Shares of GT Advanced Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: GTAT) have been on a tear this year, up more than 110% since January. The driver was an announcement in November that GT would supply sapphire glass for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) in a deal in which Apple would provide financing for the Arizona facilities and GT would own and operate the equipment that makes the glass.
GT’s stock posted an all-time high of $20.54 just last Wednesday, but the stock was pummeled Monday morning following a downgrade from Buy to Hold by an analyst at Canaccord Genuity who believes all the positive news has already been priced into GT’s stock. The analyst also said he doesn’t think that the initial launch of the iPhone 6 will result in any material volumes of sapphire glass, and he left his price target at $20.
Does that indicate that we should not expect big volumes for the new iPhones or that we should not expect sapphire glass to be used on all the new devices, including the potential iWatch? Apple already uses sapphire glass for the fingerprint sensor of the iPhone 5s and the smaller glass size of the rumored iWatch is perhaps an even more suitable use for sapphire glass.
Expectations are high for sales of 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch versions of the iPhone 6, and if GT can meet the projected demand, the company’s stock should continue its upward trajectory. Timing may have something to do with the downgrade, though, because GT will only realize the benefits of sapphire glass sales for part of the year
On June 30, GT said it would recognize total charges of about $13.4 million in the second and third quarters, of which only $1.8 million is cash related to ramping up its sapphire glass and equipment businesses. The cash charges are severance costs of the elimination of 70 jobs while the non-cash charges include $4.5 million in asset impairment, $4.3 million in facilities and $2.8 million in inventory write-downs. That is not a lot, but the company’s revenues in the quarter ended in March totaled just $22.5 million and gross profit came to just $1.36 million.
GT shares were down more than 11.5% Monday morning, at $17.28 in a 52-week range of $4.11 to $20.54.
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