FBR: Don't Overreact To Lattice Semi's CFO Transition

FBR’s Christopher Rolland maintained an Outperform rating for Lattice Semiconductor LSCC, while urging investors to not overreact to the company’s CFO transition.

Lattice Semi is on the lookout for strategic buyers for its portfolio of important FPGA technologies, including display technologies, USB 3.1 options, base level programmability and hardware acceleration from processor offerings.

Analyst Christian Rolland believes that several companies, including Xilinx, Inc. XLNX, Intel Corporation INTC, QUALCOMM, Inc. QCOM and some Chinese entities, could be interested in acquiring these technologies.

Reaction To CFO Transition

The company announced a CFO transition, with Joe Bedewi exiting the role on April 2 and Max Downing, currently the company’s corporate controller, to take charge as an interim CFO.

Rolland believes that while some investors are likely to view Bedewi’s departure as “impromptu,” others may take it as indicative of an uphill selling process. He added that there could be several reasons for Bedewi’s exit.

There was also an “odd” change of control provision included for Downing, compensating him in the event of an acquisition, Rolland added.

“While the timing of the departure is likely to be viewed negatively, we believe the selling process has not concluded and that the company could ultimately fetch a price of $8.50 or better,” the FBR report noted.