Brighter Morning for Chip Stocks (INTC, MRVL, ALTR, PWER, TXN)

We are seeing a mixed lot of news in chip-land for semiconductor stocks this morning, but the news we have seen so far looks like it is getting the week off to a more stable start for the chip sector.  We have news from Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL), Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR), Power-One, Inc. (NASDAQ: PWER), and Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN).

Citigroup said that it sees margins improving at Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC).  The firm reiterated a buy rating on the world’s largest chipmaker, raised estimates for 2009 and 2010 by almost 10% and boosted its target price up $1.00 to 21.00.  Intel shares are actually flat to down a couple pennies in early indications.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) is trading higher after the chip design firm raised second quarter revenue guidance to $600 million to $630 million from $540 million  to $580 million.  The hike is due to broad improvement in demand within multiple markets. It even expects some profit in the quarter. Shares are up almost 3% at $12.35 in early trading.

Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR) caught an upgrade.  RBC Capital Markets raised the rating to an “Outperform” from “Sector Perform” this morning and raised its target to $20.00 from $16.00.

Power-One, Inc. (NASDAQ: PWER) is trading up 4%, ($1.00+ stock though) after the company announced a patent license With Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN). This is a non-exclusive ‘Field of Use’ agreement to license Power-One’s digital power technology patents to TI.

Jon C. Ogg
June 22, 2009