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ADI Rises 29% in a Year: Time to Buy, Sell or Hold the Stock?

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Analog Devices (ADI - Free Report) shares have soared 29% over the past year, outperforming the Zacks Semiconductor - Analog and Mixed industry’s return of 24.7%. This outperformance reflects the benefits of its portfolio strength and strategic partnerships, which are driving its momentum across various end-markets like industrial, automotive, consumer and communications.

Analog Devices’ efforts to integrate artificial intelligence technology into products to deliver enhanced customer experience are a plus. Investments in technology and business innovation and increasing power design wins are other major positives, which are impacting the stock positively.

Strategic Collaborations to Boost ADI’s Prospects

ADI’s strategic partnership with India’s Tata Group to boost the latter’s electronic manufacturing ecosystem marks a significant achievement. Tata Electronics, Tata Motors and Tejas Networks signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ADI to use its products in Tata applications mostly in electric vehicles and network infrastructure.

Analog Devices partnered with Flagship Pioneering to facilitate a fully digitized biological world. This collaboration combines ADI's engineering expertise in analog and digital semiconductors with Flagship Pioneering's proficiency in applied biology to promote the discovery of biological insights, new and enhanced measurements, diagnostics and novel interventions.

ADI’s latest collaboration with Honeywell (HON - Free Report) to digitize commercial spaces without replacing existing wiring, reducing costs and downtime is a notable development.

Analog Devices has also teamed up with Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM - Free Report) to secure long-term wafer capacity via Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing. This partnership, while ensuring a stable chip supply and facilitating rapid scaling and increased output to meet customer needs can be beneficial for ADI.

Analog Devices and BMW Group’s announcement of early adoption of E²B, ADI's 10BASE-T1S Ethernet to the Edge bus technology within the automotive industry, is a noteworthy development. BMW will leverage ADI’s E²B for ambient lighting system design in its vehicles.

Analog Devices Suffers Persistent Headwinds

Despite having a diverse portfolio and strategic alliances, macroeconomic challenges still pose a risk. Geopolitical tensions and recessionary fears are major negatives.

Rising competition from industry players like Texas Instruments (TXN - Free Report) , which is also making concerted efforts to integrate generative AI capabilities into its products, remains a major concern. Texas Instruments’ growing investments in new growth avenues, strong portfolio and advanced technology infusion are driving its prospects.

So far this year, Texas Instruments launched several products, including the DLPC8445 display controller — a new, compact solution for 4K UHD projectors. It enables ultra-small, high-performance projectors for gaming and AR glasses, delivering sub-millisecond latency and frame rates up to 240Hz.

ADI Offers Dim Q4 Guidance

For fourth-quarter 2024, ADI expects revenues to be $2.40 billion (+/- $100 million), suggesting an increase of 4% sequentially at the midpoint. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the same is pegged at $2.40 billion, indicating a decline of 11.6% year over year.

ADI anticipates a non-GAAP operating margin of 41% (+/- 100 bps).

The company expects the Industrial and Consumer end markets to increase, Communications to be flat and Automotive to decrease at the midpoint on a sequential basis.

The company expects non-GAAP earnings to be $1.63 (+/- $0.10) per share. The consensus mark for the same is pegged at $1.63 per share, unchanged over the past 60 days, suggesting a year-over-year fall of 18.9%. 

ADI’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, with an average surprise of 4.4%.

Find the latest EPS estimates and surprises on Zacks Earnings Calendar.

Zacks Rank and Valuation

ADI shares currently have a stretched valuation, as suggested by a Value Score of D.

Analog Devices stock is trading with a forward 12-month Price/Sales of 10.61X compared with the industry’s 7.64X.

ADI currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), implying investors should sell the stock.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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