Auriga Downgrades Altera (ALTR) to Hold; Rising Opex, Weak Macro, 28nm and Inventory Correction

Auriga downgraded Altera (NASDAQ: ALTR) from Buy to Hold, cuts price target from $42 to $37.

Auriga analyst says, "We downgrade Altera as our checks suggest that inventory correction and weaker orders have continued after the company's mid-quarter guidance. Consistent with management commentary, we expect ALTR to continue to ramp R&D aggressively in 2012 to keep up with Xilinx (Nasdaq: XLNX)(Hold) on 28nm, even as macro trends seem to be weakening. Despite the rising opex, we have become incrementally more negative on ALTR's 28nm prospects as we see XLNX likely regaining share on that node."

"We reduce our CY11/CY12 estimates. Our CY11 estimate goes to $2.15bln/$2.50 (GAAP EPS) from $2.17bln/$2.54 (consensus at $2.17bln/$2.51). We take down our CY12 estimate to $2.29bln/$2.47 from $2.34bln/$2.64 (consensus at $2.34bln/$2.60)."

For more ratings news on Altera click here and for the rating history of Altera click here.

Shares of Altera closed at $33.07 yesterday.

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