Susquehanna analyst Christopher Rolland said he likes secular themes for the semiconductor group in 2019. He prefers themes like A.I. as well as industry M&A targets. The analyst noted handset unit growth is slowing heading into 2019 and there are automotive headwinds, tariffs, and risks to PC shipments, which are causing a shift in interest. Rolland said he considers Mellanox (MLNX) his top takeout candidate in the space, also identifying Lattice Semiconductor (LSCC), Cypress Semiconductor (CY) and ON Semiconductor (ON) "attractive" targets.

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists. 1... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

HSBC last night upgraded AMD (AMD) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $225, up from $180. Given AMD's recent share price correction of 15% over the past month, market expectations for the company's MI300 2024 and 2025 revenue have been reset, the analyst tells investors in a research note. However, the firm thinks AMD has enough supply capacity and demand to surpass management's artificial intelligence revenue guidance. AMD's next-generation AI GPU is a more direct competitor to Nvidia (NVDA) GB200 in 2025, the analyst tells investors in a research note. HSBC sees an attractive risk/reward at current share levels.

HSBC analyst Frank Lee upgraded AMD to Buy from Hold with a $225 price target.

Friday's total option volume of 58.8 million contracts resulted in net open interest growth of 5.70 million calls and 5.17 million puts. Apple (AAPL), Tesla (TSLA), NVIDIA (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) saw the greatest growth. Top five new positions opened include 95k Meta Platforms (Facebook) (META) 6/18 weekly 1030 calls, 42k Tesla (TSLA) Apr-24 177.5 calls, 40k V F Corp (VFC) Mar-25 10 puts, 30k Alphabet Class A (GOOGL) Apr-24 165 calls and 30k Tesla (TSLA) 6/18 weekly 100 calls.

Catch up on the weekend's top five stories with this list compiled by The Fly: 1. Salesforce (CRM) is in advanced talks to acquire Informatica (INFA) but the price being discussed is below Informatica's closing stock price of $38.48 as a result of the recent jump, Lauren Thomas, Laura Cooper and Dana Cimilluca of Wall Street Journal report, citing people familiar with the matter. 2. Apple (AAPL) denied violating a court order governing its App Store and urged a California federal judge to reject a request by "Fortnite" developer Epic Games to hold it in contempt, Reuters' Mike Scarcella reports. Apple made the arguments in a filing to U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, who presided over Epic's lawsuit in 2020 accusing Apple of violating antitrust law with its tight controls over how consumers download apps and pay for transactions within them. The Apple filing criticized what it called an attempt by Epic to make Apple's "tools and technologies available to developers for free." 3. Netflix (NFLX) is the forgotten tech giant - but its upcoming earnings report should help investors remember why they loved the stock in the first place, Paul R. La Monica writes in this week's edition of Barron's. The streaming-media leader was once part of the Nasdaq's FAANG club, an acronym traders used to describe Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META), Amazon.com (AMZN), Apple, Netflix, and Google owner Alphabet (GOOGL). But FAANG has since been replaced by the Magnificent Seven, a group that includes the four largest FAANGs, as well as Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA), and Tesla (TSLA)...and excludes Netflix. But with Netflix set to report its first-quarter earnings on April 18, investors shouldn't sleep on the stock, the author says. 4. A24's "Civil War" won this weekend's box office with a $25.7M debut, making it the biggest opening ever for A24. The dystopian action movie sports a B- CinemaScore, with the audience skewing heavily male - 73%. The debut is also the biggest for an R-rated movie this year. 5. Timken (TKR) saw a positive mention in this week's edition of Barron's.