Chip, Chip Equip Stocks Up As Salomon Upgrades Sectors
By Maxwell Murphy Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK -- Semiconductor and semiconductor-equipment stocks received a boost Wednesday from a pair of early morning notes out of Salomon Smith Barney upgrading the sectors.
Wednesday morning, Salomon analyst Jonathan Joseph upgraded the semiconductor sector to outperform from neutral, while analyst Glen Yeung did likewise with the semiconductor equipment space.
Both analysts contend that a bottom is close at hand. Joseph cited "anecdotal order and shipment data that is so bad it cannot continue for long and sector data that suggests a fundamental bottom is only months away." Yeung said "we are closer in time to a stock price bottom making entry even more palatable."
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, or SOX, opened up nearly 7%, and was recently up 41.85 points, or 8.1%, at 561.97. Joseph said he believes the SOX has downside risk to 400 with upside potential to 700, which he said presents a "1:2 risk return profile from current levels."
Individually, Joseph upgraded shares of Intel Corp. (INTC), Micron Technology Inc. (MU), Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN), STMicroelectronics N.V. (STM), Infineon Technology AG (IFX), Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC), Altera Corp. (ALTR) and Xilinx Inc. (XLNX) to buy from outperform.
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Not sure if Joseph has coverage of ADI. According to this linked post, he covers 24 stocks.
Jim |
