UBS Maintains a 'Neutral' on Applied Materials (AMAT); Order Momentum Provides Solid Outlook

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AMAT Hot Sheet

Rating Summary:
6 Buy, 6 Hold, 2 Sell

Rating Trend:

Up

Today's Overall Ratings:
Up: 19 | Down: 7 | New: 26

UBS maintains a 'Neutral' on Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) price target raised from $13.50 to $14.00.

UBS analyst says, "Beats and guides up on higher foundry customer semicap orders: AMAT's Jan-12 sales/EPS exceeded the high end of its guidance. Sales upside was from its silicon division as semicap orders were up 53% q/q with foundry up 90% q/q (57% of its total) and NAND up 94% q/q."

"But, Solar could be slightly EPS dilutive in FY12; Display is a 2013 story: Applied guided Apr-12 solar equipment sales down at least 40% q/q (we estimate $100M) and a solar quarterly sales breakeven of around $175M (down from $200M previously). We estimate solar could be EPS dilutive by -$0.03 in FY12 and expect Applied could provide another update on its solar plans at its analyst meeting on March 28th."

UBS sees April EPS of $0.24 on revs of $2.4 bln. UBS raises FY12 EPS estimate from $0.80 to $0.95 and FY13 from $1.13 to $1.17.

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Applied Materials click here. For more ratings news on Applied Materials click here.

Shares of Applied Materials closed at $13.21 yesterday, with a 52 week range of $9.70-$16.93.

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