Wall Street continues to warm to Ingram Micro Inc.
Last month, another investment bank started following the Santa Ana-based distributor of technology products, the fifth this year.
Ingram hardly is a tiny business longing for some coverage. But the extra attention never hurts.
Analysts at Bear Stearns & Co. in New York started coverage of Ingram with an “outperform” rating and a price target of $22. The company’s shares were trading at around $18 with a market value of $3 billion last week.
With Bear Stearns, Ingram now has 15 analysts who follow the company, according to Ingram’s Web site.
The company also has been getting attention from others.
In late September, three brokerages raised their price targets for Ingram’s shares:
On Sept. 23, First Albany Capital Corp. of New York bumped its price target to $20 from $19.
On Sept. 27, Robert W. Baird & Co. of Milwaukee raised its price target to $21 from $19.
On Sept. 28, Banc of America Securities LLC of New York raised it price target on the stock to $19 from $18.
The changes came after Ingram reaffirmed its third-quarter outlook in early September. The company said it expects to post income of $48 million to $53 million during the recently ended quarter, up more than 40% from a year earlier.
The forecast didn’t include onetime charges, reorganization costs, special items or integration expenses for Ingram, the world’s largest distributor of computers, software and other technology products.
The company expects sales of $6.8 billion to $7 billion for the quarter, a gain of about 15% compared to a year ago. Ingram’s results are due Oct. 27.
“Ingram has consistently outperformed its peers recently despite difficult conditions,” wrote First Albany analyst Joel Wagonfeld in a research note after a meeting with Kevin Murai, Ingram’s president and chief operating officer.
“We think it’s poised to build on this momentum.”
Wagonfeld does not own shares of Ingram and First Albany has no banking relationships with Ingram.
Wagonfeld highlighted Ingram’s gains in Europe over archrival Tech Data Corp. of Florida. But there are signs of more competition in the future, according to Wagonfeld.
“We are somewhat concerned that Tech Data could get more aggressive on pricing to regain some of this lost share,” he said.
It could take some time before Tech Data could make such a move, Wagonfeld said.
Competition has put some pressure on prices, which Ingram has fought off with cost controls and other initiatives, Murai said.
Research Round-Up
WiSpry Inc., a maker of radio frequency components and modules for wireless phones, is helping fund research that’s linked to its products.
WiSpry didn’t say how much it’s spending on research. The company is providing some matching funds for a National Science Foundation grant.
As part of the agreement, researchers from WiSpry are set to join officials from Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Arkansas.
The area of research is a mouthful,advanced radio frequency MEMS (short for micro electromechanical systems) packaging technologies.
MEMS use microscopic moving machines that are thousandths of an inch in size. Built using chip production gear, these tiny systems have found their way into airbag sensors, video projection systems and wireless communications.
Researchers aim to help the industry produce a wide range of low-cost hermetically sealed MEMS devices for use in areas such as telecommunications, homeland security, biomedical devices, automotive and aerospace sensors, thin displays, solid state lighting and fuel cells.
The news follows WiSpry’s first venture capital round of about $7 million earlier this year.
The company’s initial product is set to be a line of radio frequency switches that allow for improved antenna reception and more efficient energy usage, according to Wispry.
The product is meant for consumer electronics, such as wireless phones, handheld computers and game controllers.
Wispry was formed in 2002 in a split off of the radio frequency and wireless business unit of Austin, Texas-based Coventor Inc.
Gamer Fame
Orange County is known for good-looking people, great technology and hip surfwear.
Add some of the world’s best video-game players to that list.
Dennis Chan, a 22-year-old from Sunset Beach, is one of 16 “gamers” representing the U.S. at the World Cyber Games Grand Final in Singapore from Nov. 16 to Nov. 20.
A total of 800 of the best video gamers from 70 countries are set to challenge each other in the competition.
Chan may have a good shot at winning. He competed against more than 40,000 others to get a spot on the U.S. team.
Chan beat out other players on “Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos” from Irvine videogame maker Blizzard Entertainment Corp.
If Chan wins, playing games for untold hours could pay off. There are $430,000 in prizes in eight game events.
