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

To: sixty2nds who wrote (29174)	3/9/2006 11:05:08 AM
From: Donald Wennerstrom	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 95748

National Semi's Strong Quarter Already Priced Into Shares 03.09.06, 9:35 AM ET National Semiconductor will likely post solid earnings and outlook when it announces February-quarter results later today, according to Banc of America Securities. The research firm believes National Semiconductor (nyse: NSM - news - people ) currently benefits from analog-industry cyclical improvement and product repositioning towards more high margin business. "While we are impressed by the company's execution," wrote Banc of America analyst Sumit Dhanda in a report today, "we remain neutral on the stock as we believe the stock has priced a lot of the good news, particularly as it relates to the margin expansion story." The analyst expects National Semi to report sales at the high end of management’s prior outlook for flat to down 3% sequentially, and above the consensus sales estimate of down 1.8% sequentially. Gross margins are expected to be in-line with the analyst's estimate of 57.4%, with bias toward slight upside, driven by higher utilization and a richer product mix. The analyst predicts National Semi will guide May-quarter sales to be in-line with the estimate for sequential sales growth of 4.6%, which would be above the consensus estimate of 3.7%. Banc of America's top semiconductor picks are Texas Instruments (nyse: TXN - news - people ) and Microchip Technology (nasdaq: MCHP - news - people ), both rated "buy" with respective target prices of $38 and $39. Its least favorite pick is Lattice Semiconductor (nasdaq: LSCC - news - people ), rated "sell" with a $4 target price.