24/7 Wall St. » WDC

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell — Thursday: Markets Open Higher, Maintain Positive Trend Today

Paul Ausick — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:04:34 +0000

U.S. equity markets opened higher this morning following a report on U.S. unemployment that was better than analysts expected (more coverage here). There were literally hundreds of U.S. companies reporting earnings between last night’s close and today’s open, and equities were pushing the market higher most of the day as well. In Europe, the U.K. reported positive GDP growth in the first quarter (more coverage here), while Spain’s unemployment rate rose to 27.16% (more coverage here). In Asia, South Korea reported higher-than-expected GDP growth, but there was little other data. Before U.S. markets open tomorrow morning, first quarter GDP will be announced (more coverage here). The consensus estimate calls for growth of 3.1% compared with the fourth quarter of 2012.

The U.S. dollar index is trading down 0.38% today, now at 82.733. The GSCI commodity index is up 1.2% at 614.65. WTI crude oil closed up 2.4%, at $93.64 a barrel. Brent crude trades up 1.6% at $103.40 a barrel. Natural gas is up fractionally today at about $4.17 per million BTUs after an in-line storage report (more coverage here). Gold settled up 2.7% today at $1,462.00 an ounce, chalking up its largest one-day gain so far this year.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 35 points to 14,711.82 (0.24%), the NASDAQ rose nearly 23 points (0.70%) to 3,292.48, and the S&P 500 rose 0.47% or more than 6 points to 1,585.17.

There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including F5 Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) raised to ‘buy’ at Nomura; Federal-Mogul Corp. (NASDAQ: FDML) raised to ‘neutral’ at Goldman Sachs; Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) cut to ‘neutral’ at Citigroup and J.P. Morgan; Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) raised to ‘buy’ at Hilliard Lyons; and McGraw Hill Companies Inc. (NYSE: MHP) cut to ‘hold’ at Jefferies.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night resulted in some price moves today, including these as of the last half hour of trading: Angie’s List Inc. (NASDAQ: ANGI) is up 30.1% at $26.16 after posting a new 52-week high of $26.72 earlier today; Bally Technologies Inc. (NYSE: BYI) is up 11.4% at $54.67 after posting a new 52-week high of $54.74 earlier today; Fusion-io Inc. (NYSE: FIO) is up 18.4% at $19.70; O’Reilly Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ: ORLY) is up 4.7% at $105.86 after posting a new 52-week high of $108.98 earlier today; Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) is down 5.4% at $62.42 (more coverage here); Vale SA (NYSE: VALE) is up 1.8% at $17.05; Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) is down 0.1% at $52.86 after posting a new 52-week high of $57.95 earlier today; 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) is down 2.7% at $105.00; Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) is up 1.1% at $35.92; Bunge Ltd. (NYSE: BG) is up 6.9% at $72.99; Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) is down 1.3% at $88.25 (more coverage here); Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. (NYSE: POT) is up 3.1% at $40.85 (more coverage here); Proto Labs Inc. (NASDAQ: PRLB) is down 1.3% at $48.10 (more 3D printing coverage here); and Safeway Inc. (NYSE: SWY) is down 14.1% at $24.28 (more coverage here).

Before markets open tomorrow morning we are scheduled to hear earnings reports from Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU), Clearwire Corp. (NASDAQ: CLWR), Coinstar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR), HealthSouth Corp. (NYSE: HLS), Olin Corp. (NYSE: OLN), Range Resources Corp. (NYSE: RRC), Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX), Wynn Resorts, Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN), Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Burger King Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: BKW), Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX), National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NYSE: NOV), and VF Corp. (NYSE: VFC).

Some standouts among heavily traded stocks today include:

MPG Office Trust Inc. (NYSE: MPG) is up 20.6% at $3.14. The office and real-estate development REIT is being acquired by Brookfield Office Properties Inc. (NYSE: BPO) for $3.15 a share..

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) is up 16.1% at $21.15. The steelmaker and iron ore miner posted better-than-expected results this morning.

Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) is down 7.1% at $3.11. The social games company posted poor results last night and expectations are not encouraging. More coverage here.

Stay tuned for Friday. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

8:30 a.m. – GDP
9:55 a.m. – University of Michigan/Thomson Reuters consumer sentiment index

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, HI/LOW, Market Close Tagged: AAPL, ALU, AMZN, ANGI, BG, BIDU, BKW, BYI, CLWR, CSTR, CVX, FDML, FFIV, FIO, HLS, INTU, MHP, MMM, MO, NOV, OLN, ORLY, POT, PRLB, QCOM, RRC, SBUX, SWY, VALE, VFC, WDC, WYNN, XOM, ZNGA

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell — April 24, 2013: Markets Mixed at Open, Mixed at Close

Paul Ausick — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 20:10:43 +0000

U.S. equity markets opened mixed this morning as investors and traders tried to make sense of more than 150 earnings reports that were released between last night’s closing bell and this morning’s opening. The most attention was paid to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), where results were not altogether pleasing and the stock has zigged and zagged all day today. There was relatively little economic data released today. In Germany, the IFO business climate index fell sharply (more coverage here) and retail sales were weaker than expected in Italy. In Shanghai, bargain hunters pushed the market up 1.6%. In the U.S., the report on durable goods orders was worse than expected and indicates a weak GDP report coming later this week (more coverage here).

The U.S. dollar index is trading down 0.16% today, now at 82.912. The GSCI commodity index is flat at 607.11. WTI crude oil closed up 2.5%, at $91.43 a barrel after today’s report from the EIA on petroleum inventories (more coverage here). Brent crude trades up 1.1% at $101.44 a barrel. Natural gas is down 1.4% today at about $4.18 per million BTUs. Gold settled up 1.1% today at $1,423.70 an ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down about 43 points to 14,676.30 (-0.29%), the NASDAQ rose less than 1 point (0.01%) to 3,269.65, and the S&P 500 was flat at 1,578.79.

There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including EBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) raised to ‘outperform’ at Wells Fargo; Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) raised to ‘buy’ at SocGen; CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) raised to ‘outperform’ with a price target of $54 at Oppenheimer; Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) raised to ‘outperform’ at Credit Suisse; and AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) cut to ‘equal weight’ at Morgan Stanley and ‘neutral’ at Citigroup (more coverage here).

Earnings reports since markets closed last night resulted in some price moves today, including these as of the last half hour of trading: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is up 0.4% at $407.67 (more coverage here); Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) is up 7.1% at $35.33; Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE: EW) is down 22.4% at $64.24 after posting a new 52-week low of $63.50 earlier today; Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) is down 9.7% at $15.67; Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) is up 7.2% at $68.74; Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: ABX) is up 7.5% at $18.90 (more coverage here); Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) is up 6% at $13.91 (more coverage here); Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) is down 0.1% at $13.35 (more coverage here); Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) is down 5.5% at $77.46 (more coverage here); and Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) is up 0.4% at $7.13 (more coverage here).

Before markets open tomorrow morning we are scheduled to hear earnings reports from Angie’s List Inc. (NASDAQ: ANGI), Bally Technologies Inc. (NYSE: BYI), Fusion-io Inc. (NYSE: FIO), O’Reilly Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ: ORLY), Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), Vale SA (NYSE: VALE), Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC), Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA), 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM), Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO), Bunge Ltd. (NYSE: BG), Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), HealthSouth Corp. (NYSE: HLS), Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. (NYSE: POT), Proto Labs Inc. (NASDAQ: PRLB), and Safeway Inc. (NYSE: SWY).

Some standouts among heavily traded stocks today include:

SuperValu Inc. (NYSE: SVU) is up 11% at $5.95. The supermarket chain reported a wider loss this morning, but investors apparently like what the company had to say about the next few quarters.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is down 5.2% at $36.97. The telecom giant is just too big to expect growth. More coverage here.

BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY) is up 4.2% at $14.93. The smartphone maker is adding Skype to its app lineup, and combined with some analysts’ concerns about Apple, that appears to be enough to boost the shares.

