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Many Reasons to be Bullish on This Semi-Cap Company

Many Reasons to be Bullish on This Semi-Cap Company

We are adding shares of Applied Materials (AMAT) to the Tematica Select List as the company’s business is poised to benefit from our Disruptive Technology investing theme over the coming 12-24 months. Applied Materials is a leading nano- manufacturing equipment, service, and software provider to the semiconductor, flat panel display (FPD), and solar industries. In short, it builds the capital equipment that is used to manufacture chips, display and solar panel components. Our price target of $47 offers upside of roughly 30 percent and equates to just over 17x expected 2018 earnings in the range of $2.75 per share. By comparison, consensus expectations call for AMAT to deliver EPS of $2.55-$2.60 this year, up from $1.75 in 2016. Our rating is a Buy up to $41-$42.

Why We’re Adding AMAT Shares to the Tematica Select List

It’s been a while since we’ve seen the TV ad touting cotton as the fabric of our lives. Over the last few years, as we’ve been migrating more and more into the digital society, we’ve thought the new fabric of our lives is chips. As we know from our devices, be it a laptop, smartphone, tablet, we are facing the need for more computing power, greater connectivity speeds and more connections into more things (cars, homes, and that Internet of Things thing).

There are also newer and in some cases disruptive technologies — like emissive display technology organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), a technology that is catching fire in the smartphone market, TVs and wearables. In short, there is a pronounced increase in the for chips, which is also spurring a pickup in new semiconductor capital equipment. We know this given our existing position in Universal Display (OLED) shares.

Exiting December, North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.99 billion in orders worldwide and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.06, according to the December Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Book-to-Bill Report published by SEMI. December bookings rose more than 28 percent compared to November 2016 and were up nearly 48% on a year over year basis.

In the recently reported January quarter, Applied’s order book rose more than 85 percent year over year, as orders for its silicon and display businesses rose more than 85 percent and 200 percent, respectively. The silicon business is benefitting from strong 3D NAND demand, given significant power and performance advantages over other memory solutions, as well as silicon to power applications, 4K video, as well as compute-intensive applications like artificial intelligence and smart vehicles.

 

As part of the Internet of Things, we’re seeing sensors and communications being added to a variety of commercial and consumer products as well. These and other applications are, on a combined basis, driving robust demand for additional semiconductor capacity and that is fuel for Applied’s semiconductor business. We see this reflected in capital spending budgets at companies like Intel (INTC), which is boosting its 2017 budget by $2.5 billion year over year to $12 billion. Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM)‘s 2016 capital spending came in at $10.2 billion, ahead of the expected $9.5 billion, and the company is slated to spend another $10 billion in 2017.

The accelerating ramp in OLED display demand was the primary driver of that robust Display order activity, and Applied noted the demand has only strengthened over the last several months. “In the past few months, our view of display spending has strengthened further. We now see customers increasing their investments by around $3 billion in 2017, $1 billion more than we thought in November. Our early view of 2018 is also positive.” It added: “50% of our demand going forward for this year is new customers for the mobile OLED”, with orders improving across all of its mobile OLED customer base. We strongly suspect a significant factor in this ramping Display demand is Apple (AAPL) adopting OLED displays in its next iPhone iteration. Odds are that shift will push other smartphone vendors to adopt OLED display.

One overarching driver over the long term is ramping capacity for semiconductor capital equipment and display technologies in China as it consumes a growing number of devices. In total, wafer fabrication equipment (WFE) sales in China are expected to reach $7 billion in 2017, compared to $6.7 billion in 2016 and $3.4 billion in 2013, according to SEMI, with more significant spending likely in 2018. With easier export controls in China compared to several years ago, companies like Applied can now ship more advanced tools into the country.

Against such a rosy outlook, we’d note semiconductor capital equipment demand tends to be dependent on the health of the economically sensitive semiconductor and consumer electronics industries. This means that we will continue to keep our eyes tuned not only to chip demand and fabrication utilization levels, but also the underlying economic tone of the global economy.

Valuation and Price Target

Our $47 price target equates to 17-18x expected 2017-2018 EPS, which we’d note is a discount to 52-week high price multiples in the range of 21-22x earnings that were accorded to AMAT shares during 2015 and 2016. On the downside, AMAT shares have bottomed out at roughly an average P/E multiple of 12x over the last few years. Applying that multiple to slated 2017-2018 earnings points to downside near $30-$32, and those are levels near which we’d look to scale into our position on share price weakness, as along as the current outlook remains intact.

 

The Bottom Line on Applied Materials (AMAT)
  • We are adding shares of Applied Materials (AMAT) to the Tematica Select List.
  • Our price target of $47 offers upside of roughly 30 percent.
  • Our rating is a Buy up to $41-$42.

 

What We’re Watching This Week

What We’re Watching This Week

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As you probably know, this week is a shortened one following the 3-day holiday that was President’s Day. We still have a number of companies reporting their quarterly earnings this week, and that includes the Tematica Select List’s own Universal Display (OLED). The shares have had a strong run, up just over 28 percent year to date, and that likely has them priced near if not at perfection. Last week, Applied Materials (AMAT) gave a very bullish view when it comes to the ramping organic light emitting diode manufacturing capacity, as the industry prepares for Apple (AAPL) and others switching to this display technology. Consensus expectations for Universal’s December quarter results are EPS of $0.42 on $68.6 million in revenue. We expect a bullish outlook to be had when Universal reports its results this Thursday.

