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Posted
Sep 19 2007, 10:17 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Now I understand why NBC so publicly pulled its television programs from Apple's iTunes store. The network is taking those programs in-house, launching a Windows-only video-on-demand service in October.
This is a rather bizarre move, considering that it was just a few weeks ago that NBC and News Corp. said they would launch Hulu, a Web video site that will feature NBC shows, among others. Hulu is also supposed to begin private testing in October. What will happen to Hulu now?
Then there's the Amazon part. After dropping iTunes, NBC began offering its programs on Amazon's Unbox service. Seems like NBC is dipping toes in lots of different pools and will go with the one that works best (or brings in the most money).
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Posted
Sep 25 2007, 01:02 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Finally, a major retailer figures it out and unveils a music store specializing in MP3s. That's the song format that's blissfully free from those burdensome digital rights restrictions favored by Apple and other companies. You can play MP3s on just about any digital music player or computer. You could make as many CDs of them as you want. You can make copies of them with no problem.
In short, you can do all the things you're supposed to be able to do when you legitimately buy a song. And the music industry is 100% to blame for how screwed up things have become. Shellshocked by the unprecedented file-trading that took place when songs went digital, record labels went on a lawsuit bonanza while putting every song they could into a virtual lockdown (or, as the industry likes to say, managing the song's "rights").
Obviously, Amazon holds a lot of sway with record companies to be able to begin tearing down those walls. And give eMusic credit for doing this too (though I wonder about that company's fate now). Amazon's store only has 2 million songs by 180,000 artists. Some big names are there, such as Kanye West, Pink Floyd and Radiohead, and I imagine the labels that haven't signed on will be closely watching to see how the store fares
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Posted
Sep 27 2007, 10:36 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
It's good to be an Apple investor today. The stock hit an all-time high to close at $154.50, and the company is enjoying a perfect storm of hype, analyst praise and solid sales.
Here's what's lifting Apple up these days:
- Analyst love. Citigroup upgraded the stock Monday, citing surprisingly strong computer sales, and raised its price target to $160. The stock price rose to $149.85 that day.
- iPhone is on a roll. The company is doubling iPhone production in Q4 to 2.7 million units, according to reports. That means 4.8 million phones produced this year. And Apple sold its 1 millionth iPhone earlier than it had expected.
- Macs are hot. Analysts believe that Mac sales are surging in this back-to-school sales period. Apple's business is "firing on all cylinders," wrote WR Hambrecht analyst Matthew Kather in a recent note.
- Leopard coming soon. Apple's new operating system, code-named Leopard, seems on schedule to ship next month. A new operating system will spur computer sales
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Posted
Oct 04 2007, 12:55 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Research in Motion continued its blockbuster year today by beating analysts' expectations and nabbing its 10 millionth subscriber. The Blackberry maker also beat its own quarterly forecast, reporting revenue of $1.37 billion and profit of $287.7 million, or 50 cents a share. Analysts had expected $1.36 billion in revenue and EPS of 50 cents.
RIM's stock has been hopping this week as investors readied for good news. Analysts were busy too: Credit Suisse's Michael Ounjian raised his price target to $100 from $70, but kept a neutral rating on the stock. He's worried about the company maintaining its margins on the device side in the future.
Analyst Sera Kim with Raymond James downgraded the stock this week to market perform from outperform, but also raised her target price to $100 from $92. She advises investors to wait for the price to drop before buying.
The company's subscriber numbers were impressive, even as a new competitor, Apple's iPhone, debuted during the quarter. RIM reported 1.45 million new users, after saying in June it could have 1.38 million new users. One analyst, Tony Carbone at RCM Capital Management, said the company needed to show 1.4 million when it reported today.
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Posted
Oct 11 2007, 12:44 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Tech stocks are no longer the darling of Wall Street today, taking a tumble after going up-up-up all week.
It's about time. VMware's valuation has been ridiculously high for a while now. The stock quadrupled in two months and broke $100 this week, but today is down some 4%. Apple has been hitting a series of all-time highs, and got a nice price target increase from Goldman Sachs (to $190) before becoming the top drag today on the Nasdaq and S&P 500. Its shares closed at about $162.
Google shares have had a crazy day, hitting an all-time high today of $641.41 after getting a few price target increases from analysts like RBC Capital Markets' Jordan Rohan, who raised his target to $690 from $650. Shares had plunged to $621 by the end of the trading day.
