Investing

Select Semiconductor Stocks Recovering Handily After the Sell-Off

Jon C. Ogg

Published: February 6, 2018 3:04 pm

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 3:41 am

24/7 Wall St. has tracked the selling and buying of many stocks and sectors during the recent market panic. Much of the trading action can be tied to volatility issues, with the tail wagging the dog. That would imply that the great economic and underlying bull market fundamentals have not changed substantially from last week.

One encouraging issue to consider now is that many stocks have rallied handily from their lows of Monday and Tuesday. One such sector that has seen a recovery in some of its top names has been semiconductors, and semiconductors in some cases can be viewed as a leading indicator for what is going to happen in the technology sector and in other sectors in the weeks and months ahead.

With the Dow having dropped 10% from its highs of just late in January, the NASDAQ 100 was down 9.3% from its highs. Now is the time for investors to decide how they want to be positioned for the rest of 2018. Some investors are choosing to be opportunistic buyers, and other investors found themselves too worried that the nearly 9 year old bull market has ended.

We have highlighted six key semiconductor stocks staging handy rallies on Tuesday. Whether these all close up on the day is of course unknown, but it should be noted that many chip stocks are down and others are trading handily higher. Consensus analyst price targets are from Thomson Reuters.

Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) was last seen up 1% at $48.81 on Tuesday and its shares are still down almost 20% from its high. The king of chip capex equipment has a 52-week range of $34.58 to $60.89 and its intraday range is $46.40 to $49.99. Applied Materials has a consensus analyst target price of $68.50.

Broadcom Limited (NASDAQ: AVGO) was last seen up almost 3% at $234.90 but it is still down almost 18% from its highs. Its intraday range is $224.90 to $237.00 and the 52-week range is $202.61 to $285.68. Broadcom has a consensus analyst target price of $317.40.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) raised guidance on Monday despite the market panic and it caught multiple analyst upgrades. Its shares were last seen up 7.7% at $42.45 on Tuesday afternoon. Micron’s intraday range is $40.57 to $42.85 and the 52-week range is $22.64 to $49.89. Micron’s consensus analyst target price is $59.26.

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) was last seen up 1.4% at $216.60, still down over 13% from its high. Analysts had been chasing their NVIDIA price targets higher ahead of earnings and after their price targets greatly lagged the actual stock performance in 2017.. NVIDIA’s intraday range has been $204.00 to $225.67 and the 52-week range is $95.17 to 249.27. NVIDIA was last shown to have a consensus analyst target price of $216.69.

Qorvo, Inc. (NASDAQ: QRVO) was one of last week’s earnings winners scoring numerous analyst upgrades as a harbinger of good times ahead. Qorvo shares were last seen up 3.1% at $77.92 on Tuesday, versus a intraday range of $74.23 to $78.60 and versus a 52-week range of $62.68 to $85.24. Qorvo has a consensus analyst target price of $82.19.

QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) was last seen trading up 2.7% at $63.42, and it is now down only about 6% from its 52-week high. The intraday range for Qualcomm is $62.21 to $64.24 and the 52-week range is $48.92 to $69.28. Qualcomm has a consensus analyst target price of $70.43, and it still has a path to reject an unwanted buyout.

The VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (NYSE: SMH) was last seen up 1.8% at $100.10, versus an intraday range of $74.75 to $100.49 and versus a 52-week range of $74/75 to $108.56.