(Boursier.com) — Soitec fell further by 3.3% to 89.50 euros on the Paris market this Monday, while JP Morgan ‘underweighted’ the file with an adjusted target price of 109 to 95 euros. Morgan Stanley had previously downgraded the stock to ‘line weighting’, while significantly cutting its target from 173 to 102 euros. Decisions which follow the lowering of the forecasts of the specialist in innovative semiconductor materials for the financial year 2025, the correction of current inventories continuing to impact sales… The bank has “considerably” reduced its revenue estimates and profits for fiscal years 2025 and 2026 while it expects ‘R&D’ costs to remain stable as new projects are “moved to the back burner”.
Longer-term investors may remain positive about the opportunities offered by SmartSiC and POI products, as well as a potential entry into the silicon photonics sector, MS points out.
Previously, Stifel had reduced the slider from 160 to 140 euros while remaining at ‘purchase’. After lowering its estimates due to anticipated problems for RF-SOI last week, the company confirmed the broker’s pessimism with a publication even worse than feared… The new forecasts for fiscal 2025 imply zero growth, while the consensus was forecasting growth of 21%. High inventories and a slower than expected recovery in the Smartphone market (Apple in particular) continue to weigh… While expectations for the 2024 financial year had already been disappointing, it is now this new setback that investors must swallow. But, according to Stifel, the current guidance is quite conservative and, as the Smartphone market now looks significantly better than a year ago, Stifel considers the new guidance feasible. With sentiment already at its lowest and increasingly easy bases for comparison in the second half, it wouldn’t take much for stocks to recover…
For its part, Barclays lowered its target from 160 to 125 euros (‘online weighting’).
The stock has lost 42% since the start of the year on the Paris stock market…
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