Infineon, BrainChip, Palantir - Spoiled for choice!

Infineon - Sell-off at lofty heights

Infineon shares recently lost almost 10% from the annual high of around EUR 38.5. The reason was a press conference that offered an outlook on expectations for the next fiscal year. "The year 2022 will be a strong year," stated CEO Reinhard Ploss. The Group is currently benefiting strongly from the booming demand for chips. The trends around electrification and digitalization, for example, in the automotive sector, ensure full order books. CO2 reduction and the desire to make things intelligent and securely networked are the important underlying trends in all technology-oriented industries.

As a result, sales in the new fiscal year 2021/22 are expected to increase in the mid-teens percentage range, as the Group announced at the last Investor Day. The operating margin in the segment result is also expected to increase to around 20%. However, Infineon expects significantly higher investments of EUR 2.4 billion. The medium-term growth targets were thus confirmed, but the capital market had probably expected somewhat more. Despite positive analyst comments, the share price fell. The chart picture has thus deteriorated in the short term. Therefore, secure your investment with a stop at EUR 33.80, where there is significant medium-term support.

BrainChip Holdings - Innovations for the future

While traditional chips are subject to an extreme supply shortage, powerful innovations are already being designed in the development departments. That is because progress is moving forward in leaps and bounds. Autonomous driving, facial and voice recognition, service bots and cloud security are the buzzwords. In sum, that is a lot of applications for the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

BrainChip Holdings is an Australian semiconductor company that manufactures a revolutionary neuromorphic processor called "Akida." This chip is the first fully digital computer chip that functions in the same way as the human brain, i.e. it processes so-called spikes instead of traditional computer data.

The Akida processor is economical because it generates hardly any heat and requires only milliwatts to operate. That means that it is used precisely where CO2 has to be saved and where there are corresponding restrictions due to the construction. It does not transmit any data to the outside world and can only be accessed using highly secure tools, making it a top-level solution for data protection. Since Akida does most of its processing on the chip and not in data centers, it does not require a constant Internet connection. It thus takes so-called edge computing to a whole new level.

Prominent customers include organizations such as NASA, Valeo, NaNose Medical, Renesas and Ford. With this list of customers, BrainChip already covers several industries with its technology. Strong growth is likely to be seen in cloud and edge computing using AI in the coming years. Renesas is a major supplier to the automotive industry in the area of chips. Self-thinking vehicles will be particularly interesting here in the future. It is a megatrend, as they are even in development at Apple and Google.

The BRN share is actively traded in Australia, on the Nasdaq and in Germany. Its market capitalization is currently around EUR 410 million. Profit-taking in the entire chip sector recently pushed the share price back down to EUR 0.26. In the medium term, however, the value is highly interesting. Get first-hand information about the Company from CFO Ken Scarince at the investor conference "IIF - International Investment Forum" on October 14.

Palantir Technologies - Not quite getting off the ground

Shares of Palantir Technologies have been in a tight sideways range for months now. The data specialist has closed many lucrative deals this year, including with the British government and the US military. However, the share has not benefited from the good news so far and is currently trending back towards the lower trend limit at around EUR 20. Here also lies important medium-term support.

The NASDAQ has corrected by around 10% in the last few weeks, while Palantir has corrected by about 20%. Analytically, the Company is valued with a 2022 P/E of 24 and P/B of 120. Although this has somewhat reduced the astronomical valuation since January, when the stock weighed in at over EUR 50 billion, the title is still expensive today. With the share price continuing to move sideways, the stock can, of course, grow into its current valuation in 2-3 years. However, this is not good news for buyers.

The next quarterly figures, which are expected to be published on November 11, could provide new buying impetus. It is estimated that sales will grow by 33% to around USD 385 million. If the figures miss the high expectations, things will get frosty.

Many issues are moving the high-tech sector at the moment. These are raw material shortages, supply chain issues and increasing demand for energy-efficient products. Growth momentum remains very high in the tech sectors, but the stock market has already factored these factors into its valuations. If there are disappointments here, prices fall very quickly, as in the case of Infineon and Palantir, for example. The Australian BrainChip is still very young and can still process some sector dynamics positively.