Posts for Ticker ‘AAPL’

Unusual Friday Options Activity (AAPL, GOOG, BAC, LEAP, PCS, DRYS, YHOO)

We have seen some unusual options trading today.  As you would expect, some is around today’s 4:00 PM close  with today being options expiration date.  But some bets are way out into 2011 and we have some around merger rumors.  All have links with full details on the options trading analysis at VSInvestor:

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) are both seeing very active trading around expiration date today, and the closest strikes are acting as magnets.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) has seen a very bullish bet in options out to 2011.

There is some elevated Dec-2009 Call options activity in both Leap Wireless International Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP) and MetroPCS Communications Inc. (NYSE: PCS) on today’s re-rumor of a potential deal coming back up.

DryShips, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) is very active in the stock after an increased convertible note offering, yet the options activity seen today seems muted.

Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) has a big bet out in January 2011 options expiration.

You can join our open email distribution list to hear more news on key analyst calls, top day trader alerts, mergers and acquisitions, Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG
NOVEMBER 20, 2009

Posted on: November 20, 2009 – 3:24 pm in Options, Rumors, Trading Alert, , , , , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/19/2009) (BA)(AMTD)(MWW)(NWSA)(AAPL)

Updated throughout the day.

Update 12.50 PM EST:  Boeing (NYSE:BA) could lose a $7.5 billion order for fighter planes to Brazil if the US Senate does not confirm Obama’s nominee to be ambassador to the South American country  (Bloomberg)

Update 11.08 AM EST:  TDAmeritrade (NASDAQ:AMTD) may be buying E*Trade  (NASDAQ:ETFC)  (Omaha World Herald)

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) has lost a large number of its most talented people to hedge funds. (Bloomberg)

The Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) tablet PC launch date has been delayed until late 2010.  (Digitimes)

Monster.com (NASDAQ:MWW) may be taken over by News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA) or Google (NASDAQ:GOOG)  (WSJ)

Blackstone’s (NYSE:BX) Pinnacle Brands may buy Birds Eye  (CNBC)

Sony (NYSE:SNE), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Nintendo are working on ways to keep market share as smart phones come after their market share.  (BusinessWeek)

Time Warner’s (NYSE:TWX) AOL is seeking to buy-out 2,500 employees as it is spun off by its parent. (various)

Citigroup (NYSE:C) may sell its auto lending group.  (NYPost)

You can join our open email distribution list to hear more news on key analyst calls, top day trader alerts, mergers and acquisitions, Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

For more information on Citi, Microsoft, Sony, and Google check the 24/7 Wall St 500.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 19, 2009 – 8:45 am in Rumors, , , , , , , , , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/17/2009) New Bid For Cadbury

Updated throughout the day.

Updated 4.06 PM EST:  “U.S. chocolate giant Hershey Co. has been in high-level talks with Italian chocolate maker Ferrero Spa to possibly craft a rival joint bid to Kraft Foods Inc.’s $16.7 billion offer for Cadbury PLC.”  (WSJ)

Toys ‘R’ Us could go public  (The Deal)

The new Motorola (NYSE:MOT) Droid handset may be taking significant market share from the Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) Pre.

AOL’s market value will be $3.2 billion when it is spun off from Time Warner (NYSE:TWX)  (The Business Insider)

Smartphones from Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM) are becoming a security threat  (BusinessWeek)

Several nations including Russia, the US, Israel, France, and China are preparing for cyberattacks.  (CNET)

Talks between Sal. Oppenheim and Australia’s Macquarie over the sale of the Luxemburg-based firm’s investment banking operations collapsed.  (Reuters)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 17, 2009 – 9:01 am in Rumors, , , , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/16/2009) (DVN)(NVDA)(C)(AAPL)

magazinUpdated throughout the day.

Updated 12.43 PM EST:  Apple may hire its own video game developers to create iPhone and iPod products  (Apple Insider)

Updated 11.57 AM EST:  Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) may sell its international operations to interests in China  (NYT)

Central banks will be net purchasers of gold for the first time in decades  (CNBC)

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) wants to expand it wealth management operation (Investment News and Business Insider)

Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) has started to complain about Intel’s (NYSE:INTC) just as the world’s largest chip company settled antitrust issues with AMD (NYSE:AMD)

Intel plans to release powerful new notebook chips in January. (Digitimes)

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) will launch a Zune music and movies brand outside the US to try to challenge Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the mobile content business.  (FT)

JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) is trying to buy the 50% of management firm Cazenove Group that it does not already own for $1.7 billion.  (Bloomberg)

Citigroup (NYSE:C) has rejected Terra Firma Capital’s offer to restructure EMI Group. (WSJ).

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 16, 2009 – 8:46 am in Rumors, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , ,

Apple: Court Rules Psystar Cannot Sell Mac Knock-Offs

appleIn a court case that began last year, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) charged the young upstart Psystar, which makes Mac knock-offs, with a host of copyright and trademark violations. The venerable computer and consumer electronics company said that Psystar had infringed its copyrights by selling PCs that looked like Macs and ran slightly modified versions of its Mac OS X.

Read more….

Posted on: November 16, 2009 – 3:15 am in Law,

Too Many Apple (AAPL) Stores

appleApple (NASDAQ:AAPL) will have too many retail stores at some point. It will face the “Starbucks problem” of over-building. Starbucks once boasted that it would eventually have 40,000 coffee shops worldwide. It will be lucky to end up with 20,000.

A $3 cup of coffee is not a $1,500 Mac. Apple will reach a ceiling of profitable retail stores at a count much lower than Starbucks.

Apple has 279 stores and is adding to that total at the rate of about 50 per year and that pace is likely to increase. According to CNET, 170 million people visited Apple outlets in the company’s 2009 fiscal year and during that period the company brought in $6.6  billion of its $29.9 billion in revenue through sales at retail. Read More »

Posted on: November 13, 2009 – 5:53 am in PC Companies, Retail, , ,

Tech Giants Now Hold ~$265 Billion Cash To Spend (HPQ, COMS, INTC, AMD, MSFT, CSCO, AAPL, GOOG, ORCL, JAVA, QCOM, EMC, YHOO, DELL, AMZN, EBAY, ONT, BRCD, JDSU, STAR, VMW)

You have already seen the Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) buyout of 3Com Corporation (NASDAQ: COMS).  But this week before that deal was announced we covered how mergers in the technology sector have been very slow to develop over the scale in which we and others think is possible for the sector.  After the Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) settlement with Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), the tally of cash that is now estimated would be an implied $265 billion that is available for the tech giants in our 24/7 Wall St. Real-Time 500 to make acquisitions.

The giant cash balances are held by Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), and Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL), assuming nothing happens with Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA).  But players like QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), and eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) are either all sitting with large amounts of cash or will be very soon.

We have broken out these technology, IT, software, and Internet companies by the cash amount they hold or what they have in a soon-to-be cash balance.  Of course only a fraction of this cash will be used for mergers.  But there is also a ton of room here for dividends and of course the share buybacks.

Read More »

Posted on: November 12, 2009 – 11:31 am in Consumer Electronics, Cramer, Dividend, Editor's Picks, Internet, Large Cap Stocks, Mergers and Buy Outs, PC Companies, Private Equity, Rumors, Semiconductor, Software, Stock Buybacks, Technology Companies, Telecom, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 11/12/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   China is the key stop on Obama’s tour of Asia.

Reuters:   South Korea’s businesses may start to feel more pressure from China competitors..

Reuters:   Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) bought 3Com (NYSE:COM) for $3.1 billion.

Reuters:   Lou Dobbs left CNN (NYSE:TWX) Read More »

Posted on: November 12, 2009 – 4:00 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wal-Mart (WMT) Give RIM (RIMM) A Hand

WMTRIM (NASDAQ:RIMM) has been under seige these last few weeks. Investors are concerned that the Blackberry maker is losing market share to the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone and a new group of handsets using the Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android mobile operating system. Motorola (NYSE:MOT) launched its Droid just last week.

RIM shareholders are also nervous the Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) Pre sales could take a very modest but still damaging piece of the Blackberry market.

Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) means to help save RIM. Read More »

Posted on: November 11, 2009 – 8:15 am in Wireless, , , , , , ,

Apple (AAPL) Moves To Conquer Its Next Frontier

appleThe Holy Grail of consumer electronics is still a smashing success in the video game industry. Tens and tens of millions of Sony (NYSE:SNE) PS2s and PS3s were sold over the last decade. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has turned its game console business into a real success. Nintendo has become the darling of the Japanese consumer electronics market because of huge sales of its portable DS and Wii consoles.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has done remarkably well in the computer, handset, and multimedia player sectors of electronics, but its has little or no place in the gaming industry. Read More »

Posted on: November 11, 2009 – 5:41 am in Video Games, ,

Media Digest 11/11/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NY Times, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   Two Bear Stearns hedge fund managers were acquited.

Reuters:   Zucker, NBCU’s current CEO, will head the company when Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) buys a majority of the company from GE (NYSE:GE).

Reuters:  Dodd’s super-bank regulator fights a uphil battle in Congress.

Reuters:   Fed officials see an uneven recovery. Read More »

Posted on: November 11, 2009 – 4:09 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Major Stocks That Have Doubled And Their Future Prospects (F)(AMZN)(AAPL)(WFMI)(MOT)

appleBy Douglas A. McIntyre

The S&P 500 index is so far having a fine year, up a bit more than 20%. But several big-company stocks in the index have doubled, or better, over that time. Among the best-performers are some of America’s most well-known companies.

Here’s a look at 10 of those and their prospects of advancing further — or sliding back into the large pack of equities that have had only modest advances during the current bull market (all prices are as of the close on Nov. 9).

Ford (NYSE:F) was left for dead when it traded at $1 last November. The market thought it would share the sorry fate of its rivals General Motors and Chrysler, and that common shareholders would get nothing.

Read more…

Posted on: November 10, 2009 – 5:37 pm in Editor's Picks, , , , , , ,

Tech Titans Still Have $269 Billion Cash For Deals (MSFT, CSCO, AAPL, GOOG, INTC, HPQ, QCOM, EMC, VMW, YHOO, DELL, ORCL, JAVA, AMZN, EBAY)

The recovery is on and mergers are happening, yet the technology sector has been slow to make deals.  Despite some deals already having taken place from the technology giants and that $260 billion cash balance which was there in the middle of last quarter is even larger now.  The tally for cash by our count is now right around $269 billion.  We looked through the top market caps of technology companies in our 24/7 Wall St. Real-Time 500 and this list is expanded now that some issues have been resolved in all the companies.  The stocks in this group are Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL), Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA), Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), and eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY).

These few tech companies with the $269 billion cash that could be deployed for mergers, acquisitions, or the good old dividends are also listed before tallying up credit lines, factoring, debt sales, and other creative financing methods.  We have listed the suppositions and counting methods for each one to illustrate how much is available at each company.
Read More »

Posted on: November 10, 2009 – 1:07 pm in Consumer Electronics, Dividend, Editor's Picks, Internet, Large Cap Stocks, Mergers and Buy Outs, PC Companies, Private Equity, Rumors, Semiconductor, Technology Companies, Value Investing, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 11/10/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   Markets hit their 2009 highs.

Reuters:   Dodd is set to unveil his financial reform bill which calls for merging many bank regulators.

Reuters:   Kraft’s (NYSE:KFT) bid for Cadbury turned hostile.

Reuters:   A survey of economists predicted strong GDP growth in 2010. Read More »

Posted on: November 10, 2009 – 3:57 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Microsoft (MSFT) Windows 7 And The Renewal Of The PC Industry

TVMicrosoft (NYSE:MSFT) Windows 7 sales in the first week after its introduction last month outdid Vista sales during the first week after its launch in January 2007 by 234%, according to industry research firm NPD. Microsoft has certainly encouraged the rumors that the operating system is doing well, but that no longer appears to be an empty boast. Read More »

Posted on: November 9, 2009 – 4:12 am in PC Companies, Software, , , ,

Motorola (MOT) Droid Visits Manhattan

nokBy Douglas A. McIntyre

Some pieces of news are worth mentioning only in passing because they are interesting, but may not mean a thing. CNET says that over 100 people lined up at midnight to be early buyers of the new Motorola (NYSE:MOT) Droid handset at a Verizon (NYSE:VZ) store in Manhattan. The store in Herald Square had 500 phones in stock to meet the early demand.

The Droid is Motorola’s answer to the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone and Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) Pre.

Read more…

Posted on: November 6, 2009 – 1:32 pm in Wireless, , , ,

Top 10 Grossing Apple (AAPL) Apps

Apple recently started publishing a list of the top grossing applications in its App Store. Since its inception the App Store has posted over 2 billion downloads. The App Store effectively operates like a consignment shop. Apple keeps a third of the price of any application sold in the App Store, while the developer gets the rest. Apple does not disclose how much revenue it derives from App Store sales, but we can bet that the lion’s share of revenue comes from the top 100 grossing applications. Below is a description of the top ten grossing applications sold in the App Store, along with a description of their developer.

Read More »

Posted on: November 4, 2009 – 4:30 pm in Software, Uncategorized, ,

Apple (AAPL) Becomes Too Excellent: 100,000 Apps

appleIt will be a shame when the day comes that Apple can’t put out good news every day. The market has become used to it. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) now has the 9th highest market cap of all companies traded on a US exchange at $173 billion, about the same at Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) and JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM).

Apple today announced that its app store, certainly the most successful software service of its kind, has reached 100,000 applications available for iPhone and iPod users. Describing the triumph Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing said“The iPhone SDK created the first great platform for mobile applications and our customers are loving all the amazing apps our developers are creating.” Read More »

Posted on: November 4, 2009 – 10:50 am in Software, ,

Another Win For Apple (AAPL): The Touchscreen

appleIt is getting harder and harder to find any flaws in Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) businesses. The company’s shares trade at $190, very near their all-time high. Analysts expect record results from the company for the calendar fourth quarter as holiday shoppers drive better-than-usual sales of iPods, Macs, and iPhones.

comScore (NASDAQ:SCOR) released data that shows touchscreen smartphone sales up 159% from August 2008 to August 2009 when units sold hit 23.8 million. The growth was much greater than that for the total smartphone category which was up 63% in the US for the same period to 33.8 million units. Read More »

Posted on: November 3, 2009 – 2:43 pm in PC Companies, Wireless, , , , ,

Apple (AAPL) iPhone Sales In China Only 5,000 During First Weekend

appleChina Unicom (NYSE:CHU) released its earnings yesterday and as part of its comments to investors it said it had only sold 5,000 iPhones since it started offering the handset.

China Unicom posted moderately good earnings. Its first three quarter’s financial statement said the big cellular company had revenue of 114,928 million RMB and 9,338 million RMB in net income.

Unicom Chairman Chang Xiaobing  said more than 1 million 3G subscribers had been signed up and that the launch of Apple’s iPhone would boost revenue in the fourth quarter. The firm did not give any more specific forecasts. Read More »

Posted on: November 3, 2009 – 9:25 am in China, Wireless, ,