Market Vectors® Semiconductor ETF

AMD stock has a consensus rating of “hold” and an annual price target of $2.43. The most bullish estimate is $5.00. The most bearish estimate is $1.50.

PC gaming and accelerated computing played strong roles in the expansion of margins for Nvidia.

Intel’s mobile computing group loss kept widening as the company sold its Atom processors at a discounted price while its operating expenses rose due to heavy spending on R&D.

Marvell is likely to be a potential acquisition target with an enterprise value of $2.6 billion, a cash reserve of $2 billion, and zero debt.

The gaming console market is the key growth driver for AMD. It has an upper hand over NVIDIA (NVDA) in this segment through its application processing unit.

Micron’s PE ratio For the past two to three months, many analysts have been touting Micron Technology (MU) as a cheap stock at a forward PE (price-to-earnings) ratio of 6.0x. Micron’s PE ratio is well below the semiconductor industry’s (SMH) average PE ratio of 23.4x and the S&P 500’s (SPY) average PE ratio of 21.5x. […]

The SMAC (social, mobile, analytics, and cloud) revolution has forced technology players to look for various avenues of growth in the rapidly changing environment.

Net income for 2Q15 included acquisition cost of Avago Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) net income for 2Q15 included costs associated with the proposed acquisition of Avago (AVGO) of $22 million or $0.04 per share. Broadcom’s press release on July 31, 2015, stated, “GAAP net income for the first quarter of 2015 included impairment charges […]

Intel (INTC) announced its Q2 2014 earnings recently. Its revenue of $13.83 billion and earnings per share of 55 cents beat analysts’ estimates.

Of the 16 analysts covering Microchip (MCHP), ten issued “buy” recommendations, and six recommended a “hold” for the stock.

The peers outperformed Micron based on the current ratio, PE ratio, and PBV ratio. The ETFs outperformed Micron based on the price movement, PE ratio, and PBV ratio.

Samsung’s (SSNLF) revenues increased 2.3% QoQ, from $5.1 billion in 2Q15 to $52.7 billion in 3Q15. Its market share also increased from 45.1% to 46.7% in the same period.

Intel spent ~$11.5 billion on R&D, or research and development, in 2014. This represents ~21% of its total revenue—compared to 19% in 2013.

In the trailing one month, net fund inflows for the VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) were $184.6 million. In the trailing 12-month (or TTM) period, net fund inflows were $87.7 million.

According to Nvidia, PC gaming represents approximately 40% of the global gaming market—more than phones, consoles, tablets, or any other single gaming segment.

Nvidia says that the customer base of the GeForce Experience PC gaming platform grew to 65 million, up from 38 million a year ago.

With the development of 7-nm chips, IBM has surpassed Intel, which is still working on 10-nm chips.

The United States is the biggest supplier and China is the biggest consumer of semiconductors in the world.

Pretty much anything that has a material adverse effect on the company will be considered a material adverse change, but there are exceptions to that rule.

2018 has been a volatile year for the entire stock market. The United States–China trade war has created demand uncertainty.

On December 14, 2015, Micron Technology announced that it will buy the remaining shares of foundry partner Inotera Memories in a share swap transaction.

Semiconductor stocks fell once again as President Trump played another card in the United States’ trade war with China.

In September, memory chip maker Micron Technology (MU) reported weaker guidance for the November quarter for several reasons, one of which was tariffs.

AMD stock has hit a 12-year high, rising 182% year-to-date. In contrast, the Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) has risen 6.7% YTD.

2018 started off on a strong note for the semiconductor industry, but this growth vanished in the second half of 2018 as the US-China trade tensions weakened demand.

The material adverse change clause describes the way that NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) can back out of the Freescale–NXP merger.

On May 16, the US banned American companies from supplying or transferring technology deemed critical for national security to Chinese telecom equipment supplier Huawei.

According to the IDC, the IoT (Internet of Things) market is expected to reach $7.1 trillion in sales by 2020—up from $1.9 trillion in 2014.

Broadcom is set to report its fiscal 2019 Q4 results on December 12. We expect the company’s earnings to beat analysts’ Q4 and fiscal 2019 estimates.

Semiconductor stocks recovered slightly in January 2019 due to the anticipation of strong demand in the second half of the year.

After the announcement of its fiscal 1Q16 earnings, SanDisk stock rose by 0.8% to $76.50 on April 28, 2016. However, the very next day, the stock fell.

