Posts for Ticker ‘EMC’

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.

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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, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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.
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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, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Earnings on Deck: VMware & EMC (VMW, EMC)

After the close of trading today, we will get a look at the earnings report from VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW).  The company’s former parent and still-majority shareholder (by far) is EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), and it has earnings on deck for tomorrow morning.  We have prepared detailed previews with Thomson Reuters estimates, what to look for in guidance, and added color.  We have also added in the performance of each stock since June 30, and we have included the stock performance since the March 9 close which traders are using as the official date of the end of the market death spiral.
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Posted on: October 21, 2009 – 1:55 pm in Earnings, Software, Technology Companies, ,

Major Tech Earnings on Deck (AAPL, TXN, SNDK, STX, WDC, YHOO, EBAY, VMW, EMC, AMZN, BRCM, JNPR, SYNA, MSFT)

This week is going to make last week’s earnings flood look like elementary school.  We have the floodgates opening for technology, web, software, hardware, and IT, and 24/7 Wall Street has previewed 14 of the top technology stocks that are on deck to report earnings this coming week:  Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN), SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK), Seagate Technology (NASDAQ: STX), Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY), VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM), Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), Synaptics Inc. (NASDAQ: SYNA), and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT).

We have provided the first details for earnings, Thomson Reuters consensus data, added color of our own on the earnings trends, listed key issues to watch, and included the performance from the June 30 close and from the March 9 close that traders are using as the key pivotal turning day where the bear market died and a new bull market run began.
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Posted on: October 17, 2009 – 11:25 am in Calendar, Earnings, Internet, Semiconductor, Technology Companies, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Analyst Upgrades (AMR, ANSW, ABX, CSCO, CAL, CSC, EMC, GG, HOG)

These are this Wednesday’s early upgrades and positive research calls which we have seen out of Wall Street firms this morning:

AMR Corp. (AMR) Raised to Overweight at Barclays.
Answers Corp. (ANSW) Raised to Buy at Canaccord.
Barrick Gold (ABX) Raised to Overweight at JP Morgan.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Continental Airlines (CAL) Raised to Equal Weight at Barclays.
Computer Sciences (CSC) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
EMC Corp. (EMC) Raised to Overweight at Thomas Weisel.
Goldcorp (GG) Raised to Overweight at JP Morgan.
Harley-Davidson (HOG) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.

You can join our open email distribution list to get updates each morning on analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader alerts, IPO’s and secondary offerings, Warren Buffett and other guru activity, M&A and more.

JON C. OGG
October 14, 2009

Posted on: October 14, 2009 – 7:41 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , ,

Tech Titans Holding $260 Billion In Cash (DELL, PER, ORCL, JAVA, MSFT, AAPL, IBM, GOOG, CSCO, INTC, HPQ, QCOM, EMC, YHOO)

The economy is obviously getting better, so long as you are not one of the unemployed or about to lose your job.  Now with more than a 50% rally from the March lows and a Dow Jones Industrial Average challenging the 10,000 level, suddenly everyone wants to put on their investment banker hats again and look for buyers and buyout candidates after deals are announced.  This week’s Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) deal for Perot Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: PER) was a $3.9 billion acquisition versus $12.7 billion in cash and equivalents held at the end of the quarter.  The Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) deal for Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) is valued at $7.4 billion, or $5.6 billion net of Sun’s cash and debt.  We went back through our list from September 2, 2009 where we noted that outside of the financials  in the 20 largest US companies had a cash hoard of $335 billion that could be used for mergers and acquisitions, and that is not accounting for lines of credit, stock or debt that could be sold, and other means of financing a deal.  While nowhere near all of the cash will ever be used, many companies could pay big dividends before any tax changes.

So we wanted to look through the technology sector and after we looked through the top 100 markets caps in our 24/7 Wall St. Real-Time 500 we added a few new additions in the tech sector that still had over $5 billion in cash.  Out if the $335 billion from those in the top twenty, we broke out Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL).  Even after a huge rally, $335 billion and then some could go a very long way for strategic and bolt-on acquisitions as a positioning strategy for the next decade.  Now, going further down the list of the top 100 companies with $5 billion or more in cash from tech companies alone adds in Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO). When we tally up all the cash, there is over $260 billion available from these few tech companies that could be deployed for mergers, acquisitions, or the good old dividends.  Again, that is before tallying up credit lines, factoring, debt sales, and other financing methods.
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Posted on: September 25, 2009 – 6:41 am in Consumer Electronics, Dividend, Editor's Picks, Internet, Large Cap Stocks, Mergers and Buy Outs, PC Companies, Private Equity, Rumors, Semiconductor, Software, Technology Companies, Value Investing, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 9/14/2009

newspaperReuters:   Obama is trying to push Wall St. reform.

Reuters:   German aid for Opel will go in part to Russia for operations there.

Reuters:   A global poll shows support for stimulus packages.

Reuters:   J&J (JNJ) is in talks to cut its $1.5 billion Elan investment. Read More »

Posted on: September 14, 2009 – 4:01 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 9/3/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   The sell-off in Chinese stocks may be overdone based on earnings.

