Applied Materials (AMAT) beat consensus and offered upbeat guidance with its fiscal Q1 earnings. Revenues rose by double digits to $4.16 billion, driven by 24% gains in its core semiconductor systems business.
AMAT estimates wafer front end (WFE) for 2019 was between $49 billion and $50 billion, which would be down 10-12% YoY and in agreement with my forecasts presented in recent Seeking Alpha articles. The company expects global WFE to grow approximately 10% to 15% YoY in 2020.
Guidance
Uncertainty with Coronavirus Discounted by AMAT
During Applied Material's earnings call on February