Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE: FSL) have popped today by as much as 15% following an analyst upgrade.
So what: Piper Jaffray analyst Gus Richard boosted his rating on Freescale from "neutral" to "overweight," while similarly hiking his price target from $15 to $18. The analyst is increasing sales estimates for this year and next year.
Now what: Richard believes that Freescale has some gross margin upside ahead of it that will correspond with higher factory utilization and an improving product mix toward high-margin products. The company should also lower its interest expense as Freescale is in the process of restructuring its debt at lower rates.
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