Calavo (CVGW) (RYL) (SHEN) (SM) (CRUS) (CVGI) Upgraded

Calavo Growers (NASDAQ: CVGW), The Ryland Group (NYSE: RYL), Shenandoah Telecommunications (NASDAQ: SHEN), SM Energy (NYSE: SM), Cirrus Logic (NASDAQ: CRUS) and Commercial Vehicle Group (NASDAQ: CVGI) were upgraded by analysts.

The Ryland Group (RYL) was upgraded by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) from a “Neutral” rating to an “Overweight” rating.

Shenandoah Telecommunications (SHEN) was upgraded by Zacks Investment Research from an “Underperform” rating to a “Neutral” rating.

SM Energy (SM) was upgraded by Capital One to an “Add” rating.

Cirrus Logic (CRUS) was upgraded by Stifel Nicolaus from a “Hold” rating to a “Buy” rating. They have a price target of $26.00 on the company.

Commercial Vehicle Group (CVGI) was upgraded by Zacks Investment Research from a “Neutral” rating to an “Outperform” rating.

Calavo Growers (CVGW) was upgraded by Zacks Investment Research from a “Neutral” rating to an “Outperform” rating.

Acadia (ACHC) (BODY) (CRUS) (BKS) (BMR) (CNC) Ratings, Price Targets

Acadia Healthcare (NASDAQ: ACHC), Body Central Acquisition Co. (NASDAQ: BODY), Cirrus Logic, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRUS), Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE: BKS), BioMed Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: BMR) and Centene Co. (NYSE: CNC) ratings and price targets.

Acadia Healthcare (ACHC) is now covered by Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB). They have a “hold” rating and a price target of $13.50 on the firm.

Body Central Acquisition Co. (BODY) had its “outperform” rating reiterated by Oppenheimer. They have a price target of $27.00 on the firm.

Cirrus Logic, Inc. (CRUS) had its price target raised by Needham & Company from $23.00 to $25.00. They have a “strong-buy” rating on the firm.

Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS) was downgraded by Zacks Investment Research from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating.

BioMed Realty Trust, Inc. (BMR) was downgraded by Raymond James (NYSE:RJF) from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating.

Centene Co. (CNC) was upgraded by Zacks Investment Research from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating.

Cirrus Logic (CRUS) Plunges on Downwardly Revised Gross Margin Outlook

The downwardly revised gross margin outlook of Cirrus Logic (Nasdaq:CRUS) for the March quarter put shares of the company under pressure, as it dropped as much as 14 percent in trading, although it has recovered a little as the trading day goes on.

Prior estimates for gross margins had been 54 to 56 percent, and the revised estimates were dropped 4 to 6 percent to 50 percent.

The reason for the change is from a production problem with "a new audio device that entered high volume production in March 2011."

While revenue and operating expenses are expected to be close to previous guidance, EPS will miss the consensus estimate by about 5 cents for March, as well as drag them down for the June and September quarters.

Cirrus was trading at $16.09, falling $2.01, or 11.10 percent, as of 2:07 PM EDT.

Semis (INTC) (NVDA) (LRCX) (AMAT) (AMD) (MU) (CRUS) Crunched on Rising Japan Fears

Fears a shortage of chips could dramatically have an negative effect on the semiconductor sector had shares of Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Cirrus Logic (NASDAQ:CRUS), Nvidia (NASDAQ:INTC), Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX), Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT), Micron ((NASDAQ:MU) and AMD (NYSE:AMD) all end down on Monday, and they should remain under pressure for some time because of the uncertainty surrounding supply.

Research firm Gartner noted, “Clearly, there are some material supply challenges ahead of the industry in the aftermath of the tragic events in Japan.”

With the Semiconductor Industry Association reported a drop in worldwide chip sales in February compared with the January, there's a question as to whether or not Japan is the only reason for the slowdown, although February is a short month, which may be a contributing factor.

