ATML Earnings Action

A mood of edacious buying is visible in shares of Atmel Corp. (ATML). Tuesday of last week saw a quick shot of heavy volume accompanied by an upswing in the stock to close up by 5.9% on 12.1 million shares, almost 3x daily average volume that is typically just around 4.6 million shares. Then again today, another active session with the stock price moving higher by 6.3% on 10.03 million shares supported by a FBR analyst upgrade which cited a business recovery and cost cutting measures that will help improve Atmel’s EPS. It was the semiconductor firm’s highest close of 2009 at $4.04. Though the current run up has coincided with a robust rally in equities and particularly technology, the trading activity is still noteworthy and rather bullish ahead of first quarter earnings that are out tomorrow after the bell.