hardware - zacks investment research

9
Industry Note October 24, 2020 Analysts Matt Bryson (617) 695-6302 [email protected] Hardware Last Week in Hardware - Consolidation Increases Our Conviction Around NAND NAND - Choppy Fundamentals, but Consolidation = Good While NAND spot prices remain stable (and storage retail trends appear to remain solid), pricing pressure around enterprise SSD/NAND appears to have only ratcheted up. While we see the breadth of this dichotomy as somewhat difficult to explain, we believe the far more important news is SK Hynix's agreement to purchase INTC's NAND fab and SSD business. Consolidation has historically led to substantial benefits for commodity businesses due to subsequent production rationaliztion, and this agreement only increases our conviction that fundamentals will rebound in 2021. AMD HPC Wins This past week saw HPE and AMD (CPUs and GPUs) being selected for two large supercomputers with aggregate contracts of close to $200M. We view these wins as another reminder of AMD's gains in HPC, highlighted by the two DOE projects (each valued at $600M) that are expected to come online in 2021 and which both use AMD CPUs and GPUs. Net, HPC momentum remains one of the tailwinds giving us confidence AMD will continue to grow its data center presence at an accelerated pace through 2021. 5G - Strong Demand + Huawei Struggles = Opportunity China 5G demand remains robust with China Mobile + China Telecom subscriber adds again exceed 20M per month in September. Conversely, Huawei's struggles with US export restrictions appear to finally have manifested with handset sales in Q3 falling for the first time ever. We believe the combination of 5G demand and Huawei share loss is incentivizing other handset vendors to lift builds, a result that is yielding greater demand for silicon and should boost prospects for the handset supply chain (e.g., modems, RF, foundry, etc.) through year end. New Storage Controllers Benchmarks figures for Phison's E18 are a reminder of its early leadership in the transition to Gen 4 PCIe connected SSDs. We see MU's UMCP5 parts (and more generally 5G/UFS handset strength) as well as SIMO's new SSD controllers as positioning SIMO to grow sales in 2021, and also moderating risk related to INTC's proposed sale of its NAND sets. Competition in AI NVDA remains the dominant player in the AI space as per new MLPerf inferencing tests (a situation that we see continuing for the foreseeable future) with A100 parts still difficult to come by (per our conversations. However, Cerebras's and SambaNova's work with large US labs is a reminder that well funded startups are working on competing for future AI designs. Wedbush Securities does and seeks to do business with companies covered in its research reports. Thus, investors should be aware that the firm may have a conflict of interest that could affect the objectivity of this report. Investors should consider this report as only a single factor in making their investment decision. Please see pages 7–9 of this report for analyst certification and important disclosure information. Page 1 www.wedbush.com

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Page 1: Hardware - Zacks Investment Research

Industry Note

October 24, 2020

Analysts

Matt Bryson(617) [email protected]

HardwareLast Week in Hardware - Consolidation Increases OurConviction Around NAND

NAND - Choppy Fundamentals, but Consolidation = Good

● While NAND spot prices remain stable (and storage retail trends appear toremain solid), pricing pressure around enterprise SSD/NAND appears to haveonly ratcheted up.

● While we see the breadth of this dichotomy as somewhat difficult to explain, webelieve the far more important news is SK Hynix's agreement to purchase INTC'sNAND fab and SSD business.

● Consolidation has historically led to substantial benefits for commoditybusinesses due to subsequent production rationaliztion, and this agreementonly increases our conviction that fundamentals will rebound in 2021.

AMD HPC Wins

● This past week saw HPE and AMD (CPUs and GPUs) being selected for two largesupercomputers with aggregate contracts of close to $200M.

● We view these wins as another reminder of AMD's gains in HPC, highlighted bythe two DOE projects (each valued at $600M) that are expected to come onlinein 2021 and which both use AMD CPUs and GPUs.

● Net, HPC momentum remains one of the tailwinds giving us confidence AMD willcontinue to grow its data center presence at an accelerated pace through 2021.

5G - Strong Demand + Huawei Struggles = Opportunity

● China 5G demand remains robust with China Mobile + China Telecom subscriberadds again exceed 20M per month in September.

● Conversely, Huawei's struggles with US export restrictions appear to finally havemanifested with handset sales in Q3 falling for the first time ever.

