Technology

Portfolio Managers May Be Ready to Jump on 4 Red-Hot Semiconductor Stocks

Lee Jackson

Published: May 9, 2017 8:20 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 12:13 pm

One area that has stayed on a roll for well over a year is the semiconductors, and with good reason. With application in everything from automobiles to industrial, to gaming and the Internet of Things, and so much more, than demand has been incredible. With valuations somewhat stretched, you would think many top portfolio managers may be lightening up on the shares. The fact is, in many cases, managers are underweight and may actually start buying.

In a new research report, Vivek Arya, the outstanding semiconductor analyst at Merrill Lynch, makes the case that while portfolio ownership of semiconductors remained even or declined month over month in April, there could be some opportunities for four top stocks, one of which is very under-owned by large cap portfolio managers.

Here are the four stocks rated Buy at Merrill Lynch that are under-owned and could be great additions to institutional portfolios.

Advanced Micro Devices

After years of frustrating performance, this company appears to have turned the corner and is a hot commodity on Wall Street, despite a recent earnings hiccup. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) is one of the largest suppliers of PC microprocessors and graphics processors worldwide to computing original equipment manufacturers. The company’s main product lines include desktop, notebook and graphics processors, and embedded/semi-custom chips.

The analyst feels that AMD, which is releasing the first major offering in five years, the Ryzen chipset, is in his words “uniquely positioned” to compete with the big players like Intel and NVIDIA in the $50 billion total addressable market for personal computers, gaming, artificial intelligence and servers.

Plus, AMD is held by just 1.3% of active managers, which is way below the historical 10% ownership level at a relatively equal weight position.

The Merrill Lynch price target for the stock is $16.60, and the Wall Street consensus target is set at $12.57. The stock closed Monday at $10.04 per share.

Microchip Technology

Microchip Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHP) not only is a huge Internet of Things benefactor, but a leading provider of microcontroller, mixed-signal, analog and flash-IP solutions, providing low-risk product development, lower total system cost and faster time to market for thousands of diverse customer applications worldwide.

The company offers microcontrollers, such as 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit microcontrollers under the PIC brand name and 16-bit dsPIC digital signal controllers, as well as provides microcontrollers for automotive networking, computing, lighting, power supplies, wireless communication and wireless audio applications.

Microchip Technology is only owned by 7% of active managers, which is well below the 2011 peak of 12%.

MicroChip investors are paid a very solid 1.91% dividend. Merrill Lynch has an $85 price target for the stock, and the consensus price objective is $85.12. The stock closed Monday at $75.46 a share.

NVIDIA

This top chip company reported strong earnings all last year and also was the top performing stock in the S&P 500 last year. NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) is one of the leaders when it comes to supplying graphics processing technology for the 3D graphics market, including desktop graphics processors and gaming consoles.

NVIDIA is also moving into visual computing chips for cars, mobile devices and supercomputers. The company has been able to use its ability to leverage past investments, with a more controlled spending structure ahead on unified, which enables strong cash flow that is allowing a focus on capital return, which is currently estimated to be $1 billion next year.

Top Wall Street analysts feel the stock is maturing to a platform company from a pure chip company, and Jefferies sees the stock continuing to benefit from four secular trends: virtual reality, PC gaming, chips in the automobile industry and graphic processing units (GPUs) in the cloud.

Merrill Lynch gives the stock a premium multiple due to the company’s projected long-term earnings growth rate, and it also sees the dividend growing 16.4% over the next three years. While 16% of managers own the shares, that is well below the 25% ownership of the firm’s peers, and the 40% to 50% ownership of large-cap tech growth peers.

Investors in NVIDIA are paid a smaller 0.54% dividend. The $125 Merrill Lynch price target is well above the posted consensus target of $109.97. The shares closed most recently at $102.77 apiece.

Skyworks Solutions

This stock has been on a roll since last summer. Skyworks Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: SWKS) designs, develops, manufactures and markets proprietary semiconductor products, including intellectual property worldwide.

The product portfolio includes amplifiers, attenuators, battery chargers, circulators, DC/DC converters, demodulators, detectors, diodes, directional couplers, diversity receive modules, filters, front-end modules, hybrids, LED drivers, low noise amplifiers, mixers, modulators, optocouplers/optoisolators, phase shifters, phase locked loops, power dividers/combiners, receivers, switches, synthesizers, technical ceramics, VCOS/synthesizers and voltage regulators.

Last year the company was reported to have made an offer to buy Microsemi, which provides a comprehensive portfolio of semiconductor and system solutions for communications, defense and security, aerospace and industrial markets. The results of the potential deal remain to be seen.

Some 6% of managers own its shares, and that is up from a trough reading of 4.1% last fall, but still well below the 10% peak in June of 2015.

Investors are currently paid a 1.12% dividend. The Merrill Lynch price objective is $115. The consensus target price is at $111.17, and shares closed trading most recently at $101.02.

These four top companies to buy all have a big hand in the growing Internet of Things sphere and also are under-owned compared to historical levels by portfolio managers. Given the big run in these stocks, investors may want to buy partial positions now and see if the rest of May doesn’t bring some selling.