Chip stocks sag with Altera, Xilinx
By Janet Haney, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 11:28 AM ET Nov 27, 2000
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NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Semiconductor stocks pulled back from earlier gains Monday, hurt by falling shares of Altera and Xilinx amid concerns about the two companies' earnings outlook.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX: news, msgs) , a key barometer of chip and chip-equipment stock movement, lost 2.0 percent to 661.52. The sector has pulled back from its earlier high of 686.94.
Shares of programmable logic device makers Altera (ALTR: news, msgs) lost $2.63 to $28.56 and Xilinx (XLNX: news, msgs) shed $5.06 to $51.75 after Lehman Bros. lowered its earnings per share projections on the duo. PLD chips allow electronics manufacturers to customize functions in their products.
Both companies have experienced slow demand in November and neither one of them are likely to meet their projected growth targets of 12 percent quarter over quarter for the fourth calendar quarter, the investment firm said.
Last week, Altera and Xilinx shares came under pressure after Altera said it would file a motion to reverse a U.S. District Court ruling that it infringed on two Xilinx patents. See related story.
Micron Technology shares (MU: news, msgs) were upgraded at Banc of America Securities to a "strong buy" from a "buy. The investment firm cited an improved competitive position in relation to Asian DRAM makers, as well as the possibility for a stable pricing environment in the traditionally weak winter. Micron shares dipped 88 cents to $40.
Texas Instruments (TXN: news, msgs) projected that it will deliver 3 million -- out of the nearly 10 million total expected to ship this year -- data over cable-service interface specification chip units, upping TI's market share by 600 percent from 1999. TI shares gained $2.38 to $46.38. See Due Diligence.
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