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Technology Stocks : Semi Equipment Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (4958)	8/20/2002 10:23:13 PM
From: Return to Sender	Respond to of 95427

From Briefing.com: 6:08PM Semi book to bill falls to 1.16 : Semi equipment industry book-to-bill ratio falls to 1.16 in July from revised 1.26 in June; Deutsche est for July is 1.19, Goldman forecasting 1.15, so this report appears to be right around consensus. Bookings fell to $1.15 bln from revised $1.17 mln in June (these are rolling 3-month avgs). 4:28PM Newport announces cost-cutting measures, lowers guidance (NEWP) 18.25 +1.51: -- Update -- Announces a cost reduction program and a reorganization of its business units geared toward achieving profitability during "this period of weak demand"; co expects these actions to result in annualized savings of $12.0-$14.0 mln. "As a result of the potentially lower sales to semi customers and the removal of sales from our Minnesota facility, we believe that our Q3 sales may fall slightly below the $48.0 mln we forecasted as the low end of the range in guidance provided in July 2002. We are, however, confident that we will show increased sales sequentially compared with the $44.0 mln of sales recorded in Q2". Co now expects to report a loss for Q3 as opposed to the prior expectation of $0.00-$0.02. Stock has dropped in after hours trading. 3:10PM Agilent (A) 16.33 -1.11: Shares are 6.4% down following substantial Q302 earnings miss by $0.16 last night. This morning, Morgan Stanley downgrades to EQUAL-WEIGHT from Overweight due to lack of near-term catalysts; does not expect post-restructuring benefits to become apparent until 2H03, but suggests to buy shares under $15. Soundivew Technology views gross margin improvement to 44.4% as proof of leverage in A's business, but lowers Y02 ests to loss of $0.91 from loss of $0.68. Thomas Weisel is cautious on shares, despite co. showing signs of stability; maintains Mkt Perform rating; suggest to become more constructive on shares when indications of end-market improvement emerge and positive impact of restructuring and ERP implementation is more visible. 2:50PM Credence (CMOS) 13.37 -1.04: Co matched consensus Q3 ests of a loss of $0.31 and guided for Q4 orders to be more or less flat. Analysts remain cautious as CMOS pushes out the recovery: Morgan Stanley maintains their Underweight rating given that Octet still has not shipped to an external customer and costs still need to come down. SG Cowen expects stock to trade sideways in near-term due to lack of triggers. CSFB downgrades to HOLD from Buy (see In-Play for details). 1:58PM Intersil (ISIL) 19.89 +0.09: Following encouraging channel checks, Thomas Weisel names ISIL as one of their best ideas based on strong fundamentals and compelling valuation. Firm believes co is enjoying healthy seq order and revenue growth in its power mgmt ICs for the PC mkt (approx. 25% of revenues) and expects ISIL's wireless LAN business is tracking to low double-digit growth this qtr. Thomas Weisel remains confident their 7% seq Q3 growth assumption remains entirely achievable and believes their 5% forecast for Q4 conservatively assumes essentially no seasonal/holiday PC uptick. 12:47PM Semtech (SMTC) 21.53 -1.56: Stock trading down 6.7% as, before open, Wedbush Morgan downgraded to HOLD from Buy. Relatively weak back-to-school PC season and tight IT budgets for rest of 2002, plus worsening of automated test equipment market, suggests more cautious outlook. Firm says secular growth story remains intact but financial figures will be more robust in second half of FY04 than second half of FY03, and believes a reasonable trading range for stock is between $17-$27. At current price, risk-to-reward appears reasonably balance without a near term catalyst. 9:26AM Micron cut to Hold from Buy at Wedbush Morgan (MU) 22.13: Firm believes there is no immediate catalyst for the stock given the flattish PC demand pattern in a supposedly seasonal stronger period. In a separate note, SoundView comments that it will be tough to sustain rising contract prices through the back half of the yr. 7:14AM OmniVision beats by $0.02; guides Q2 above consensus (OVTI) 12.29: Reports Q1 earnings of $0.07 per share, $0.02 better than the Multex consensus. Revs rose 50.0% to $16.8 mln vs the $14.4 mln consensus. Sees Q2 EPS of $0.07-$0.09 on revs of $18-$19 mln (consensus $17.03 mln). finance.yahoo.com^SOXX+A+ALTR+AMAT+AMD+BRCM+CMOS+INTC+ISIL+KLAC+LLTC+LSCC+LSI+MOT+MU+MXIM+NEWP+NSM+NVLS+OVTI+SMTC+TER+TXN+XLNX+^IXIC+^VIX&d=t