Company Description: Altera Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets programmable logic devices (PLD), HardCopy application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) devices, pre-defined design building blocks, and associated development tools. Its PLDs consist of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) and complex programmable logic devices (CPLD), which are semiconductor integrated circuits manufactured as standard chips that can be programmed to perform logic functions in electronic systems; and HardCopy structured ASIC devices that enable customers to transition from a high-density FPGA to a low-cost non-programmable implementation of design for volume production. The company’s products primarily include Stratix III and Stratix IV high-end, system-level FPGAs; Arria and Arria II GX mid-range, transceiver-equipped FPGAs; Cyclone III and Cyclone IV low-cost FPGAs; MAX II CPLDs; and HardCopy ASICs. It also offers intellectual property cores that are pre-verified building blocks that execute system-level functions in their PLD design; and development tools consisting primarily of the Quartus II software for design entry, design compilation, design verification, and device programming. Altera Corporation serves customers primarily in the telecom and wireless, industrial automation, military and auto, networking, and computer and storage sectors. The company markets its products through a network of distributors, independent sales representatives, and direct sales personnel. It has operations in North America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, and Japan. The company was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.

Our Analysis: The shares of Altera Corp. 'ALTR' set a new yearly closing high yesterday on heavier than normal trading volume. In the process they completed a cup pattern with a measured move to our initial price target of $32.29/share. On a slightly longer term basis, in late September the shares of 'ALTR' completed a slightly larger cup pattern with a measured move to our upper price target of $33.37/share. I see downside support on the share of 'ALTR' @ $30.62/share, and have set my stops accordingly $30.23/share.