● We believe the combination of 5G demand and Huawei share loss is incentivizingother handset vendors to lift builds, a result that is yielding greater demand forsilicon and should boost prospects for the handset supply chain (e.g., modems,RF, foundry, etc.) through year end.

New Storage Controllers

● Benchmarks figures for Phison's E18 are a reminder of its early leadership in thetransition to Gen 4 PCIe connected SSDs.

● We see MU's UMCP5 parts (and more generally 5G/UFS handset strength) aswell as SIMO's new SSD controllers as positioning SIMO to grow sales in 2021,and also moderating risk related to INTC's proposed sale of its NAND sets.

Competition in AI

● NVDA remains the dominant player in the AI space as per new MLPerfinferencing tests (a situation that we see continuing for the foreseeable future)with A100 parts still difficult to come by (per our conversations.

● However, Cerebras's and SambaNova's work with large US labs is a reminder thatwell funded startups are working on competing for future AI designs.

Wedbush Securities does and seeks to do business with companies covered in itsresearch reports. Thus, investors should be aware that the firm may have aconflict of interest that could affect the objectivity of this report. Investors shouldconsider this report as only a single factor in making their investment decision.Please see pages 7–9 of this report for analyst certification and importantdisclosure information.

Page 1www.wedbush.com

Page 2: Hardware - Zacks Investment Research

WDC.O

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News

NAND - Choppy Fundamentals, but Consolidation = Good Intel agrees to sell NAND and SSDs to Hynix.

Intel DCG (and enterprise NAND) sales dip.

Wedbush View:

NAND fundamentals are currently choppy.

Spot ASPs suggest relatively stable pricing fundamentals, a function that we see as

echoing current retail conditions (Note: STX also reported unexpected HDD strength in

this segment).

However, even while spot/retail (and handset) conditions appear to be improving for

NAND, the opposite appears to be taking place in the enterprise/cloud markets. While

the focus in Intel’s report was around the declines in DCG, Intel’s NVM sales (which we

believe have been heavily weighted towards enterprise SSD shipments when compared

with its peers) also tumbled. Our checks in turn suggest that contract pricing for

enterprise NAND parts is under severe pressure with prices likely down in the high teens

or even 20%+ range in CQ4.

Having said this, we believe current conditions are far less important in light of the

announcement that INTC will sell its NAND business to Hynix. We view consolidation as

an unmitigated positive for commodity industry fundamentals and particularly for those

competitors not involved in the consolidation.

In support of this view, we would point to the stock performance of WDC and STX post

Seagate’s announced acquisition of Maxtor, those same companies’ performance post

their announced plans to acquire Hitachi’s and Samsung’s drive operations respectively,

and Micron’s performance after it revealed its agreement to acquire Elpida.

Net, while we expect WDC to report above consensus results (in part due to its more

pronounced presence in the stronger retail space) and would point to the price Hynix is

paying for INTC’s fab as another reason to view it as undervalued (on a sum of the parts

basis), perhaps the strongest argument to be made for owning WDC here is that

consolidation only increases the likelihood fundamentals improve in the coming year, a

view we have been advocating for some time.

Figure 1: Industry Consolidation & Price Outperformance

Source: Thomson Reuters and Wedbush Securities, Inc

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MU.O

Page 2www.wedbush.com

Page 3: Hardware - Zacks Investment Research

Figure 2: Memory Spot Price

Source: ChinaFlashMarket, Inspectrum, and Wedbush Securities, Inc.

AMD HPC Wins AMD and HPE win Australia’s Pawsey Supercomputer.

AMD and HPE to build Lumi Supercomputer.

Wedbush View:

While last week’s supercomputing news was all about NVDIA related HPC wins

highlighted by the forthcoming Leonardo supercomputer (expected in 2022), this week

HPE’s Cray unit bagged two large deals (together valued at nearly $200M) both

integrating AMD CPUs and GPUs.

We view these deals as a reminder that: 1) AMD is continuing to gain traction in the HPC

space, a result that should benefit both its datacenter CPU and GPU sales, and 2) that

both these projects are smaller versions of the two large DOE installations (Frontier and

El Capitan) that go into production next year and together total $1.2B in value.

