Morgan Stanley Previews Semicondutor Earnings

Morgan Stanley previewed earnings for semiconductor stocks Monday. Analysts led by Joseph Moore saw most of the companies reporting inline with with estimates.

Texas Instruments Incorporated TXN was expected to report Q4 inline with expectations but the firm had modeled revenues to come in a $3.2 billion versus the consensus of $3.3 billion along with EPS of $0.68, $0.01 below consensus. Moore saw Q1 EPS coming down by $0.10 due to increased R&D and seasonally weak sales.

Texas Instruments Incorporated reports earnings January 26 and was rated Equal-weight with a $45 price target.

InvenSense Inc INVN was expected to beat consensus for the December quarter with revenue of $113 million versus expectations of $112 million and non-GAAP EPS of $0.21, $0.01 higher than consensus. The firm also expected the current quarter March quarter to be inline with estimates of $0.13 EPS. Moore wanted to see more control of expenses by management to get more constructive on the stock.

InvenSense reports earnings January 29 and was rated Equal-weight with an $18 price target.

Freescale Semiconductor Ltd FSL was expected to report inline with expectations for the December quarter with sales at $1.1 billion but the firm was below consensus on EPS at $0.31versus the Street at $0.33. The analysts were looking for a better entry point on the stock after already gained 44 percent following its Q3 earnings.

Freescale Semiconductor Ltd reports earnings January 27 and was rated Equal-weight with a $26 price target.

Cavium Inc CAVM was expected to report inline with consensus with $101 million in revenue and EPS at $0.41 but the firm also saw “choppy demand for China base station business and slight slowdown in North America enterprise market.”

Cavium Inc reports earnings January 28 and was rated Overweight with a $49 price target.

The firm expected Microchip Technology Inc. MCHP to report revenue of $523 million versus consensus of $525 million and EPS of $0.61, $0.01 below consensus. The analysts modeled sales to decline in the December quarter but be up 2.5 percent in the March quarter to $536 million versus the Street at $540 million. The analysts will be watching for lead times, inventory distribution and demand in China.

Microchip Technology Inc. reports earnings January 29 and was rated Equal-weight with a $49 price target.

Broadcom Corporation BRCM was expected to report Q4 sales of $2.12 billion, slightly above Street expectations of $2.11 billion mostly due to the strength of Apple Inc AAPL sales. The EPS estimate matched the Street at $0.87. The March quarter was expected to come in 4 percent below the Street at $1.93 billion on an expected decline in mobile sales with EPS of $0.68 versus consensus of $0.75. Over the long-term, the analysts were bullish on the stock.

Broadcom Corporation reports earnings January 29 and was rated Overweight with a $47 price target.