OmniVision Shares Popped: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of digital camera-chip maker OmniVision Technologies (NAS: OVTI) look picture-perfect today, climbing as high as 15.7% on above-average trading volume.

So what: When OmniVision jumps like this, it's usually the result of enormous sales reports from top customer Apple (NAS: AAPL) or a rebound after (typically mistaken) reports that Sony (NYS: SNE) or Panasonic (NYS: PC) are moving into the company's backside illumination (or BSI) technology. Not so this time -- just an overly stressed market forgetting all about a couple of negative analyst notes from earlier this week.

Now what: Gartner says that smartphone sales jumped 74% year over year in the second quarter, and that report may also have helped OmniVision a little bit. After all, the company has a lock on camera technology that's becoming a must-have in high end handsets these days. After tracking very close to Apple's market returns since 2009, OmniVision currently trails its favorite customer thanks to an aggregate 16% swoon over the past month, and shares can be had for less than 13 times trailing earnings. I say that's a steal in any market.

Interested in more info on OmniVision Technologies? Add it to your watchlist.

At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributorAnders Bylundholds no position in any of the companies discussed here. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple.Motley Fool newsletter serviceshave recommended buying shares of and creating a bull call spread position in Apple. Try any of our Foolish newsletter servicesfree for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. The Motley Fool isinvestors writing for investors.

Copyright © 1995 - 2011 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.