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Posted
Oct 13 2009, 06:06 PM
by
InvestorPlace
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
This article is by InvestorPlace's Jim Woods.
Chipmaker Intel (INTC) did it again. The tech bellwether handily beat consensus earnings forecasts for both its bottom line and the top line, reporting a third-quarter profit of 33 cents a share on revenue of $9.39 billion. Analysts who cover the stock were expecting a bottom line number of just 28 cents a share on revenue of $9.037 billion. Of course, with a company like Intel, the forecast for the quarter ahead is of supreme significance -- not just for Intel but for many companies in PC and related sectors. And here we have what could be the real reason to smile, for not only Intel, but for many other companies that use Intel chips in their products.
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Posted
Sep 29 2009, 11:40 AM
by
Jim Jubak
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 The stock market got all excited Monday by big acquisitions announced by Xerox (XRX) and Abbott Laboratories (ABT).
Xerox announced that it would buy Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) for $6.4 billion in cash and stock and Abbott said it would buy the drugs business of Solvay (SVYSY) for $6.6 billion in cash.
That news helped stocks reverse recent weakness: The Standard & Poor's 500 closed up 1.8% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.3%. The two deals came after news of acquisitions like Dell's (DELL) $3.9-billion cash offer for Perot Systems (PER).
Now, I can understand why the market as a whole would get excited at the news. Mergers and acquisitions push up stock prices. Dell, for example, has offered a 70% premium to buy Perot Systems.
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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
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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?
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Posted
Aug 03 2009, 05:02 AM
by
Minyanville
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 This article was written by Minyanville's Kristin Graham
I could sense pessimism in the air as I roamed through my local mall this weekend while checking out the back to school shopping scene. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just the gloomy faces of teenyboppers cringing with the upcoming start of school. Retailers – who in previous years would typically be overflowing with back to school shoppers – stood abandoned by their once loyal customers. The National Retail Federation’s annual Back to School Survey concurred with my observation. According to the survey, four out of five Americans say the economy is significantly affecting back to school plans. Back to school spending for K–12 students is expected to decline 7.7%. Even worse, spending on apparel overall is expected to drop 12.7%. Beneath the dreary data, however, there was a hint of optimism for some companies. Spending on electronics is expected grow 11%. And nearly a quarter of families surveyed suggested they are likely to purchase back to school supplies at drug stores – a whopping 18% increase over last year.
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Posted
Jul 14 2009, 11:17 AM
by
Minyanville
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Here’s what I’m focused on this morning: Dell (DELL):
These are the first lines of a release disseminated yesterday after the bell: “Dell said today year-over-year demand for its information-technology products appears to have stabilized, and that it expects to report a slight sequential revenue increase in its fiscal second-quarter 2010, which ends July 31. The company also anticipates a modest decline in second quarter gross margins, the result of higher component costs, a competitive pricing environment, and an unfavorable mix of product and business-segment demand.” At first blush, that doesn’t sound terrible. But I think some are going to be fretting -- particularly over that margin comment and the fact that the stock could get taken down at the open.
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Posted
Jun 19 2009, 12:20 PM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
This post was written by Minyanville Executive Editor Kevin Depew.
1) What really caused the debt crisis
I ran across a recent interview with the Financial Times' Gillian Tett that appeared in Newsweek. Tett has a new book out that looks interesting, "Fool's Gold: How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J.P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe."
In the interview, Tett was asked, "Once things started to go bad, there were a lot of mistakes made by managers but also by policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic. What, in your mind, were some of the crucial ones?"
"One of the biggest policy mistakes was made by the American officials who repeatedly said that the subprime problem was contained and that there was no reason to worry about it at all," Tett said. "That represented a considerable misunderstanding of how the financial system had changed. They failed to calculate the enormous quantity of derivatives written . . . nobody knew how big they were."
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Posted
Jun 19 2009, 12:13 PM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
When I use the term “bargain stock,” I'm talking about a stock that's simply being overlooked by the masses, that looks cheap by some measure, and that still has what I believe to be solid future growth potential. Today I want to look at Hewlett Packard (HPQ). The company is one we all know (and if you don’t, hang your head in shame.) HP has bounced back and is way off its lows, but it's really not getting anywhere near as much loving as I think it should. In fact, there are several things that intrigue me about it right now:
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Posted
May 28 2009, 04:42 PM
by
Catherine Holahan
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
When Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd discussed the sad state of business IT spending last week, he seemed like a buzz kill amidst otherwise upbeat investors. Now, in light of today's earning report from Dell, he seems like an optimist.
Dell reported revenues of $12.34 billion for the quarter ending May 1 -- a 23% decline from the same period last year. The number was about $320 million less than Wall Street consensus estimates. Earnings declined a whopping 63% due, in part, to costs incurred in reorganizing the business
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Posted
Apr 03 2009, 04:03 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
For a company that may have the most well-regarded premium brand in the world, Apple’s (AAPL) stock has certainly been buffeted by unsatisfied investors. The shares have recovered some since the beginning of March, but over the last year they are down more than 25%. When investors are nervous, even the strongest brands get very little consideration.
The concerns about Apple are not different from those regarding any other consumer products company in a recession, but they are more subtle. People stop buying PCs and electronics when the economy is bad, primarily because they can. A 2-year-old computer will still perform 90% of the tasks required by a business or home user. There is nothing wrong with a 2-year-old Nokia (NOK) cell phone.
In the PC market, consumers are willing to go without a new Dell (DELL). Dell does not have much of a brand anymore. Even though Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) is the largest PC company in the world, people do not gush about getting a new HP laptop. It is, more or less, a commodity.
But for millions of people, the Mac is like a Bentley. It is a sign that some things are still worth having because they are designed better, work better and make people feel better than the prosaic Brand X PC alternatives.
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