Hot Life Sciences Stocks To Own Right Now

Hot Life Sciences Stocks To Own Right Now: Altera Corporation (ALTR)

Altera Corporation, a semiconductor company, designs, manufactures, and markets programmable logic devices (PLD), HardCopy application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) devices, pre-defined design building blocks, and associated development tools. Its PLDs consist of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs), which are semiconductor integrated circuits manufactured as standard chips that can be programmed to perform logic functions in electronic systems; and HardCopy structured ASIC devices that transition customer designs from high-density FPGAs to low-cost non-programmable implementations for volume production. The company?s products primarily include Stratix series high-end, system-level FPGAs; Arria series mid-range, transceiver-equipped FPGAs; Cyclone series low-cost FPGAs; MAX series CPLDs; and HardCopy ASICs. It also offers intellectual property cores that are pre-verified building blocks that execute system-level functio ns that is incorporated into the PLD design; and development tools consisting primarily of the Quartus II software for design entry, design compilation, design verification, and device programming. Altera Corporation serves customers primarily in the telecom and wireless, industrial automation, military and automotive, networking, and computer and storage markets. The company markets its products through a network of distributors, independent sales representatives, and direct sales personnel. It has operations in the Americas, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Japan. The company was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By ovenerio]

  Logic devices can be divided as well into two categories, fixed and programmable. The programmable logic market, or PLD, is led by Xilin! x and Altera Corporation (ALTR). PLD chips have the characteristic that can be programmed, so electronics manufacturers' instructions can be more easily reprogrammed and can customize their circuitries for specific applications.

• [By amal.singh70]

  Altera (ALTR) posted decent results. The programmable chip maker came out with good numbers, topping analysts' estimates on earnings and revenue. Further, in line with good results, Altera is expecting better results in the future.

• [By Riddhi Kharkia] gaining share in the field programmable gate array, or FPGA, market. As such, it should continue outperforming the likes of Xilinx (XLNX) going forward and maintain its streak of impressive performances.

  Beating competition

  Altera's performance in the recently reported first quarter was much better than Xilinx. Its revenue grew 12% year-over-year to $461 million, comprehensively ahead of the $438 million consensus target. Earnings, meanwhile, came in at $0.37 per share, while analysts were looking for $0.32.

  Altera's outlook was also strong. The company expects revenue in the range of $470 million-$488 million in the ongoing quarter, blowing past the $461 million estimate. In comparison, rival Xilinx's performance left a lot to be desired. The company's earnings missed estimates, and its revenue outlook for the current quarter also lagged expectations, as it saw a drop in orders from a couple of large communication customers.

  Hence, Altera seems to be executing better than Xilinx. Going forward, considering Altera's product development efforts, there's a strong chance that it will be able to overtake Xilinx in the programmable logic devices market.

  Fresh products

  Altera's new products now account for almost half of its total revenue. The 28-nanometer process has been the primary driver for Altera so far, and the company seems to have successfully taken away some market share from Xilinx in this area. While Xilinx cited delay! s in LTE ! deployment as the reason behind its sluggish performance in the previous quarter, Altera was singing a different tune.

  In fact, the roll out of LTE by China Mobile (CHL) resulted in 20% sequential growth in Altera's wireless business. In addition, Altera is also counting on the growing adoption of 3G in India and other developing countries to propel its business higher.

  The company's focus on making its production processes more efficient has helped it land some solid design wins. A

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/hot-life-sciences-stocks-to-own-right-now-4.html