Spruce Point Capital Vs. Oppenheimer: Who's Right About Tower Semiconductor?

Sometimes, the stock market can be so difficult to predict that not even the experts agree what will happen next. That’s certainly the case when it comes to Oppenheimer and Spruce Point’s differing opinions of Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (USA) TSEM.

After a 10 percent drop following a disappointing report by a competitor, Oppenheimer analyst Shawn Simmons believes that traders should be buying the dip.

“We view yesterday’s reaction as overdone and would be opportunistic buyers as we see TSEM as one of the best remaining growth and GM/FCF expansion stories in all of semis,” he explained. Oppenheimer maintains an Outperform rating on Tower and a $20 price target for the stock.

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Spruce Point, however, sees no less than five red flags for Tower, including questionable business strategy, punitive equity deals, poor management, unclear accounting and unreasonably high consensus expectations.

“Analysts base these [average $22/share] price targets on the assumption that Tower will grow 2016 revenues and Non-GAAP EPS by 13% and 23%, respectively, with larger peers and industry forecasts suggesting low single digit revenue growth, and declining YoY EPS,” the firm’s report read.

Spruce Point has a Strong Sell rating on Tower and values the stock in the $3-6 range.

Disclosure: the author has no position in the stocks mentioned.