GT Advanced Technologies Inc Stock Downgraded (GTAT)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- GT Advanced Technologies (Nasdaq:GTAT) has been downgraded by TheStreet Ratings from buy to hold. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, impressive record of earnings per share growth and increase in net income. However, as a counter to these strengths, we find that the stock has had a generally disappointing performance in the past year.

Highlights from the ratings report include:

• The revenue growth came in higher than the industry average of 19.0%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 30.3%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share.
• GT ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES INC reported significant earnings per share improvement in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. This trend suggests that the performance of the business is improving. During the past fiscal year, GT ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES INC increased its bottom line by earning $1.47 versus $1.26 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($1.55 versus $1.47).
• GTAT's debt-to-equity ratio is very low at 0.23 and is currently below that of the industry average, implying that there has been very successful management of debt levels. Despite the fact that GTAT's debt-to-equity ratio is low, the quick ratio, which is currently 0.67, displays a potential problem in covering short-term cash needs.
• Return on equity has greatly decreased when compared to its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a signal of major weakness within the corporation. Compared to other companies in the Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment industry and the overall market, GT ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES INC's return on equity significantly exceeds that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.
• GTAT's stock share price has done very poorly compared to where it was a year ago: Despite any rallies, the net result is that it is down by 60.89%, which is also worse that the performance of the S&P 500 Index. Investors have so far failed to pay much attention to the earnings improvements the company has managed to achieve over the last quarter. Naturally, the overall market trend is bound to be a significant factor. However, in one sense, the stock's sharp decline last year is a positive for future investors, making it cheaper (in proportion to its earnings over the past year) than most other stocks in its industry. But due to other concerns, we feel the stock is still not a good buy right now.

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GT Advanced Technologies Inc. provides polysilicon production technology and multicrystalline ingot growth systems, and related photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing services for the solar industry worldwide. It also offers sapphire growth systems and material for the LED and other specialty markets. The company has a P/E ratio of 3.2, below the average electronics industry P/E ratio of 4.4 and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. GT Advanced has a market cap of $637.1 million and is part of the technology sector and electronics industry. Shares are down 38% year to date as of the close of trading on Friday.

You can view the full GT Advanced Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.
-- Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff

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