Net, we continue to see substantial tailwinds in place for AMD’s server related business

through 2021 including a substantial contribution from large HPC deals.

5G – Strong Demand + Huawei Struggles = Opportunity Huawei’s struggles with US sanctions curtailing access to much needed chips for its

products.

5G chip demand booming.

Wedbush View:

Huawei provided a corporate update this week allowing for a peek inside the proverbial

kimono, or cheongsam as the case may be. Q3 revenues were up just 4% year-over-year,

a far cry from Huawei’s previous four year (at least) run rate of double-digit revenue

growth, suggesting that US sanctions will indeed provide competitors with opportunities

to gain share.

Huawei handset data (via Canalys) indeed shows Huawei China shipments declining on a

Y/Y basis 18% in CQ3, the first ever decline and well below Q1 and Q2 domestic gains

(up 1% and 8%, respectively) despite those periods being affected by COVID related

headwinds.

And such declines do not appear in any way tied to a softening in the Chinese handset

market. This past week saw two of the three main providers, China Mobile and China

Telecom (China Unicom does not break out 5G subscriptions in its monthly numbers)

report their net adds for the month of September. On a combined basis, the two

telecom operators added 23.1M 5G subscribers during the month resulting in the

Avg, 4.63

10/22/2020, 4.58

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Page 3www.wedbush.com

Page 4: Hardware - Zacks Investment Research

second highest month of 5G net adds vs July's 25.3M. China Telecom and China Mobile

have consistently added ~20M subscribers per month since April, with total 5G

subscribers now over 178M (mostly added this year).

Net, we would note that earlier this year, 200M 5G handset shipments appeared to be

an aspirational goal, whereas now it appears China alone will close the year with

subscriber numbers well above those levels.

We see this combination of continued strength in 5G growth as well as Huawei’s

struggles as driving increased builds at other major handset vendors, a result that in

turn is creating greater demand for handset components.

We believe near-term winners from this dynamic will include: 1) QCOM, Mediatek, and

RF names (given added content), and 2) TSMC, as the company derives nearly half its

revenue from smartphones. AAPL was TSMC's largest customer in 2019 at roughly 20%

of revenues and customer demand for the newly announced generation of iPhone 12s

appears robust with supplier build estimates continuing to climb post the release of the

new handsets.

Figure 3: Huawei China shipments declining on a Y/Y basis 18% in CQ3

Source: Canalys and Wedbush Securities, Inc

New Storage Controllers Benchmarks for Phison’s E18.

Silicon Motion launches its first PCIe 4.0 controller.

Micron’s uMCP5 is ready for mass production.

Wedbush View:

While Silicon Motion is announcing its first controller with PCIe 4.0 connectivity,

Tweaktown is showing off purported benchmark figures for Phison’s 2nd

generation part.

We see both pieces of news as positive for the two Taiwanese memory controller

builders.

Huawei - Worldwide & China Smartphone Shipments

(M of Units) 1Q19 2Q19 3Q19 4Q19 1Q20 2Q20 3Q20

Overseas 29.1 21.4 25.2 22.7 18.9 15.6 17.9

China 29.8 37.2 41.5 33.3 30.1 40.2 34.0

Total 58.9 58.6 66.7 56.0 49.0 55.8 51.9

Q/Q%Δ

Overseas -27% 18% -10% -17% -17% 15%

China 25% 11% -20% -10% 34% -15%

Total 0% 14% -16% -13% 14% -7%

Y/Y%Δ

Overseas -35% -27% -29%

China 1% 8% -18%

Total -17% -5% -22%

Page 4www.wedbush.com

Page 5: Hardware - Zacks Investment Research

We believe Phison’s early introduction of PCIe 4.0 connectivity was integral to its

penetration into the XBOX and a solid follow-on should help cement market share gains

in the performance space.

As for SIMO, its previously announced new design wins (expected to begin ramping in

2H’21) are tied to its new PCIe 4.0 part.

Finally, we’d note that we believe Micron’s new uMCP5 design is reliant on SIMO’s

silicon.

We see both new SSD designs and the ramp of UFS in 2021 (helped by what we believe

will be resurgent handset demand) as factors that will help SIMO both grow revenues

and moderate any Intel related risk in 2022 and beyond (should Hynix decide to shift

Intel’s consumer SSD line to its internally designed controllers).