Reuters:   A report blamed the SEC for not doing its job investigating Madoff.

Reuters:   The Fed says the risks to the American economy have dropped.

Reuters:   A Pfizer (PFE) whistleblower made more than $51 million. Read More »

Posted on: September 3, 2009 – 4:02 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Analyst Upgrades (BCS, BBBY, DLTR, EMC, GHL, HCN, NTAP, SNH, WSM, INTC)

These are this morning’s top pre-market analyst upgrades, initiations, and positive broker research calls we have seen early this Thursday morning from Wall Street firms:

  • Barclays (BCS) Raised to Outperform at KBW.
  • Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) Started as Buy at Citigroup.
  • Dollar Tree (DLTR) Raised to Overweight at Barclays.
  • EMC Corp (EMC) Started as Buy at Citigroup.
  • Greenhill & CO. (GHL) Raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs.
  • Health Care REIT (HCN) Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.
  • NetApp (NTAP) Started as Buy at Citigroup.
  • Senior Housing (SNH) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.
  • Williams-Sonoma (WSM) Started as Buy at Citigroup.

Elsewhere, JPMorgan is maintaining a cautious stance on Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) on poor demand expectations, but it raisedx its target to $17.00 from $12.00.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: August 27, 2009 – 8:19 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Can NetApp Earnings Continue The Run? (NTAP, DDUP, EMC)

NTAP LogoNetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) is set to report earnings after the close of trading on Wednesday.  What will be interesting to see is if the company can maintain its old history of growth despite losing the Data Domain, Inc. (NASDAQ: DDUP) bidding war to EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC).  Thomson Reuters has estimates pegged at $0.20 EPS and $828.3 million in revenues.

Because estimates had been lowered and expectations were crushed in the Q1 period, the company did handily beat earnings estimates.  But the Wednesday expectations compare to year ago results of $0.22 EPS on $868.77 million in revenue.  If the company gives guidance, the estimates for the coming quarter are $0.30 EPS on more than $862.2 million in revenues.
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Posted on: August 18, 2009 – 3:02 pm in Earnings, Technology Companies, , ,

Goldman Sachs Upgrades & Downgrades in Tech (IBM, EMC, NTAP, CA, DELL, ARW, HPQ, STX, WDC, AAPL, MSFT, ORCL, SYMC)

Goldman Sachs is out with some key calls in technology sector today.  While some calls are positive, our take on this is more of a cautious stance due to the broad nature of some of the downgrades.  Among the individual calls is a downgrade of IBM (NYSE: IBM) to Neutral rather its prior “Buy” rating based on limited upside to its $120 target.  Both EMC (NYSE: EMC) and NetApp, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTAP) were resumed with coverage with “Neutral” ratings. CA, Inc. (NYSE: CA) was also downgraded to Neutral from Buy.

The firm raised Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) to the Conviction Buy List based on its operating leverage and a return in teh second half for PC sales.  Goldman is also reiterating the “Buy” ratings on both Arrow Electronics, Inc. (NYSE: ARW) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ). Arrow is based on its operations and its relative underperformance.  The call in H-P is based upon some recovery in the printer business and on some expected strength in the second half for the PC sector.  On the storage side, Seagate Technology (NASDAQ: STX) was raised to “Buy” from Neutral, while Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC) was cut to Neutral from Buy.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was maintained as Buy rating and saw its price target raised to $160 from $145.  On the software side, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL), and Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) remain its favorite picks.

The ratings for the sector are attractive.  There is good news here, but the sector call is broad enough that the impact may be limited.  And some of the caution may further weigh on the otherwise would-be winners today.

Jon C. Ogg
July 10, 2009

Posted on: July 10, 2009 – 7:49 am in Analyst Calls, Semiconductor, Software, Technology Companies, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Day Trader Alerts (AA, CENX, NTAP, DDUP, EMC, RIGL, NVAX, HGSI, CPKI, SCSC)

Money Stack ImageThese are some of the this morning’s top day trader alert stocks to watch based on pre-market and after-hours volume activity.  These have links through to more detailed trading and volume analysis covered at the Volume Spike site VSInvestor.com:

  • Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) shares are ones to watch for a volume spike higher after the company beat Q2 expectations by 12 cents a share and saw signs of auto market stability. Also watch rival Century Aluminum (Nasdaq: CENX) for possible upside.
  • NetApp Inc. (Nasdaq: NTAP) shares are pointing higher as the company saved some dough, and actually made a little, by losing its bid for data storage company Data Domain Inc. (Nasdaq: DDUP) to EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC).
  • Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: RIGL) shares are up very strongly on clinical trial data that raised expectations for a partnership.
  • Novavax Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX) shares are up more than 10 percent with nearly 100,000 shares traded in the pre-market after the company announced a joint venture in India with Cadila Pharmaceuticals, called CPL Biologicals.
  • Human Genome Sciences Inc. (Nasdaq: HGSI) shares are rising on strong volume on a New England Journal of Medicine publication regarding its Raxibacumab as a treatment for anthrax.
  • California Pizza Kitchen Inc. (Nasdaq: CPKI) shares will be ones to watch for a potential volume spike higher after the company guided Q2 profit higher.
  • ScanSource Inc. (Nasdaq: SCSC) shares could be active in early Thursday trading after the company guided higher for its fiscal Q4, ended in June.

