While Fools should generally take the opinion of Wall Street with a grain of salt, it's not a bad idea to take a closer look at particularly stock-shaking upgrades and downgrades -- just in case their reasoning behind the call makes sense.
What: Shares of TriQuint Semiconductor (TQNT.DL) popped 8% this morning after strong quarterly results prompted Needham & Company to upgrade the radio frequency technologist from hold to buy.
So what: Along with the upgrade, analyst N. Quinn Bolton planted a price target of $10 on the stock, representing about 24% worth of upside to yesterday's close. While value investors might be turned off by the stock's strength over the past year, Bolton thinks there's plenty of room to run given his view of continued growth acceleration and margin expansion.
Now what: According to Needham, TriQuint's risk/reward trade-off remains quite attractive. "With March's uncertainty now in the past, shares look more attractive as TQNT should benefit from a mix shift toward richer margin product lines including premium filters, MMPAs and GaN-based solutions for the Defense and Networks segments," noted Bolton. "Moving into FY15, we expect revenue growth to accelerate as headwinds from the exit of lower margin businesses subside." More important, with TriQuint boasting a rock-solid balance sheet and reasonable forward P/E of 14, the downside seems limited enough to bet on that bullishness.