Many semiconductor stocks fell more than 5% in the fourth week of October. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) took the biggest fall of 28.2%.

The semiconductor industry has been badly hurt by the economic downturn caused by the US-China (FXI) trade war.

Semiconductor ETFs (SMH) continued to outperform the market despite the US-China trade war.

October started with a sharp drop in the stock markets as the Federal Reserve increased interest rates by 25 basis points to 2.25%.

On August 26, 2015, Bloomberg reported that Intel, a leader in the semiconductor space, is investing more than $60 million in Shanghai-based Yuneec International.

The fourth-quarter semiconductor earnings season began with warnings of a demand slowdown.

As the risk-off sentiment takes hold in the market, investors could rotate out of more growth-oriented and expensive stocks and into relatively stable, defensive stocks.

In this series, we’ll look at the factors that are affecting Advanced Micro Devices stock and its valuation.

The current wave of consolidation makes potential targets out of chip companies that serve the industrial, automotive, mobile, and storage spaces.

Avago Technologies (AVGO) is a designer, developer, and global supplier of a broad range of semiconductor devices. It’s purchasing Broadcom (BRCM).

A war between China and Taiwan is not a material adverse change. An earthquake that takes out a Freescale manufacturing facility is.

Despite recent declines, the SMH ETF has risen over 41% in the last 12 months. Meanwhile, NVIDIA has risen a whopping 186.7% in the same period, while AMD has returned 15.5% in that period.

The key to the Freescale–NXP merger is the timing. The companies are guiding to a 2H15 close, likely in the fourth quarter.

President Trump’s third round of tariffs could affect almost all Chinese imports. US imports from China stood at $506 billion in 2017.

Donald Trump has reignited trade war tension with China.

The semiconductor sector is set to report its weakest earnings in more than two years.

In this series, we’ll look at what 2019 could bring for semiconductor stocks.

The companies expect to have a second antitrust-related request, and there is always the risk of an in-depth regulatory review by the European Union.

The Freescale–NXP merger is driven by complementary offerings. Freescale is active in the auto, consumer, networking, and industrial markets.

The VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) fell more than 2% at the start of May 6.

Last year, AMD stock outperformed peers Intel and NVIDIA (NVDA) and the S&P 500 (SPY) and VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) by huge margins.

Broadband and connectivity In 2Q15, the “Broadband and Connectivity” segment of Broadcom (BRCM) generated revenues of $1.42 billion compared to $1.40 billion in 1Q15 and $1.30 billion in 2Q14. Operating income in 2Q15 for this segment was $268 million compared to $241 million in 1Q15 and $243 million in 2Q14. While operating margin was 18.8% […]

Applied Materials, the world’s largest chip manufacturing equipment vendor, reported strong fiscal Q3 2018 earnings but lowered its fiscal Q4 2018 guidance.

NVIDIA and Applied Materials stock fell 16.8% and 7.3% in the after-hours trading session on November 15.

Apple is continuing to lose investors’ confidence in the fourth quarter. Apple stock has fallen 24.3% sequentially as of December 13.

The companies were asked about the takeover premium and the background to the transaction on the conference call, but they refused to comment.

The first-quarter semiconductor earnings season has begun, and the stock market is showing bullish sentiment as investors buy ahead of earnings releases.

In this series, we’ll see what investors should expect from Applied Materials’ upcoming earnings.

NVIDIA expects the first half of this year to be weak amid economic uncertainty and slow demand. In this series, we’ll discuss how fiscal 2020 could be for NVIDIA.

ADI’s Consumer segment is made up of its computing and mobile businesses, and Apple (AAPL) is its biggest customer.

The iShares PHLX Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) and the VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) hit a new 52-week high on April 17 due to strong growth in Qualcomm (QCOM) and Intel (INTC).

On April 24, several semiconductor stocks made new 52-week highs.

2019 started on a good note for the semiconductor industry.

Basics of the transaction The Freescale–NXP merger transaction is a cash and stock transaction, which means Freescale shareholders will participate in the upside by holding stock in the merged entity. The equity value of the transaction is roughly $11.8 billion and includes about $4.9 billion in net debt. Terms of the transaction Freescale Semiconductor (FSL) shareholders […]

The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite Index fell 0.37% in the early trading session on April 9 driven by declines in semiconductor stocks.

Things have been slow for the semiconductor industry in 2018 after rapid growth in 2017.

