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Technology Stocks : Dupont Photomasks (DPMI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JMD who wrote (384)	3/17/1998 12:05:00 PM
From: jeffbas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 955

I am an actuary by training and not well qualified to answer your specific question. I think companies like AMAT with broad product lines geared to equipping new fabs will not do as well as companies like CYMI and ETEC which are specifically oriented toward small feature sizes. DPMI is a special animal in not being driven as much by cyclical semi-equipment demand as by growing demand for new, more complex chip designs, which use more, and more expensive, masks. However, DPMI has a significant portion of business from existing fabs making standard products, which gives it a both a core of stability as well as moderating the impact of the high end growth in volume and price. Because of this stability, I like it better than either of the other two classes of companies I mentioned as a more traditional investment. However, if AMAT does not do particularly well it will certainly rub off on the valuations of all of them to some extent. I prefer DPMI to PLAB, a similar company, because of the DuPont connection - access to mgmt, research and an unused $100 million line of credit at very favorable rates.