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Technology Stocks : Altera -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Ritter who wrote (1396)	12/2/1997 6:01:00 PM
From: Maverick	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2389

Merrill Lynch analyst Tom Kurlak said on Tuesday he reduced his earnings estimates on shares of various semiconductor companies including LSI LOGIC CORP. (LSI: 23-5/16, - 1-13/16) and TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC. (TXN: 48-1/8, - 3-11/16), as well as VLSI TECHNOLOGY INC. (VLSI: 20-9/16, - 2-3/8) and ALTERA CORP. (ALTR: 40-9/16, - 11-1/8). Kurlak said companies are experiencing slower order rates for a variety of reasons, which, combined with excess industry capacity, has caused weaker prices. The weaker pricing is offsetting unit growth, he said. See Full Story at infobeat.com ALTERA CORP. (ALTR) 40 3/4 CLOSED. It doesn't take much to cause a stock to lose value these days as any hint that a company could record less than projected earnings can easily prompt investors to head for the exit door. Just yesterday, this semiconductor programmable logic chip maker rose by almost $5 as the Nasdaq rallied and gained more than 30 points. But today, it is expected to give it all back and more as Altera is guiding revenue estimates lower. According to the company, it sees 4Q revenues sequentially flat with its 3Q level of $162.13 million, which is being interpreted to mean that Altera expects to report flat earnings per share in the 4Q as the company is noting product order push-out for its revenue weakness. Altera is also noting that it sees some weakness in Asia following the collapse of the financial markets in October. Prior to today's announcement, Wall Street expected Altera to record a 4Q net of $0.42 a share, two cents higher than in the 3Q, on projected revenue growth of 5% from the 3Q. The lack of revenue growth and consequential flat earnings growth has prompted Morgan Stanley and Volpe Brown to downgrade the stock this morning. Volpe Brown has cut its view on Altera to a "buy" from a "strong buy," while Morgan Stanley has reduced its investment view to a "neutral" from an "outperform." Morgan also lowered fiscal 1997 EPS estimates by two cents to $1.54 a share and its 1998 EPS forecast to $1.80 from $1.95 a share. These downgrades, coupled with the earlier earnings warnings by other tech firms (see below), is expected to bode poorly for this issue. From Briefing.com