Piper Jaffray Overweight On Altera

Piper Jaffray is out with a research report on Altera Corporation ALTR and it has an Overweight rating and a $52 price target on shares. In a note to clients, Piper Jaffray writes, "Historically, we have not commented much on market share shift between ALTR and XLNX. We frankly believe it is a moot point that has little bearing on our investment thesis for ALTR. Our thesis is that ALTR will significantly outperform the overall semiconductor market as PLDs annex market share from ASICs and ASSPs. In our view, the growth potential for both companies is driven by conversion of ASICs to PLDs and not market share shifts between PLD companies. Moreover, in talking to XLNX we believe the company is opening up a new front in the expansion of PLDs that may well accelerate overall growth of the PLD market, making share shifts even less relevant. However, based our analysis, we still believe ALTR will continue to gain share for the foreseeable future." Shares of ALTR lost $1.20 on Friday to close at $33.01.