Do you like the growth that technology companies provide, but the stability of large companies? Technology stocks can be highly volatile, but larger ones have more reliable income.
We ran a screen of technology companies that are over $10 billion in market cap, and then compared those names' profitability (gross, operating and pre-tax margins) with other names in their industries.
Larger companies usually have steadier income but large margins to allow for more growth. Basically, if companies have a lot of cash, then they can reinvest it into their business.
Business section: investing ideas
The final list from our screen follows. These are the tech stocks over $10 billion in market cap, and also with better trailing-12-month gross, pre-tax and operating margins than their industry averages.
Do you think they have strong prospects for growth?
List sorted by market cap. (Access free, interactive tools to analyze these ideas.)
1. Intel (Nasdaq: INTC): Engages in the design, manufacture, and sale of integrated circuits for computing and communications industries worldwide. Market cap at $133.3 billion, most recent closing price at $26.69. TTM gross margin at 74.58% vs. industry average at 60.12%. TTM operating margin at 31.83% vs. industry average at 22.29%. TTM pre-tax margin at 31.86% vs. industry average at 20.54%.
2. Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM): Engages in the development, design, manufacture, and marketing of digital wireless telecommunications products and services. Market cap at $101.33 billion, most recent closing price at $61.69. TTM gross margin at 69.31% vs. industry average at 59.58%. TTM operating margin at 32.07% vs. industry average at 19.65%. TTM pre-tax margin at 34.86% vs. industry average at 19.36%.
3. Altera (Nasdaq: ALTR): Designs, manufactures, and markets programmable logic devices, structured application-specific integrated circuit devices, predefined design building blocks or intellectual-property cores, and associated development tools. Market cap at $10.94 billion, most recent closing price at $33.81. TTM gross margin at 71.46% vs. industry average at 60.1%. TTM operating margin at 37.57% vs. industry average at 22.28%. TTM pre-tax margin at 37.73% vs. industry average at 20.53%.
4. Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI): Engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of analog, mixed-signal, and digital signal processing integrated circuits used in industrial, communication, computer, and consumer applications. Market cap at $10.83 billion, most recent closing price at $36.56. TTM gross margin at 69.7% vs. industry average at 60.1%. TTM operating margin at 34.37% vs. industry average at 22.28%. TTM pre-tax margin at 33.74% vs. industry average at 20.53%.
Interactive Chart: Press Play to compare changes in analyst ratings over the past two years for these four stocks. Analyst ratings sourced from Zacks Investment Research.
