Paul McWilliams was one of the few to not be surprised by the upside surprises in recent quarterly earnings reports from Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), as he has been consistently more bullish than others on Wall Street.

In his Next Inning, the tech stock specialist -- who personally owns a position in the stock -- offers a detailed and in-depth review of the firm's latest results and outlook.

"For the first time in what now seems like at least a year, not a single analyst on the Intel conference call asked about whether netbook sales were 'cannibalizing' notebook sales.

Paul McWilliams is well-known for his in-depth and sophisticated analysis of tech stocks in his Next Inning newsletter.

In addition to corporate metrics, he places strong emphasis on superior management. Regarding integrated circuit manufacturer Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI), he notes, "CEO Jerald Fishman really knows how to run a company."

"The numbers posted by Analog Devices and the guidance provided for its fiscal fourth fiscal quarter of 2009 (ends October 2009) were both impressive. And, when taken together, exceeded my expectations.

"As I had expected, there was an inventory adjustment that resulted in a sequential decline in excess of 18% in its shipments to Chinese wireless infrastructure suppliers.

Strong results for Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) came as a surprise to Wall Street; not to tech sector specialist Paul McWilliams, who has been adamant in his forecast that the company would exceed expectations.

In his Next Inning newsletter, designed for the tech-savvy investor. the advisor suggests that the story behind Intel's success is very simple and can be summed up in the expression "x86 everywhere." Here's his assessment.

"To a great extent, Intel's Q2 report proves that Wall Street wasn't only wrong about INTC, but wrong in a big way as to how the tech industry has managed the sharp downturn that unfolded during the last nine or so months.

"While The Street expected tech companies to react as they have in the past by adapting too slowly and stuffing supply channels with tons of inventory, tech companies demonstrated they learned lessons in 2001- 2002 and immediately clamped the supply lines and held back production while channel inventory was digested.

This post is part of a special annual report -- Top Stock Picks '09 -- in which TheStockAdvisors.com asked 75 leading newsletter advisors to select their favorite investment for the new year.

"My top stock for 2009 is EZChip Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ: EZCH)," says Paul McWilliams in Next Inning technology newsletter. Indeed, the advisor believes the chip stock could double in 2009.

McWillaims explains, "I came as close as I've ever come to 'pounding the table' when first recommending EZCH when the stock was trading in the $6's and I continue to believe the stock provides a very attractive balance between risk and potentially high rewards from its current price in the mid-$11's.

"EZCH has captured designs at tier one and tier two networking companies with its innovative and highly pipelined network processor (NPU) and I believe is set to do the same with its soon-to-be-released NPU aimed at the access markets.

"These design wins have been several years in the making and the products, which include the wildly successful Juniper (JNPR) MX series of routers and are just now building momentum.

This post is part of a special annual report -- Top Stock Picks '09 -- in which TheStockAdvisors.com asked 75 leading newsletter advisors to select their favorite investment for the new year.

George Putnam is the newsletter advisory industry's leading authority on distressed stocks and turnaround situations. In his The Turnround Letter, he looks to semiconductor firm Teradyne (NYSE: TER), his top 2009 pick.

"Founded in 1960, Teradyne is the leading maker of automated semiconductor testing equipment. It also produces testing equipment for circuit board assemblies, aerospace and defense instruments, and automotive systems.

"The current short-term prospects for the semiconductor industry are weak, and so many of the chip stocks are down hard. Testing is a key element of semiconductor production, and so the testing equipment producers will prosper when the chip makers rebound.

"Teradyne has been the dominant player in the semiconductor testing market for quite a while and over the last couple of years the company further solidified its leadership position by acquiring competitors and buying back stock.

"The decline in the price of Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is disconcerting, but on balance, not a surprise," says tech guru Paul McWilliams.

Here, in his Next Inning newsletter, the advisor reassesses his forecast for Intel and the tech sector made at the start of the year, and his continued optimism for the stock's future performance.

"In January, I initially concluded that mature global economies were likely going to exhibit slow growth in 2008 and may dip through a recession.

"However, I also had forecast that emerging economies were large enough to where their contributions, even though they would also probably see some slowing in 2008, would keep aggregate growth high enough to avoid any serious worldwide macroeconomic pain.

