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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (48906)	7/9/2001 1:33:26 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 70976

Lehman Says Trough May be Near for Chip Equipment Makers By Chris Frankie Staff Reporter 7/9/01 11:46 AM ET Lehman Brothers said today that semiconductor equipment companies may be nearing a trough and that many of them "represent a better value than the numbers might suggest." But the brokerage said it thinks there is little room for prices to appreciate strongly in the near-term. Lehman said KLA-Tencor (KLAC:Nasdaq - news - commentary), Novellus Systems (NVLS:Nasdaq - news - commentary) and Applied Materials (AMAT:Nasdaq - news - commentary) are in a good position to take advantage of the current downturn by increasing market share because they have leading-edge technology. The stocks were off in morning trading, with KLA-Tencor recently losing 0.8% to $51.25, Novellus down 3% to $48.09 and Applied Materials 1.4% lower to $44.70. In its report, Lehman highlighted five small-cap stocks (companies with market values of between $100 million and $750 million) on its coverage list that it said were trading at least 30% below their 52-week highs. Of those, Lehman rated Asyst Technologies (ASYT:Nasdaq - news - commentary), PRI Automation (PRIA:Nasdaq - news - commentary) and Therma-Wave (TWAV:Nasdaq - news - commentary) a buy and Electroglas (EGLS:Nasdaq - news - commentary) and FSI International (FSII:Nasdaq - news - commentary) at market perform. The brokerage recommended buying some chip equipment companies that may be best-positioned to weather the business downturn, but it doesn't see a bright outlook in the immediate future. "Near-term fundamentals continue to worsen, as evidenced by low three-month average orders for May, continued cuts in capital budgets, and delays in new facilities and plant expansions. It does not appear as though business can recover before the end of the seasonally weak [summer]," the note said. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index was lately up 0.4%.