5 Chip Stocks To Watch Are Moving Up, With Apple’s Big Event March 21
A basket of top-rated chip stocks are making moves around buy points now, with several moving up in Friday trading. And Apple ( AAPL ), a big user of semiconductors, just sent out press invitations for a March 21 event where it’s expected to introduce a small iPhone and another iPad. So which chip stocks are highly rated by IBD and get at least some of their business from Apple? Broadcom ( AVGO ), IBD Leaderboard stock Macom Technology Solutions ( MTSI ), Cirrus Logic ( CRUS ), Mellanox ( MLNX ) and Nvidia ( NVDA ) make the list. All are at least somewhat diversified, with revenue streams in everything from data center and mobile networking systems to powerful graphics chips for virtual reality and gaming, to connected car technology and now even artificial intelligence. Chips And Profit IBD 50 stock Broadcom was up more than 3% in midday trading in the stock market today , putting it just above and out of buy range from a double-bottom base. Macom was up nearly 6%, similarly above its ideal buy range. Broadcom and Macom Technology Solutions made IBD’s Stocks on The Move screen Friday, heading up in high volume. Broadcom made Thursday morning’s screen too. Early Thursday, Broadcom’s management team had presented at a Susquehanna Financial analysts’ conference. “It’s a great time to operate in the semiconductor industry,” CEO Hock Tan said there. “You have a substantial profit pool … compared to similar industries of the same size.” Loading the player… Broadcom had started giving up some of its gains as stock indexes dipped into the red with falling oil prices, but it ended up with a 1.7% rise Thursday. Several other top-rated chip stocks moved up early Friday after declining Thursday. Cirrus Logic was up about 3% at midday. Mellanox was up 2% and Nvidia was up fractionally. On Thursday, Mellanox had slipped to the bottom of buy range, as had Macom Technology Solutions, while Nvidia had edged down to about 4% under a buy point from a cup base. While the stock market’s in a confirmed uptrend, much of the action is choppy with ups and downs in oil prices and economic concerns around the globe. Going into Friday trading, all five of these top-ranked chipmakers had fallen from a week ago, between 1% and 7%, with the S&P 500 index down 1%. Cirrus Logic and Mellanox were up 14% and 15% this year, respectively — the only ones of the five with notable gains. Nvidia, an IBD 50 stock, has the strongest IBD Composite Rating of the bunch, a best-possible 99, taking into account earnings growth, stock price gains and several other metrics. The others range between 90 and 98 in Composite Rating. Apple Chips It will take awhile for teardowns to show whose chips go into whatever new products Apple introduces, and longer for those chips to translate into reported sales, and lagging iPhone sales growth lately hasn’t helped the chips. Apple Sets March 21 To Launch Small iPhone, New iPad, Watch Bands https://t.co/MxIpxMFKvc pic.twitter.com/iPxQ1lTAFF — Investors.com (@IBDinvestors) March 10, 2016 Other markets are driving growth, however. Nvidia, for instance, said in its fourth quarter report, in February, that it’s at the “center of four exciting growth opportunities — PC gaming, VR (virtual reality), deep learning and self-driving cars.” Nvidia is a partner to electric car maker Tesla Motors ( TSLA ) and other auto manufacturers, and said last month that it’s in an alliance with Facebook ( FB ) and Chinese Internet company Alibaba Group ( BABA ) for speedy artificial intelligence chips.