Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Tony Viola who wrote (30337)	5/18/1999 11:57:00 PM
From: Sparky65	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

I am a holder of AMAT stock and have been for a while. Like it a lot. In fact, I bought as much as I could last week in the $50's. The reasons are these: I did'nt really care what the numbers were today. I figured that they would suprise on the upside. I have been looking at the 2-3 year period for this stock. If you look at stocks like LSI, XLNX, etc.. you will see that they are moving to new highs. The equipment stocks always lag the chips in their move upward. Also, this type of movement in AMAT is typical of the past. You look one day the stock is at $50, you look again in the near future, $100. The long term fundamentals of this business are very strong, and I believe that it is a "No Brainer" that it is a buy right now. I wish I had more money available to buy more. I believe that AMAT will be trading at $100 by end of July. I believe that we are still in the beginning stages of the largest bull market for chip and chip equipment stocks and you can try to time to tops and bottoms in the short term. But, you will probably be wrong. Buy and hold this stock, great company, management and fundamentals. For what it's worth.

To: Tony Viola who wrote (30337)	5/19/1999 12:33:00 AM
From: Ian Davidson	Respond to of 70976

From the WSJ: May 19, 1999 Applied Materials Beats Expectations Thanks to Rebound in Chip Market By DEAN TAKAHASHI Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Applied Materials Inc., citing a long-awaited rebound in the semiconductor market, sailed past analysts' expectations for profits and orders in its fiscal second quarter. The Santa Clara, Calif., company, the largest maker of the equipment used to manufacture chips, reported net income for the period ended May 2 of $141.6 million, or 36 cents a diluted share. That compares with year-earlier earnings of $141.2 million, or 37 cents a share. The earnings were well above analysts' consensus of 27 cents a share. Revenue fell 5% to $1.12 billion from $1.18 billion a year earlier. Applied Materials said new orders were $1.39 billion, well above analysts' estimates of roughly $1.15 billion. "It's encouraging that there were a lot of orders from a lot of customers in all geographies," said James C. Morgan, the company's chief executive officer. The results were announced after the stock market closed. Applied's stock declined 12.5 cents to $63.125 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading Tuesday, but rose on the news to $65.25 in after-hours trading, according to Instinet. Applied Materials benefited from a restructuring last year that lowered its costs and helped drive new machines to market. But a bigger factor is the recovery from an unprecedented three-year spending slowdown among chip makers. Chip makers appear to be seeing enough growth to justify new capacity investments, as well as shift to new technologies that will make faster and cheaper chips. Byron Walker, an analyst at Warburg Dillon Read in New York, said the industrywide upturn is "looking good" but depends in part on whether memory chip makers have enough cash to spend on new equipment. Prices of dynamic random access memory chips have dropped 40% since March, Mr. Walker said. The question for Applied and other equipment makers is whether demand for the new technologies can overcome problems that are stopping DRAM companies from investing. Mr. Morgan said that DRAM companies continue to make selective investments in new products, and he said orders from Taiwanese companies known as foundries helped offset the DRAM problems. Taiwanese customers were 25% of the new orders, second only to 30% from North American customers. Mr. Morgan added that the speed of the industry recovery also depends on the health of the Asian, European and U.S. economies that help drive demand for chips. During the quarter, Applied began shipping the last of its nine-tool set that would enable chip makers to make chips that use new, copper technology. And Applied has begun hiring employees again after cutting about 1,000 positions last year because the Asian economic crisis deepened an already prolonged semiconductor downturn. The company has about 12,000 employees, well below a peak of 16,000 in 1996 before the downturn began.