospitality, health care and public venues.

Broadcom shareholders are paid a 1.2% dividend. The Oppenheimer price objective is $55, and the consensus estimate is $51.82. The stock closed on Friday at $46.30 per share.

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Cisco Systems

Another top technology stock, Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) trades at a low 13.3 estimated 2015 earnings and boasts an outstanding 7.44 free cash flow yield. The networking giant also seems to have fought through numerous headwinds, including up and down demand from telecom carriers, weakness in emerging markets and threats to its very lucrative switching business, all of which many top analysts feel are going away. The company also stands to benefit from a better corporate spending environment in Europe, as well as continued growth at home.

Cisco recently won an important contract for the Verizon build-out of the company’s next-generation 100G metro network. While Cisco’s optical business is small as a part of total revenue, this win is seen by Wall Street as a significant endorsement of the investments Cisco has made into its optics business.

After 20 year of leading the Silicon Valley giant, John Chambers recently announced that Chuck Robbins will become the next chief executive of the world’s biggest networking equipment company when he steps down as CEO. The company also will announce earnings this week, along with other closely watched tech companies.

Cisco investors are paid a very solid 2.9% dividend. Oppenheimer has a $32 target for the stock, and the consensus target is posted at $30.21. Shares closed Friday at $29.23.

Juniper Networks

Large employee layoffs last summer dented the balance sheet and Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) has been fighting its way back ever since. Positive activist shareholders moves combined with a solid product cycle have made the stock a recent favorite, so the trip to the woodshed last year may be just the ticket for investors looking to buy some. The company has a big presence in network and enterprise security and could possibly be a merger or straight out takeover target.

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Juniper and Mirantis recently announced an expanded engineering partnership that provides customers with a reliable, open-source software-defined networking fabric to deploy OpenStack clouds at scale. According to a report by 451 Research, the OpenStack market size is estimated to reach $1.7 billion by 2016. Enterprises and service providers are increasingly looking to open-source software for its increased flexibility, cost savings, no vendor lock-in and the ability to customize integration with other infrastructure and applications.

Juniper Networks investors are paid a 1.5% dividend. The Oppenheimer price objective is $29, and consensus target is much lower at $25.56. The stock closed Friday at $26.98.

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