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

To: Gottfried who wrote (9171)	3/27/2003 6:27:44 PM
From: Return to Sender	Respond to of 95646

Semiconductors . . . A Sterling analyst deems NVIDIA's recent announcement to shift to IBM for wafer procurement as a positive for ATI Tech. The speculation on the company's decision to move to IBM is attributed to its problems with TSMC and not being able to obtain encouraging yields combined with high power consumption. The analyst believes this provides "a gap for ATI Technologies to further strengthen their relationship with Taiwan Semi and accelerate the high-end 3-D graphics volume production ramp." Broadcom named Duane Dickhut as the head of its business that makes chips for computer servers, replacing Raju Vegesna, who was asked to step down. Broadcom said it disagreed with the unit's management. Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to 'equal-weight', saying "this is the company's second major and unexpected management change in 2003." The broker cut its price target to $21 from $30, saying "while we believe that near-term business conditions are solid, we are lowering are price target... to reflect the higher level of uncertainty in our longer-term estimates." CSFB says that the lease for the PMC-Sierra's unoccupied Mission Tower Two represents a significant balance sheet liability, which firm calculates could be a $0.45-$0.60 negative impact to the company's net cash per share balance. PMCS is currently trading at 3.7x and 3.4x on a EV/2003 and 2004 basis, after backing out the potential cash outlay PMCS would be trading at 4.2x and 3.8x. Price target is $5 Lehman believes that Marvell Tech's quarter is tracking towards the high end of the 7-9% guidance with less seasonality seen than expected in both storage and communication. The firm says comm business remains robust with the Intel GigE biz above expectations, Cisco business growing, Yukon seeing strong designs in the white box market, and the storage biz continues to track slightly ahead of internal expectations with Western Digital read channels ramping. Boxmakers . . . SG Cowen Tech Survey shows on average, survey respondents plan to replace only 23% of desktops in 2003 and 21% in 2004. This implies an average life for PCs of 4-5 years vs. 3-4 years in the late 1990s. Respondents plan to increase their emphasis on Windows and Linux as server operating systems in the future, at the expense of Unix and proprietary platforms. Dell & IBM stand out as mind share gainers. DELL is the primary supplier at 28% of sites, expected to rise to 33.6% in the future. IBM expected to lift from 18.7% to 18.8%. Both get top positive ratings on product/ strategy roadmap. A key element behind both is their strong endorsement of Linux. Hewlett Packard product/strategy ratings are higher, suggesting that initial user disenchantment w/ the Compaq merger has dissipated. Maintain Strong Buy given HPQ’s crown jewel usage-driven imaging/printing franchise. The survey suggests Sun Microsystems is swimming upstream w/ a negative 5% rating from the entire universe. Only bright point is a net 24% of sites where SUNW is the primary supplier indicate a need for more server capacity in the next 12 mos., vs. 5% in Sept. Fully 45% of respondents said they need more enterprise storage capacity, vs. 41% in the Sept. survey and 40% in Dec. Only 12% of respondents have “more than enough” storage capacity. But, EMC is facing increased competition in all areas with declining scores for future purchases. 2020insight.com