Stay tuned for Thursday. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

8:30 a.m. – New claims for unemployment benefits
10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly natural gas storage report
11:00 a.m. – Kansas City Fed manufacturing index
1:00 p.m. – 7-year note auction
4:30 p.m. – Fed balance sheet and money supply

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, HI/LOW, Market Close Tagged: AAPL, ABX, ANGI, BBRY, BG, BHI, BRCM, BYI, CIT, EBAY, EW, F, FIO, GLW, HAL, HLS, JNPR, MMM, MO, ORLY, PG, POT, PRLB, QCOM, S, SVU, SWY, T, VALE, WDC, XOM, YUM, ZNGA

Ten Stocks Falling on Collapse in PC Shipments (HPQ, DELL, MSFT, INTC, AMD, NVDA, MRVL, STX, WDC, EMC)

Paul Ausick — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 15:55:31 +0000

Worldwide shipments of PCs fell 13.9% in the first quarter of 2013, compared with the first quarter of 2012, according to the latest data from International Data Corp. (IDC). That is the worst year-over-year decline since IDC began tracking PC shipments in 1994. Shipments had been expected to drop, but the size of the drop was a surprise.

Among the obvious stocks hurt by the collapse are PC makers Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD). The drop in sales probably hit Microsoft worst of all this morning, after the company’s stock was downgraded to Sell by analysts at Goldman Sachs. There are several other stocks, though, that will be hurt by the fall in PC sales.

Chip stocks that are taking some lumps today include Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA), down about 2%, and Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL), down about 1%. Nvidia’s graphics chip business and Marvell’s disk drive controller shipments are both in jeopardy from falling PC shipments.

Disk drive makers Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ: STX) and Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) are both being hit by the lack of PC shipments. Seagate’s shares are down 3.8% and Western Digital’s shares are down about 3% this morning. Storage systems giant EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) is down less than 1%, but its business depends less on PC sales than on sales of servers and mainframe computers.

HP’s first quarter shipments were down by 23.7% year-over-year in the first quarter, according to IDC, while Dell shipments fell nearly 11%. Among other PC makers, Acer’s shipments fell more than 31%, and Asus shipments dropped nearly 20%. Not a pretty picture.

Microsoft shares have been hit hard, down 5% to $28.78, in a 52-week range of $26.26 to $32.89. An IDC executive noted, “[T]he Windows 8 launch not only failed to provide a positive boost to the PC market, but appears to have slowed the market.” That’s terrible news for the software giant that cannot seem to break into the smartphone and tablet markets and grab any kind of serious market share.

HP’s shares are down about 6%, at $20.96 in a 52-week range of $11.35 to $25.40. The company managed to hold off Lenovo to maintain its position as the world’s largest PC maker, but that is probably cold comfort today.

Dell is down just 0.5%m at $14.14 in a 52-week range of $8.69 to $16.61. Dell’s price is propped up by the outstanding buyout offer from founder Michael Dell and his partners. But the company’s largest business is clearly in serious trouble.

Filed under: PC Companies, Research, Semiconductors, Technology, Technology Companies Tagged: AMD, DELL, EMC, featured, HPQ, INTC, MRVL, MSFT, NVDA, STX, WDC

Analyst Sees Enterprise Flash Changing the World of Storage (UBS, EMC, NTAP, IBM, HPQ, DELL, WDC, STX)

Lee Jackson — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 13:30:10 +0000

The ability for consumers to view the world from the screen of their smartphone or tablet device is quickly changing the technology world. The need for faster access, more processing power and the ability to store it all has been a consistent theme for us. Is it possible that a radical change to the world of storage could be on the horizon? A recent report issued by UBS A.G. (NYSE: UBS) indicates that radical change may be sooner rather than later.

The team at UBS reports that information technology executives tell them that storage technology is undergoing more change now than in the past 10 years cumulatively. In their opinion, increasing use of flash drives is the most important trend for the next few years. The question whether flash is a disruptive or sustaining innovation is critical to assessing whether incumbent vendors can successfully adapt or whether storage upstarts will displace them.

