Shares of Universal Display (Nasdaq: PANL) have been on a tear this week. The stock has jumped nearly 13% thanks to an impressive annual meeting and two top-shelf analyst upgrades.
Universal Display CEO Steve Abramson used the meeting as a platform to showcase his company's growth opportunities. "The OLED industry is growing rapidly as the markets for high-performance OLED displays expand and the potential for energy-efficient white OLED lighting builds," he said in a press release to wrap up the meeting. Sales doubled in 2011 as the company turned profitable.
Two household names from Wall Street chimed in with ringing endorsements. Goldman Sachs reiterated a buy rating and $61 price target, leaving room for a quick double from today's prices. "Following field work in Korea, we have more confidence that Universal Display is gaining share in the OLED materials stack," said the firm. In particular, Samsung is on track to double its use of Universal Display's materials by adding green emitters to the currently used red ones. Competing OLED technologies, chiefly from Sumitomo Chemical and its Cambridge Display subsidiary, provide the missing colors until Universal Display works out the kinks in green and blue phosphorous OLED materials.
Then, Deutsche Bank joined the megabank chorus of approval. The firm started a brand new buy recommendation on Universal Display with a more conservative $45 target, noting low share prices and outsized growth opportunities.
Deutsche's litany of catalysts for the stock is impressive, and I find myself nodding along with each of the key points: "We believe the shares are undervalued and see good price catalysts including signing up more customers for long-term agreements (namely LG (NYSE: LPL)), continued penetration of OLED displays into devices (handsets, tablets, TVs), the discovery/commercial production of blue phosphorescent emitters and long term penetration in the OLED lighting industry."
Universal Display already plays a vital role in the booming smartphone and tablet market. Even if lighting panels and big-screen OLED TV sets never take off, mobile computing is enough to more than justify Goldman's and Deutsche's price targets. Read all about this trillion-dollar revolution in this special report, which is totally free for a limited time.