Competition in AI Nvidia dominates MPLerf inferencing tests.

US National Labs explore SambaNova and Cerebras.

Wedbush View:

The value of benchmarks is always debatable, but we view the fact that 85% of the

benchmarks submitted in the latest MLPerf inferencing results used NVDA silicon as a

sign of NVDA’s current dominance in the AI market.

Having said this the partnership between SambaNova and the Lawrence Livermore and

Los Alamos National Laboratories as well as Cerebras’s work with Lawrence Livermore

are reminders that there are some well-funded startups with interesting solutions

competing for a piece of the AI market.

As a reminder our view is that NVDA will remain a dominant (and most likely the

dominant) player in AI for the foreseeable future, benefiting from the rapid growth in

the space with our latest conversations suggesting that NVDA is still running behind end

demand for its A100 silicon.

However, in the long run, we also wouldn’t be surprised if a well-funded startup and/or

one of the hyperscale data center operators eventually emerges as a viable competitor

to NVDA.

Page 5www.wedbush.com

Page 6: Hardware - Zacks Investment Research

Hardware Comp Table

Source: Thomson Reuters, and Wedbush Securities Inc., estimates

HARDWARE

WEDB WEDB EPS EST WEDB REV EST $M WEDB P/E WEDB EV/SALESTICKER COMPANY NAME RATING PRICE$ WEDB TP$ UP/DNSIDE % MKT CAP$B EV$B 2019A 2020E 2021E 2022E 2019A 2020E 2021E 2022E 2019A 2020E 2021E 2022E 2019A 2020E 2021E 2022E

2330 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd O $452.00 $510.00 13% 11,720.5 11364.0 $13.32 $19.60 $20.23 $24.26 $1,070,000 $1,338,900 $1,481,700 $1,742,000 33.9x 23.1x 22.3x 18.6x 11.0x 8.8x 7.9x 6.7x

AMD Advanced Micro Devices Inc O $81.54 $100.00 23% 93.2 92.2 $0.64 $1.09 $1.92 $2.78 $6,731 $8,893 $11,469 $14,268 127.4x 74.8x 42.5x 29.3x 13.2x 10.0x 7.8x 6.2x

INTC Intel Corp U $47.98 $48.00 0% 229.2 241.8 $4.89 $4.90 $4.63 - $71,965 $75,551 $67,128 - 9.8x 9.8x 10.4x - 2.9x 2.8x 3.2x -

MU Micron Technology Inc N $52.88 $55.00 4% 60.5 59.0 $6.31 $2.83 $1.96 $4.97 $23,406 $21,435 $22,128 $28,292 8.4x 18.7x 27.0x 10.6x 2.5x 2.7x 2.7x 2.1x

NVDA NVIDIA Corp O $540.52 $600.00 11% 329.7 325.7 $6.63 $5.79 $9.00 $11.01 $11,716 $10,918 $15,724 $19,079 81.5x 93.4x 60.1x 49.1x 28.9x 31.0x 21.5x 17.7x

SIMO Silicon Motion Technology Corp O $39.75 $46.00 16% 1.4 1.1 $2.60 $2.93 $2.89 $3.47 $449 $516 $518 $630 15.3x 13.6x 13.8x 11.5x 3.1x 2.7x 2.7x 2.2x

STX Seagate Technology PLC N $51.16 $47.00 -8% 13.3 15.7 $4.75 $4.96 $4.39 $4.89 $10,390 $10,509 $9,834 $9,913 10.8x 10.3x 11.7x 10.5x 1.3x 1.3x 1.3x 1.3x

WDC Western Digital Corp O $41.59 $52.00 25% 13.1 19.6 $4.84 $3.03 $1.58 $7.44 $16,569 $16,737 $15,515 $18,571 8.6x 13.7x 26.3x 5.6x 0.8x 0.7x 0.8x 0.7x

MEAN MEAN EPS EST MEAN REV EST $M MEAN P/E MEAN EV/SALESTICKER COMPANY NAME REC PRICE$ MEAN TP$ UP/DNSIDE % MKT CAP$B EV$B 2019A 2020E 2021E 2022E 2019A 2020E 2021E 2022E 2019A 2020E 2021E 2022E 2019A 2020E 2021E 2022E

