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Technology Stocks : Texas Instruments - Good buy now or should we wait? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Patriarch who wrote (4378)	4/10/1999 7:14:00 AM
From: Charlie Smith	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6180

patriarch: Working with CyberStar, a satellite network; Digital Projection, which makes the digital projectors the theaters used; Texas Instruments (TXN), which developed the chips for the projectors; and the Independent Film Channel, a Discovery Channel subsidiary, Mr. Avalos and Mr. Weiler showed that smaller players might some day be able to break the big-studio stranglehold. internet /noun/: the mother of all networks; a tool for disintermediating hoarders of information Charlie

To: Patriarch who wrote (4378)	4/12/1999 1:39:00 PM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6180

Patriarch, Here is an interesting article on semi-conductors. I've only quoted excerpts so look at original article under Yahoo if you want to read the entire report: Industry Analysis Apr 12, 1999 Semiconductors: Semiconductor Earnings: Chipper Outlook Analyst: Chris Bulkey Last week we featured a story on the semiconductor industry, and detailed why we believe a prolonged recovery is well underway. We identified strong January shipments along with improvements in book-to-bill and DRAM shipments, as factors for our recommendation. We did note, however, that investor concerns about slowing PC sales kept pressure on most semiconductor related stocks. With semiconductor manufacturers about to release first quarter earnings, we want to identify some companies that are well positioned in the fastest growing segments of the market. Get On Board Quickly Keep in mind that historically, the semiconductor industry's rebounds have been sharp, so investors need to get on board quickly before valuations get stretched. Analysts are generally looking for most of semiconductor related stocks to meet or exceed consensus estimates with the exception of Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD - news) , which pre-announced a first quarter operating loss. Magic 25 component Motorola (NYSE:MOT - news) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC - news) , however, are the two reports that investors will keep a close eye on as industry bellwethers. PC Price Competition The biggest concern plaguing the semiconductor industry over the past month is the perception that a slowdown in PC sales will lead to earnings shortfalls. The evidence we've gathered suggests that PC issues are more seasonal, and that positive secular trends remain intact. It is apparent that, however, component prices are falling as PC manufacturers are becoming increasingly price competitive. The semiconductor industry still has two areas in nascent stages that hold tremendous growth opportunities in the coming years -- application-specific chips for data networking and telecommunications markets. Continued growth in the Internet and client/server applications is fueling strong demand for highly reliable data networking solutions, which require semiconductors to provide processing capabilities. Meanwhile, wireless communication is proliferating into applications that go beyond simple voice communications. Examples include e-mail capabilities through handsets, as well as other hand held communications devices such as 3Com's (NASDAQ:COMS - news) Palm Pilot, which give consumers PC capabilities in a compact design. Our Favorite Picks: Adaptec (NASDAQ:ADPT - news) is one of our favorite picks in the data networking sector. Adaptec has a new product line of chips for servers and workstation applications that are garnering rave reviews from industry observers. File servers and workstations, such as those from SUN MICROSYSTEMS (NASDAQ:SUNW - news) , are critical components in storing and powering data applications in Internet environments, and should see explosive demand for years to come. Adaptec is also beginning a push into the high-end RAID storage market, which offers another growth area for the company. We also like PMC-Sierra (NASDAQ:PMCS - news) in the data networking field because the company has established a favorable mix of local area (LAN) and wide area (WAN) applications. The general consensus among analysts is that PMC is the leader in the ATM switch market, and has a strong product line of SONET and Gigabit Ethernet applications. Another company we favor is Xilinx (NASDAQ:XLNX - news) , a maker of programmable logic devices (PLDs), which allow integrated circuits to be programmed to run the most complex applications. Our research indicates that Xilinx is taking market share from its two biggest competitors -- Altera (NASDAQ:ALTR - news) and Lattice Semiconductor (NASDAQ:LSCC -news) . The most important factor is that the company is winning business from Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - news) , which traditionally has been a large Altera customer. In telecommunications, Dallas Semiconductor (NYSE:DS - news) is gaining momentum in the market for bandwidth solutions, particularly with optical multi-plexing applications. Over the long-term, higher bandwidth requirements will become essential because of the continued proliferation of enhanced communication services. In the near-term, Dallas Semiconductor has the opportunity to generate significant operating leverage during the early stages of an industry upturn due to its small size. Micrel (NASDAQ:MICR - news) is well positioned within the infrastructure market with a product line of amplifiers and RF (radio frequency) transmitters that are critical elements of base station equipment. Texas Instrument (NYSE:TXN ) is changing its product mix away from the hard disk drive sector and into applications for the DSP (digital signal processing market) market. DSP is a technology that improves the accuracy and reliability of digital communications by clarifying or standardizing the digital signal. Bottom Line: Readers should conduct their own due-diligence on the companies mentioned in this story, paying special attention to valuations and how they relate to your risk tolerance. Bottom Line: We feel that we're in the early stages of a cyclical upturn in the semiconductor industry that has the potential to enhance profitability of nearly all participants. The key is to identify those companies and sectors that are best positioned, as we enter the second half of the year. The companies mentioned above should give readers a more than adequate starting point. For more in-house professional stock analysis and commentary, visit us at Individual Investor Online.