Technology Sector Update for 05/01/2018: QRVO,AAPL,COMM,SABR

IBM -0.04%

CSCO +0.93%

GOOG +1.49%

Technology stocks continued to firm on Tuesday, with shares of tech companies in the S&P 500 adding over 0.9% in value today, up from narrow gains earlier today, while the Philadelphia semiconductor index was posting a more than 1.3% advance.

Among technology stocks moving on news:

+ Qorvo Inc ( QRVO ) rose 7.5% Tuesday after analyst at Barclays today raised their investment rating for the wireless components manufacturer and Apple ( AAPL ) supplier to Overweight from Equal-Weight previously. The upgrade runs counter to a downgrade Tuesday of several Apple suppliers, including Qorvo, by Oppenheimer analyst Rick Schafer, citing “widespread evidence” of downside risk to iPhone sales in the second quarter. He also is expecting an “above-seasonal slowdown at Samsung” although Schafer said a likely rebound for Chinese smartphone sales may offset a portion of those declines to “provide a tailwind” for some suppliers. According to the Oppenheimer analyst, Qorvo has an Apple exposure of 35% of its yearly revenue, a China exposure of about 30% and a Samsung exposure of less than 10% and he lower his forecast for FY18 per-share earnings by $0.30 to $5.63 and by $0.25 to $6.73 for FY19. Analysts, on average, are expecting Qurvo to earn $5.13 and $6.17 per share in FY18 and FY19, respectively, according to Capital IQ.

In other sector news:

– Commscope ( COMM ) fell to a two-year low on Tuesday, sliding over 31% to its lowest share price since April 2016 at $26.29 each, after reducing its FY18 core earnings forecast below analyst estimates and upstaging better-than-expected Q1 financial results. The networking equipment company cut its forecast for adjusted per-share earnings for the 12 months ending Dec. 31 by $0.23 compared with its previous outlook to a new range of $2.33 to $2.48 per share and lagging the Capital IQ consensus by at least $0.16 per share. It also continues to see revenue this year coming in between $4.68 billion to $4.83 billion, in-line with the the $4.77 billion analyst mean. Excluding one-time items, it earned $0.49 on $1.12 billion in revenue during the three months ended March 31, beating Street estimates by $0.03 per share and $10 million, respectively.

– Sabre ( SABR ) rose over 10% on Tuesday after the technology consulting company said it was partnering with Amazon ( AMZN ) to provide travel information services for the online retail giant and moving its business model to the cloud. Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed.