Posts for Ticker ‘MSFT’

52-Week High Club (FDX, LNY, MRK, GOOG)

FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) over 3% to a yearly high of $84.92.  Barron’s reported that the package delivery company may rise as high as $100 dollars according to a survey of investors and analysts.

Landry’s Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: LNY) rose over 20% to a yearly high of $20.23.  After last week’s buyout proposal from the company’s chief executive Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital has reported a stake in the company and has divulged its opposition to the buyout offer.

Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) rose over 2.5% to a yearly high of $34.35.  The company’s Human Health President Keneth Frazier told CNBC that it would not pull Vytorin and Zetia, the company’s cholesterol medications, off of the market.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) rose close to 1% to a yearly high of $576.99.  The TechCruch blog put out a piece on Sunday reporting that Google had hired Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) former director of new business development.

Garrett W. McIntyre

Posted on: November 16, 2009 – 4:02 pm in Food, Pharmaceuticals, Technology Companies, Transports, , , , ,

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, , , , , , , , ,

Sony (SNE) Throws Cold Water On The Holidays

bearSony (NYSE:SNE) expects its holiday sales to be poor. That is terrible news for the consumer electronics and PC industries. Sony is a nearly perfect proxy for those sectors. It sells PCs, video games, TV screens, and digital cameras. Many of Sony’s competitors will have to gird for another harsh holiday selling season, unless the forecast from the big Japanese firm is based on a large drop in market share across most of its businesses.

Sir Howard Stringer, Sony’s CEO, was quoted by Reuters as saying “There hasn’t been that turning point that many had hoped for. We are waiting for a signal that hasn’t arrived.” Read More »

Posted on: November 16, 2009 – 5:00 am in Consumer Electronics, Retail, Video Games, , , ,

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades, Downgrades, Initiations (ADBE, FDX, JNPR, LVS, MSFT, ORCL, QCOM, CRM, NCTY, WYNN)

These are this Friday’s top early analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations from Wall Street research calls which may be moving shares of the underlying stocks:

Adobe Systems (NASDAQ: ADBE) Started as Buy at UBS.
FedEx (NYSE: FDX) Started as Overweight at Piper Jaffray.
Juniper Networks (NASDAQ: JNPR) Raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) Started as Buy at UBS.
Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) Started as Buy at UBS.
QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) Started as Neutral at UBS.
The9 Ltd (NASDAQ: NCTY) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.

You can join our open email distribution list which goes out several times per week to be notified of key merger news, key analyst calls, top early morning day trader alerts, along with news of IPO’s, key offerings, guru investor data on Buffett and others, mergers, and more.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: November 13, 2009 – 7:59 am in Analyst Calls, Technology Companies, , , , , , , , , ,

Video Game Sales Fall Back In October

wiiSeptember sales for video game consoles were relatively good given the economy. Price cuts on the Nintendo Wii, Sony (NYSE:SNE) PS3, and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Xbox stimulated activity. It appears that the initial surge in sales that those discounts caused is already over.

Video game sales, including consoles and games, fell 18% in October. Read More »

Posted on: November 13, 2009 – 6:30 am in Video Games, ,

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

“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2″ Blows Records Away (ATVI, GME, MSFT)

Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) may actually hit that $500 million first week target after all.  The company has announced this morning that since the 12:00 launch on Tuesday that its much-hyped “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2″ has become the biggest launch in history across all forms of entertainment.  Forget Star Wars, forget Halo 3.  The company has put the internal estimated sell-through sales at a figure of $310 million in North America and the United Kingdom alone in just the first 24 hours. The company also estimates that it sold approximately 4.7 million copies in just North America and the United Kingdom.
Read More »

Posted on: November 12, 2009 – 8:28 am in Entertainment, Media, Video Games, , ,

Bill Gates Says Wall St. Pay Is Too High

bearBill Gates is one of the richest men in the world and the founder of one of the most successful companies ever created. That means that the media hangs on every word he utters whether he has any background for his opinions or not.

Yesterday, Gates said Wall St. management pay is too high, and then said that it isn’t. Read More »

Posted on: November 12, 2009 – 6:21 am in Compensation,

Applied Materials (AMAT): We Made Money But You’re Fired

bearApplied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) can be added to the long list of American companies that made a profit in the last quarter and then fired a significant part of their workforces. It is a disturbing trend that will make it harder for the US economy to recover.

Applied Materials said it expected its fiscal year sales to be 30% higher. It then let go nearly 1,500 people. Read More »

Posted on: November 12, 2009 – 5:48 am in Economy, Labor & Unions, , , ,

Maybe The Search Engine Business Isn’t So Great (YHOO)(GOOG)(MSFT)

TVSeveral studies show that Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bing search engine picked up market share in October. Combined with Yahoo! the two companies could end up with clost to 30% of the industry in the United States. The firms believe that the deal will be final in the first quarter of next year. Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) will still have two-thirds of the market, but perhaps second place is not so bad.

The value of first place is hard to argue. Google has a market capitalization of $180 billion and had operating income of $2 billion on revenue of slightly less than $6 billion last quarter. Yahoo! serves about 20% of the searchs made in the US but has a market cap of only $23 billion and made a very modest $70 million on $1.78 billion in revenue in the period ending September 30. Microsoft does not break out its search revenue or expense, but its online operations are small and lose money. Read More »

Posted on: November 11, 2009 – 7:58 pm in Internet, , ,

Bing Captures More Search Share (MSFT, GOOG, YHOO, IACI)

It is usually questionable if Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and its new Bing.com search engine is stealing from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) or from Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) when it comes to gains in the share of internet search.  Or maybe it was IAC/InteractiveCorp. (NASDAQ: IACI) and its Ask.com distant #4 search product.  Hitwise is only one source which measures U.S. searches, but a reading of searches conducted in the four weeks ending Oct. 31, 2009 showed a gain for Bing. Hitwise showed that Bing is clearly taking more from Google and some from Yahoo!.  Even Ask.com got a little lift this time.  Hitwise gave the following data:
Read More »

Posted on: November 11, 2009 – 1:23 pm in Internet, Research, , , ,

Short Sellers Abandon Financials (WFC)(CIT)(BAC)(JPM)

bearShort sellers have bought into the notion that the financial industry is in full recovery.

Shares sold short in Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) fell 8% to 78.8 million shares. Shares short in CIT (NYSE:CIT) were off 4% to 78.1 million. The short interest in Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) dropped 12% to 67 million. The short interest in JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) dropped 4% to 37.7 million. Read More »

Posted on: November 11, 2009 – 4:24 am in Short Interest, , , , , , , , , , , ,

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

Today’s Best Market Rumors (9/10/2009) (AMD)(AMR)(LCC)(CLWR)(MOT)

magazinUpdated throughout the day.

Update 2.52 PM EST:  The antitrust disagreement  between Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and AMD (NYSE:AMD) may be resolved by a private settlement  (MarketWatch)

Updated 12.23 PM EST:  Motorola (NYSE:MOT) may have sold 100,000 Droid the first weekend the handset was on the market  (Bloomberg)

Updated 11.33 AM EST: Huge hedge fund SAC says it has found no improper trades. Media sources has linked the firm to the Galleon insider trading investigation. (Bloomberg)

Updated 8.48 AM EST:  Hedge fund assets could hit $2 trillion worldwide by the end of 2010 (DealBook)

American Air (NYSE:AMR) and US Air (NYSE:LCC) may merge  (TheStreet)

The International Energy Agency may be downplaying the need for greater oil supplies to prevent a market panic.  (CNBC)

AT&T (NYSE:T) is publishing data to undermine Verizon’s (NYSE:VZ) claims about the better quality of its cellular network.