Flash is an important new technology for the enterprise that will reduce, though not eliminate, the need for hard disk storage. NAND flash supply, though not sufficient to replace a high percentage of all hard drives, is enough to have a significant high-end enterprise impact.

So who will be the first to integrate flash to their storage products. The likely candidates are, of course, the industry leaders.

EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), which closed yesterday at $24.30, has a Thomson/First Call price target of $30. Many firms believe the stock is very undervalued as its large ownership percentage of VMware Inc (NYSE: VMW) is not fully appreciated.

NetApp Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is another storage firm likely to incorporate flash to their product line. With industry leading network storage solutions, NetApp closed yesterday at $34.55 and has a Wall St. consensus price target of $40.

UBS also expects that International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) and Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) will incorporate these new technologies in an effort to win back storage share. But UBS is of the opinion that these companies face an uphill battle in this storage war.

There is also the question of who could lose in this proposition? If there is lower demand for hard drives, both Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) and Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ: STX) could lose market share. This could make for an interesting pair trade. Investors buy the stock of EMC or NetApp and sell short an equal amount of shares in one of the disk drive makers.

The bottom line for investors is new technology that expands capacity and capability will always win. Integrating flash to storage is an example of the kind of new technology that can help change the face of an industry.

Filed under: Analyst Calls, Semiconductor, Technology, Technology Companies Tagged: DELL, EMC, HPQ, IBM, NTAP, STX, UBS, WDC

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell — January 24, 2013: Markets Mixed After Apple Earnings (AAPL, PG, EMR, CVS, GOLD, TIF, AMGN, SNDK, FFIV, NE, NVR, WDC, MMM, BMY, LMT, RTN, LUV, UNP, UAL, XRX, T, JNPR, MSFT, SBUX, HAL, HON, KMB, WY, NOK, NFLX, SWFT)

Paul Ausick — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 21:05:41 +0000

U.S. equity markets opened mixed this morning with the DJIA and the S&P 500 higher, and the Nasdaq lower, dragged down by concern over the earnings of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) (more coverage here). Apple’s troubles, though, may be traced more accurately to options trading (more coverage here). In Europe, preliminary PMI readings were better if still not positive (more coverage here). Unemployment levels in Spain reached an all-time high (more coverage here). In Asia Chinese PMI came in higher than expected (more coverage here) and Japan’s trade deficit was wider than expected. In the U.S., new claims for unemployment benefits fell sharply (more coverage here). The S&P 500 briefly topped 1,500 this morning for the first time in more than five years.

The U.S. dollar index rose 0.02% today, now at 79.941. The GSCI commodity index is down 0.3% at 661.98, with commodities prices mixed again today. WTI crude oil closed up 0.8% today, at $95.95 a barrel following a rise in crude stocks (more coverage here). Brent crude trades up 0.5% at $113.28 a barrel. Natural gas is down 2.8% today at about $3.45 per million BTUs after this week’s storage report (more coverage here). Gold settled down 1% today at $1,669.90 an ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up 46 points to 13,825.33 (0.33%), the NASDAQ fell more than 23 points (-0.74%) to 3,130.38, and the S&P 500 was flat at 1,494.82.

There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) started as ‘neutral’ at Credit Suisse; Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE: EMR) raised to ‘buy’ at Deutsche Bank; CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS) removed from U.S. Focus List at Goldman Sachs; Randgold Resources Ltd. (NASDAQ: GOLD) raised to ‘buy’ at BofA/ML; and Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) cut to ‘hold’ at Canaccord Genuity.