2330 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd N $452.00 $501.06 11% 11,720.5 11364.0 $13.20 $19.61 $21.17 $24.24 $1,068,818 $1,337,027 $1,481,937 $1,659,196 34.3x 23.0x 21.3x 18.6x 11.0x 9.1x 8.3x 7.1x

AMD Advanced Micro Devices Inc N $81.54 $81.31 0% 93.2 92.2 $0.62 $1.10 $1.67 $2.18 $6,712 $8,923 $10,989 $13,021 131.1x 74.1x 48.9x 37.4x 14.4x 11.2x 9.2x 7.8x

INTC Intel Corp N $47.98 $53.85 12% 229.2 241.8 $4.61 $4.88 $4.59 $4.76 $70,983 $75,325 $71,540 $71,699 10.4x 9.8x 10.5x 10.1x 3.0x 2.7x 2.8x 2.7x

MU Micron Technology Inc N $52.88 $62.59 18% 60.5 59.0 $6.24 $2.75 $3.01 $6.09 $23,125 $21,283 $22,851 $28,750 8.5x 19.2x 17.6x 8.7x 2.6x 2.8x 2.6x 2.1x

NVDA NVIDIA Corp N $540.52 $571.37 6% 329.7 325.7 $6.56 $5.58 $9.11 $11.09 $11,713 $10,778 $15,788 $18,734 82.4x 96.9x 59.4x 48.8x 28.9x 31.0x 21.4x 18.1x

SIMO Silicon Motion Technology Corp N $39.75 $51.20 29% 1.4 1.1 $2.51 $2.88 $3.11 $3.60 $443 $518 $570 $642 15.9x 13.8x 12.8x 11.0x 3.2x 2.7x 2.5x 2.3x

STX Seagate Technology PLC N $51.16 $53.52 5% 13.3 15.7 $4.78 $5.06 $4.73 $5.25 $10,349 $10,607 $10,208 $10,454 10.7x 10.1x 10.8x 9.7x 1.4x 1.3x 1.3x 1.2x

WDC Western Digital Corp N $41.59 $51.68 24% 13.1 19.6 $4.85 $3.03 $3.11 $6.22 $16,600 $16,788 $15,666 $17,921 8.6x 13.7x 13.4x 6.7x 0.7x 0.7x 0.8x 0.7x

Priced: 10/23/2020 Matt Bryson | O: 617 695 6302 | M: 617 680 0888 | [email protected]

* All numbers for 2330.TW in NT$

Source: Thomson Reuters & Wedbush Securities, Inc. estimates

VALUATION

2330 We arrive at our target price based on a multiple of ~20X P/E (net cash) using our FY2022 EPS estimate.

AMD We arrive at our price target by applying a multiple of ~35x our 2022 EPS estimate. This multiple is in-line with AMD's historical FY2 multiple and our revenue growth assumptions through 2022.

INTC We are basing our target price on a blended multiple (net cash) of: ~10X FY21 earnings and ~3-4x EV/S, or where the stock has traded over the last 2 years.

MU We arrive at our target price by applying Micron's historical ~10X EPS multiple (plus cash) to our 2022 outlook.

NVDA We arrived at our price target by applying a P/E (plus cash) multiple of ~42X to our FY2023 EPS estimate.

SIMO Our price target is based on a target multiple of ~12.5X (net cash) SIMO's FY2021 EPS and in-line with SIMO's average historical valuation metrics.

STX We arrive at our price target price by applying a forward earnings multiple of ~11x-12x (net debt) to our FY'22 EPS which we view as appropriate for a low growth/no growth technology component vendor.

WDC We arrive at our target price by applying a P/E multiple of ~10X-11X (netting out debt) to our FY2022 estimate and in-line with WDC's valuation over the past two to five years.

RISKS

2330 Economic deterioration and demand destruction from the current pandemic, changes to US Policy, sovereignty risk to Taiwan, risk to the supply chain, and technology risk.

AMD AMD misexecutes, customers choose other vendors, competition increases (e.g., pricing, design), TSMC is constrained (production), the economy deteriorates.

INTC INTC executes on stated initiatives, competition misexecutes, INTC divests underperforming businesses, tailwinds continue to boost revenues and GM.

MU MU misexecutes, future acquisitions dilute value, Chinese vendors successfully enter NAND or DRAM markets; MSD declines could be overly pessimistic, pricing pickup could occur ahead of expectations.

NVDA NVDA fails to acquire ARM, missteps in its MLNX acquisition, misexecution, customers reduce spending, competition gains share.

SIMO SIMO Downside: misexecutes, loses customers, customers shift to vertical integration; Upside: SIMO increases market penetration, becomes an acquisition target.

STX STX Downside: misexecutes, pricing declines, demand decreases; Upside: STX executes on stated initiatives, pricing increases, demand increases.

WDC WDC misexecutes, customers choose other vendors, competition increases (e.g., pricing, design), the economy deteriorates.

Page 6www.wedbush.com

Page 7: Hardware - Zacks Investment Research

Risks to the Attainment of Our Price Targets and Ratings: HardwareShifts in competition, pricing, technology, and macroeconomic conditions.Changes in hyperscale spending tied to shifts in growth or increased optimization.Unforeseen events affecting production capacity (power outages, fires, storms, etc.)Shifts in worldwide trade conditions that lead to macro instability and or close certain markets.Increased competition from China based manufacturers entering new markets.

WEDBUSH DATA ANALYTICS DISCLOSURES

Wedbush Data Analytics product and services are proprietary and confidential and are for information purposes only. All such materialsand disclosure of contents within may not be shared for any reason, without prior express written consent from Wedbush Securities.Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Data is a single point in an investment decision, and the information may not contain all materialinformation related to an investment thesis. Opinions may prove inaccurate, and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties andshould be considered “as is” without representations or warranties of any kind whatsoever express or implied. Analyses, research,data and metrics express our opinions, and subject to change at any time. Wedbush Data Analytics has no authority in any way togive information or make representation or warranty on behalf of the applicable company or companies in connection therewith. TheWedbush Data Analytics platform does not collect data from password-protected and/or private sources. We operate in good faith andmake every effort to comply with terms of use on the web so as not to violate terms of use on a given domain. Additional informationis available upon request.

DATA SIGNAL RATING SYSTEM

Positive ( + ): Proprietary data set with correlation to a given historical company-reported metric indicates that the respective current/mid-quarter company-reported metric trends are better than consensus and/or better than management guidance.

Negative ( - ): Proprietary data set with correlation to a given historical company-reported metric indicates that the respective current/mid-quarter company-reported metric trends are below consensus and/or lower than management guidance.

Non-Conclusive/No Call (NC): Proprietary data set does not have a strong enough correlation to be Positive or Negative.

Analyst CertificationI, Matt Bryson, certifies that the views expressed in this report accurately reflect my personal opinion and that I have not and will not,directly or indirectly, receive compensation or other payments in connection with my specific recommendations or views containedin this report.

Mentioned Companies

Company Rating Price Target

Apple OUTPERFORM $115.04 $150.00

Advanced Micro Devices Inc OUTPERFORM $81.96 $100.00

Intel Corp UNDERPERFORM $48.20 $48.00

Micron Technology Inc NEUTRAL $52.85 $55.00

Nvidia OUTPERFORM $543.61 $600.00

Seagate Technology PLC NEUTRAL $50.74 $47.00

Investment Rating System:OUTPERFORM: Expect the total return of the stock to outperform relative to the median total return of the analyst's (or the analyst'steam) coverage universe over the next 6-12 months.

NEUTRAL: Expect the total return of the stock to perform in-line with the median total return of the analyst's (or the analyst's team)coverage universe over the next 6-12 months.

UNDERPERFORM: Expect the total return of the stock to underperform relative to the median total return of the analyst's (or theanalyst's team) coverage universe of the next 6-12 months.

The Investment Ratings are based on the expected performance of a stock (based on anticipated total return to price target) relativeto the other stocks in the analyst's coverage universe (or the analyst's team coverage).* Rating distribution Investment Banking Relationships

Page 7www.wedbush.com

Page 8: Hardware - Zacks Investment Research

(as of October 24, 2020) (as of October 24, 2020)OUTPERFORM: 63.09% OUTPERFORM: 7.88%NEUTRAL: 35.08% NEUTRAL: 1.49%UNDERPERFORM: 1.83% UNDERPERFORM: 0.00%

The Distribution of Ratings is required by FINRA rules; however, WS' stock ratings of Outperform, Neutral, and Underperform mostclosely conform to Buy, Hold, and Sell, respectively. Please note, however, the definitions are not the same as WS' stock ratings areon a relative basis.

