Bank of America/Merrill Lynch Daniel Heyler this morning turned bullish on the semiconductor contract manufacturers, asserting that expectations for lower returns in 2011 are already priced into the stocks.
He raises his ratings on Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASX), UMC (UMC) and Siliconware (SPIL) to Buy from Underperform.
For Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), he [...]
Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily
Deutsche Bank analyst Michael Chou this morning turned cautious on the semiconductor foundry group, asserting that the firm’s survey work suggests the semiconductor supply chain “could face more downside risk to orders due to demand weakness.”
He cut his ratings on Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), United Microelectronics (UMC), Siliconware (SPIL), Advanced Semiconductor [...]
Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily
Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) this morning reported better-than-expected Q2 results – and in a bit of good news for the chip equipment sector, the chip foundry raised its 2010 capital spending forecast.
For the quarter, the company reported 104.46 billion New Taiwan dollars, which translates to $3.269 billion, above the Street at [...]
Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily
Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) plans to hire 3,000 people in the second half as part of a planned expansion of its work in the LED and thin-film solar businesses, the company said, according to DigiTimes.
The story notes that the contract chip manufacturer had added 3,000 staff earlier in the year, and [...]
Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily
Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), the big contact chip maker, has become alarmed over rising inventory levels, DigiTimes reports, citing industry sources. The report contends that the company is demanding IC design houses take delivery of ordered wafer starts before placing new orders.
The piece contends Taiwan Semi “is alarmed by the possibility that the clients might have been overbooking.”
DigiTimes writes that the company’s inventory of analog ICs in particular is “50% higher than its safe level,” with inventories of network- and consumer-related ICs also above their “safe levels” by about 20%.
Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily
Oppenheimer analyst Gary Hsueh this morning downgraded his ratings on both KLA-Tencor (KLAC) and Lam Reserarch (LRCX), citing signs of weakness observed on a recent trip through Asia.
On KLAC, he goes to Underperform from Perform; on LRCX he goes to Perform from Outperform.
“Right off the bat on our quarterly trip to Asia, things weren’t smelling right for semi cap equipment,” he writes in a research note. “decent sell-through in China during the Lunar New Year week in February, and better-than-expected February retail sales in the U.S. appear to justify slightly the inventory creep for semis in Q2, and DRAM remains tight. Yet, for semi cap equipment, there is no getting around the issue of customer concentration.” And he says checks find front-end semi equipment companies are facing a 15-20% Q2 drop in orders as Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) cuts purchasing to zero in Q2 and Q3. So while he still likes the group long-term, he adds that “we have to face reality.”
For LRCX, he also cuts his June 2011 EPS forecast to $2.82, from $4.25, and chops his price target to $35, from $55.
For KLAC, his June 0211 estimate drops to $2.02, from $2.80. His target is now $25, down from $37.
He also trims estimates for Applied Materials (AMAT): for the October 2010 year, he goes to 83 cents, from $1, while for FY 2011 he now sees $1.29, down from $1.50. His target price drops to $17, from $20.
In today’s trading:
Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily