I'm sorry, it was NVLS I was talking about. I should take this discussion over to that thread. Haven't covered AMAT yet, still sweating it out. More commentary:
Upswing -- and controversy -- in chipland
Conversely, there was some excitement in the chip and chip-equipment stocks today; the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index rose 1.1%.
Chip equipment makers climbed although industry leader Applied Materials (AMAT:Nasdaq) announced it will take a fourth-quarter charge of $285 million, or 56 cents a share, resulting in a loss in the quarter. The 20-analyst consensus was for profits of 2 cents a share vs. a gain of 49 cents the prior year. But analysts said the charge was expected, and Applied Materials rose 3.4%.
Additonally, BancBoston Robertson Stephens upgraded Applied Materials and several other names in the sector to buy from long-term attractive today. (For more detail, see today's Midday Musings.)
Beneficiaries of the upgrade included ASM Lithography (ASMLF:Nasdaq), up 3.1%, Etec Systems (ETEC:Nasdaq), higher by 10.3%, and KLA-Tencor (KLAC:KLAC), which rose 4.2%. Conversely, Novellus Systems (NVLS:Nasdaq) fell 3.5% despite a reiteration of a buy rating from Robbie Stephens.
The BancBoston upgrade was presaged by Van Kasper. Two days ago, analyst Gerald Fleming reversed an underperform rating on the group he'd held since August 1997. "We now believe that investors should be buyers of semiconductor equipment issues both as near-term trading vehicles and, in most cases, for their long-term potential," Fleming wrote Oct. 21.
But today the analyst said: "I don't think this is the start of next major 'off to the races' cycle," adding that he is taken aback by group's recent run.
"What's changed today from two weeks ago to justify Etec selling at 35 instead of 15 or Novellus at 38 vs. 21?," he asked. "I think they were overdone on the downside but I think we probably get a pullback from here. For people investing, hope to get a dip and buy 'em again." |