It’s important for investors to understand the MAC clause. It explains how Avago (AVGO) can exit its transaction with Broadcom (BRCM).

In this series, we’ll discuss what investors could expect for Texas Instruments’ third-quarter earnings, scheduled to be released on October 23.

Most semiconductors stocks had risen more than 2% as of midday today, with several factors having raised investors’ optimism about the sector’s growth.

It would be difficult for Tsinghua to get approval from the US government because it wouldn’t allow a foreign company to buy a chip maker of strategic components.

Moore’s Law holds an important place in the semiconductor space. It’s a law that was based on an observation by Gordon Moore. Moore co-founded Intel in 1968.

In fiscal 2Q16, Cree’s revenues rose 5% YoY to $435.8 million, beating the analyst estimates of $434.7 million. Cree’s stock then jumped by 9.7% to $26.6.

Monday was yet another bad day for semiconductor stocks.

The VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) hit a new 52-week high of $118.83 on April 17, driven by a more-than-20% increase in Qualcomm’s (QCOM) stock and more-than-5% increase in Intel’s (INTC) stock.

Altera’s revenue fell 20% YoY (year-over-year) to $399.6 million, and EPS (earnings per share) fell from $0.38 in fiscal 3Q14 to $0.20 in fiscal 3Q15.

Cypress Semiconductor’s net income rose 67.0% YoY to $125.0 million in the second quarter.

AMD’s capital resources have been stressed since the company posted losses in 2012. The company has ~12 times more debt than equity.

Nvidia posted 4Q15 revenue and non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.25 billion and 35 cents, respectively.

Nvidia’s cash balance has steadily increased from $0.7 billion to $4.6 billion over the past six fiscal years owing to strong cash flow generation.

Heavyweights in the memory space such as Micron (MU), Samsung (SSNLF), and SK Hynix (HXSCF) may see an improvement in DRAM (dynamic random access memory) prices.

The contract price of 32 GB NAND has fallen 4.7% from $1.69 to $1.61, whereas the contract price of 64 GB NAND has fallen 1.8% from $2.19 to $2.15.

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang stated that the company’s strategy for Tegra is to “focus on automotive and gaming.”

The stock of semiconductor (SMH) company Texas Instruments (TXN) has generated a return of 12.4% in the last 12 months.

Globally, a lot of mega deals have happened in the semiconductor sector. On May 28, Avago Technologies announced that it would acquire Broadcom.

Like Skyworks, Cirrus Logic improved its non-GAAP gross margin from 46.6% in fiscal 4Q15 to 49.8% in fiscal 4Q16 due to a favorable product mix.

Since GPUs are installed into every system or PC before they’re shipped, they indicate the PC market’s health. The Gaming PC segment requires higher-end GPUs.

Intel (INTC) dominates the semiconductor market. Over decades, it developed expertise in semiconductor manufacturing technology.

Intel stated that by 3Q15, it expects the 14nm Broadwell to be its lowest cost PC platform. However, this depends on 14nm yields improving as expected.

NVIDIA and Applied Materials published their latest earnings results on August 16. Their weaker guidances have spooked investors.

Cypress (CY) plans to announce its 2Q17 earnings on July 27, 2017. In this series, we’ll see what investors should expect from its upcoming earnings and growth potential.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) stock has been making new highs every other day. On January 9, AMD stock reached its all-time high of $49.96.

Broadcom has been making many acquisitions in the software industry. The semiconductor giant seems to be drifting away from its core chip business.

AT the CES 2016, Intel stated that it’s developing a gaming NUC (Next Unit of Computing) that will compete with AMD’s and NVIDIA’s GPUs.

Ambarella (AMBA) stock closed the trading day on December 27 at $59.91, a fall of 1.5%. The stock is trading 10.8% lower than its 52-week high of $67.15.

Tech stocks have been on a roll in 2019. As we get closer to 2020, let’s take a look at the companies to consider for the next year.

Broadcom (AVGO) has been regularly returning value to shareholders. The company pays dividends to shareholders and rewards them with share buybacks.

Broadcom (AVGO) stock has grown at a sluggish pace this year, underperforming its peers. AVGO has returned only 27.2% year-to-date.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) stock touched a new high of $45.62 on Monday. At this price, the stock also reached its 19-year high.

Nvidia (NVDA) has gained regulatory approval from antitrust regulators for its pending acquisition of Mellanox Technologies (MLNX).