Sector Watch: Chip Stocks Suffer as Analysts Cut Estimates
Semiconductor stocks were down across the board in afternoon trading following research notes from
Lehman Brothers
and
Goldman Sachs
, who cut their earnings estimates on a number of companies in the sector.
Lehman analyst Dan Niles
cut his 2001 and 2002 estimates for
Intel
(INTC) - Get Report
and
Advanced Micro Devices
(AMD) - Get Report
, citing a "continuing deterioration in demand for PCs," among other factors. Goldman Sachs analyst Nathaniel Cohn
reduced his estimates for
Applied Micro Circuits
(AMCC)
,
Conexant Systems
(CNXT) - Get Report
,
PMC-Sierra
(PMCS)
and
Vitesse Semiconductor
(VTSS)
. He said the companies will likely see a decline in revenue in the third quarter.
Despite the cut, Intel was up 0.2% to $26.73 recently on the
Nasdaq
. Others weren't faring as well. Vitesse was off 5.4% to $16.20, and Conexant fell 7.6% to $7.02. Advanced Micro Devices slid 5.5% to $23.61 on the
Big Board. Communications chipmaker PMC-Sierra dropped 5.2% to $23.55, and Applied Micro Circuits lost 1.6% to $13.29.
Elsewhere in the sector,
Texas Instruments
(TXN) - Get Report
was down 2% to $29, while
Micron Technology
(MU) - Get Report
was off 5.4% to $35.96.
The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index
was off 4.3% to 562.4.