Russell 2000

Cypress Semiconductor (CY) is looking to increase its cash flow and use the excess cash to repay its debt.

The S&P 500 started this week on a weaker note due to the market’s lower risk appetite amid geopolitical concerns. The S&P 500 rose on September 27.

On October 25, the NASDAQ and Dow Jones Industrial Average opened the day lower. The NASDAQ closed the day at 6,563.89 with a loss of 0.52%.

The S&P 500 fell lower last week amid geopolitical concerns. But it started this week on a stronger note by rebounding on Monday.

After rising to record high price levels last week, the S&P 500 carried the buying momentum to this week. It closed with gains on September 20, 2017.

The S&P 500 started this week on a stable note by trading at all-time high price levels on Monday. The market lost momentum in the first two trading days.

On September 21, nine out of the S&P 500’s 11 major sectors fell. Weakness in the telecom services and consumer staples sectors pushed the market lower.

After starting this week on a stronger note and gaining for seven consecutive trading days, the S&P 500 surged higher to a new record-high price on Thursday.

After consolidating for three consecutive trading days, the S&P 500 started May 11 on a weaker note by opening lower and falling to one-week low levels.

The imports probe might not hurt China much. In contrast, the US could get involved in a trade dispute with friendly nations.

Some analysts say that most of Cypress’s automotive and industrial products are in the design process and would take time to materialize into revenue.

If Qualcomm is unable to overcome the legal headwinds around its licensing business, the completion of its NXP Semiconductors acquisition could be at risk.

Now, let’s look at the forward valuations of Marathon Petroleum (MPC), Tesoro (TSO), Valero Energy (VLO), and Phillips 66 (PSX).

Marathon Petroluem’s net debt-to-EBITDA ratio stood at 1.9x in 4Q16. It’s lower than the average industry ratio of 2.8x.

Marathon Petroleum (MPC) has been rated by 19 Wall Street analysts. Seventeen analysts (or 89%) have rated it as a “buy” so far in May 2017.

Average valuation multiples Earlier, we discussed refining stocks’ performance in 1Q17 and compared their dividend yields. In this part, we’ll look at Marathon Petroleum’s (MPC), Tesoro’s (TSO), Valero Energy’s (VLO), and Phillips 66’s (PSX) forward valuation. The average forward EV-to-EBITDA (enterprise value to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) multiples and average forward PE […]

Refining stocks’ valuation In this part, we’ll compare refining stocks’ EV-to-EBITDA (enterprise value to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) ratios with their three-year averages. Marathon Petroleum (MPC), Valero Energy (VLO), Phillips 66 (PSX), and Tesoro (TSO) are trading higher than their historical valuation. MPC was trading at a 10.3x EV-to-EBITDA ratio in 1Q17, compared […]

Since February 2017, downstream stocks have been hit by volatile crack conditions and changing inventory levels. VLO has also witnessed volatility in its stock price.

In this article, we’ll look at refining stocks’ EV-to-EBITDA (enterprise value to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) ratios compared to their three-year historical averages.

After a brief pullback last week, the S&P 500 started this week on a stronger note and continued to move higher.

Exactly 17 out of the 19 analysts covering Marathon Petroleum (MPC) have rated it a “buy” in February 2017.

PSX is trading at 9x its forward EV-to-EBITDA ratio and at 16.4x its forward PE ratio, which is above the peer averages.

The currently unstable refining environment has resulted in volatile refining earnings for big US refiners like MPC, VLO, TSO, and PSX.

After rising for eight consecutive trading weeks, the S&P 500 started this week on a stronger note by rising to record high price levels on Monday.

Looking at Broadcom’s double-digit revenue growth, Wall Street analysts anticipate that the company could grow at a CAGR[2. compound annual growth rate] of 7%.

Valero has been rated by a total of 21 analysts. Of this total, 12 analysts (or 57%) have given the stock “buy” or “strong buy” ratings, and nine (or 43%) have given it “hold” ratings.

After gaining for three trading weeks, the S&P 500 started this week with an improved sentiment. It fell in three out of four trading days last week.

After trading in a range for five trading days, the S&P 500 opened lower on May 3 and ended the day almost flat.

In February 2017, Southwest Airlines’s (LUV) traffic growth closely matched its capacity growth, and its utilization was flat at 79%.

The S&P 500 started this week on a mixed note by pulling back on January 29, 2018. On Monday, the S&P 500 opened the day lower and closed with a loss.

On January 25, six out of the S&P 500’s 11 major sectors moved higher. Strength in the utilities and health care sectors pushed the market higher.

On the DRAM front, Sanjay Mehrotra stated that average capacity per server increased to ~145 GB in 2017, and it is expected to increase to ~350 GB by 2021.