Earnings reports since markets closed last Friday resulted in several price moves today, including these: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is down 12% at $452.53 (more coverage here); Amgen Corp. (NASDAQ: AMGN) is down 0.5% at $82.63; SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) is up 3.2% at $49.19 (more coverage here); F5 Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) is up 4.9% at $103.60; Noble Corp. (NYSE: NE) is down 5.4% at $37.70; NVR Inc. (NYSE: NVR) is up 2% at $1,001.58 after posting a new 52-week high of $1,023.99 earlier today; Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) is up 2.2% at $48.08 after posting a new 52-week high of $49.42 earlier today; 3M Corp. (NYSE: MMM) is up 0.2% at $99.68 after posting a new 52-week high of $99.80 earlier today (more coverage here); Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY) is up 2.6% at $35.82; Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) is down 2.6% at $93.56; Raytheon Inc. (NYSE: RTN) is down 3% at $56.49; Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) is up 0.9% at $11.46 after posting a new 52-week high of $11.62 earlier today (more coverage here); Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) is down 0.7% at $134.35; United Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE: UAL) is up 1.3% at $25.33 after posting a new 52-week high of 26.36 earlier today; and Xerox Corp. (NYSE: XRX) is up 2.6% at $7.78.

After markets close today and before they open tomorrow morning we are scheduled to hear from AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), Juniper Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX), Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL), Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON), Kimberly-Clark Corp. (NYSE: KMB), and Weyerhaeuser Corp. (NYSE: WY).

Some standouts from today include the following stocks:

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) is down 8.7% today at $4.24. The mobile handset maker posted earnings that were better than expected, but the outlook is weak. More coverage here.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is up 42.5% at $147.16 after posting a new 52-week high of $149.17 earlier today. The video distribution firm posted much better earnings than expected and grew subscriber numbers significantly. More coverage here.

Swift Transportation Co. (NYSE: SWFT) is up 28.7% at $13.16 after posting a new 52-week high of $13.24 earlier today. The trucking company posted strong earnings last night.

Stay tuned for Friday. We have noted the following event on the schedule (all times Eastern):

10:00 a.m. – New home sales

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, HI/LOW, Market Close Tagged: AAPL, AMGN, BMY, CVS, EMR, FFIV, gold, HAL, HON, JNPR, KMB, LMT, LUV, MMM, MSFT, NE, NFLX, NOK, NVR, PG, RTN, SBUX, SNDK, SWFT, T, TIF, UAL, UNP, WDC, WY, XRX

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell — January 23, 2013: Market Open Higher on Little News (COST, GE, VZ, F, INCY, AMD, CSX, GOOG, IBM, IGT, TXN, ABT, BHI, COH, GD, MCD, LCC, AAPL, AMGN, NFLX, SNDK, FFIV, NE, NVR, WDC, MMM, BMY, LMT, RYN, LUV, UNP, UAL, XRX, MAPP, AGN, NMRX, MCP)

Paul Ausick — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:05:02 +0000

U.S. equity markets opened higher this morning following a string of solid earnings reports yesterday and after markets closed last night. As we note below, earnings results were more mixed today, but shares held on to their opening gains throughout the day. In Asia, some investors are disappointed in Japan’s easy money decision and the only data point of note came from Australia, where the consumer price index rose just 0.2% quarter-over-quarter. In Europe, British Prime Minister David Cameron has promised a referendum on the country’s European Union membership by 2017 (provided he’s still in office). In the U.S., the U.S. House of Representatives pushed a decision on the debt ceiling out until May, but two other critical deadlines face the Congress in March (more coverage here).

The U.S. dollar index rose 0.08% today, now at 79.939. The GSCI commodity index is up 0.5% at 664.07, with commodities prices mixed today. WTI crude oil closed down 1.5% today, at $95.23 a barrel. Brent crude trades up 0.4% at $110.61 a barrel. Natural gas is flat today at about $3.56 per million BTUs. Gold settled down 0.4% today at $1,686.70 an ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up nearly 67 points to 13,779.10 (0.49%), the NASDAQ rose nearly 11 points (0.33%) to 3,153.67, and the S&P 500 rose 0.15% or about 2 points to 1,494.78.

