Upgrades and downgrades: Weekly roundup

Following is a roundup of wireless industry companies that were either upgraded or downgraded this week by financial investment and analyst firms.

• UBS upgraded Qualcomm Inc. to buy from neutral on solid growth estimates for W-CDMA technology based on favorable handset pricing and form factor, competitive service prices and network quality of service all beginning to fall into place. UBS said Qualcomm is among the companies best positioned to benefit from product cyclical growth in third-generation technologies.

   

• Piper Jaffray upgraded RF Micro Devices Inc. from market perform to outperform on recent strong sales of the Motorola V.551, which is based on RFMD’s Polaris design.

   

• Sonus Networks received a downgrade from equal weight to under weight by Pacific Growth Equities, which noted concerns about financial controls at the company as well as its ability to report results in a timely manner. Although the company has released preliminary fourth-quarter and full-year 2004 results, it said it is delaying its final report pending an audit of the results.

   

• First Albany Capital downgraded CallWave Inc. from strong buy to neutral on lower-than-expected revenue and income estimates. However, First Albany Capital pointed to potential growth from indirect channels and its new wireless application. The company last year launched its mobile enhancements services, which offer mobile call screening and mobile call transfer on wireless phones.

   

• Research in Motion was downgraded by Piper Jaffray from outperform to market perform due to slowing sales of the 7100t device at T-Mobile, and its view that RIM will command a smaller share of the consumer market than originally expected. Piper Jaffray also noted it expects RIM to face increasing competition from the likes of LG, Nokia, Motorola and Siemens.

   

• JP Morgan downgraded Infineon Technologies from neutral to underweight, noting pricing pressure in the DRAM market.

   

• JP Morgan upgraded Alcatel from neutral to overweight, saying the company is well positioned for global mobile deployments.

   

• JP Morgan upgraded Plantronics from neutral to overweight, saying the company is on track for a strong quarter. Plantronics sells headsets, including mobile headset models.