Intel closed Monday at $19.49, dropping $0.23, or 1.17 percent. Applied Materials closed at $15.40, falling $15.40, losing $0.13, or 0.84 percent. Micron closed at $11.19, down $0.11, or 0.97 percent. Applied Micro Devices ended the session at $15.40, losing 0.13, or 0.84 percent. Lam Research closed at $54.90, dropping $1.41, or 2.50 percent. Cirrus Logic fell to $19.65, down $0.69, or 3.39 percent. Nvidia closed down at $17.55, losing 0.65, or 3.57 percent.

Cirrus Logic (CRUS) Too Reliant on Apple (AAPL)?

As Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) goes so goes Cirrus Logic (NASDAQ:CRUS), and that generates the question of the sustainability of the company if it doesn't expand its market.

The problem isn't so much whether or not Apple will continue to enjoy success in the smartphone market for some time, the question is whether or not Cirrus will continue to remain the primary vendor they work with there, as evidenced by Apple's recent decision to use Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) instead of Infineon for its baseboard chip.

Cirrus' design does help protect is some, as it comes with strong customization, but those specs could be imitated or adapted easy enough if Apple chose another company.

With about 54 percent of the revenue generated by Cirrus coming from Apple, they do need to do some work to lower its exposure and boost investor confidence.

That's not to say there aren't some other wins for Cirrus, as they have won business with Ford Motor (NYSE:F) and Sirius (NASDAQ:SIRI) for unrelated products, but together with other offerings, is still less than half of the business they do with Apple alone.

Cirrus closed Wednesday at $21.11, falling $0.23, or 1.08 percent.

Intel (INTC) Continues to Miss the Mark in ARM, Other Areas

On Monday, Mark Moskowitz, JP Morgan IT (NYSE:JPM) hardware analyst, lowered his 2011 PC unit estimates from up 9.5% year to year to up 7.0% year to year due to several reasons.

He attributed the lower estimates to "stalling PC demand in China, weak global consumer PC demand, demand leakage to tablets, an expected deceleration in commercial PC growth, and the elongation of the useful lives of PCs.

"In addition, the top four PC OEMs (over 50% of total PC demand) have all recently missed and/or lowered guidance, while a few notebook ODMs recently lowered 1Q11 shipment estimates. As a result, we believe Intel is at risk of missing the midpoint of its 1Q11 revenue guidance."

The Atom was Intel's first misfire. I noted back in January 2009 that Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) lost as much a $1 billion is misjudging the success of the netbook and switching production from more lucrative notebook chips like the Penryn to make up for a shortfall in Atom chips.

Companies which are or have been ARM licensees include Alcatel (ALU), Atmel (ATML), Broadcom (BRCM), Cirrus Logic (CRUS), Digital Equipment Corporation, Freescale, Intel (through DEC), LG Group, Marvell Technology Group (MRVL), NEC, Nvidia (NVDA), NXP , Oki, Qualcomm (QCOM), Samsung, Sharp, ST Microelectronics (STM), Symbios Logic, Texas Instruments (TI), TSMC (TSMC), VLSI Technology (VSLI), Yamaha and ZiiLABS.




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Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), Qualcomm (QCOM), Cirrus Logic (CRUS) Riding the Apple (AAPL) Wave

Skyworks Solutions (NASDAQ:SWKS), Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), Cirrus Logic (NASDAQ:CRUS) are among the beneficiaries of the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone wave, as the iPad 2 is about to be unveiled on Wednesday, although specs have yet to be revealed there.

Most investors will be closely watching Apple the news concerning the iPad 2, which probably won't surprise many, as a lot of the specs have already been talked about; although anything that isn't known and is unveiled could offer a nice boost to the company.

As for the three stocks mentioned above, they are recipients of the success of the Apple iPhone for several reasons.

For Skyworks, it's from adding another chip to the three power amplifiers it had in the first iPhone 4.

Qualcomm is also providing a 3G wireless chip for the new iPhone.

Cirrus Logic has their audio technology features in several Apple products.

These could be a precursor to iPad 2 specs, which we'll finally know about on Wednesday.

Volterra Semiconductor (Nasdaq:VLTR), Cirrus Logic (Nasdaq:CRUS) Top Picks of Needham in Analog

Needham & Company, commenting on the analog sector heading into 2011, has chosen Volterra Semiconductor (Nasdaq:VLTR) and Cirrus Logic (Nasdaq:CRUS) as their top picks.