Time Warner’s (NYSE:TWX) AOL unit will lay-off 1,000 people next month. (AllThingsD)

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is not likely to close its media properties.  (Ad Age)

A number of public pensions face bankruptcy. (Forbes)

Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) may use its China business as a template for expansion in India.  (The Deal)

Even after a $1 billion cash infusion 4G WiMax company Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) may need more money from Sprint (NYSE:S) and other partners.  (BreakingViews)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 10, 2009 – 8:38 am in Rumors, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/9/2009) (RAI)(WFC)(NWS)(JAVA)(GE)(S)(CLWR)

magazinUpdated throughout the day.

Updated at 11.49 AM EST:  Reynolds Americam (NYSE:RAI) may buy Niconovum, a Swedish maker of nicotine gum and mouth sprays (Boomberg)

Updated at 10.12 AM EST: Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) may pay back its TARP funds. (BreakingViews)

Updated at 9.48 AM EST: Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp (NYSE:NWS) may sue the BBC for breach of copyright for “stealing” material from his newspapers. (FT)

It will take a bid of 800 pence to get Cadbury to agree to a Kraft (NYSE:KFT) takeover. The current hostile bid is for 713 pence.  (various)

GE (NYSE:GE) and Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) have agreed to value NBCU at $30 billion  (WSJ)

The EU may approved Oracle’s (NASDAQ:ORCL) buy-out of Sun (NASDAQ:JAVA) if it gives up some of its control of the MySQL database software  (BusinesssWeek)

The rally in GE’s (NYSE:GE) stock may not last very long.  (TheStreet)

China may raise fuel prices this week.  (CNBC)

Delta (NYSE:DAL) and American Air (NYSE:AMR) are increasing their pressure on the Japanese government to forge joint ventures with Japan Airlines.  (The Deal)

New collaborative software tools from Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) will put it into direct competition with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)  (CNET)

Sprint (NYSE:S), Intel (NYSE:INTC), and Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) may put another $1.5 billion into 4G provider Clearwire  (NASDAQ:CLWR)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 9, 2009 – 9:04 am in Rumors, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Activision (ATVI) “Call Of Duty” Could Set All-Time Video Game Record

wiiActivision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) is about to release its “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II: video game. Sales are expected to be half a billion dollars in the first week. That would make it the biggest entertainment product release of all time, topping even the most successful blockbuster movies.

According to the LA Times, “Activision is working with retailers to plan more than 10,000 midnight openings in the United States, including most of the 4,300 GameStop stores around the country.” Read More »

Posted on: November 9, 2009 – 6:03 am in Video Games, , , ,

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, , , ,

Media Digest 11/9/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   Hurricane Ida is heading toward Gulf oil fields.

Reuters:   Kraft (NYSE:KFT) will make its bid for Cadbury.

Reuters:   GE (NYSE:GE) and Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) have agreed to an NBCU valuation.

Reuters:   The IMF is considering an insurance levy on banks. Read More »

Posted on: November 9, 2009 – 4:03 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/6/2009) (RTP)(BHP)(BRK.A)

newspaperUpdated throughout the day.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) will re-launch some of its least successful hedge funds  (FT)

The stock market is at risk of not holding 10,000.  (TheStreet)

AIG (NYSE:AIG) will not hold a conference call to avoid uncomfortable questions about its balance sheet  (The Deal)

Sales of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 7 are outpacing those after the launch of Vista (Apple Insider)

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) are likely to fall sharply  (Barron’s)

BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) may make another bid to buy rival Rio Tinto (NYSE:RTP)  (FTAlphaville)

“Governments may take as long as a decade to cut debt issuance back to the levels before global markets seized up following the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. last year.”  (Bloomberg)

Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) is likely to go through a period of sharp job cuts.  (Business Insider)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 6, 2009 – 9:17 am in Rumors, , , , , , ,

Media Digest 11/6/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   The Wall St. insider trading probe lead to another 14 arrests.

Reuters:   Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) lost $19 billion and asked Treasury for money.

Reuters:   GM is readying its plans for Opel as some of its workers went on strike.

Reuters:   The pay czar says the jury is still out on reforms. Read More »

Posted on: November 6, 2009 – 3:58 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,