Nomura Securities stuck its neck out on Wednesday and revealed its top stock picks for 2016 in technology, media and telecom. Analysts for the investment bank picked five stocks as “top picks for 2016”: Alphabet (GOOGL), Arista Networks (ANET), Lam Research (LRCX), LinkedIn (LNKD) and Microsoft (MSFT). It rates all five stocks as buy. Alphabet and LinkedIn are IBD Leaderboard stocks, while the others are also highly ranked by IBD with Composite
Lam Research (LRCX) and KLA-Tencor’s (KLAC) impending marriage left little “attractive or sizable” in the dating ring for Applied Materials (AMAT), one analyst suggested late Thursday after the No. 1 chip gear-maker reported mixed Q4 earnings. But, investor relief led Applied Materials stock to jump Friday. In midday trading on the stock market today, shares were up 5% near 17.50. For its fiscal Q4 ended Oct. 25, Applied Materials reported $2.37
The chip industry’s merger frenzy elevated Wednesday with two multibillion-dollar deals, one of which might result in a new chip-gear industry leader. Lam Research (LRCX) announced an agreement to buy KLA-Tencor (KLAC), and the combination might overtake Applied Materials (AMAT) in semiconductor equipment market share, says at least one analyst. The $10.6 billion merger was announced three hours before Western Digital (WDC) said