Semiconductor Capital Equipment Stocks Discussion
- JenL_2
- Kirk
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- JenL_2
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» JenL_2 - Semis a Safe Haven?
This from 4/21 TSC:Chips Ahoy! Semis a Safe Haven in Stormy Seas
By Marcy Burstiner
(excerpts)
In a turbulent economy, chips can be a safe haven. Year to date, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has risen about 44%, compared with the Nasdaq's near 9% drop. But these stocks are by no means immune to stormy weather. Since March 10, as the Nasdaq fell some 27%, the SOX had its own 22% drop.....
.....In the old days, chip investors didn't worry much about the larger economy. Semiconductor stocks were ruled by supply. Demand stayed fairly constant, and prices rose as supplies tightened when companies ran out of room in their manufacturing plants. Companies would frantically build more, supplies would rise, and prices collapse -- and so would the stocks.
In those days, chips went into one basic thing -- computers. Now, however, they are in just about everything: phones, cars, light switches, toys. And if there is an economic slowdown, consumers and companies might stop spending on these new products. The mere fear that that could happen could spur the makers of some products to stop ordering chips. That's what worries SG Cowen analyst Drew Peck. "The spigots would get turned off and orders would turn down to zero," he says......
.....it would take a prolonged and widespread economic downturn to affect companies that make chips for Internet infrastructure. That's because telephone and cable companies are rolling out digital subscriber lines and cable modem networks now, and these companies are well-funded and don't have to depend on continuing money flow from venture capitalists....
...."Only if the markets really got hammered in a terrible way, then you might see some slowing,"....
.....Jen
-- posted by JenL_2
» Kirk - Big story in Today' SJ Mercury News...
.... about how PacificBell / SBC is having a terrible time with their DSL service. Seems demand is so much larger then what they can supply. It is giving them all sorts of problems keeping up as traffic crashes their infrastructure!Good thing about this, no matter what bandwidth you have, you can always use more. You can only get more bandwidth by buying chips.
"Bandwidth is much like money and sex..... it can never be too good and too much is seldom a problem!" KWL
-- posted by Kirk
» Kirk - LSI Shines, adds capacity!
from http://www.semibiznews.com/story/OEG2000...LSI Logic sets revenues record; CEO forecasts even higher growth
By Crista Souza
Electronic Buyers' News
(04/26/00, 08:57:01 AM EDT)
MILPITAS, Calif. -- LSI Logic Corp. said its communications chips and storage systems were in stronger demand than expected during the first quarter of fiscal 2000, driving revenue to a record $615 million -- up 33% compared with the first quarter of fiscal 1999.
Although the chip maker was not held back by capacity constraints, it is ramping its Gresham, Ore., IC-wafer factory ahead of schedule to meet accelerating bookings that are already stretching into the third quarter, said Wilf Corrigan, president and chief executive of the Milpitas company.
"Late last year, we forecast quarter-to-quarter revenue growth in the range of 6% to 8%," Corrigan said in conference call to analysts on Tuesday. "We're now comfortable that we'll see 8% to 10% growth sequentially."
This growth will come less as a result of price inflation on newer products than from the sheer volume of product being shipped, he added.
"About the middle of Q1, it really sunk in that business is strong, and there isn't any Y2K effect," Corrigan said. "We're in an unusually strong period in the semiconductor industry, and it looks to us like it will have a lot of legs to it."
Net income before goodwill and other special items was $88 million, or 26 cents per diluted share, compared with $11.2 million, or 4 cents per share in the same quarter a year ago. Diluted per-share earnings were adjusted to reflect last February's two-for-one common stock split.
The company's higher profits reflect increased revenue, improved gross margin and declining operating expenses, the company said. Gross margins in the first quarter were 42.4%, while operating expenses declined to 24.5% of revenue.
Despite its accelerated factory build-out, LSI is sticking to its earlier target of 48% gross profit margin, and 20% operating margin by the end of 2000. The company's capital spending budget remains at $450 million for the year.
Communications products continued to be the primary revenue driver, with broadband and networking devices each growing 50% sequentially, although LSI declined to quantify the product segments in terms of dollars. As a whole, communications -- composed of broadband, networking, set-top box decoders, and wireless products -- is still expected to grow 60% over the full year.
LSI also increased its communications venture fund to $75 million, using a $25 million one-time gain from past investments.
-- posted by Kirk
» Kirk - Seminconductor3000 Website
http://www.sc300.de/en/index.htmlThe technology advance from 200mm to 300mm silicon wafers will enable a much needed increase in productivity of 30 percent. Approximately 2.5 times as many chips can be produced on a 300mm silicon wafer compared to 200mm. More important to IC manufacturers, is the opportunity for reduction of cost per square centimeter on the processed 300mm silicon wafers.
Research and development expenditures of more than one billion D-Mark have to be provided by the two parent companies. Funding will be given by the German Federal Ministry for Research as well as by the State of Saxony.
