Search results for Tobin Smith
-
Posted
Oct 08 2009, 01:26 PM
by
Tobin Smith
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
There’s no doubt about it. The fiercest battle in the corporate world today is being fought over smartphones. The latest salvo in this war comes from Google (GOOG) via its new Android mobile operating system. In recent weeks, Google has confirmed no less than nine new devices set to use Android. The pipeline for new Android-equipped smart phones is bursting, with handset makers Motorola (MOT) and Samsung firmly on board. Verizon Wireless (VZ) will be coming out with two new Google Android phones in the weeks ahead. Bing: More on Smart Phones
Hey, I’m a big fan of competition, and I love a heated fight for market share. And while I will be keeping a close eye on the impact Android is sure to have, according to the ChangeWave Alliance Research Network surveys, the really interesting battle in the smart phone wars still is being waged by industry titans Research In Motion (RIMM) and Apple (AAPL).
Read More...
-
Posted
Sep 24 2009, 11:04 AM
by
Tobin Smith
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 Earnings for Research In Motion (RIMM), makers of the iconic BlackBerry smart phone, are just a few hours away, and it will be interesting to see what the numbers look like.
Wall Street expects a bottom line number at $1 per share on $3.62 billion in sales. Certainly, if RIM is able to dial up an earnings beat, it will be great news for the world’s leading smart phone maker. But regardless of whether RIM fills analysts' expectations up to the brim this quarter, our ChangeWave Alliance Research Network tells us that RIM remains the undisputed heavyweight smart phone champion.
According to a corporate spending survey conducted in August, Research In Motion maintains its huge market share dominance in the corporate smart phone market -- and remember, that it’s the corporate market that provides the lion’s share of RIM’s smart phone revenue.
Read More...
-
Posted
Sep 17 2009, 06:10 PM
by
Tobin Smith
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Just how serious is your doctor about getting you to cut back on smoking, drinking and eating junk food? Pretty darned serious, it turns out.
While Congress debates the Obama health care initiative, the ChangeWave Alliance Research Network went to the doctors themselves to see how they would like the U.S. health care system to be reformed. The survey, conducted July 23-28, 2009, polled 330 U.S. doctors. And when it came to taxing unhealthy behavior, the doctors were decidedly in favor of it.
Nearly three-quarters (72%) of the doctors surveyed favored the federal government increasing taxes on alcohol and cigarettes to help pay for health care reform. And more than half (56%) also believe a tax on junk food should be used to help pay the costs of health care reform
Read More...
-
Posted
Sep 09 2009, 03:20 PM
by
Tobin Smith
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
FuelCell Energy (FCEL), as its name suggests, makes fuel cells for electric power generation. On Tuesday, Sept. 8, the company powered up a third-quarter loss of $15.7 million, or 21 cents per share, compared to a loss of $26.8 million, or 39 cents per share, in the same period a year ago. And while top line revenues fell to $23 million from $27.9 million in the year-ago period, the bottom line earnings of 21 cents per share easily bested Wall Street’s call for a loss of 24 cents per share.
Shares sold off modestly on news of the earnings beat.
But besides the better-than-anticipated bottom line, FuelCell Energy showed me some very encouraging signs that its future looks very bright. This quarter, the company’s big order came in the form of 30.8 megawatts of modules from South Korea’s Posco Power, and my personal favorite, an order from Aircon Energy for a 1.4 megawatt power plant for California’s Sonoma County. Why, you ask, is this my favorite order? Well, because it combines two of my favorite passions: making money in green energy stocks and drinking fine wines made in Sonoma County
Read More...
-
Posted
Sep 01 2009, 02:11 PM
by
Tobin Smith
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
It’s inevitable. Whenever a stock gaps up in price the way computer maker Dell (DELL) did on Monday, the first tendency is to look for the behind-the-scenes reasons why.
In this case, Dell shares definitely reacted positively to Needham analyst Richard Kugele's decision to raise his price target on the shares from $16 to $20. Kugele cited strength in both Dell’s consumer and public sector PC sales as reasons for raising his price target, but he said the most surprising element in Dell’s favor was the company’s gross margin of 18.3%.
Bing: More on Dell
I think Kugele’s analysis is solid, and in fact, the company as much as confirmed this upbeat analysis in its earnings announcement on Friday. Dell reported a second-quarter profit that beat Wall Street forecasts, but I think the real bullish news was the company’s belief that corporate spending on technology will pick up next year
Read More...
