Qualcomm (QCOM)

It reports Wednesday. Good risk/reward with shares rallying after an earnings beat but not declining much after a miss. They may buy Intel, which is rallying these days.

Has a low PE compared to fellow chipmakers. They recently suffered from over-inventory, but have mostly worked through this. What's interesting in QCOM is their chips used in cars and the internet of things, so they have good growth potential.

Makes sense for QCOM to be interested in INTC, as it's a path to being more vertically integrated. Could create more synergies than other players. But you can't buy a stock hoping for a takeout; it may not occur.

He talked about the bid for Intel. Intel doesn't have any AI of any significance, is a low growth business, and missed the mobile window. It should be dilutive to earnings from a growth perspective

He likes them without them buying Intel. It is one of the cheapest players in the chip space from a multiples perspective. For example Apple's P/E is near 40 but Qualcomm's is 25. They are working on new semi-conductor technology. He thinks it will re-visit its highs relatively soon, and considers it more of a trade than an investment.          Buy 29  Hold 14  Sell 1

A play in the semiconductor space, if you really want to take some risk.

He sold some when it got above $200, then bought back below $150. It's 2% of his portfolio; when it gets to 2.5%, he brings it back to 2%. If it goes below 2%, he brings it back up. Likes it long term. 

The negative is repeated fights with AAPL; if the relationship ends, looking at $20 downside. Sexy side is AI on a chip; if that comes through, probably $70-80 upside.

It has been the beneficiary of the AI boom and he is not active in that space which is cyclical with high multiples. Also the big techs ate starting to produce their own chips.

A royalty play in semis. You get an Apple scare from time to time, that Apple will stop using their chips (8-10% of QCOM's overall business). But he expects QCOM to keep making chips for Apple, but the future trend will be big companies making their own chips. He'd buy pullbacks but expects an uptick in shares by year's end.

She prefers QCOM as a long-term hold. 9/10 on fundamentals. Small pullback presents a great entry point, still upside. Has participated in the chip rally. Wait for more of a pullback, as the broadening across other sectors will continue to bring up the market.

The whole mobile network works on Qualcomm technology. It has a connection to AI since it owns patents for robotic cars to talk to each other, although this is 5 to 10 years away. It became an AI play last fall. He still holds a core position.

It has stunk the previous two years, but  broken out and will continue to rally. Their chips are powering MSFT's tablets, and there's more to come.

Has just added more shares and owned this while, despite shares lagging in recent weeks. It's well-positioned considering Apple. Also, it pays nearly a 2% dividend. Will buy more if this pulls back.

Pretty fully priced, he took profit. He deploys profits into other names with decent runways. To determine if fully priced, he reviews the published analysts' price targets and does his own.