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Technology Stocks : Etec Systems moving up -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jeffbas who wrote (1042)	7/19/1998 12:50:00 PM
From: Dr. Bob	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1279

Jeff, "...the potential for development of new processes that obsolete or reduce the market potential for ETEC's products is a primary reason that it is unwise to pay a high P/E for ETEC." But as Andrew pointed out on the Lithography thread, the threats are years away. On the UTEK thread, it has also been noted that it would take years for UTEK to ramp up to the point it could make substantial inroads into ETEC's market share, even if its technology is better, which is not yet clear. Look at comparative charts of AMAT or any of the other semi equipt stocks vs. ETEC; ETEC is less volatile, because it makes money in good times or bad. All of this looks to me to be a reason to give it a better P/E - at least as good as its growth rate, because there are high barriers to entry, and because the earnings (at least on a yearly basis) have been pretty predictable. Bob