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Technology Stocks : PRI Automation (PRIA) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ian@SI who wrote (862)	12/18/1999 12:21:00 AM
From: Q.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1214

Shares Of Chip Equipment Makers Rise On Upbeat Analysts' Comments Dow Jones Online News, Friday, December 17, 1999 at 18:28 By Mark Boslet, Staff Reporter PALO ALTO, Calif. -(Dow Jones)- The stocks of several makers of semiconductor production equipment rose after a Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst raised price targets on two of them and Chase H&Q (formerly Hambrecht & Quist Inc.) held an upbeat conference call. On the conference call, analyst Eric Chen said he believed chip-giant Intel Corp. (INTC) was accelerating its adoption of 300-mm technology by six months. The use of 300-mm silicon wafers - 12-inches in diameter rather than the 8-inch-diameter wafers used today - reduces manufacturing costs by allowing more chips to be produced from a single wafer. It also requires large investments in new equipment, which will benefit equipment makers. Merrill Lynch raised its price target on Novellus Systems Inc. (NVLS) to $120 from $100 and its target on KLA Tencor Corp. (KLAC) to $115 from $90, Merrill analyst Tom Diffely said. Merrill also lifted its 2000 earnings estimate on Novellus to $4 a share from $3.35 and raised its estimate for KLA. Novellus is winning more business from Intel and Taiwan chip-giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM), Diffely said, adding KLA is seeing increasing business in Taiwan and Japan. Chen said Intel appears to be planning for volume production using 300-mm wafers in early 2001 instead of the company's original target of late 2001. "This is a major development" and should bring a wave of new business to equipment companies, he said. Chen said he sees PRI Automation Inc. (PRIA) and Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) especially benefiting from Intel's decision. H&Q put the two companies on its focus list, which identifies companies poised for short-term stock appreciation. Chen has "buy" ratings on both. An Intel spokesman noted the company announced in June it expected to begin production with 300-mm wafer technology in 2002. The chip maker has a 300-mm plant, or fab, under development in Oregon and expects to begin equiping it next year, the spokesman said. Novellus shares were up 11%, or $8.469, to close at $85.156 Friday on volume of three million shares. PRI was up 17%, or $8.125, to close at $56.50 on volume of two million shares, compared with a daily average of 365,800. KLA rose 4% and LAM Research Corp. (LRCX) moved ahead 1.6% while Applied Materials ended fractionally higher.