The fact that Intel’s chips are more vulnerable to attack makes the security flaw even more severe, as the company commands about 80% of the PC CPU (central processing unit) market and 99% of the server CPU market.

To become cost-competitive, Micron is increasing its capex from $5.0 billion in fiscal 2017 to $7.5 billion in fiscal 2018.

In fiscal 1Q18, Micron introduced its 32 GB NVDIMMN (nonvolatile dual in-line memory module), which is a combination of its DRAM and NAND products.

On January 3, eight out of the S&P 500’s 11 major sectors closed the day in profits. Strength in the energy and IT sectors pushed the market higher.

NVIDIA’s ProV revenues rose 15% YoY and 2% sequentially to $239 million in fiscal 3Q18, driven by increasing demand for powerful mobile workstations.

The Intel-AMD partnership would likely help Intel tap into the mobile PC gaming market, but NVIDIA doesn’t think of Intel as big competition in gaming.

The acquisition of Cavium (CAVM) by Marvell Technology (MRVL) would mean several revenue and cost synergies and also change the combined company’s revenue structure.

With every new iPhone generation, Broadcom’s (AVGO) content per phone increases as the phone’s RF subsystems grow more complex.

Intel (INTC) is increasing its earnings through spending discipline and by focusing its expenses on projects with high ROI (return on investment).

Intel’s CCG reported flat YoY revenue growth in fiscal 3Q17, with the increase in notebook shipments offsetting the declines in desktop shipments.

Intel has appointed AMD’s Radeon Technology Group chief architect, Raja Koduri, as the chief architect and senior vice president of its new group.

The first and the easiest thing that Broadcom could do now is talk with Qualcomm’s board and negotiate a higher price.

NVIDIA (NVDA) has become NVIDIA because of its most advanced GeForce GPUs (graphics processing units), which are superior in the PC (personal computer) gaming market in terms of performance.

Intel taps neuromorphic processors Intel (INTC), a leader in the data processor market, is set to secure its position in the cloud computing space with its new Nervana NNP (Neural Network Processor), which it developed in conjunction with Facebook (FB). Now, it is tapping offline, on-device computing to compete with more energy-efficient ARM processors in […]

Intel’s competitive advantage has helped the company pay an uninterrupted dividend for the past 25 years. But with new competition, can it keep it up?

As Intel (INTC) transitions to the data-centric businesses, its IoTG (Internet of Things Group) business will likely be its major revenue driver.

The S&P 500 started this week on a weaker note. On October 24, seven out of the 11 major sectors closed the day with gains.

After rising for five consecutive trading weeks, the S&P 500 started this week on a stronger note. It rose in the first three trading days of the week.

In edge computing, basic analysis happens at the device level. This requires the device to be equipped with memory, processor, and connectivity chips.

The Chinese steel industry, which has been cited for the disruption in global steel markets (MT), is outperforming most other regions this year.

On October 11, the S&P 500 opened the day with improved sentiment and rose to new record highs. The CBOE Volatility Index fell 2.3% to 9.85 on October 11.

At its fiscal 4Q17 earnings call, Micron’s CEO, Sanjay Mehrotra, stated that the company is developing its 1Y, or 13nm, DRAM and its third-generation 3D NAND.

The Ryzen Pro launch comes at a time when many enterprises prepare to transition to Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows 10.

Raja Koduri stated that in Power Saver mode, the RX Vega 64 delivers 35% more power efficiency while sacrificing performance only 4%.

NVIDIA’s automotive revenue  NVIDIA (NVDA) is now dominating the development in autonomous vehicles with the most advanced technology, DRIVE PX 2. It has partnered with over 225 auto and truck makers, Tier-1 suppliers, high-definition mapping companies, startups, and research institutions in their autonomous driving efforts. NVIDIA’s automotive revenues have been growing steadily over the past few […]

So far, we’ve seen how Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) stock reacted to the recent confusion surrounding the news about a possible partnership with Tesla over autonomous vehicle chips.

The S&P 500 started this week on a weaker note by pulling back on Monday. The market started to stabilize and regained strength as the week progressed.

NVIDIA’s (NVDA) revenue rose 56% YoY (year-over-year), while its operating income rose 191% YoY in fiscal 2Q18.

Micron’s memory business The memory market environment has been favorable for memory makers since October 2016 with tight supply conditions fueling memory prices. Pure-play memory suppliers like Micron benefit the most from the memory uptrend. Micron (MU) earns 64% of its revenues from DRAM (dynamic random access memory) and 31% from NAND (negative AND). Three […]

The US is the world’s largest steel importer. The country’s steel imports totaled 30.9 million metric tons last year.

Micron’s EBU revenue rose 19% sequentially to $700 million in fiscal 3Q17 driven by high demand for its products across consumer, industrial, and automotive markets.

The automotive sector accounts for a large chunk of AK Steel’s shipments.

