UPDATE: Credit Suisse Reiterates Outperform Rating, Raises PT on Spreadtrum Communications

In a report published Friday, Credit Suisse reiterated its Outperform rating on Spreadtrum Communications SPRD, and raised its price target from $21.50 to $26.50. Credit Suisse noted, “Smartphones see good traction-raise shipment estimates. Spreadtrum is seeing a recovery in TD-SCDMA momentum in 2H12 coupled with ramp of its smartphone platform on both TD and EDGE as phones ramp across notable Chinese brands including Huawei, ZTE, K-Touch, Lenovo, Hisense, Haier and Konka, with Samsung potentially to follow in 4Q12. Constraints at Mediatek have opened up some low-cost EDGE designs. We raise our 2012 estimates from 25mn to 27.5mn and 2013 estimates from 86mn to 90mn. Promising roadmap for 2013. Spreadtrum is catching up on its roadmap after lagging in 1H12 as feature phone share and pricing dropped. The company is planning to introduce multiple products for early 2013 ramp including (1) feature phone with integrated Bluetooth/FM, (2) first WCDMA chipset on single core and then dual core refresh shortly after and (3) dual core TD-SCDMA and EDGE chipset, and in 2Q12 Quad Core platform. The dual core opens up the higher-end market where 30% of Mediatek's volume is shifting and WCDMA which opens up to China Unicom and the export channel.” Spreadtrum Communications closed on Thursday at $20.75.