7:43AM Semi Equipment book-to-bill disappoints : Goldman Sachs calls the SEMI August book-to-bill of 0.91 disappointing, as it came in 0.07 below firm's estimate and 0.08 below Wall Street views. Overall orders were up 2% month-over-month off a downwardly revised base (7% below Goldman's original est). Firm views the data as further evidence that while fundamentals continue to gradually improve, expectations for fundamental improvement have outpaced reality. Until expectations for fundamental improvement reconnect with reality, firm believes the equipment stocks may see a 10-15% pullback near-term.
7:32AM Motorola upgraded at Piper Jaffray (MOT) 10.64: Piper Jaffray upgrades to Outperform from Mkt Perform and raises their target to $14 from $10; firm says that prior limited visibility has improved, stale handset portfolio risk is beginning to mitigate, and an overall improvement in the business environment in the U.S. and China is expected to bode well for MOT's PCS, SPS, and CGISS business units.
7:21AM KLA-Tencor added to JP Morgan's Focus List (KLAC) 57.41: JP Morgan adds KLAC to their Focus List and sets a $77 target; shares are trading at a modest premium (17.2x) to the group (16.5x) based on their 2005 est, and also trade at a substantial discount to AMAT (23.6x) and NVLS (32.0x), which they do not believe is indicative of the co's attractive business model and earnings power; also, firm says margins are poised to significantly exceed consensus, checks suggest KLAC will receive large orders from Samsung and other Asian customers in Q3-Q4, co should deliver historically high cyclical growth based on pricing power and increasing process complexity, and return metrics and earnings quality exceed all peers. Target is $77
7:16AM Intersil confirms Q3 guidance, announces $100 mln buyback, declares dividend (ISIL) 28.17: Co expects to post Q3 earnings of $0.15 on revs of $129-132 mln (Reuters Research consensus $0.15, $130.85 mln). Due to co's healthy balance sheet and steady financial performance, ISIL has declared a quarterly cash dividend on its common stock of $0.03 per share.
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