The analysts responsible for preparing research reports do not receive compensation based on specific investment banking activity.The analysts receive compensation that is based upon various factors including WS' total revenues, a portion of which are generatedby WS' investment banking activities.

Company Specific Disclosures1. WS makes a market in the securities of Apple, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Intel Corp, Micron Technology Inc, Nvidia and SeagateTechnology PLC.

Price ChartsWedbush disclosure price charts are updated within the first fifteen days of each new calendar quarter per FINRA regulations. Pricecharts for companies intiated upon in the current quarter, and rating and target price changes occurring in the current quarter, will notbe displayed until the following quarter. Additional information on recommended securities is available on request.Disclosure information regarding historical ratings and price targets is available: Research Disclosures

*WS changed its rating system from (Strong Buy/ Buy/ Hold/ Sell) to (Outperform/ Neutral/ Underperform) on July 14, 2009.

Applicable disclosure information is also available upon request by contacting the Research Department at (212) 833-1375, by email [email protected]. You may also submit a written request to the following: Wedbush Securities, Attn: Research Department,142 W 57th Street, New York, NY 10019.

OTHER DISCLOSURES

The information herein is based on sources that we consider reliable, but its accuracy is not guaranteed. The information containedherein is not a representation by this corporation, nor is any recommendation made herein based on any privileged information. Thisinformation is not intended to be nor should it be relied upon as a complete record or analysis: neither is it an offer nor a solicitationof an offer to sell or buy any security mentioned herein. This firm, Wedbush Securities, its officers, employees, and members of theirfamilies, or any one or more of them, and its discretionary and advisory accounts, may have a position in any security discussed hereinor in related securities and may make, from time to time, purchases or sales thereof in the open market or otherwise. The informationand expressions of opinion contained herein are subject to change without further notice. The herein mentioned securities may besold to or bought from customers on a principal basis by this firm. Additional information with respect to the information containedherein may be obtained upon request.

Wedbush Securities does and seeks to do business with companies covered in its research reports. Thus, investors should be awarethat the firm may have a conflict of interest that could affect the objectivity of this report. Investors should consider this report asonly a single factor in making their investment decision. Please see pages 3–7 of this report for analyst certification and importantdisclosure information.

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Page 9: Hardware - Zacks Investment Research

Consumer Data Analytics Enterprise Software

Jen Redding (212) 344-2386 [email protected] Dan Ives (212) 344-2073 [email protected]

Footwear & Apparel Digital Media

Christopher Svezia (212) 938-9922 [email protected] Michael Pachter (213) 688-4474 [email protected]

Hardlines Retail Digital Media

Seth Basham (212) 938-9954 [email protected] Nick McKay (213) 688-4343 [email protected]

Homebuilders/Building Products Payments/IT Services

Jay McCanless (212) 833-1381 [email protected] Moshe Katri (212) 938-9947 [email protected]

Leisure SMID Internet

James Hardiman (212) 833-1362 [email protected] Ygal Arounian (212) 938-9929 [email protected]

Restaurants Hardware

Nick Setyan (213) 688-4519 [email protected] Matt Bryson (617) 695-6302 [email protected]

Biotechnology Mid-Cap Banks

David Nierengarten, Ph.D. (415) 274-6862 [email protected] David Chiaverini (212) 938-9934 [email protected]

Biotechnology Regional Banks

Robert Driscoll, Ph.D. (415) 274-6863 [email protected] Peter Winter (212) 938-9941 [email protected]

Emerging Pharmaceuticals Specialty Finance

Liana Moussatos, Ph.D. (415) 263-6626 [email protected] Henry Coffey (212) 833-1382 [email protected]

Biotechnology

Laura Chico, Ph.D. (212) 668-9868 [email protected]

Consumer/Financials TMT

Bryan Lonsinger (212) 938-9925 [email protected] Joel Kulina (212) 938-2056 [email protected]

Healthcare

Sahak Manualian (213) 688-4533 [email protected]

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