Diamonds and Dogs

11/15/19

Applied Materials (AMAT) flexes its muscle. The chip equipment maker is up 9% to new highs following better than expected earnings. Earnings beat by four cents as sales were flat at $3.75 billion. However, upside guidance for the current quarter and positive comments from management has investors excited.  Management said they saw a healthy uptick in demand for semiconductor equipment, combined with strong execution across the company.  Plenty of upgrades with price targets as high as $75 a share.

One chip stock going in the wrong direction. Nvidia (NVDA) is down 2% following earnings. The earnings were better than expected even as sales fell 5.2% to $3.01 billion. Downside guidance for the current quarter has investors nervous the worst may not be over, but at least one analyst remains bullish. Jefferies analyst maintains a buy on the stock and raised his price target to $250 from $210, saying he sees Nvidia entering a second phase of growth in AI applications.