Intel (INTC) acquired Mobileye for $15.3 billion, which represents 42.7x its annual sales of $358 million.

After regaining strength last week by breaking the two-week losing streak, the S&P 500 started this week on a mixed note.

Looking at July imports data, HRC (hot rolled coil) imports fell ~27.0% year-over-year. However, imports rose on a monthly basis.

In fiscal 2Q17, Broadcom’s operating cash flow increased 17% sequentially to ~$1.6 billion.

After a disappointing performance for two consecutive trading weeks, the S&P 500 started this week on a stable note.

AMD’s Vega GPUs (graphics processing units) lag behind NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and Titan XP in terms of performance and behind GTX 1080 in terms of power efficiency.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) entered the high-end GPU (graphics processing unit) market with the launch of its Vega series.

On August 7, 2017, AMAT had a PS ratio of ~3.7x.

In fiscal 1Q18, NVIDIA’s cash reserves stood at $6.2 billion. Its long-term debt stood at $2.0 billion, resulting in a net cash position of $4.2 billion.

After declining for three consecutive trading days, the S&P 500 broke the losing streak and rebounded on Friday.

NVIDIA’s gaming revenues rose 49% year-over-year to ~$1.0 billion in fiscal 1Q18, driven by strong demand for Pascal GPUs.

AMD launched its Radeon RX Vega GPU for game developers on July 30, 2017. NVIDIA shipped its first Volta GPU Tesla V100 for data center applications on August 1.

Cypress’s MCD revenues rose 8% sequentially to $317.9 million in 1Q17, accounting for 59.8% of the company’s revenues.

Xilinx’s automotive revenues grew at an average annual rate of 60% between fiscal 2013 and 2017.

Intel is offering a full spectrum of AI solutions and several accelerators. The company’s journey in accelerated computing began with its acquisition of Altera in 2015.

Intel’s (INTC) move to acquire Mobileye (MBLY) could create an adjacent data center opportunity in the long term.

After Intel discontinued its Atom mobile processors in early 2016, Microsoft partnered with Qualcomm in December 2016 to bring Windows 10 into ARM processors.

Infinity Fabric is a scalable control fabric that controls all the sensors in a chip.

Intel has long-term debt of $24 billion against cash reserves of $17 billion, resulting in net debt of $7 billion.

After gaining for two consecutive trading days, the S&P 500 continued to move higher on Friday. Ten out of 11 major sectors closed higher on July 14.

Previously in this series, we’ve looked at Alcoa’s (AA) 2Q17 earnings estimates. In this article, we’ll see how leading brokerages are rating Alcoa stock ahead of its 2Q17 earnings release.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is performing a multiphase rollout of its Ryzen CPUs.

Advanced Micro Devices’ (AMD) strong stock price gain, product launches, and rising competition have made some analysts bullish and some bearish on the stock.

After trading with increased volatility and ending June 29 with a loss, the S&P 500 started higher on Friday. Six out of 11 major S&P 500 sectors rose.

PC World tested AMD’s Radeon Vega Frontier air-cooled version with NVIDIA’s (NVDA) GeForce Titan XP for OpenGL workflows, the most widely used open graphics standard.

According to Micron’s Ernest Maddock, even if China succeeds in securing legitimate IP, it would still fail in the memory market.

Global steel production rose 4.7% in the first five months of 2017 compared to the same period last year.

NVIDIA’s end-to-end autonomous car solution NVIDIA (NVDA) is looking to make the concept of a fully autonomous car reality by developing an end-to-end platform, from architecture to HD (high-definition) maps. It aims to develop a complete software stack and update it on a continuous basis. On top of that, it hopes to make this stack open, […]

After falling for two consecutive trading days, the S&P 500 was mixed on June 22 and ended the day almost flat.

NVIDIA’s product strategy NVIDIA (NVDA) has officially unveiled its next-generation Volta architecture. Whenever the company develops a new architecture, it first launches it on the Tesla GPU (graphic processing unit) platform for data centers because it commands a higher price than other platforms. Then it launches the architecture on the GeForce gaming platform, as its […]

The S&P 500 opened higher on Wednesday but fell as the day progressed. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 VIX Index fell 1.0% to 10.75.

Chinese steel exports to the United States have fallen sharply and now account for only ~2.0% of consolidated US steel imports.

Phillips 66’s 90-day daily beta stands at 1.1, which is below its peer average of 1.5.

After starting the week with mixed sentiment and struggling for two days, the S&P 500 regained strength on Thursday and rose to all-time high price levels.

In 2Q17 to date, Tesoro’s refining index values, which refer to regional crack indicators in the areas where TSO operates, have shown improvements

After breaking the 2,400 level and closing at all-time high price levels on Wednesday, the S&P 500 continues to strengthen on May 25.