CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:
We increase our price target by $76 to $233, 27.5x our CY 24 EPS estimate of $8.46, near peers but above Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMAT)’s 3-year historical average (~17x) given its leading position across multiple technology inflections and AI enthusiasm. We raise our ’24 EPS view to $8.38 from $7.76 and ’25’s to $9.22 from $8.62. AMAT posts Dec-Q sales of $6.7B (flat Y/Y) and EPS of $2.13 (+5%), both above consensus. We see AMAT’s broad product portfolio as among the best positioned in the semi space going into ’24, where we see rebounds across both foundry/logic and memory as new fabs continue to ramp (and gate-all-around technology accelerates) and AI applications continue to fuel advanced DRAM demand. We also see upside in NAND as layer counts increase. China again represented a high share of sales (45% vs. ~30% historical average), which should normalize in 2H ’24 as ICAPS demand (+40% in ’22 and ’23) comes in a bit, but we expect DRAM demand to be picked up by other regions given its importance in high-bandwidth memory / AI.