The LATimes has a service called "Latte" that sends "hot stories" to your email. Today's included one published on May 5 and since I was in Las Vegas at Interop and missed it, I was glad to get a second chance.
Once a year the paper analyzes companies headquartered in California and lists the best under several categories.
The Times 100 Best Companies in California:
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Companies with Southern California headquarters ranked by analysts' mean estimates of annualized growth in earnings per share over the next three to five years. At least four analysts must cover a company for it to be listed. Cymer is number 15:
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latimes.com
Biographies of the top companies:
latimes.com
Cymer Inc. (CYMI), San Diego: Cymer is a major supplier to the semiconductor manufacturing industry and a company whose equipment has played a role in the dramatic evolution of personal computers. Cymer makes lasers that are used to produce semiconductors and that contain more circuits on a chip. Cymer has about 80% of the world market for these speciality lasers, and sales had been increasing rapidly for several years, until the recent Asian crisis. Canon and Nikon together account for about 60% of Cymer's sales.
Times 100 Charts:
latimes.com
Number 12 in "Sales Growth":
latimes.com
Included in "Up and Coming Companies."
latimes.com
ÿPairGain Technologies and Cymer are the dominant players in their niches, Landis says, but those young, esoteric markets haven't quite reached critical mass. He says patience will be rewarded. . . .
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Cymer's promise is in its virtual monopoly of deep ultraviolet laser technology, which is critical to the next generation of semiconductors. The power of chips increases as silicon circuitry shrinks from merely microscopic to infinitesimal. That's where Cymer comes in. But the San Diego company hasn't escaped the pain in Asia, which slammed the brakes on chip makers' investments in new equipment. This year doesn't look terrific for the company or the industry, but most analysts believe the malaise will pass. "Regardless of whether it's a quick or slow recovery," said Landis, "Cymer will have a great 1999 and 2000."
They also made it onto the list of "companies culled from the smaller lists spread throughout The Times 100 section."
latimes.com
Name: Cymer
ÿÿÿÿÿTicker: CYMI
ÿÿÿÿÿSales and earnings growth
ÿÿÿÿÿ- Latest quarter Earnings Per Share vs. yr. ago, %: 170
ÿÿÿÿÿ- Latest quarter sales growth vs. yr. ago, %: 114
ÿÿÿÿÿ- Latest yr. Earnings Per Share vs. previous yr., %: 248
ÿÿÿÿÿ- Latest yr. sales growth vs. previous yr., %: 213
ÿÿÿÿÿEarnings estimates
ÿÿÿÿÿ- Surprises, actual vs. est. latest quarter, %: 9
ÿÿÿÿÿ- Surprises, actual vs. est. previous quarter, %: 10
ÿÿÿÿÿ- Number of analysts: 5
ÿÿÿÿÿ- Projected earnings growth rate 3-5 years, %: 35
ÿÿÿÿÿShare and price data
ÿÿÿÿÿ- Market cap size: S
ÿÿÿÿÿ- One-year % price change: 21
ÿÿÿÿÿ- Float, in millions: 25
ÿÿÿÿÿ- 4/17/98 stock price: 25.13
Since no one mentioned anything about this article when it first came out, I wonder if anyone at the company saw it. Perhaps a note to Marie Burke would be in order. I could see the key writers, Edward Silver and Walter Hamilton, being alerted when Cymer sees a turnaround, or writing to Tom Petruno to thank him for the coverage and suggest a follow-on highlighting the chain of events that will signal a recovery --- beginning with an increase in PC sales, to shrinking sales channels, to uptick in chip orders, to need for new equipment, and so on, including where Cymer stands in the scheme of the equipment universe.
All this and I haven't had a drop of caffeine for hours. :))
Later --
Pat |