They said, "In writing our 2010 review we could not be more pleased with the upward turn of the analog group's share prices in September given the volatility in group sentiment through the course of the year. The material valuation disconnect between semi stocks (and most hardware tech) and the rest of the market's industry verticals was noticeable and we were pleased this gap started to close towards year-end. Additionally, the mid-Q4 reports and earnings out of the industry have been relatively upbeat compared to expectations. For instance, Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN) tightened its range within prior guidance and expects 1H 2011 to experience normal seasonality as the recent inventory correction winds down. This prompted us to move our cash adjusted target P/E multiples from 2011 to 2012 and as a result, believe that most of our analog coverage universe will offer upside in share price valuation in 2011. We look forward to a more normal growth year for analog semis of about 7% in aggregate across the industry, with typical seasonality and multiple incremental, secular growth drivers ranging from LED lighting to automotive infotainment. We highlight Volterra Semiconductor and Cirrus Logic as the two best names to own in our universe coverage."

"Our 2011 Key Themes: We anticipate that the silicon supply chain for LED general lighting will become more active with momentous investor enthusiasm. We also expect the tablet buzz to die down while other markets such as automotive infotainment take a front seat as a secular driver for analog silicon content."

"Our Two Best Picks: We believe that Volterra Semiconductor will have both the incremental notebook and server opportunities in the first and second half of 2011, respectively, as well as strong 2012 growth to prompt interest from investors. We also believe that Cirrus Logic will offer earnings momentum due to its major customer in portable audio, however it will also demonstrate signs of product diversity in the second half of 2011, garnering incremental investor interest."

Volterra Semiconductor was trading at $23.20, up $0.02, or 0.09 percent, as of 11:59 AM EST. Cirrus Logic was at $15.99, down $0.01, or 0.06 percent.

Needham Maintains "Buy" on Cirrus Logic (NASDAQ:CRUS)

Needham & Company said they're maintaining their "Buy" rating on Cirrus Logic (NASDAQ:CRUS) while raising their price target.

Needham said, "As discussed in our industry report issued today (Wednesday) entitled "Year-End Reality Check" we have moved our cash adjusted P/Es from 2011 to 2012 and calculated new target prices on companies within our analog coverage universe. We are now valuing CRUS shares on a cash adjusted 2012 P/E of 12x compared to a 2011 cash adjusted P/E of 12x. This resulted in our target price being raised $21 or 12 times our CY 2012 EPS of $1.55 plus net cash per share of $2.50. Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL) has been a major success for CRUS, however it brings along the high risk/high reward trade-off in the form of customer concentration vs. growth. Near-term we expect strength as it refreshes its line-up of iPhones for the Verizon (NYSE:VZ) (N/R) network. Longer-term, we are gaining conviction that the LED lighting and PFC call options on long-term revenue growth, virtually free to the investor, should be viewed as a tangible asset in summing up CRUS’ product lines."

Cirrus closed Wednesday at $15.65, down $0.35, or 2.19 percent. Needham raised their price target from $19 to $21 on the company.

Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL) Not Cirrus' (NASDAQ:CRUS) Top Catalyst

While there is no doubt the opportunity for Cirrus Logic (NASDAQ:CRUS) with Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL) is a good one in the short term, Needham doesn't see it as the main catalyst going forward.

Needham said, "While investors are appropriately focused on the Apple opportunity for Cirrus near-term, we believe the true driver to return CRUS shares to the high-teens to $20 range will be a recovery in the other audio (consumer) and energy (industrial) revenue in MarQ4. Apple has been a major success for CRUS, however it brings along the high risk/high reward trade-off in the form of customer concentration vs. growth. It also overshadows other product developments and the strong fiscal execution of the company over the last three years. Longer-term, we are gaining conviction that the LED lighting and PFC call options on long-term revenue growth, virtually free to the investor, should be viewed as a tangible asset in summing up CRUS’ product lines."

Cirrus Logic closed on Wednesday at $15.41, up $0.14, or 0.92 percent. Needham has a price target of $19 on them.

Volume for Cirrus was far below the 3-month daily average.