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All of the analysts still love Linear Tech (LLTC:Nasdaq - news - boards) because its visibility is still good, in part because of its strength in analog products needed for communications technology. This company still showed excellent growth in its most recent quarterly report.

To me that's an opportunity to sell. As you can see from the chart below, this stock is way too high vs. its typical buy points.

P/E Data Ranked Over Time
Linear Technology (LLTC)
	RANK	DATE	P/E	****
Lowest P/E	1	7/19/96	15.86
	2	10/9/1998	19.40
	3	10/7/1994	26.36
	4	1/9/1998	28.35
	5	3/8/1996	30.00
	6	6/13/1997	30.98
Highest P/E	7	3/16/2001	36.52	Last Friday
	8	2/26/99	37.13
The list is sorted from lowest P/E to highest, with Friday's P/E highlighted.

In my new spirit of offering alternatives, I would suggest that you sell Linear Tech and buy Advance Micro Devices (AMD:NYSE - news - boards). Linear is still flying high, where AMD is flying low. One is expensive historically and has a dozen competitors yapping at its heels, while the other is taking huge share from Intel (INTC:Nasdaq - news - boards) and seems like it is on about as good a roll as you can get in this industry.

I like this comparison because the part of AMD's business that is dragging down the chip is flash, which is also used in communications. If you have to buy one of these, and some people feel that they have to, I would focus on AMD, not Linear Tech.

Ideal Entry and Exits on the SOX Index Overlaid on LLTC's P/E and Price

Source: Bloomberg.

SOX Index					Linear Technology (LLTC)
	Date		Index		Price	P/E Ratio	Price to Sales
Currently, this is where we are this week. On	3/16/01	the SOX is at	541.26	and Linear Technology is at:	$42.00	36.52	14.97
A great Exit on the weekly SOX chart would have been	3/10/00	when the Index was at	1332.73	At the time, Linear Technology was at:	50.78	71.52	26.89
A great Entry on the weekly SOX chart would have been	2/26/99	when the Index was at	356.26	At the time, Linear Technology was at:	21.91	37.13	13.49
A great Exit on the weekly SOX chart would have been	1/29/99	when the Index was at	420.45	At the time, Linear Technology was at:	25.44	43.11	15.66
A great Entry on the weekly SOX chart would have been	10/9/98	when the Index was at	200.8	At the time, Linear Technology was at:	11.25	19.40	6.99
A great Exit on the weekly SOX chart would have been	2/27/98	when the Index was at	316.43	At the time, Linear Technology was at:	18.94	39.05	13.49
A great Entry on the weekly SOX chart would have been	1/9/98	when the Index was at	248.9	At the time, Linear Technology was at:	13.75	28.35	9.79
A great Exit on the weekly SOX chart would have been	8/22/97	when the Index was at	391.62	At the time, Linear Technology was at:	17.06	40.15	13.50
A great Entry on the weekly SOX chart would have been	6/13/97	when the Index was at	294.86	At the time, Linear Technology was at::	12.63	30.98	10.43
A great Exit on the weekly SOX chart would have been	1/31/97	when the Index was at	288.73	At the time, Linear Technology was at:	12.19	29.02	9.92
A great Entry on the weekly SOX chart would have been	7/19/96	when the Index was at	152.71	At the time, Linear Technology was at:	6.78	15.86	5.59
A great Exit on the weekly SOX chart would have been	5/17/96	when the Index was at	212.57	At the time, Linear Technology was at:	8.31	20.21	7.10
A great Entry on the weekly SOX chart would have been	3/8/96	when the Index was at	172.71	At the time, Linear Technology was at:	10.88	30.00	10.27
A great Exit on the weekly SOX chart would have been	8/18/95	when the Index was at	293.79	At the time, Linear Technology was at:	10.13	36.49	11.67
A great Entry on the weekly SOX chart would have been	10/7/94	when the Index was at	122.72	At the time, Linear Technology was at:	5.47	26.36	7.75
*The determination of these dates and prices was made by identifying optimum entry and exit points on a historical graph of the SOX using weekly closing prices.