Baird analyst reiterates outperform rating on Xilinx after hearing CEO speech

A Baird analyst is reiterating his outperform rating on the semiconductor company Xilinx, (NASDAQ:XLNX) citing the company’s advances outlined in a speech Tuesday by its CEO Victor Peng.

On the list of achievements which justify Baird’s Tristan Gerra’s $90 price target on the stock is Versal, Xilinx’s first adaptive compute acceleration platform as well as its first artificial intelligence engine, based on a 7nm process. The technology’s range of applications is broad and includes use in data centers as well as for 5G wireless networks. Nokia, for example, is planning to use the platform for 5G deployments.

“Various flavors will be introduced, including for edge (low power) and for RF (5G, massive MIMO) applications,” wrote Gerra about Versal in a note to investors.

“AI RF series integrates all radio functions and machine learning in a single platform,” he added.

Another bright spot is Alveo, a portfolio of Xilinx’s first accelerator cards which are designed to improve the performance of servers across cloud and on-premise data centers. They are now in production and will start shipping at the end of October.

“Alveo targets applications such as machine learning, video streaming, database search and analytics … image processing and financial computing,” explained Gerra.

Gerra does see a few risks for the Xilinx too. These include difficulties rolling out new products, any slowdown in the semiconductor industry and macroeconomic weakness.

Xilinx shares were flat in Tuesday’s after-hours session, holding steady at $80.64.

Story by ProactiveInvestors