Alongside Universal Display, there will be a few hundred other companies reporting. Among those, we’ll be tuning into reports from Wal-Mart (WMT), Macy’s (M), JC Penney (JCP) and TJX (TJC) for confirming data on our Amazon (AMZN) thesis. Similarly, we’ll be looking at Cheesecake Factory’s (CAKE) for confirmation in the restaurant pain that is benefitting our McCormick & Co. (MKC) and United Natural (UNFI) shares.

On the economic data front, the calendar is a tad light, with the highlight likely to be the next iteration of the Fed’s FOMC minutes. Given Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s two-day testimony on Capitol Hill that we touched on above, we’re not expecting any major surprises in those minutes. Even so, we’ll be pouring over them just the same.

This morning we received the February Flash Manufacturing PMI metrics from Markit Economics and not only did Europe crush expectations hitting a six-year high in February. Across the board, from business activity to backlogs of work and business confidence, the metrics rose month over month. One item that jumped out to us was the increase in supplier delivery times, which tends to be a harbinger of inflation — something to watch in average selling price data over the next few months. Turning to Japan, the Markit flash manufacturing PMI rose to 53.5 in February, its highest level since March 2014, with sequential strength in all key categories — output, exports, employment and new orders. but Japan hit it’s highest level since March 2014.

 


Here at home, the Flash U.S. Composite Output Index hit 54.3 in February, a downtick from 55.8 in January, but still well above the 50 line that denotes a growing economy. The month over month slip was seen in manufacturing as well as the service sector. Despite that slip, new manufacturing order growth remained faster than at any other time since March 2015 and called out greater demand from energy sector clients. No surprise, given the rising domestic rig count we keep reading about each week.

Manufacturers also called out that input cost inflation was at its highest level since September 2014 and we think this is something that will have the Fed’s ears burning.

 


Currently, our view is the next likely rate hike by the Fed will be had at the May meeting, which offers plenty of time to assess pending economic stimulus, immigration and tax cut plans from President Trump. Again, we’ll be watching the data to determine to see if that timing gets pulled forward.

Stay tuned for more this week.

Applied Material’s Outlook for OLEDs Boosts Our Universal Display Price Target

Applied Material’s Outlook for OLEDs Boosts Our Universal Display Price Target

This morning our shares of Disruptive Technology play Universal Display (OLED) are once again climbing higher. We attribute this to the bullish comments that compound semiconductor capital equipment company Applied Materials (AMAT) shared on the organic light emitting diode market on its earnings call last night. Given the current industry shortage for organic light emitting diode displays, AMAT has been a company to watch for potential capacity increases, and AMAT signaled that in a big way last night when it said,

  • “…In the past few months, our view of display spending has strengthened further. We now see customers increasing their investments by around $3 billion in 2017, $1 billion more than we thought in November. Our early view of 2018 is also positive.”
  • “50% of our demand going forward for this year is new customers for the mobile OLED” with orders improving across all of its mobile OLED customer base.

Taken together, these comments confirm the growing adoption of organic light emitting diode displays in the mobile market, principally in smartphones. Reading between the lines, we suspect part of the large increase from “new customers for the mobile OLED” is a thinly veiled reference to Apple (AAPL) and its 2017 iPhone refresh. Looking past mobile, we continue to see growing demand for this disruptive display technology from TV and wearable applications as well as those in Internet of Things applications.

On the back of this news, we are boosting our price target on OLED shares to $80 from $68, which offers upside of just over 10 percent from current levels. Our next catalyst for the shares will be when Universal Display reports its quarterly earnings on Feb. 23. Given the industry developments, we expect the company to offer a bullish outlook for 2017 and beyond. Even so, we’d need to see either upside in the shares in the range of $85-$90 or a pullback below $65 to warrant a Buy rating on OLED shares.

  • We are maintaining our Hold rating on OLED shares even as we bump up our price target to $80 from $68.
Universal Display Shares Feel the Apple Halo Effect

Universal Display Shares Feel the Apple Halo Effect

Today, shares of Disruptive Technology company and Tematica Select List resident Universal Display ([stock_quote symbol=”OLED”]) popped and closed the day up just under 5% to close at $70.35. There were several catalysts behind the move including more chatter over Apple (AAPL) moving its next iteration of the iPhone to organic light emitting diode display technology, and a new Buy rating at investment firm Susquehanna. From our perspective, the former represents more confirming data points behind our thesis on OLED shares, and we certainly love it when a member of the Wall Street herd catches up to what we’re doing over here at Tematica.

Now let’s get to that Apple chatter… The Korean Herald is reporting that Samsung has signed an agreement with Apple to provide 160 million screens for the Apple iPhone 8. Keep in mind that Apple shipped 211 million devices last year and 231 million in 2015. This means Apple could be moving more quickly to the new screen technology than previously thought — a positive for our OLED shares given that Samsung is one of Universal Display’s key customers and licensees.

Also dropping today was a new report from Bloomberg saying Apple is considering Chinese company BOE Technology as a potential organic light emitting diode supplier for “upcoming iPhones.” With BOE currently building two organic light emitting diode facilities in the China province of Sichuan, odds are any potential supply to Apple will be for 2018. Given supply constraints for organic light emitting diode displays that could limit Apple’s use of the technology in one new version of the iPhone this year, we’re not surprised by Apple trying to lock up additional capacity ahead of it coming online. More organic light emitting diode capacity is likely to translate into more chemical sales for Universal Display and bode well for greater licensing revenue as well.

  • We continue to rate OLED shares a Hold and our $68 price target is under review.

We’ll be tuning into semiconductor capital equipment company Applied Material’s (AMAT) December quarter earnings conference call to get the latest view on organic light emitting diode industry capacity expansion plans.