"My conclusion was that while it is normal to expect spending by governments, businesses, and consumers to follow GDP patterns, there are what I saw then and still see now as good reasons to believe there would be a preference given for tech.

"In other words, my belief was then and still is today that spending on certain tech sectors would hold stronger than normal in the face of aggregate GDP slowing.

This post is part of a report entitled "Six-pack of technology favorites." You can read about the other top tech stock picks here.

"To play the classic semiconductor-cycle (buying on a down-cycle and selling after an up-cycle), go with NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA)," say Ron Rowland and Brandon Clay.

The editors of All Star Investor explain, "This graphic chip manufacturer stumbled earlier this year, but we find a compelling a turnaround story." Here's his review.

"This is a difficult environment for short-term investors. When the Dow jumps up 200 points one day, and crashes 200 points the next, it's hard to tell where to turn. Calling bottoms is nearly impossible

"In this market, we have become value investors -- seeking an inexpensive company that's almost-undiscovered by mainstream investors.

"Technology is not typically known as a place for value. In fact, quite the opposite. Since the Tech crash, a shift has happened. Certain semiconductors have been hammered over the past several years -- especially in the last 12 months.

"One of those, a leader in graphics chips, has been especially beaten down. NVIDIA fell from a 52-week high of $39.67 last October. The Santa Clara-based chip designer is now trading around $12.00 today. Did it really deserve the punishment the market delivered? We don't think so.

This post is part of a report entitled "Six-pack of technology favorites." You can read about the other top tech stock picks here.

"I think Wall Street has made a poor assessment of Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI)," says Paul McWilliams. Here's a look at the chip maker from his technology-focused newsletter, Next Inning.

"Analog Device's top line guidance came in a bit below Wall Street expectations. However, I think the problems are between the Hudson and East Rivers and not in Norwood, Massachusetts, the hometown of Analog.

"What Wall Street appears to be missing is that since ADI has sold off some of its lower profit business units, its seasonal sales patterns have changed. ADI is now again driven by industrial market sectors much more than it was even just last year.

"Therefore, its conservative guidance of flat to up 3% sequentially shouldn't have been a big surprise nor a cause for concern. As a matter of fact, with its minimal exposure to PC and consumer markets, I think flat to up 3% is pretty good.

"What Wall Street would be better to focus on are the operational improvements ADI has made. In its July quarter, ADI improved its pro forma operating margin to 26.5% from 26.2% last quarter and again reduced its inventory, which sits now at the lowest level we've seen since 2004.

With concerns over recession, turmoil in the financial sector, fear of rising rates, high market volatility and a rising aversion to risk, many investors have been avoiding technology stocks.

Investors have feared that these economic headwinds will dampen both consumer spending for technology products and reduced capital expenditures for technology in the corporate sector.

Despite these concerns, some of the newsletter industry's leading advisors are looking beyond the current malaise and seeing longer-term value in some of the tech sector's leading players. They believe that much of the "bad news" is already reflected in the price of the shares, with little recognition being given to their longer-term potential.

For those willing to go against the crowd and buy, as they say, "while blood is running in the street," we offer a six-pack of technology stocks that the some top advisors considers to be among their favorite ideas.

"Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) is my favorite stock for gains over the next 12 months," says Chuck Carlson. Here's his bullish assessment from The DRIP Investor newsletter.

"Yes, the market is declining. And, yes, it is often scary to buy during such market periods. Nevertheless, there's an adage that 'the best time to invest was yesterday; the next best time is today'.

"Indeed, countless studies have shown that the best thing any investor can do is invest early and often. That is the best way to maximize the power of time, and time will have the greatest bearing on your investment results.

"Thus, investors need to be willing to buy even when it is difficult to do so, or should I so especially when it is difficult to do so. The reason is that we usually are reluctant to buy stocks during market declines. Yet, if you think about it, declining markets should be precisely the time we buy since stocks are cheaper.

"The stock has demonstrated impressive price performance throughout the market volatility in recent months, rising to its highest level in a year above $50 before pulling back.

