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

To: Howard Feinstein who wrote (14003)	12/31/1997 7:22:00 PM
From: Big Bucks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Howie, I know you like the stock for a quik pop, but what next? This is only my personal opinion and will likely get flamed, but I suspect a high for AMAT this year will be around $39-41. There is just to much uncertainty and tech stocks will be out of favor this year, especilly semi mfgs. There will be pressure on the mfg's to cut back expenses and focus on the next market cycle for 300mm with very large % of their R&D budgets focusing on larger wafers and smaller geometries for the next generation of fabs. Wouldn't surprise me to see layoffs in manufacturing and non-essential administrative positions as part of the belt tightening exercise, what it will do is make mfgs "leaner and meaner" as they battle to maintain/establish market share in a weak sales market. Think of this as a rest period for the equipment mfg's as they get their businesses in order. It is typical for a company's stock to rally if personnel cuts are announced as investors see that management is focusing on cutting the fat and extraneous costs. In another light if the low for the fiscal year was about $25.50 and the high was $42.00 that would be a 60.71% increase in stock price from the low. Not bad in a weak market. Just my opinion, BB