J.P. Morgan
did a group upgrade on five chip equipment makers this morning, raising them to long-term buy from market performer.
Among the upgraded stocks was
Applied Materials
(AMAT) - Get Report
, which lately was trading up $2.94 to $44.25 in morning activity on the
Nasdaq
. Its shares performed well despite receiving
gloomier outlooks by two other analysts this morning. The company
reported its first-quarter earnings yesterday.
Chen also upped his investment ratings on
KLA-Tencor
(KLAC) - Get Report
,
Novellus
(NVLS)
,
ASM Lithography
(ASML) - Get Report
and
Varian Semiconductor
( VSEA).
KLA were lately trading up $2.63 to $39.94, while Novellus climbed $2.25 to $41. Varian rose $1.88 to $29.13, but ASM was recently down 13 cents to $23.31.
