Synaptics (SYNA) Could See Strong Growth as Touch-Senor Adoption Expands - Barron's

Synaptics (Nasdaq: SYNA) is comfortably higher Tuesday following a positive mention in Barron's last weekend.

In part, Barron's noted the $255 million acquisition of Validity Systems last November and that it already looks more meaningful thank recent pickups by Facebook and Google. Samsung already selected Validity to make the fingerprint sensor for its Galaxy S5 smartphone but even lower-cost smartphones are starting to adopt the technology.

Synaptics recently noted that 30 million fingerprint sensors were sold in the PC and mobile industry and the company sees that number moving to 530 million by 2016 as adoption catches on.

More than fingerprints, Synaptics also has a 40 percent share of touchscreen controller chips, which sense and interpret the movement of fingers on a screen. It also controls 65 percent of the market for touchpads in notebook computer, according to Barron's.

There's also the potential for Apple to bolster its relationship with Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL); the company made touch-enabled wheels for early iPods, though the relationship didn't pan out. Should Synaptics be able to combine its three offerings -- fingerprint sensors, touch controllers, and display drivers -- on a single chip, that might draw Apple and others closer.

Shares of Synaptics are up 4 percent.

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