Eight Semi Picks From Those in the Know - Barron's

Semiconductor analysts at last week's Churchill Club's 12th annual Semiconductor Outlook dinner insist that despite a soft outlook for the sector, there is money to be made by seeking out companies in good product cycles. Barron's Eric Savitz lets us in on the picks of some industry experts:

• Christopher Danely of JPMorgan likes Microchip Technology (MCHP), which stands to do well against rival "stiffs" STMicro (STM) and Freescale (FSL). AMD (AMD), he says, "is trading as if it's going out of business," and could double from its present $7.43.

• Mark Lipacis of Morgan Stanley calls PMC-Sierra (PMCS) "a pure play on growth in communications infrastructure," which stands to gain by outstanding telco balance sheets. Texas Instruments (TXN) is underloved.

• Dan Niles of Neuberger Berman Technology Management continues to like handset chipmaker Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), which is gaining market share at Nokia (NOK), Research In Motion (RIMM) and others. Applied Materials (AMAT) is a good bet on solar growth.

• J.& W. Seligman portfolio manager Sangeeth Peruri thinks Marvell (MRVL) will crush Street EPS estimates. ON Semiconductor (ONNN) is well positioned in the low-end analog chip industry.

Comments

[distinguish...:]

Statements like "TXN is underloved" are lacking in helpfulness. Who did it? Barrons, the analyst Barrons was quoting, or Mr. Hoffman?

2008 Jun 08 01:26 PM

[RealityJunkie:]

thedoctor,
It looks like Mark Lipacis of Morgan Stanley made that statement...at least if you read entire paragraph

2008 Jun 08 01:34 PM

[specks:]

Whenever I see stocks being promoted I immediately take note. Why? Because I know that if it's being recommended it's for one reason only. Those who already own it want to sell and they need to create a market from unsuspecting new investors to that stock.
When I find a good one, I keep my mouth shut and buy all I can! Don't you??

2008 Jun 08 01:37 PM

[Arthur Fisher:]

Twits chasing commissions. The great long-term investment in the field is Taiwan Semiconductor. Everything else, possibly except TXN, is fragile by comparison.

2008 Jun 08 03:45 PM

[User 192303:]

User 151885, You are CORRECT! Also, look at the price charts of these stocks and you will see that most off them have all had huge gains recently. You do NOT buy high....chasing performance is the fastest way to burned. Jim Cramer's picks also have this problem...he waits until a stock is on fire and then tells us it is on fire---no shit. I am a programmer and my pet project is a program that scans all of these useless websites and the dozens of investment newsletters that I have sent to it.....The program filters every traded stock by any and all parameters that I enter (MACD,PE,RSI, Ect...) and then flags all of the stocks that are being "Pumped" on the internet so that I can avoid them. I have been investing with E*Trade for less than a year to test my program and I have yet to lose money on a single trade. As soon as I pay off my house I plan on making my software available for free to Linux users.

2008 Jun 08 06:42 PM

[Archman Inv...:]

Yeah, those in the know...LOL.
I still think back to early 2000 and wonder which poor souls out there bought my PMCS from me at $250 (my buy price was $30) and my JDSU from me at $110 (my buy price was $15)??

These stocks are nothing more than lottery tickets being pumped by firms that either own shares, do investment banking with them, etc.
It fits right in with the gambling, Mad Money/ Fast Money, mentality of the general public. Why do you think most people are broke and have no real liquid (non-home) net worth?? HA HA

Typical Wall Street bullsh*t.

Nothing compares to doing ones own D & D, and making a decision based on that.

2008 Jun 09 07:54 AM

[Scarlatta:]

User 192303:

That is a great pursuit. I would sure like to work with you on that (Or st least benefit from it.)

2008 Jun 19 10:16 AM