-
Posted
Aug 27 2009, 01:42 PM
by
Tobin Smith
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
I've long believed that the key to a coming economic recovery won't be found on the consumer front. Instead, it's the all-important corporate spending side of the equation that needs to improve before we can begin to really call an end to the "Great Recession."
Fortunately, that improvement in corporate spending may well be taking place -- albeit at a slower pace than in recent past. All this means good news for some of the most stalwart corporate software vendors, including Microsoft (MSFT), IBM (IBM) and SAP (SAP).
Bing: More on corporate software spending
According to the latest ChangeWave Alliance Research Network corporate software survey, business purchasing continues to improve even as the pace of the recovery slows. To put it another way, we are seeing an uptick in planned spending for the next 90 days, but that upward trend is not as pronounced as the rate of improvement we saw back in April.
Read More...
-
Posted
Aug 25 2009, 03:38 PM
by
Tobin Smith
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Tech stocks keep on rolling in this bull recovery. In fact, even tech stocks that languished in the cellar for many years are getting attention these days. On Monday, Aug. 24, shares of chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) surged more than 8% after Citigroup analyst Glen Yeung upgraded the company to a "buy" from a "hold." The influential Yeung said his upgrade was based on signs of a stronger relationship between AMD and its main customer, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ).
Bing: More on AMD
But does the AMD and HP bond really make AMD a good stock to own right now, and are there other factors likely to propel AMD shares going forward?
Read More...
-
Posted
Aug 20 2009, 10:37 AM
by
Tobin Smith
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
The numbers are in for Suntech Power Holdings (STP), and the results were both sunny -- and a little hazy.
Yes, the company did post a better-than-expected Q2 profit of six cents per share versus consensus estimates for a profit of three cents per share. Unfortunately, the maker of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells fell short on the revenue side of the earning's equation. Suntech said its revenue fell to $321 million in the second quarter, well shy of consensus forecasts for revenue of $334.3 million.
Bing: More on solar stocks
Suntech's better-than-expected bottom line and lower-than-expected top line is something we've seen a lot of this earnings season, so I'm not too worried about the company based on these mixed results. But if there is one thing to be concerned about in Suntech's earnings announcement, it's the company's scaled-down forecast for its full-year shipments.
Read More...
-
Posted
Aug 18 2009, 07:05 PM
by
Tobin Smith
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
I remember way back when, during the dot-com boom, computer stocks were the darlings of Wall Street. Along with just about anything Web-related, I recall PC stocks making a lot of people a lot of money. Fast forward about a decade, and in a quiet, yet not too subtle way, PC stocks have once again become a favorite of Wall Street. In fact, over the past six months the “big three” computer makers -- Dell (DELL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Apple (AAPL) -- all have enjoyed big runs.
Apple shares are up nearly 70% in the last six months, while Dell shares have risen almost 60%. Hewlett-Packard shares are up a very respectable 25%, although that gain is quite a bit less than its competitors.
But the question now is will these stocks continue to do well going forward, and what does the latest earnings data and industry research tell us about the future of PC stocks?
Read More...
-
Posted
Aug 14 2009, 08:32 AM
by
Tobin Smith
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
What do trendy, high-priced items and a risqué image add up to in this “great recession"?
A quarterly loss of $26.7 million.
Today we found out just how hard one-time retail star Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) got hit by the negative confluence of events over the past three months. The much-steeper-than-expected quarterly loss looks horrible when compared to the profit of $77.8 million the company posted in the same quarter a year ago.
But like so many topsy-turvy things on Wall Street these days, the shares gapped up in early trade as investors focused on the company’s valiant cost-cutting efforts, which included the closure of its Ruehl brand stores.
Bing: More on retail stocks
Now there is no denying that Abercrombie has been a victim of the push toward a new frugality in America. The best measure of this is that the all-important same-store sales metric fell 30% over the past three months. But what we’ve also seen in the case of Abercrombie is a bit of a backlash against the company’s self-portrayal.
Last fall the ChangeWave Alliance Research Network conducted a survey that focused on consumer retail buying habits. Respondents were asked which retail stores they were least likely to shop at, and why.
Read More...
More Posts Next page »
|
