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Company Aixtron (Nasdaq: AIXG)
Submitted By: jeffrey2012
Member Rating: 57.90
Submitted On: 7/14/2010
Stock Price At Underperform Recommendation: $28.68

Targacept Profile

Star Rating ***
Headquarters Herzogenrath, Germany
Industry LEDs
Market Cap $2.88 billion
Industry Peers

Agilent (NYSE: A)

Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT)

Cree (Nasdaq: CREE)

Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's), Yahoo! Finance, and Motley Fool CAPS.

This Week's Pitch :
This is a great company since they along with [Veeco Instruments (Nasdaq: VECO)] are the main suppliers for LED equipment production. However, they are going to face headwinds that will most certain affect earnings going forward.

First of all, China's market is becoming more saturated with equipment due to the surge in orders because of fears of local government subsidies for the led equipment.

Second, China is trying to steer investment dollars toward domestic offerings so that their hard earned money doesn't go to either German or American companies. This will most certainly be a major negative as well going forward.

Third, even if the first 2 factors don't pan out, then you have to consider valuations. Fellow [Veeco] is way cheaper with a rock solid balance sheet and yet has for some reason not advanced as rapidly as [Aixtron]. I think given the prospects, [Veeco] is a better deal in an overall crummy investment environment. Especially when you consider that [Aixtron]is trading at a 2x premium to [Veeco].

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