The same goes for Zoran, which changes hands at $7.07, has net cash of $6 a share and no debt. It's fallen from a 12-month high of 18, and is well worth any remaining risk as a play on an economic recovery, Galluccio says.

The stock has a PE of 11 and a PEG of 1.21

Chipmaker Zoran Corp. said it plans to repurchase up to $100 million of its outstanding common stock.

Based on the company's recent stock price, the buyback represents about 7.3 million shares, or 14 percent of the company's 51 million outstanding shares.

The stock trades for 7.5x cash flow.

Deutsche Bank downgraded five specialty semiconductor stocks from Buy to Hold. ZRAN, XLNX, NETL, NVDA and LSI are the stocks affected. Companies are moving into a seasonally weak time of the year, and the slower economy will hamper any near-term sales recovery.

Stupid

Zoran (ZRAN) was upgraded from Sector Perform to Outperform, CIBC said. $28 price target. Company posted solid third quarter results, and is sitting on nearly $7 a share of cash. Stock is also valued at a 21% discount to its peers.

Zoran (ZRAN) was upgraded from Neutral to Overweight, JP Morgan said. Stock has sold off 22% since reporting strong second quarter results, and the company can post 11% annual earnings growth through the end of the decade.

From Barron's 7-30-07:

Hold - Price 19.70 on July 24
by W.R. Hambrecht
"Q2 results and the guidance were much stronger than our expectations....We're impressed by increasing profitability of Zoran [maker of integrated circuits and software for digital-audio and video-compression applications]; although revenue guidance remains within our expectations, DTVs continue to disappoint...we recommend investors to stay on the sidelines due to...lack of earnings-growth-potential. We see relatively flat y-o-y earnings growth in 2008E. So at 17 times our 2008 EPS estimate of $1.15, we find the valuation not compelling and maintain Hold rating."

growth

Avg. Absolute 1 Day % Chg on Earnings: 11.15%

spec