Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Krishnan Sankaranarayanan debuts in third place. The San Francisco–based former All-America Research Team Rising Star covers 27 stocks and is bullish on the sector. Sankaranarayanan forecasts that 2014 will be a cyclical recovery year because “memory manufacturers are expected to spend after a long hiatus, in addition to the foundries,” he says. Indeed, he will be watching for signs of a rebound as early as the fourth quarter of this year, the analyst adds. In this context, he recommends that clients buy KLA-Tencor Corp., a Milpitas, California–based provider of process-control services to light-emitting diode manufacturers; and Fremont, California–based Lam Research Corp., which makes plasma etching devices for use in fabricating integrated circuits. Both names “should benefit from the underlying demand trends,” he believes. — Pam Baker |
The 2013 All-America Research Team: Semiconductor Capital Equipment, No. 3: Krishnan Sankaranarayanan