Tag Archives: iphi

March Madness: ‘Final Four’ IBD 50 Stock Performers This Month

After college basketball teams duked it out all month long during “March Madness,” the four best performing teams will compete at the NCAA Final Four this weekend. Here’s a look at the IBD 50’s “Final Four” performers this month: Inphi ( IPHI ), Broadcom ( AVGO ),   Ulta Beauty ( ULTA ) and AMN Health ( AHS ). Inphi Leads IBD 50 Pack Inphi is up 33% in March. The chipmaker received bullish analyst commentary this month, including an upgrade to buy from Deutsche Bank, as Inphi announced new products. Shares cleared a double-bottom base buy point on March 17, and gapped up to clear a secondary entry just a few sessions later. The stock is now trading near all-time highs, down 1.4% Thursday. Apple Supplier Climbs On Earnings Apple ( AAPL ) supplier Broadcom has gained 17% this month, fueled by a first-quarter earnings beat and estimate-topping second-quarter guidance. Shares cleared a double-bottom base buy point on March 4 and climbed out of an 8-month-long consolidation less than two weeks later. The stock set another all-time high intraday, turning down 0.9% in the afternoon. Meanwhile, Apple fell fractionally Thursday. Ulta Gains Look Good Ulta Beauty also gained 17% for the month. Nearly all of those gains came on March 11, after the beauty products retailer issued a view-topping quarterly report the prior evening. The move helped the stock break out of a consolidation base with a 188.58 buy point. The stock has traded in a tight range since, and is still in buy range as it dipped 0.4% Thursday. Health Care Stock AMN Powers Higher AMN Healthcare jumped 19% in March, building on gains from the health care staffing firm’s better-than-expected earnings report in February. Shares reclaimed their 200-day line near the start of the month and have been able to find support above that level as they continued to climb higher. The stock hit a six-month high on Thursday, up 0.6% in afternoon trading, and is trading 9% below its high reached last September. Where Are Facebook, Alphabet? The IBD 50 list also sports names like Facebook ( FB ) and Google owner Alphabet ( GOOGL ), which have racked up modest gains this month. Facebook has risen 7% and Alphabet has also gained 7%. Both are working on the right side of consolidations, with Facebook particularly close to a buy point. Facebook and Alphabet shares fell fractionally Thursday afternoon. Image provided by Shutterstock .

Tesla’s Apple, AMD Hiring Scoops Could Squeeze Chipmaker Nvidia

Tesla Motors ’ ( TSLA ) poaching of key Apple ( AAPL ) and Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) engineers could squeeze graphics-chips partner Nvidia ( NVDA ), an MKM analyst wrote Monday ahead of Nvidia’s April 5 analyst day. But MKM analyst Ian Ing reiterated his buy rating and 39 price target on Nvidia stock, which was up 1% in afternoon trading on the stock market today , earlier touching an eight-year high at 34.98. Nvidia and Tesla have partnered in machine-learning — widely seen as key to autonomous driving — for the better part of a decade. Last year, Nvidia’s automotive segment grew 80% — to $320 million in revenue. Together, the duo faces stiff autonomous-driving competition from rivals like General Motors ( GM ), Alphabet ( GOOGL ) and Apple. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has famously called Apple the “ Tesla graveyard,”   saying Apple has hired engineers that Tesla had fired, but recent reports indicate that Tesla might be swiping Apple and AMD engineers. Still, Ing says those engineers aren’t as steeped in graphics processing units and machine learning as Nvidia’s staff. “Although there are widely reportedly headlines that Tesla has been hiring chip architects from Apple and AMD, we note that expertise has been focused more on multi-purpose application processors vs. the GPU accelerators necessary for machine learning,” Ing wrote. Nvidia stock rocketed 35% over the past month, recovering from a five-month low of 24.75, hit Feb. 12. On Feb. 17, Nvidia reported record Q4 and 2015 sales that easily topped Wall Street expectations. Core gaming brought in 58% of Nvidia’s January-quarter sales, but the chipmaker also has a bright future in virtual reality, self-driving cars, autonomous drones and cloud data center acceleration, Ing wrote. And a recent data center wave featuring  Qualcomm ( QCOM ), Intel ( INTC ), Broadcom ( AVGO ), Integrated Device Technology ( IDTI ) and Inphi ( IPHI ) will likely lift Nvidia’s tide as well, Ing wrote. Last month, Nvidia noted its alliances with Chinese Internet major Alibaba ( BABA ) and Facebook ( FB ) for speedy artificial-intelligence chips. This year, Google joined Facebook’s Open Computer Project, which aims to lower the cost of data center ownership. Google also announced a beta “cloud machine learning” service that lets users customize machine learning, ahead of Amazon ( AMZN ) Web Service and Microsoft ( MSFT ) Azure. Image provided by Shutterstock .

Top-Rated Inphi Follows Apple, Tesla Chip Suppliers With Breakout

Top-rated chipmaker Inphi ( IPHI ) is staging a breakout past a secondary entry point in the stock market today after receiving some positive analyst ratings. The bullish reports come as Inphi announced the immediate production availability of a new chip product for data centers’ high-speed networks. Among the wave of analyst ratings moves, Deutsche Bank upgraded the stock to buy from hold and raised its price target to 40, while B. Riley initiated coverage on Inphi with a buy rating and a target of 38.50. Northland Securities raised its price target to 36 and maintained its outperform rating. Inphi shares closed Tuesday at 30.61. The stock gapped up 6.1% to 32.51 in heavy volume Wednesday, breaking out of a cup base with a 32.42 buy point intraday and hitting a new all-time high. Shares are in buy range to 34.04, which is 5% past the pivot. Last week, shares cleared a double-bottom entry at 28.54, and are now extended from that pivot. Apple, Tesla Suppliers In Buy Range Inphi’s breakout comes one week after several Apple ( AAPL ) and Tesla ( TSLA ) chip suppliers broke out. Tesla supplier Nvidia ( NVDA ) is still trading in buy range after breaking out of a cup-with-handle base last week. Nvidia shares hit a new eight-year high in above-average turnover on Wednesday, rising 1.4%. Apple supplier Microsemi ( MSCC ) is also still in buy range after its breakout from a cup-with-handle base last week. Microsemi shares are trading about 5% below their high reached in November, rising 0.2% intraday Wednesday. And fellow Apple supplier Broadcom Limited ( AVGO ) is extended from double-bottom entry cleared earlier this month, but it’s still in buy range from an alternate entry cleared last week. Broadcom shares dipped 0.6% intraday. Meanwhile, Apple shares rose 0.3% Wednesday, and Tesla slid 3.2%.