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LSI Logic Up 10%;SoundView Report Highlights Solid Bookings
Dow Jones Newswires
NEW YORK -- LSI Logic Corp. (LSI) share rose as much as 11% to a new 52-week high Tuesday after SoundView Technology group analyst Eric Rothdeutsch initiated coverage at strong buy, citing the semiconductor maker's strong bookings.
"LSI is well-positioned to benefit from a semiconductor recovery," Rothdeutsch said. "The company saw very strong bookings momentum in the first quarter and we see it continuing in this quarter."
LSI Logic supplies its system-on-a-chip devices to large customers such as Sony Corp. (SNE) and other consumer electronics, networking and storage-technology companies.
Rothdeutsch expects the Milpitas, Calif., company's book-to-bill ratio to be above 1 for the March quarter and higher for the June quarter.
The analyst said LSI Logic, which owns its own wafer fabrication facility or "fab," suffered more than "fabless" companies after the semiconductor industry hit bottom last June.
"Now we see the pendulum swinging back to manufacturers who own their own fabs," he said, "and LSI is right at the heart of that."
Rothdeutsch estimated the company's first-quarter earnings at 5 cents a share, down from 22 cents a year earlier, on an increase in revenue to $463 million from $324.9 million.
An LSI Logic spokesman attributed the stock's rise Tuesday to new analyst coverage, but declined to comment further because of the quiet period before the release of first-quarter results, set for April 20.
Also Tuesday, Prudential Securities Inc. analyst Hans Mosesmann reiterated a strong buy rating on LSI Logic, raising the 12-month target price to $50 from $37.
"We're in the early stage of a recovery, and companies with their own fabs have tremendous leverage," Mosesmann said. "Analysts will be revising their numbers upward here for the next several weeks."
Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co. also reiterated its buy rating on the company.
LSI Logic shares earlier rose as high as 36 1/16, past their previous 52-week ceiling of 32 15/16 set Monday. They recently traded at 35 1/2, up 3, or 9.2%, on volume of 4.4 million, compared with a daily average of 2.4 million.
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