The Zacks Industry Rank Highlights: Advantest, Keysight Technologies and InTEST

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – April 26, 2018 - Stocks featured in this week's Zacks Industry Rank analysis include Advantest ATEYY, Keysight Technologies, Inc. KEYS and InTEST Corp INTT.

Zacks Industry Rank Analysis is written by John Blank, PhD, Chief Equity Strategist, Zacks.com.

Here's a RED HOT Tamale in a Flat Stock Market

The Electronics – Measuring Instruments industry is staying RED HOT in a flat market. And the summary metrics Zacks collects show it.

In the last week, this tech stock group was in the Top 5% (#14 out of 265) of industries Zacks ranks. We counted 4 upgrades to covering analyst earnings estimates and zero analyst downgrades.

As a reminder, internal studies have shown us: Roughly half of a stock's price movement can be attributed to the group that it's in. In fact, the top 50% of Zacks Ranked Industries outperforms the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.

This is an enduring top-down strategic idea for finding outperformance. And it is indeed borne out, once again.

Look at the collective performance of this group of stocks over the last year.As of April 25^th, 2018, the shareholder returns table below shows--

• While the S&P 500 has been down -5.5% over the last 3 months, this 10-company industry group is up +9.9%

• The YTD return is +20.8% while the S&P 500 is flat

• Over the last year, this industry group is up +44.3%, while the S&P 500 index is up +15.7%

In short, Semiconductor Industry-related stocks have worked extremely well.

This supplier niche -- in that large tech hardware space -- is no exception.

Here are the best three stocks in this group—

(1) Advantest: This is a $3.8B market-cap Zacks #1 Rank (STRONG BUY) stock.

This stock looks great across the board. The stock’s Zacks Value score is B and its Growth score is B. The forward P/E is 16.57 and the PEG ratio is 1.07. The stock market beta on this play is low at 0.71.

Advantest Corporation is one of the world's leading automatic test equipment suppliers to the semiconductor industry, and is also a producer of electronic and optoelectronic instruments and systems.

A global company, Advantest has long offered total ATE solutions, and serves the industry in every component of semiconductor test: tester, handler, mechanical and electrical interfaces, and software. Its logic, memory, mixed-signal and RF testers, and device handlers, are integrated into the most advanced semiconductor fabrication lines in the world.

(2) Keysight Technologies, Inc.: This is a large-cap stock, with $10.3B in market capitalization.

The Zacks #1 Rank (STRONG BUY) is the sole stock metric flashing attraction. Showing all the good news is priced into shares, at the moment, the stock’s Zacks Value score is poor at D and its Growth score is C. The forward P/E is 18.28. The stock market beta is right at the S&P level, with a mark of 1.00.

Keysight is an Applied Technology company that provides electronic measurement solutions to the communications and electronics industries.

It provides electronic measurement instruments and systems and related software, software design tools, and related services that are used in the design, development, manufacture, installation, deployment and operation of electronics equipment.

The company provides start-up assistance, consulting, optimization and application support throughout the customer's product lifecycle. It also offers customization, consulting and optimization services throughout the customer's product lifecycle.

Keysight Technologies, Inc. is headquartered in Santa Rosa, California.

(3) InTEST Corp: This is a very small-cap stock, with $74M in market capitalization.

The Zacks #2 Rank (BUY) is only one attraction to this little-known company. Its Zacks Value score is low at B and its Growth score is outstanding at A. The forward P/E is also quite low at 8.94. The stock market beta is very low, a mark of 0.39.

InTEST Corporation is an independent designer, manufacturer and marketer of ATE interface solutions and temperature management products, which are used by semiconductor manufacturers to perform final testing of integrated circuits and wafers.

The company's high-performance products are designed to enable semiconductor manufacturers to improve the speed, reliability, efficiency and profitability of IC test processes. Specific products include positioner and docking hardware products, temperature management systems and customized interface solutions.

The company has established strong relationships with semiconductor manufacturers globally, which it supports through a network of local offices.

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inTest Corporation (INTT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Keysight Technologies Inc. (KEYS) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Advantest Corp. (ATEYY) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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