Thursday, August 25, 2011

Investopedia: Waiting For Applied Materials To Wash Out


One of the frustrating parts about following semiconductor and semiconductor equipment stocks is that no two cycles are exactly alike. Right now, Applied Materials (Nasdaq:AMAT) is in a place where the industry is still trying to find the bottom in orders, and companies like ASML (Nasdaq:ASML) have started to suggest that orders will bottom out to maintenance levels late this year or early next year. Applied Materials looks cheap, but it did a quarter ago and the quarter before that, and investors may want to wait for signs of stabilization in orders before taking the plunge.

A Solid Third Quarter ... Sort Of
Applied Materials has been in a weird place for a little while now, lowering order guidance and yet still managing to do a little better than it leads investors to expect. So, too, again this time. Revenue fell 3% on a sequential basis (and rose 11% year over year), enough to beat the average estimate by $100 million and the high end of the range by $50 million. Business was relatively balanced, with the large Silicon Systems category down about 4% sequentially.

Read more: http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2011/Waiting-For-Applied-Materials-To-Wash-Out-AMAT-ASML-HPQ-BBY-TSM-NVLS-LRCX0825.aspx#ixzz1W5oFMnIY


Read more through the link below:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2011/Waiting-For-Applied-Materials-To-Wash-Out-AMAT-ASML-HPQ-BBY-TSM-NVLS-LRCX0825.aspx

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