Nice break-out this morning for the chip equipment makers following boffo results last night from Intel (INTC) and the company’s redoubling its equipment to arming its fabs for battle.
ASML Holding N.V. (ASML) is up $2.80, or 7%, at $41.09. Applied Materials (AMAT) is up 53 cents, or 3.6%, at $15.13. Novellus (NVLS) is up $1.22, or 3.6%, at $34.93.
Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily
Semiconductor equipment maker Applied Materials (AMAT) this afternoon reported fiscal Q1 revenue and earnings ahead of estimates, forecast the current quarter ahead of estimates, and forecast the year’s revenue and profit ahead as well.
AMAT shares are up 6 cents at $15.89 in late trading.
Revenue in the quarter ended in January rose 45% to $2.69 billion, yielding EPS of 36 cents. Analysts had been expecting $2.596 billion and EPS of 33 cents.
For the current quarter, the company projects revenue to be about flat to up 5% versus last quarter, at $2.69 billion to $2.82 billion, yielding EPS of 34 cents to 38 cents. Analysts have been modeling $2.52 billion and 31 cents.
CEO Mike Splinter remarked, “We see momentum building in our end markets,” and that, “We now expect wafer fab equipment spending to be up 10 to 15 percent from approximately $31 billion in calendar 2010, with crystalline silicon solar equipment spending rising by more than 30 percent year over year.”
The company’s backlog rose $292 million in the quarter to $3.54 billion, it said, while gross profit rose from Q4′s 42.2% to 42.3%.
For the year, the company sees revenue exceeding $11 billion, it said, which would be a billion more than analysts have been projecting. EPS is expected to be $1.50, versus the $1.29 consensus estimate.
Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily
Piper Jaffray semiconductor equipment analyst Gus Richard today raised his rating on shares of Applied Materials (AMAT) to Overweight, and raised his price target to $22 from $12, writing that he was wrong to downgrade it to Neutral in July of last year, when he had concerns about the company’s solar materials business.
At the time, Applied was going through a major restructuring of its solar business, cutting hundreds of jobs.
Applied shares today are up 12 cents, or 0.8%, at $15.78.
Richard now thinks estimates for this year and next are too low, and he expects that Applied’s fiscal Q1 earnings report tomorrow, after the bell, will beat the consensus estimate of $2.6 billion in revenue and 33 cents per share.
Richard is expecting the company to report a book-to-bill above 1.0 and backlog of $3.7 billion, up half a billion from Q3, and bookings of $3.1 billion.
Richard is modeling $12.65 billion in revenue next fiscal year ending in October of 2012, and EPS of $1.80, much higher than the Street, at $10.43 billion and $1.40.
For the current fiscal year, he sees $10.5 billion and $1.35, with the Street at $10.1 billion and $1.29.
Richard sees the company’s gross profit this year at 43.5%, but it could be higher, depending on how fast Applied moves manufacturing operations to Asia, something that’s happening slower than expected at the moment.
But the key as far as demand, is the tricky aspect of moving industry chip production to 28 nanometer:
Based on our research, we believe yields at 28nm are going to be challenging as older gate stacks do not offer sufficient process latitude, high-k metal gate processes are not mature at 28nm and foundries move to double patterning is likely to be challenging as well. We believe without a smooth transition to 28nm, more wafer capacity will be needed – disproportionately benefiting AMAT.
Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily
Shares of chip equipment makers are jumping this morning, emboldened by Intel’s (INTC) better-than-expected results last night, and by the the company’s forecast it will increase capital spending this year by 73%, to $9 billion.
Shares of Applied Materials (AMAT) are up 36 cents, or 2.5%, at $14.60, while Novellus (NVLS) [...]
Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily
Applied Materials (AMAT) this afternoon posted better-than-expected results for its fiscal fourth quarter ended October 31.
The semiconductor equipment provider reported revenue of $2.89 billion and non-GAAP profits of 36 cents a share, ahead of the Street consensus at $2.59 million and 31 cents. Orders in the quarter were $3.03 billion.
For [...]
Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily
Applied Materials (AMAT) this afternoon reported revenue for its fiscal third quarter ended August 1 of $2.52 billion, ahead of the Street consensus at $2.38 billion. Non-GAAP profits of 17 cents a share were ahead of the company recent guidance of 10-14 cents.
Excluding restructuring charges related to the company’s recently [...]
Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily
Applied Materials (AMAT) shares are coming under modest selling pressure this morning after UBS analyst Stephen Chin downgraded the stock to Neutral from Buy, setting a price target of $13.
The downgrade reflects a shift by UBS to a Neutral stance on the semiconductor equipment sector.
On the one hand, the firm [...]
Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily
Applied Materials (AMAT) this morning said it expects to cut 400-500 positions in its Energy and Environmental Solutions segment, where it will focus on crystalline silicon solar and advanced energy, including LED technology. The company said the restructuring should cut expenses by at least $100 million on an annualized basis. [...]
Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily
At an analyst briefing at the Semicon West trade show in San Francisco, Applied Materials (AMAT) indicated that it now expects 140% year over year revenue growth for its semiconductor equipment business for the October 2010 fiscal year, an increase from the company’s previous forecast of 120% growth.
In a presentation [...]
Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily
Piper Jaffray analyst Auguste Richard this morning downgraded shares of Applied Materials (AMAT) to Neutral from Overweight, chopping his target on the stock to $14, from $18.50, on concerns about the company’s solar segment.
“AMAT’s entry into solar has not gone well in the thin film solar market,” he writes in [...]
Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily