Browse by Tags
-
Posted
Jul 21 2009, 03:52 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Wall Street analysts expect Apple’s earnings to do better than estimates. This is not surprising. Apple (AAPL) has a history of setting low expectations about its figures and then beating them handily. It has become a game of chess between the company and experts who follow it.
Some analysts tracking the company go so far as to send people to Apple stores and other retailers to count how products are selling. Others check with companies that supply components to Apple for its products like the iPhone and Mac to gauge demand.
Apple’s results should be pulled down by the same gravity that has hurt the consumer electronics and PC markets. The relentless slowing of the economy has made both individual and business purchasers of computers slow to upgrade their hardware. The Apple iPhone is more expensive than most other handsets. A recession is hardly a good time to overpay for a phone.
Read More...
-
Posted
Apr 23 2009, 03:46 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
As the executives at Apple (AAPL) were passing around the Dom Perignon, their counterparts at other companies that design and manufacture smartphones were putting all sharp objects out of reach. In a recession, there is only so much air in any room. Smartphone sales are suffering like all consumer electronics. If the iPhone is doing extraordinarily well, others are doing badly.
What almost no one saw coming in Apple’s results for the March quarter was that the company would sell nearly 3.8 million iPhones. Most educated guesses were around 3.1 million to 3.3 million. In a world where securities analysts send spies to Apple stores and bribe hardware component suppliers for data on iPhone parts shipments, experts are not supposed to be off that much. It makes them look bad, but it makes Apple look good, both for its ability to keep things secret and for building a handset that is expensive, making the iPhone an aspirational product for many people who buy it. Some consumers walking into AT&T (T) stores don’t have $299 for the iPhone and the money for the exorbitant calling plan that goes with it. They go anyway, like junkies to a dealer.
Read More...
-
Posted
Mar 26 2008, 10:16 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Motorola announced this morning that it would break itself into two companies. By sometime next year the handset division will be pulled away from the mobility and enterprise divisions.
The problems is that, even broken into pieces, Motorola isn't worth more than its current market cap. The handset business is simply sinking too fast. (Update: After languishing most of day, the stock rallied to end regular trading up 2.6%.)
In the fourth quarter, Motorola's handset division revenue fell 38% to $4.8 billion. The operation lost $388 million compared to an operating profit of $341 million in the same period a year earlier. The company sold 40.9 million handsets in Q4.
Read More...
-
Posted
Jun 26 2008, 01:18 AM
by
Jon Markman
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
It’s easy to imagine that the 25 best-performing stocks in the S&P 500 Index this year are all oil and gas producers, and the 25 worst-performing stocks are all banks and brokers. Yet as we near the halfway mark in 2008, it turns out that there are quite a few surprises in the mix of best and worst.
For instance, the No. 1 stock in the benchmark index this year isn’t an oil producer, but a coal miner, Massey Energy. It’s up 155% so far, rising to $89 from $35 as coal prices have soared in the wake of booming demand in China and India. The No. 2 stock is actually a discount retailer, Big Lots. It’s up 100%, from $15 to $30, as investors speculate it will get a big share of tax-rebate money from low-income Americans.
Most of the rest of the next best 15 gainers
Read More...
-
Posted
Feb 12 2008, 06:53 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Firestone. American Motors. Texaco. Pan Am. Worldcom. These large American companies were once at the top of their industries. Pan Am was the leading global airline for decades. All are gone: Some were sold off, others went bankrupt. Who could have predicted it?
There are several iconic U.S. companies that may well not exist at the end of 2008. Some may not even make it halfway through the year. Not all will go out of business. Some may simply be auctioned off in pieces. Others may be bought. These companies will not exist in their current forms as they are known to their shareholders and consumers now.
When a company ceases to exist as an independent entity, it is not necessarily bad for shareholders. Some may be worth more in parts. Often a bust-up or merger is what brings owners the most money. Here are the big ones that probably won't make it. (A more detailed assessment is available at 24/7 Wall St.)
Read More...
-
Posted
Jun 23 2008, 12:00 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Motorola shares hit a five-year low today after analysts weigh in with negative reports. The stock is down nearly 6% to $7.48 at noon PST. Don't listen to that inner voice whispering that now might be a good buying opportunity. Things aren't looking up for this company anytime soon. PiperJaffray downgraded Motorola to "sell" from "neutral" today and cut the price target to $7 from $9.75. The analyst also lowered his handset forecast for the year to 106 million from 116 million. Part of the reason for the downgrade is because Motorola is so exposed in North America. Nearly half of its handset sales are on that continent. So it's not a good sign that the four major North American wireless carriers are seeing declining sales.
Read More...
-
Posted
Oct 30 2008, 11:17 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Motorola shares fell 6% midday Thursday to around $5 after the company gave a double-whammy of bad news: Fourth-quarter results would miss expectations, and the struggling mobile unit will just get weaker next year.
The company will lay off about 3,000 people, and won't spin off its mobile group as early as it had hoped. The mess at Motorola is just too big to clean up quickly. It might be too late to turn this company around, but co-CEO Sanjay Jha is trying.
"The reality is there is no quick fix here," said Jha, who has only been on the job for a couple of months. It doesn't help that Motorola doesn't have any superstar phones to sell this quarter. Screwing up the holiday season gives you a pretty good idea of how clueless management has been this year in planning, design and execution.
Read More...
-
Posted
Jun 05 2008, 01:57 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Worst executive job in technology? Head of Motorola's cell phone unit -- an open position the Wall Street Journal says could be filled soon. Why so bad? Oh, let us count the ways: 1. The unit has lost $1.6 billion in 18 months. 2. Most of the senior management has bailed.
3. The Street hates the division, valuing it at just $1 per share.
Read More...
-
Posted
Jun 13 2008, 11:17 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Motorola slashes its research division, cutting nearly a quarter of the jobs, reassigning another quarter and pulling the plug on some projects. It's all part of the company's drive to save $500 million this year. Motorola shares were up 1% at 11:30 a.m. PST to $9.05. I realize the company has some tough financial choices right now, but with the technological innovation coming out this year from Apple, Research in Motion and other handset makers, shouldn't Motorola beef up its R&D instead? You're not going to get another Razr unless you work at it. As one analyst told The Chicago Tribune, "There's no way to positively spin this....You're not going to come out with new product. The only thing it's going to do is reduce expenses, which is a short-term benefit."
Read More...
-
Posted
Oct 29 2008, 09:48 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Big wins for Google and Motorola today. The Wall Street Journal reports that Motorola is scrapping some of its own designs and will start using Google's Android operating system in some phones. Motorola was suffocating under six different operating systems in its phones -- few of which had the juice to compete with the savvy systems that Google and Apple have already put out. So Motorola is winnowing that to three: Microsoft's Windows Mobile will be used in its high-end devices, Google Android will go in the high-volume middle class of phones and Motorola's own P2K operating system will run low-end phones. The move is part of a slate of big changes expected under Sanjay Jha, the new CEO of Motorola's struggling cell phone division. How struggling? The division lost $12 average on each of the 28 million phones it sold last quarter, the Journal says. Jha could also announce thousands of layoffs, perhaps as early as tomorrow in the company's quarterly earnings call.
Read More...
More Posts Next page »
|
