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Technology Stocks : Lam Research (LRCX, NASDAQ): To the Insiders -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jong Hyun Yoo who wrote (4098)	5/12/2000 10:41:00 AM
From: Jong Hyun Yoo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5867

LRCX stock price has been depressed hard in recent days. Even though I am a little unhappy about the drop, I really have been using this time to add substantial number of shares to my LRCX's holding. At current valuations, LRCX is trading at PE of less than 16 based on my LRCX's expected earning for the next calendar yr. With market outlook better than ever in the history of this sector, LRCX is a tremendous value at the current level. I believe there are still plenty of rooms left before we get to peak of this cycle.. Below are Applied Materials growth news: SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- For nearly two years, Applied Materials Inc. has been waiting for this: 300-mm wafer processing appears to be on the verge of taking off. The semiconductor equipment giant said it now expects to see the start of significant revenues for 300-mm tools in the current fiscal quarter, after shipping more than 30 systems to chip makers for evaluations. During a conference call with financial analysts on Wednesday, Applied Materials officials predicted that seven out of the 16 new wafer fabs expected to be launched in 2001 will be 300-mm (12-inch) facilities. "In my view we will begin to book 300-mm business in the [fiscal] third quarter," said Joseph R. Bronson, senior vice president and chief financial officer at Applied, during the conference after the company's released its record results for the second fiscal quarter, ended April 30. During the conference call, Bronson said Applied has increased its industry forecast for worldwide semiconductor capital spending to 53% growth with wafer fab spending now expected to surge by 56% over expenditures last year (see May 10 story). Based on the current outlook, 300-mm tool revenues could account for 10% of Applied's sales by early 2001, according to Bronson, who was responding to questions from analysts. That prospect is much brighter than it was at this time in 1998, when chip makers began postponing their transition to larger diameter 300-mm wafers because of a market slump and the ability to squeeze more devices from 200-mm substrates with process shrinks (see July 1998 story from SBN's magazine). But now Applied is in the midst of final negotiations for potentially huge orders for 300-mm tools from several major chip makers, which are now planning initial production facilities for 12-inch wafers. Bronson declined to say whether Applied Materials would close any of those major 300-mm orders in the current fiscal quarter, which concludes at the end of July. But the CFO hinted that the scale of these orders could be well into the $100 million range. The Santa Clara company is seeing the potential for significant market share gains in both the 300-mm tool generation and copper processing systems, according to Sasson Somekh, senior vice president and a member of the company's Office of the President. "At customers where we have completed commercial negotiations, our share position is on the average more than 10 percentage points higher than our 200-mm share," Somekh told analysts. "In particular, our copper 300-mm position is even stronger than our 200-mm aluminum position," he said, but decline to give specific figures. And, Applied is pushing hard to ship as many tools as it can in the current boom period, while reducing leadtimes for equipment deliveries. Its production complex in Austin, Tex., has been expanded at an accelerated pace with the final facility expected to be running at full volume in the current fiscal quarter--that's nearly two years earlier than expected, according to Bronson. The Austin manufacturing complex is expected to double its tool unit volume by the end of July compared to shipments in late January, he said. "We believe we will have facilities to support $12-to-13 billion worth of revenue for the company," said Applied's chief financial officer. "We will start planning to build the '$20 billion company' in the next six months." At the current run rate, Applied's annual revenues are likely to exceed $9 billion in 2000 vs. about $5.6 billion in 1999, based on analysts estimates. In the fiscal second quarter, ended April 30, Applied's net sales were $2.19 billion, a sequential increase of 27% from $1.72 billion in the previous three-month period and 87% higher than $1.17 billion in the quarter last year. Bronson told analysts that the company now expects to have revenues of $2.6 billion to $2.7 billion in the current fiscal quarter.