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Technology Stocks : Semiconductor and Semi-Equipment Analysts - Their Calls -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: FJB who wrote (27)	1/8/1999 8:27:00 AM
From: BD	Respond to of 195

FWIW post from Yahoo Msg. on GGNS: in the next 6-12 months will be critical. They are trying to position chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of tungsten nitride (WN) as the superior technique for placing copper on wafers below 0.18. They do this better than anyone right now. In the past, everyone typically used aluminum with titanium films on larger wafers. Smaller wafers and the cost of aluminum make copper with tantalum or tungsten films the choice. -IBM is currently using tantalum nitride (TaN) and Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) for their copper. Tantalum does not become a gas well, thus PVD must be used to deposit the film on the silicon surface. This results in a huge loss in the resistivity benefits of copper over aluminum, and limits wafers to LARGER sizes. Also, TaN cannot be cleaned off the wafer with the same chemicals as the excess copper, requiring 2 cleaning steps/wafer. -Tungsten vaporizes very well, thus CVD can provide a clean film, even on the smaller wafers. WN can be cleaned with the same chemicals as copper, thus one step and cost savings. The Lynx2 from Genus applies a WN coating to a wafer, then permits copper to be deposited with one cleaning step. According to Genus, their system does this better than anyone else's. If Genus can hook Micron, they all but corner a huge part of the DRAM market. If they ever partnered (or were absorbed) by someone like Big Blue, hold on for a major stock jump. If WN becomes the clear way to shrink wafers and use copper, Genus is the cheapest way to purchase 10 years of R&D data... It is important to note that the new smaller wafers are coming very soon. The first company to shrink them successfully has a corner on a huge market niche. Will Genus survive? They have $30 million dollars or so of Varian money which they are burning up on R&D and marketing. The trick is going to be convincing potential customers that they are going to be around for service and support. I think Genus is a prime company to partner with or absorb, but it will not survive as the individual company it is now for more than a year. If Varian did films, Genus would be gone right now. Hope this helps...

To: FJB who wrote (27)	1/8/1999 8:01:00 PM
From: FJB	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 195

Jan. 8 - Deutsche Bank downgraded ASML to "underweight" from a "neutral" rating. Stock closed at $42 1/8 NEW YORK, Jan 6 (Reuters) - BT Alex. Brown said semiconductor equipment manufacturing analyst Erika Klauer upgraded seven companies within the sector Wednesday from market perform ratings to either buy or strong buy ratings. -- Klauer upgraded Veeco Instruments Inc. (Nasdaq:VECO - news) to a strong buy from a market perform rating. Share price was up 2-7/8 at 59-3/8 on the Nasdaq stock market. -- Upgraded KLA-Tencor Corp. (Nasdaq:KLAC - news) to a strong buy from a market perform. Share price was up 1-1/2 to 54-1/8. -- Upgraded Novellus Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:NVLS - news) to a strong buy from a market perform. Share price was up three to 61-9/16 on the Nasdaq stock market. -- Upgraded Applied Materials Inc. (Nasdaq:AMAT - news) to a strong buy from a market perform. Share price was up 2-13/16 to 52-1/2 on the Nasdaq stock market. -- Upgraded ATMI Inc. (Nasdaq:ATMI - news) to a buy from a market perform. Share price was down 1/16 to 27-5/16 on the Nasdaq stock market. -- Upgraded LAM Research Corp. (Nasdaq:LRCX - news) to a buy from a market perform. Share price was up one at 26-1/4 on the Nasdaq stock market. Jan. 5 - Shares of Lam Research jumped 33 percent Tuesday after Soundview Technology Group upgraded the chip-equipment maker's stock. Soundview's semiconductor analyst Michael O'Brien raised his rating on the company to 'buy" from "hold" and established a 6 to 12-month price target of $27. Shares of Lam (LRCX) advanced 6 1/4 to 25 1/4. O'Brien, however, lowered his fiscal 1999 earnings estimate to a loss of $1.98 per share from a loss of $1.74 on a backlog expectation. That was still ahead of the First Call consensus estimate of a loss of $2.66. O'Brien also established a fiscal 2000 estimate of 60 cents a share, which is well above the current First Call consensus estimate of 15 cents. In a research note, O'Brien said although Lam has struggled in the past 18 months with its operations improvement plan and a push to re-establish its customer base, the company has shown improvement in its product offerings over the last year. O'Brien also said he believes the company has improved significantly in production spending and expects positive results from this improvement over the next several quarters. In addition, O'Brien said he believes that the chip equipment companies will lead the recovery in the semiconductor industry. As a result, he also upgraded Teradyne (TER) to "strong buy" from "buy" and established a 12-month price target of $60 a share. O'Brien also upgraded KLA-Tencor to "strong buy" from "hold." He upped KLA's (KLAC) second-quarter earnings estimate to 12 cents from 8 cents a share, above the current First Call consensus estimate of 9 cents a share. He increased fiscal 1999 estimates to 61 cents from 43 cents a share, again, above First Call's 51 cents, and he raised fiscal 2000 estimates to $1.52 from $1.26. Analysts polled by First Call expect the company to earn $1.37 for its fiscal 2000 period. Shares of KLA-Tencor gained 6 7/8 to 52 5/8. Teradyne shares rose 3 1/2 to 45 5/8. -- Upgraded Zygo Corp. (Nasdaq:ZIGO - news) to a buy from a market perform. Share price was up 1-1/8 to 11-1/8 on the Nasdaq stock market.