Applied Materials May Guide Q1 Booking Growth 5%-10%
Maya Roney, 11.14.05, 10:30 AM ET
Piper Jaffray Senior Analyst Bill Lu maintained a "market perform" rating and $18 price target on Applied Materials (nasdaq: AMAT - news - people ) in anticipation of Wednesday's fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call.
Applied Materials management is guiding for fiscal fourth-quarter revenue from flat to down 5% sequentially, earnings of 13 cents to 14 cents per share, and bookings growth of 5% to 10% quarter-over-quarter.
Lu expects in-line revenue and EPS, and bookings at the high end of or slightly exceeding guidance. In addition, he expects management to guide for another 5% to 10% increase in bookings in fiscal first quarter 2006, driven by large orders from memory customers (Samsung, Toshiba) and service business.
However, Lu said the Street's fiscal first-quarter 2006 bookings growth estimate of 10% to 15% may be too high.
"Given that expectations seem to be ratcheting up, we expect the stock to trade up into the call, but if fiscal first-quarter 2006 bookings guidance is as we expect, in the 5% to 10% range, we think stock retreats the next day," said Lu. |
