Top Picks 2007: Oberweis expects high growth for Tessera

Each year Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, surveys the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is part of his 24th annual Top Picks Report.

Tessera Technologies (NASDAQ: TSRA) is a favorite speculative idea for 2007 from Jim Oberweis, editor of The Oberweis Report. The small-cap growth advisor explains, "We screen for companies that are delivering accelerating earnings and sales growth rates -- and ideally those that are not widely followed by Wall Street.

"Tessera develops semiconductor packaging technology that allows semiconductor manufacturers to miniaturize the chip and to improve performance. The San Jose, California, company has signed license agreements with manufacturers representing 80% of the worldwide dynamic random access memory (DRAM) market, including Micron Technology and Samsung Electronics.

"DRAM in personal computers is shifting to DDR2 DRAM, which utilizes TSRA's packaging technology, and DDR2 is expected to represent roughly 75% of DRAM shipments in 2007. TSRA receives a per unit royalty for each DDR2 DRAM shipped by their licensees.

"For the quarter ended September 30, 2006, Tessera posted an 841% jump in earnings per share on a 460% rise in revenue. I believe that Wall Street's consensus estimate for revenue ($198.8MM) and earnings per share ($1.08) for 2007 are too low. Lower litigation expenses in 2007 as patent litigation subsides should drive operating margin expansion as well."