"Wall Street has recently been very negative about Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN)," notes wireless sector expert Nikhil Hutheesing. In his Forbes Wireless Stock Watch, the advisor explains, "But things may not be as dire as they sounded last month and I think that with expectations down, the company will end up exceeding expectations in the second half of this year."

"One reason Wall Street has been negiative is that TXN's biggest wireless customer, Nokia, announced a fundamental shift, stating it would no longer depend mostly on Texas Instruments for its chips. Ericsson also said it had shifted to a multi-supplier strategy.

"Besides that, in April, at TXN's earnings conference, CEO Rich Templeton talked of a cloudy economy and said that his company had become become more conservative with its outlook for the second quarter.

"Meanwhile, I've spoken with a number of experts in the wireless area who tell me that orders for TI's chips are significantly higher for the second half of this year than they have been in previous years. These orders are even coming from Nokia. (So far, Nokia's muti-supplier strategy has not had an impact on Texas Instruments.)

For 25 years, Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, has surveyed the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is one of 100+ ideas in the Best Stocks for 2008 report.

"My favorite conservative idea for 2008 is Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), which I consider a core holding," says Paul McWilliams, editor of Next Inning.

"INTC is the number one semiconductor company in the world and if we exclude memory products, Intel manufactures more wafers on leading-edge fabrication processes than all the rest of the semiconductor industry combined.

"While its prior CEO was caught sleeping at the wheel, its new CEO, Paul Otellini, has both revitalized Intel's 'healthy sense of paranoia' and usurped the short-term architectural advantages temporarily enjoyed by its only viable competitor, Advanced Micro Devices.

"The net result is that Intel's pro forma operating profit margin has bounced back from a low of 17.7% in early 2006 to nearly 26% last quarter. Between this and the anecdotal evidence we can see in the constant barrage of advertisements we see for PCs, I think the evidence strongly suggests that Intel is again able to sell its processors at a premium when compared to Advanced Micro Devices.

"I use the term 'blowout' very sparingly," says tech expert Paul McWilliams in his Next Inning newsletter, which focuses solely on technology investing. "But even 'blowout' falls short of describing the quarter turned in by Sigma Designs (NASDAQ: SIGM)."

Indeed, the advisor notes, "I've likely described something as a 'blowout' less than ten times in the past five years. These 'waterfall' quarters don't happen often. As for Sigma, I didn't see this one coming and it's time to fix it.

"As background, SIGM makes media processor SoC (System on Chip) solutions for STB, BluRay and HD DVD, TV and various consumer devices that benefit from hooking into an IP video network.

"IPTV is an IP video network and, as a result of IPTV, we are putting these sorts of video networks in our homes. Roughly 77% of SIGM's sales last quarter were into IPTV STB applications.

"To give you an idea the magnitude of this recent surprise, SIGM's revenue for Q3 of this year (the October quarter) is closer to the forecasts most analysts had for Q4 next year than it was to what they were forecasting for the quarter just closed.

"The August lows now represent important technical levels defining the U.S. markets' primary uptrend," notes Michael Ashbaugh. The editor of The Marketwatch Technical Indicator explains, "Specifically, the S&P 500's August low holds at 1,427 while the Nasdaq's August low holds at 2,492. In addition, the Dow's August low holds at 13,134.

Ashbaugh continues, "For the Nasdaq and the S&P, a break below those levels would mark a failed test of support, also placing each index under its 200-day moving average. And if the breakdown were decisive, the primary trend would likely turn lower.

Yet "as ugly" as the current backdrop looks, he contends, from a strictly technical standpoint, the primary uptrend still has the benefit of the doubt.

Meanwhile, he suggests, we continue to find some names that are well positioned technically. These, he says, are intended as radar screen names - sectors or stocks positioned to move near term. In this light, the technician sees ongoing strength among chip-equipment names.

Ashbaugh says, "Each of these names broke out decisively in mid-July. Since then, Lam Research (NASDAQ: LRCX), ASML Holding (NASDAQ: ASML) and KLA-Tencor (NASDAQ: KLAC) have pulled in, establishing support around the breakout point. Further, he adds, Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) and Varian Semiconductor (NASDAQ: VSEA) are the group's strongest names, knifing even higher after the initial breakout, despite a down market."

Each day, Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com features the latest investment ideas and market commentary from the financial newsletter community.