Tag Archives: aapl

Apple Suppliers Are Among Touted Chips, While Intel Seen A Laggard

CLSA started coverage on a host of chip stocks, including some Apple ( AAPL ) suppliers, trying to separate the wheat from the chaff among Microchip Technology ( MCHP ), NXP Semiconductors ( NXPI ), Broadcom ( AVGO ), Intel ( INTC ) and others. CLSA gave a buy rating to NXP, a supplier to Apple and the automotive market, with a 105 target. NXP rose 0.7% in pre-market trading on the stock market today . . Broadcom, another Apple supplier, gets an outperform rating from CLSA, with a 165 target. Broadcom rose fractionally before the open. CLSA gave a buy rating to Microchip with a 58 target. Microchip rose slightly. Intel is seen underperforming the market with a 30 target. Intel shares were little changed after closing Monday at 30.39. One analyst thinks Darden Restaurants ( DRI ) is looking tasty, while another is curbing enthusiasm for F5 Networks ( FFIV ). Piper Jaffray raised Darden to an outperform with a 78 target. Darden was little changed. F5 Networks got a downgrade to sector weight from overweight at Pacific Crest as shares neared its prior 109 price target. Shares fell a fraction. FBR Capital thinks now is a good time to wade back into the oil patch, upgrading Halliburton ( HAL ) to outperform from market perform and raising its target to 49 from 44. Halliburton rose slightly.

Apple Supplier NXP May Beat Tesla Partner Nvidia To Autonomous Car

Apple ( AAPL ) chip supplier NXP Semiconductors ( NXPI ) batted the iPhone slowdown Monday by unveiling a radar, lidar and vision-sending engine that could beat Tesla Motors ( TSLA ) partner Nvidia ( NVDA ) to the autonomous-car punch. The product platform was revealed during NXP’s annual user forum in Austin, Texas, and comes as Nvidia stock has hit record highs the past two trading days on Wall Street after reporting eye-popping Q1 earnings after the close Thursday. Nvidia touted its machine-learning sales for the Q1 beat. Machine-learning, analysts and companies say, will be essential to creating safe, fully autonomous vehicles. NXP’s BlueBox engine incorporates “embedded intelligence and machine-learning required for complete situation assessments,” the company says. On the stock market today , NXP stock rose 2.3%, following its BlueBox announcement, to 84.97, putting it up a fraction for the year. Shares had hit a 19-month low during the February dip that hurt most Apple suppliers. Apple’s iPhone shipment decline has chip investors worried about the next semiconductor frontier, as smartphone sales hit the brakes. But NXP CEO Rick Clemmer recently told IBD that 40% of his company’s revenue stem from automotive sales. For its Q1 ended April 3, 21% of NXP’s sales stemmed from its smartphone segment. The BlueBox engine uses NXP silicon and software at each advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) node and incorporates radar, lidar and vision-sensing to complete a 360-degree world model around the vehicle. “This functionality greatly improves car safety by both managing and preventing emergency situations,” NXP says. And “unlike closed systems focused only on vision and other single-sensor data streams, the NXP BlueBox engine for autonomous vehicle is an open-source platform.” Programmers can customize BlueBox to their specifications, NXP says. The product already is in hands of customers of four of the world’s top five carmakers, NXP says. It has been shipping since September but now is broadly available.

Microsoft Stock Rated Hold, Seen Near Full Value In Choppy Market

Investment bank Canaccord Genuity initiated coverage of Microsoft ( MSFT ) on Monday with a hold rating, saying the short-term risk-reward looks balanced for the software giant. Canaccord analyst Richard Davis set a price target of 55 on Microsoft stock. Shares rose 1.5%, to 51.83, on the stock market today . Microsoft stock hit a record high of 56.85 on Dec. 29. Microsoft has “attractive long-term prospects,” Davis said in a research report. “We believe Microsoft will continue to make a significant transformation into a much better firm. “We are quite optimistic that most of Microsoft’s growth initiatives will succeed, thereby propelling the stock ahead faster than the overall market.” In the best-case scenario, Microsoft’s renaissance could be similar to IBM ’s ( IBM ) in the 1990s or perhaps even Apple ’s ( AAPL ) in the 2000s, he said. Microsoft is moving from licensing desktop and server software to providing cloud computing services. Davis said he is optimistic about the direction Microsoft is headed, but said he’s cautious because of the choppy market of late. After dropping coverage of Microsoft more than a decade ago, Davis said he wrestled for the appropriate rating in resuming coverage. “We were ready to put a buy on MSFT,” Davis said. “Instead, we took pause after last month’s adequate quarter and slightly disappointing guide. Product and business model transitions are never as linear as analysts project and investors hope, so last quarter could be just a wiggle in fundamentals.” Microsoft stock could go sideways for the next one to three quarters, he said. RELATED: Microsoft Stock Plummets On March-Quarter Miss, Weak Guidance Windows 10 Adoption Slows As PC Users Resist Upgrade Push