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Posted
Oct 12 2007, 08:31 AM
by
Robert Walberg
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
They're ugly, made from plastic, get caught in escalators and are littered with holes, yet somehow Crocs have become a retailing phenomenon.
Everyone from little kids to grandparents now walks around in these clunky, brightly colored eyesores, and the madness isn't contained to the U.S. Management recently announced that it expects international sales to top domestic sales in the recently completed third quarter. Amazing.
Equally amazing is the growth in the stock. Shares are up 256% over the past 52 weeks alone. That's better than the returns of Apple (+128%) and Google (+46%) combined. So is it time to sell before the fad fades?
If you take your cue from insiders then maybe the answer is yes. Over the past few weeks, insiders have unloaded just over 179,000 shares at an average price of $67 per share. However, it's important to remember that insiders still own about 11% of the stock and that there are numerous reasons why insiders will occasionally sell their stock. The recent selling doesn't look to be unusually heavy so I wouldn't let this info sway my decision
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Posted
Oct 22 2007, 03:49 PM
by
Jon Markman
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Apple reported a huge third-quarter number after the bell today, surprising bulls and panicking bears who have sold the stock short. The Cupertino, Calif., company said it earned $1.01 per share on $6.2 billion in revenue. Consensus expectations were for an 84-cent quarter on $6.06 billion in sales.
How big a surprise was that? As I have explained to readers in the past, the quick and dirty way to figure out the “expected surprise” for a stock is to visit its Earnings Surprise page on MSN Money. There you will see that in the past four quarters, Apple has surprised by 22.7%, 24%, 46%, 38% and 29%. So today’s 20% surprise was on the low end, but good enough for a company with a $150 billion market cap.
Looking forward, Apple executives tried to sandbag analysts with lowball guidance, stating that they expected to earn $1.42 in the first quarter -- just a touch better than the $1.40 expectation. The company is really in a sweet spot now because it is getting a premium price for its personal computers, MP3 players and phones at a time when all of its competitors are discounting like crazy, and at the same time it is benefitinig from lower input costs such as flash and hard disk memory.
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Posted
Oct 29 2007, 07:51 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
No other retailer is heading into the holidays with as much glee as Apple. The company is counting on its Mac and iPod lines to produce record-breaking sales. But its revenue predictions make me think Steve Jobs been dipping into the egg nog a little early.
Apple is usually conservative about its quarterly sales forecasts, setting them below analyst estimates and then blowing them out of the water. But for the holiday quarter, the company said it expects $9.2 billion in sales. That's way above Street expectations of $8.58 billion. To give this some perspective, let's recap the company's last four quarters of sales:
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Posted
Oct 31 2007, 10:17 AM
by
Jon Markman
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Any doubts about the idea that Apple could produce another blow-out quarter this winter were put to rest this weekend when the company released its latest operating system, called Leopard. The company reports that it sold a staggering 2 million copies through its retail stores, resellers and online from Friday through Monday.
Just to give you some perspective on that number: When Apple released its Jaguar operating system in 2002, it sold 100,000 in the first weekend. Two years ago, when it released the Tiger operating system, it took seven weeks to sell 2 million copies. So 2 million in three days has to blow you away. Regardless of the credit crunch, foreclosure crisis and rumors of consumer spending slowdown, Apple stores were packed this weekend.
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Posted
Nov 02 2007, 02:06 AM
by
Jon Markman
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Even though this site is published by Microsoft, there's no reason we can't mention its stellar earnings report last week. I've been urging subscribers to my Strategic Advantage newsletter service to buy the stock since June in anticipation of a strong third and fourth quarter, and we have not been disappointed as fundamentals have improved dramatically and shares are up 25%.
The key point: Mainstream investors of all stripes simply underestimated the impact of the new Xbox game Halo 3, rising PC sales in developing nations and the slow but steady purchase of the new Windows Vista operating system. Results were actually staggering, especially for an iconic firm which until recently seemed asleep at the wheel. Revenue soared 27% to nearly $14 billion, beating the consensus estimate by more than $1 billion. Earnings roared 23% higher, to $4.3 billion or 45 cents per share. For a company of this size, putting up growth in the 20%-plus range is no easy feat.
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