ARM price seems to be going through a three month flattish period after a 1 year or so steady rise. Any views on what might happen next?

Looking strong today and getting close to the busy £6 area.

iPhone 5 A6 chip running A15 cores beats Samsung

Date: September 13th, 2012

The Apple iPhone 5 was officially announced yesterday and we’ve been bringing readers all the details. One of the first things covered in Apple’s keynote speech was the introduction of the new A6 chip, a step up from the A5 used in the current iPhone 4S and Apple claims this new processor will offer speeds up to two times quicker than the older A5. Now we have learned that the iPhone 5 A6 chip is running A15 cores, beating Samsung in bringing them to the market.

Motorola's first Intel-powered handset launches in UK

Google's Motorola unit has released its first Intel-powered smartphone.

The Razr i is based on a mid-range model sold in the US that features an ARM-based Snapdragon processor.

Motorola said the change of chip meant improved camera performance. However, it has also meant Google's Chrome browser is not installed on the device.

Intel recently cut its sales forecasts citing weaker demand. Although it dominates PC chip sales it is a niche player in the smart device sector.


The handset is Motorola's first to feature an Intel processor
Its existing smartphone partners - ZTE, Lenovo, Lava, and Gigabyte - are all relatively minor smartphone forces in Western markets.

So, Intel's tie-up with Google - which also makes the Android system - is widely seen as its most significant effort to crack the market to date.

ARM Holdings will release a Q3 update on Tuesday. ARM has gone through a classic growth phase, and its share price has powered up from 80p at the start of 2009 to a peak of 650p in early 2011, sporting a very high P/E along the way. Since then, the price has flattened, and is even down a little from that peak to 593p today -- the price appears to be taking a break while earnings catch up.

How's the valuation looking today? The company is still priced as a growth share, with forecasts putting it on a forward P/E of over 40 with only a tiny dividend of less than 1%. We're still some way from the transition between growth and dividends, and there is a fair bit of growth still in the price, but is there a new growth spurt to come? There could be.

Third Quarter Results

Progress on key growth drivers in Q3

· Growth in adoption of ARM® processor technology

o 29 processor licenses signed for a broad range of applications, including deeply embedded products such as chips for hearing aids and automotive braking systems, and consumer electronics such as smartphones, TVs and tablets

o Momentum in high-end computing and networking applications continued, with the signing of one ARMv8 architecture license, one ARMv8 processor license and one Cortex-A15 processor license

· Growth in shipments of chips based on ARM processor technology

o 2.2 billion chips shipped, split equally between mobile and non-mobile segments

o Processor royalty revenue grew 27% year-on-year, driven by strong growth in Cortex-A and Mali-based chips

· Growth in outsourcing of new technology

o 5 Mali™ graphics processor licenses signed, including three with new customers for Mali technology

o 4 physical IP Processor Optimisation Packs licensed, enhancing ARM's royalty opportunity per chip

Chip designer ARM Holdings put on 90p (16%) to end October on 665p. Until then, the shares were just at break-even point for the year, having gone through a 20% dip during the summer.

The big news was a 22% jump in third-quarter pre-tax profit to £68m, announced on 23 October. That came from an 18% rise in quarterly sales to £228m, after ARM's customers manufactured 2.2 billion ARM-based microprocessors during the three-month period.

The shares have eight-bagged since 2009, and are now on a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 40 for the full year, so there's plenty of future growth already in the price. But we're really still in the early days of mobile computing, so that could well be justified.

Apple Said to Be Exploring Switch From Intel for Mac

Apple Inc. (AAPL) is exploring ways to replace Intel Corp. (INTC) processors in its Mac personal computers with a version of the chip technology it uses in the iPhone and iPad, according to people familiar with the company’s research.

Apple engineers have grown confident that the chip designs used for its mobile devices will one day be powerful enough to run its desktops and laptops, said three people with knowledge of the work, who asked to remain anonymous because the plans are confidential. Apple began using Intel chips for Macs in 2005.

Participation in Consortium to Acquire Rights

ARM is a leading participant in a consortium of major technology companies to acquire rights to MIPS' portfolio of 580 patents.

CAMBRIDGE UK - 6 November 2012 - ARM [(LSE: ARM); (NASDAQ: ARMH)] today announced that it is a leading member of Bridge Crossing LLC, a consortium of major technology companies affiliated with Allied Security Trust, which has entered into an agreement with MIPS to obtain rights to its patent portfolio. The MIPS patent portfolio includes 580 patents and patent applications covering microprocessor design, system-on-chip design and other related technology fields. The consortium will pay $350 million in cash to acquire rights to the portfolio, of which ARM will contribute $167.5 million.

The transaction will, upon completion, support continued innovation in system-on-chip design, whilst removing any potential litigation risk presented by the MIPS patent portfolio with respect to the consortium members. The consortium will make licenses to the patent portfolio available to companies not within the consortium.

No surprise there then +3%

In both these stocks but the broker goes hold IMG sell ARM. Anyone have the full note or notes?.

08 Nov Imagination... IMG Deutsche Bank Hold 479.05 479.00 590.00 590.00 Retains
08 Nov ARM Holdings PLC ARM Deutsche Bank Sell 703.00 705.00 400.00 400.00 Retains

A thing of beauty.

New multi year high this morning @750.50p

And again @780.

When do I sell.

Highest for a while today 784p

New post tech boom high today @818.50p.

Morgan Stanley note today:
"While 12m ago investors were worried about ARM’s position vs Intel, we believe the current share price implies a near perfect trajectory in ARM’s market share and royalty rate for the next two years. As a result, we downgrade to EW and wait for a better entry point into what remains a great story.
Investor expectations are now very high ... Just like two years ago, ARM’s share price has rocketed strongly on expectations that 1) it would take significant market share in the mobile computing market, micro-server and infrastructure markets; and 2) the launch of new architecture such as big.LITTLE would lead to higher royalty rate. Everything we were hoping for 12 months ago is now taken for granted due to strong news flow, including the iPad mini launch, disappointing Ultrabook launch and weak PC sales. It will be difficult for news flow to improve from here, and ARM could still lose sockets here and there (Samsung Galaxy S4, for instance) and are fully priced in. Investors’ high expectations are reflected in a 44x PER – at the high end of the past ten-year range. To move our DCF price target beyond £10 would require double-digit growth beyond 2020, on top of significant market share gain and a royalty rate increase in the several years to come."

Final Results

Progress on key growth drivers in Q4

· Growth in adoption of ARM® processor technology

o 36 processor licenses signed for a broad range of applications, from smartphones and mobile computers to medical devices and microcontrollers

o Momentum continues in computing, servers and networking applications with the signing of two ARMv8 architecture licenses, six ARMv8 processor licenses and three ARM Cortex™-A15 processor licenses

· Growth in shipments of chips based on ARM processor technology

o 2.5 billion chips shipped
o Processor royalty revenue grew 21% year-on-year, driven by strong growth in Cortex-A and Mali™-based chips

· Growth in outsourcing of new technology

o 7 Mali graphics processor licenses signed
o 5 physical IP based POP™ IP products licensed

Great results.

I of course had these at 89p.............Guess what?