Jim, Re: "Whatever Intel did worked. Yesterday Kurlak, while not changing his
"neutral" rating on the stock, said he was "cautiously more optimistic" for
next year."
Merrill Lynch looks like such a sham company to me. They've upgraded AMAT. OK, the upgrade was "just" to NT accumulate from NT neutral. AMAT just came out with their quarterly earnings: 7¢ a share. They did beat estimates by 5¢. Their chairman feels semiconductors and semi equips have hit bottom, but he is still pretty wish washy about next year, according to people that heard the CC. I watched him on CNBC this a.m., and he seemed more positive than that, but still cautious. Next year, analysts are predicting somewhere around 60¢ a share, so they're at about 60X 1999 earnings. Intel is at about 25. For 2000, AMAT is supposed to get to earnings of about $2 a share, but that's way out as far as I'm concerned, and shouldn't be a major factor right now in the stock price.
To make a long story short, how can they in their right minds (oxymoron with ML) upgrade AMAT but remain neutral on Intel, who is as bullish as I've seen them be in at least three years, and sold out on several products into next year.
Note that I own both Intel and AMAT shares, so why look a gift horse in the mouth on the AMAT upgrade? Well, sometimes looking for integrity can even outweigh greed. Intel up, AMAT down, another minor slap in the face to ML.
Tony |
