Top Semiconductor Stocks To Watch Right Now
Semiconductor stocks have been on the radar of many investors in the stock market over the past year. This comes as the impact of semiconductor shortages were felt across multiple industries. The demand for semiconductor chips continues to rise as more applications these days rely on their technology. To put it in perspective, the Semiconductor Industry Association showed that worldwide sales of semiconductors totaled $144.8 billion during the third quarter of 2021. This is an increase of 27.6% when compared to last year’s third quarter and 7.4% more than the second quarter of 2021. It is also noteworthy that there are more semiconductor units shipped during the third quarter of 2021 than any other quarter in the market’s history.
With the likes of industry giants such as Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) and NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) reporting their earnings this week, keen investors should be paying close attention. Furthermore, investors are also waiting for an imminent decision on Samsung’s planned $17 billion U.S. chip plant. The company’s vice chairman, Jay Y. Lee left Seoul on Sunday to visit North America. So, the trip is expected to coincide with a decision on the location of the new plant. With all said and done, the semiconductor industry is one packed with exciting developments. Hence, here is a list of the top semiconductor stocks in the stock market to start the week.
Best Semiconductor Stocks To Check Out Right Now
- Texas Instruments Incorporated (NASDAQ: TXN)
- Axcelis Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: ACLS)
- Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX)
- STMicroelectronics NV (NYSE: STM)
Texas Instruments
Let us start the list with Texas Instruments. In detail, the company designs and sells semiconductors to electronic designers and manufacturers across the world. It operates through segments such as Analog and Embedded Processing. While the company may have been trading sideways this year, it is also not showing signs of weakness. TXN stock has risen by over 17% since the start of the year.
For starters, the company reported its third-quarter earnings late last month. Its revenue increased to $4.64 billion, representing an increase of 22% year-over-year. This is largely due to strong demand in industrial, automotive, and personal electronics. Also, this couples with a strong net income of $1.95 billion, up by 44% compared to the prior year’s quarter. All in all, the company appears to be trending in the right direction.
That said, Texas is not resting on its laurels. Earlier this month, it introduced a new bidirectional buck/boost converter with an ultra-low quiescent current of 60 nA. This will enable engineers to extend battery life by as much as 20% when compared to commonly used hybrid-layer capacitors. Given these exciting developments, would you add TXN stock to your portfolio?
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Axcelis Technologies
Another semiconductor company to note would be Axcelis Technologies. Put simply, it is a company that specializes in ion implantation and other processing equipment used in the fabrication of semiconductor chips. Besides that, it also provides aftermarket lifecycle products and services. ACLS stock has skyrocketed more than 110% thus far this year.
Earlier this month, the company announced the introduction of its GSD Ovation™ high current and high energy batch implanters. Over the past few years, the 200mm fab construction and expansion have been seeing unprecedented growth. So, the new GSD Ovation systems aim to support the growing 200mm new fab construction and expansion activity. Thus, further strengthening Axcelis’ market leadership position as the tool of record for 200mm fabs.
In addition, Axcelis also reported its third-quarter earnings earlier this month. The company’s third-quarter revenue was $176.7 million, up 20% year-over-year. Meanwhile, its net income came in at $27.5 million, representing an increase of 45.5% year-over-year. Safe to say, the company is well-positioned for long-term growth as it capitalizes on the rising demand for its products. With that in mind, would you consider buying ACLS stock?
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Xilinx
Xilinx engages in the design and development of programmable devices and associated technologies. These include integrated circuits (IC), three-dimensional ICs, and Adaptive Compute Acceleration Platform. XLNX stock is yet another semiconductor showing strong momentum as of late. The stock has been making new highs lately, climbing more than 25% over the past month.
During its fiscal second quarter, the company posted a record revenue of $936 million, up 22% year-over-year. Meanwhile, its GAAP net income for the quarter was $235 million, an increase of 21% compared to the prior year’s quarter. These results are a testament to the company’s record performance from the Industrial, Auto, Broadcast, and Consumer end markets.
Not to mention, the company also announced that it will provide the industry’s first and only production-ready multimedia streaming end solutions for broadcast and professional audio/video (AV) applications. These solutions are ready-to-ship, or ready to customize, making it significantly faster and easier for customers to bring broadcast and professional AV products to market. All things considered, would XLNX stock be a top semiconductor stock to buy now?
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STMicroelectronics
Last but not least, we will be looking at the Switzerland-based semiconductor company, STMicroelectronics (STM). Essentially, the company specializes in a range of products that include discrete and standard commodity components, and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). For the most part of the year, STM stock has been trading sideways. That said, we are seeing some price action over the past month with the company stock rising more than 20% within the period.
Its latest third-quarter earnings report may have played a role in this recent momentum. STM’s third-quarter net revenues were $3.20 billion, up 19.9% year-over-year. This reflects the strong global demand and by its engaged customer programs in Personal Electronics. Moreover, it was able to achieve a net income of $474 million, up by a whopping 95.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Well, the company remains optimistic despite concerns over output in Malaysia, where COVID-19 disrupted production and translated into a $100 million loss of revenue for the quarter.
On top of that, STM and The University of Catania also announced the signing of a framework agreement on education and research activities in power electronics earlier this month. This partnership aims to foster academic and professional training of students and nurture research for tech innovations. In the long run, it would naturally benefit both parties to exploit the trend of Power Electronics. So, would you be watching STM stock now?
