From Briefing.Com
14:25 ET ******
ATMI INC. (ATMI) 18 -5 7/8. Shares of supplier of thin film materials, equipment and services used in the manufacture of semiconductor devices have run into heavy selling today following a ratings downgrade from a Needham & Co. analyst. According to Theodore O'Neil of Needham, he downgraded the stock from "strong buy" to "buy" and lowered estimates for the next three fiscal years.
(Anybody think he got a little carried away here?)
"He believes that ATMI will experience growth problems due to economic woes being experienced in Asia and that the slowing trend in unit growth for integrated circuits could last several quarter. In fact, he does not see semiconductor capital equipment sales rebounding until 1999 and thus, has adjusted his estimates downward accordingly. For 1998, Mr O'Neil lowered his forecast from $1.01 to $0.90, reduced his 1999 estimate from $1.50 to $1.44 and trimmed his 2000 forecast from $1.85 to $1.84 a share. And while he retains a price target of between $22 and $28 a share, the outlook is not encouraging as the company remains captive to the economic turmoil in Asia which will reduce demand for its materials. This is not the first time that this stock has easily rolled-over as a similar price decline occurred last December when BT Alex. Brown downgraded a slew of semiconductor capital equipment makers, including ATMI. While the concerns were the same, almost six months later, the Asian problems are not going away. Given that Asia accounts for about 50% of all semiconductor capital equipment spending, the longer the problems in Asia persist, the more difficulties capital equipment makers will have in getting their operations moving in the right direction.
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