-The 24/7 Wall St. Team

Posted on: July 9, 2009 – 7:49 am in After-Hours Activity, Pre-Market Activity, Trading Alert, , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 7/9/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   The promise of mobile TV is being destroyed by smartphone use of software applications.

Reuters:   More attacks on websites in the West are expected and North Korea is suspected.

Reuters:   China has arrested Rio Tinto (RTP) employees.

Reuters:   The age of the media mogul may be over. Read More »

Posted on: July 9, 2009 – 3:07 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 7/7/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   Japanes Topix index is expect to rise to 1,000.

Reuters:   The US may need a second stimulus package.

Reuters:   Hospitals have agreed to contribute $155 billion over ten years to help with the healthcare package.

Reuters:   Treasury is ready to push Wall St. on starting a consumer protection agency.

Reuters:   Lear filed for bankruptcy. Read More »

Posted on: July 7, 2009 – 2:55 am in Autos, Banking, Earnings, Healthcare, Luxury, Mergers and Buy Outs, Pharmaceuticals, Press Digest, Wireless, , , , , , , ,

What The Ultimate Data Domain Buyer Really Wins (DDUP, EMC, NTAP, SYMC, CSCO, JNPR)

Money Stack ImageData Domain, Inc. (NASDAQ: DDUP) keeps getting higher and higher bids in the bidding war that has erupted between EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) and NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP).  Interestingly enough, this has an implication for Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) as well.  There is one question that keeps coming up… Why Is Data Domain worth so much to these companies???
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Posted on: July 6, 2009 – 11:57 am in Mergers and Buy Outs, Software, Technology Companies, , , , , ,

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (ADTN, ADS, BA, LFC, DB, EMC, FCX, FSYS, WFR, RVBD)

These are the top ten analyst calls of upgrades, downgrades, and initiations we have seen from Wall Street early this Wednesday morning with more than two hours until the market opens:

  • ADTRAN (ADTN) Started as Buy at Auriga.
  • Alliance Data (ADS) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
  • Boeing (BA) Cut to Underperform at Oppenheimer.
  • China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. (LFC) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
  • Deutsche Bank (DB) Raised to Hold from Sell at Citigroup.
  • EMC Corp. (EMC) Raised to Overweight at Barclays.
  • Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) Raised to Outperform at FBR.
  • Fuel Systems Solutions (FSYS) Raised to Buy at Janney Montgomery Scott.
  • MEMC (WFR) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
  • Riverbed Technology (RVBD) Started as Market Perform at FBR.

Jon C. Ogg
June 24, 2009

Posted on: June 24, 2009 – 6:25 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Top Analyst Calls (BT, CSCO, EMC, HAS, ITW, MAT, NTAP, OMC, TEN, VECO)

These are some of the top pre-market analyst upgrades and positive research calls we have seen from Wall Street with more than two hours until the market opens:

BT Group (BT) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) Started at Canaccord.
EMC Corp. (EMC) Started at Canaccord.
Hasbro (HAS) Started as Buy at KeyBanc.
Illinois Tool Works (ITW) Raised to Outperform at William Blair.
Mattel (MAT) Started as Buy at KeyBanc.
NetApp (NTAP) Started as Buy at Canaccord.
Omnicom (OMC) Raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Tenneco (TEN) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Veeco Instruments (VECO) Started as Buy at Merriman Curhan Ford.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: June 16, 2009 – 6:25 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 6/16/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   The US outlined new financial market reforms.

Reuters:   Obama lobbied MDs on his new healthcare package.

Reuters:   Russia hosted the first BRIC summit.

Reuters:   B of A’s (BAC) BlackRock (BLK) stake is more appealing.

Reuters:   Samsung and Nokia (NOK) are pushing into smartphones. (MOT)(AAPL)(RIMM). Read More »

Posted on: June 16, 2009 – 3:01 am in Autos, Banking, Drug companies, Healthcare, Housing, Labor & Unions, Management Change, Media, PC Companies, Pharmaceuticals, Press Digest, Technology, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Arbitrage Risk/Reward Inverted on Data Domain (DDUP, NTAP, EMC)

Money Stack ImageThe long battle over Data Domain Inc. (NASDAQ: DDUP) may soon be coming to an end.  NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) appears to be coming out ahead of EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) as Data Domain told its shareholders on that they should not accept the takeover offer from EMC Corp. and back the NetApp deal.  What is interesting here is that if the would-be higher price target is true, then the risk/reward matrix for merger-arbitrage traders has actually inverted.
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Posted on: June 15, 2009 – 10:21 am in Mergers and Buy Outs, Rumors, Technology Companies, , ,

Media Digest 6/15/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   The heads of the emerging markets, the so-called BRICs, held their first global summit.

Reuters:   Obama will be tested this week on financial reforms.

Reuters:   Rich nations are working on an exit from stimulus packages.

Reuters:   Pfizer (PFE) is trying to do deals to improve its emerging market presence. Read More »

Posted on: June 15, 2009 – 3:01 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,