SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT STOCKS: Wall Street has been extremely bullish on semiconductor stocks over the past three months, as analysts have attempted to get a jump on the turnaround in the group. Since October 8, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has soared more than 100%. But after almost a year of being too optimistic about fundamentals, firming orders and cost reduction efforts appear to finally be bringing projected and actual earnings into equilibrium. To gain a grasp of just how poorly Wall Street was at forecasting semiconductor company earnings in 1998, take a look at Briefing.com's earnings warning archives for the past two quarters. In the June quarter, 22 semiconductor companies issued earnings warnings. In the September qtr, 20 companies told analysts that their estimates were off the mark. Today, the capital equipment group is receiving a lift from SoundView Technology Group analyst Michael O'Brien, who upgraded several leading semiconductor capital equipment names. The analyst raised his rating on KLA-Tencor (KLAC 49 1/32 +3 9/32) from "hold" to "strong buy," Lam Research Corp (LRCX 22 5/16 +3 5/16) from "hold" to "buy," and Teradyne (TER 44 7/16 +2 5/16) from "buy" to "strong buy." The timing of the move by O'Brien suggests to Briefing.com that the analyst is more confident in these companies' ability to make their quarters, given that they made it through December without pre-announcing. As companies prepare to report calendar Q4 results, fewer than 10 companies from the semiconductor group have warned.
Vinh, bit the bullet and bought my first internet stock today, Onsale. It was a sort of accident, but I wanted to do it anyway. Are you still doubling your money everyday?
Regards,
Mark |