Good graphic Here showing how larger wafers yield more "productive wafer area" (less of the round wafer with no rectangular circuits on it) and more "chips per wafer".
<img src=http://www.sc300.de/en/Wirt1_en/producti... width=306 height=221>
and
<img src=http://www.sc300.de/en/Wirt1_en/chipsper... width=306 height=221>
-- posted by Kirk
» Kirk - Chip sales hit record $15B in March
Chip sales hit record $15 billion in March, driven by flash, PLDs, DSPsSemiconductor Business News
(05/09/00, 09:19:10 AM EDT)
http://www.semibiznews.com/story/OEG2000...
SAN JOSE--Worldwide chip sales climbed to a record high $14.96 billion in March, a 33.8% increase from $11.18 billion in the month last year and 2.8% higher than $14.56 billion in February, said the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) here today.
The SIA's monthly sales report shows the most dramatic sale increases being in flash memories (up 197.5% in the first quarter of 2000 from last year. Programmable logic revenues were up 77.8%, digital signal processors (DSPs) rose 52.8%, "application specific MOS logic up 59.5%, and DRAM grew 33.4% in the first three month of 2000 compared to Q1 of 1999, according to the SIA, which did not initially release sales figures for those chip segments.
"The strong sales in the first quarter put the industry on course for another record sales year," declared George Scalise, president of the SIA. "Product sectors, in addition to microprocessors and DRAMs used in PC's, that played a major role in the March sales include flash, digital signal processors, programmable logic and standard cell. These semiconductor products can be found in many consumer goods including cellular applications, automobiles and home appliances."
Using a three-month moving average, the SIA global sales report said chip sales in the Asia-Pacific region grew 46.1% in March to $3.81 billion compared to $2.61 billion in the same month last year. Japan's semiconductor sales jumped 38.4% (in dollar revenues) to $3.35 billion vs. $2.42 billion in March 1999, said the trade group.
Chip sales in the Americas grew 25.1% to $4.53 billion in March compared to $3.62 billion in the month last year, and European semiconductor revenues were up 29.2% to $3.27 billion vs. $2.53 billion in March 1999, according to the SIA's monthly report.
Note - These growth numbers are dollar figures!
-- posted by Kirk
» JenL_2 - Chip Stocks Slide
Rande - Glad to hear that AMAT is going up in after-hours trading. This from 5/9 WSJ:Chip Stocks Slide as Market Has Another Slow Session
By DANIELLE SESSA
Technology shares continued to fall Tuesday in another sluggish session on Wall Street.
The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 84.37 to 3585.01 and Morgan Stanley's high-tech 35 index slid 20.57 to 890.11. The Dow Jones Internet Index fell 6.70 to 269.33.
At the start of trading Monday, the Nasdaq opened 40 points higher but quickly dropped back into negative territory 30 minutes into the session.
"Tech can't sustain the rally for the time being,'' said John Peluso, head of block trading at Lehman Brothers. "Every time they show a lift, sellers go into them."
Not even a positive report from the Semiconductor Industry Association could spark any forward momentum for the sector. The SIA reported that world-wide semiconductor sales rose 34% to $14.96 billion in March on the shoulders of a booming wireless communications and Internet sectors and strong demand from Asia.
In fact, semiconductor stocks were hit harder than the overall market Tuesday. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange's Semiconductor Index dropped 52.98 to 994.04. Among individual semiconductor names, Advanced Micro Devices fell 5 1/2 to 83 on the New York Stock Exchange, while Applied Materials dropped 5 1/16 to 90 5/8 and Vitesse Semiconductor shed 4 3/4 to 53, both on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Chip companies have been one of the few bright spots in the tech sector. The semiconductor-equipment and chip-maker sectors are both up over 40% for the year, while the Nasdaq is down 10% during the period, according to Baseline, a New York-based data provider.
Tuesday's session continued the pattern of thin trading on Wall Street. Just 1.4 billion shares had changed hands on Nasdaq, compared with an average volume of about 1.7 billion this year.
Interest-rate concerns still weighed on the market and extended the negative sentiment in technology shares. Many investors are taking a breather from the feverish trading days that characterized the market just a few weeks ago and waiting until the Federal Reserve policy meeting next week to make any moves.
"It's an anxious market," said Jennifer Silver, a senior portfolio manager at Neuberger & Berman. "You have to get through the Fed increase next week and get back to fundamentals."
The Fed is expected to raise the interest raises by one-half percentage point at its meeting next Tuesday.
The market is also looking ahead to earnings announcement by three market leaders this week. Cisco Systems released its quarterly earnings after the market closed Tuesday, while Applied Materials reports Wednesday and Dell Computer releases its earnings on Thursday....
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We have the opposite of an Irrationally Exhuberant Market - it's an Irrationally Anxious, Skittery-Jittery, Overselling, Throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bath-water Market.
<img src=" http://www.geocities.com/jeninvestor/100..." width=125 height=95>
Hang in there Folks....Jen
-- posted by JenL_2
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