There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) raised to ‘market perform’ at Bernstein; General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) reiterated as ‘buy’ with a price target of $25 at Argus; Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) raised to ‘buy’ with a price target of $50 at Canaccord Genuity; Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) cut to ‘hold’ and price target raised to $15 at Deutsche Bank; and Incyte Corp. (NASDAQ: INCY) cut to ‘underweight’ at Morgan Stanley.

Earnings reports since markets closed last Friday resulted in several price moves today, including these: Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) is up 11.4% at $2.73 (more coverage here); CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) is up 4.2% at $21.68 (more coverage here); Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is up 5.9% at $744.27 (more coverage here); International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) is up 4.8% at $205.57 (more coverage here); International Game Technology Inc. (NYSE: IGT) is down 1.8% at $14.94; Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) is down 0.9% at $33.15; Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) is down 0.3% at $32.80; Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) is up 0.9% at $45.23 (more coverage here); Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) is down 16.3% at $50.80 (more coverage here); General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD) is up 0.8% at $71.28; McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) is up 0.5% at $93.44 (more coverage here); and U.S. Airways Group Inc. (NYSE: LCC) is up 1.7% at $15.10 after posting a new 52-week high of $15.64 earlier today (more coverage here).

After markets close today and before they open tomorrow morning we are scheduled to hear from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Amgen Corp. (NASDAQ: AMGN), Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK), F5 Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), Noble Corp. (NYSE: NE), NVR Inc. (NYSE: NVR), Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC), 3M Corp. (NYSE: MMM), Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY), Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT), Raytheon Inc. (NYSE: RYN), Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV), Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP), United Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE: UAL), and Xerox Corp. (NYSE: XRX).

Some standouts from today include the following stocks:

MAP Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: MAPP) is up 58.7% today at $24.73 after posting a new 52-week high of $24.77 earlier. The developmental drug maker is being acquired by Allergan Inc. (NYSE: AGN) for about $958 million, or $25 a share.

Numerex Corp. (NASDAQ: NMRX) is down 14.3% at $11.67. The machine-to-machine technology firm priced a secondary offering at a 17% discount to last night’s closing price.

Molycorp Inc. (NYSE: MCP) is down 11.4% at $7.82. The rare earths miner issued an earnings warning this morning and proposed to raise a total of $300 million by selling stock and issuing debt. More coverage here.

Stay tuned for Thursday. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

8:30 a.m. – New claims for unemployment benefits
8:58 a.m. – Flash PMI manufacturing index
10:00 a.m. – Leading indicators
10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly natural gas storage report
11:00 a.m. – EIA weekly petroleum status report
11:00 a.m. – Kansas City Fed manufacturing index
1:00 p.m. – 10-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) auction
4:30 p.m. – Fed balance sheet and money supply

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, HI/LOW, Market Close Tagged: AAPL, ABT, AGN, AMD, AMGN, BHI, BMY, COH, COST, CSX, F, FFIV, GD, GE, GOOG, IBM, IGT, INCY, LCC, LMT, LUV, MAPP, MCD, MCP, MMM, NE, NFLX, NMRX, NVR, RYN, SNDK, TXN, UAL, UNP, VZ, WDC, XRX

If Dell Is Buyout Bait… 7 Other Big Old-School Tech Stocks Under 10-Times Earnings

Jon C. Ogg — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 20:06:11 +0000

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) has seen its shares rise handily on Monday on news (rumors really) that the company might be in talks with private equity firms in a possible go-private transaction. All we can say other than that we have heard this before is that if Dell can snag a private equity buyout, you can count on Wall Street to come out with the WHO GETS BOUGHT NEXT questionnaires. With Dell trading at under 8-times projected earnings and a $19 billion market cap even after the big pop today, there are a few others to consider. Logic needs to be considered because the size alone on most of these companies would make such deals ver difficult. That being said, investors looking for cause and effect trades rarely let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Here are several other great tech stocks trading at less than 10-times earnings. We have added color and size on each.

Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ: STX) is worth about $12.5 billion and trades at about 6.5-times projected earnings. Rival Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) is worth almost $11 billion and trades at just under 6-times this year’s expected earnings. Both stocks have recovered to be within a couple percent of their respective 52-week highs. Both Seagate and Western Digital now trade above their consensus analyst price targets.

Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) is yet another discounted value technology stock. At $12.51, its stock is worth about $18.5 billion and trades at about 10-times current earnings and it trades at about 9.4-times this year’s expected earnings. The consensus target price is $14.52 for this stock on its own.

Don’t forget about the down and out Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ). This seems ridiculous on the surface as a buyout with a $33 billion market value considering that this has lost half its value from the peak of 2012 and this was a $50 stock in 2010 before the woes began. HP trades over the consensus price targets and it was featured in our own most overvalued DJIA stocks for 2013. Despite the size, it trades at just over 5-times its expected earnings. If a $20+ billion Dell deal is hard to fathom in dollar terms, imagine a $30 billion to $40 billion deal being put together. AND, don’t hold your breath!

Is Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) even a technology stock any longer? It depends upon whom you ask. Xerox trades under $7.50 and is worth $9.4 billion in market cap. Keep in mind that it just lost its CFO who left to join Apple. Xerox trades at about 7-times this year’s earnings estimates. We would note that the consensus price target here is only $7.50 by analysts.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is too big to buy for anyone. With a market value of $227 billion after shares were stuck in the mud forever, even if Bill Gates and Warren Buffett somehow decided that they wanted to take the software giant private i would be virtually impossible due to the raw dollar size. This trades at 9.4-times this year’s expected earnings and 8.5-times next year’s expected earnings. At least there is some $60 billion or $70 billion in cash and liquid assets that could be deducted rom the purchase price but this would be a buyout of only fantasy. Processing giant Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) is worth barely over 10-times forward earnings now that its shares have recovered enough in the last two or three weeks. Microsoft was recently featured in our cheapest DJIA stocks as the DJIA is headed for 14,590 this year.

Will ANY of these secondary deals occur if Dell is acquired? It would seem unlikely, but anything has to be considered as at least possible. We don’t think these are acquirable companies as they stand today nor as they stand tomorrow due to the size of the raw dollars involved. That being said, stay tuned.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Consumer Electronics, Corporate Governance, Cult Stock, Mergers & Acquisitions, Mergers and Buy Outs, Private Equity, Rumors, Semiconductor, Technology, Technology Companies, Telecom & Wireless Tagged: DELL, featured, GLW, HPQ, INTC, MSFT, STX, WDC, XRX

What To Do When Terabytes Of Storage Get Too Cheap?

Jon C. Ogg — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 17:53:47 +0000

The holiday deals out here for external storage almost seem too good to be true, particularly if you have purchased storage devices for a decade or more. We have commented on this trend throughout the years, but the plummeting cost of external storage is just on an amazing trajectory toward zero. This puts the near-duopoly of Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ: STX) and Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) on a path that you just have to wonder how they can keep cranking out more and more storage devices at cheaper and cheaper costs and keep making so much money.

Amazon.com has sent out its pre-Black Friday holiday specials showing the Seagate Backup Plus 3 TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive is available for $139.99 rather than the $179.99 normal price. It used to be impressive when just 1 TB of storage was breaking the $100 mark. Now 1TB is being offered (new, not used) for only $83.99 for the Seagate Backup Plus 1 TB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive. Best Buy has a 1TB drive for only $79.99, a 1.5TB drive for $89.99, and even a 2TB drive for $99.99.

It was amazing when you could buy even 1TB of external drive storage at under $100, but now you can buy 2 TB of external storage with a $100 bill. If this keeps up you will get 3TB for $100 by this time next year. The cost of 1TB storage was many times this amount just a few years ago.

Western Digital is worth $8.5 billion now, but it trades at only 4.6-times this year’s expected earnings. Seagate is worth about $10.25 billion but it trades at 5.1-times this year’s expected earnings. Both companies have made major acquisitions in the last year.

What can the storage and drive makers do to maintain margins and to keep driving sales? Filling up more than 1 TB requires storing movies permanently, but now tech buyers can buy 3TB for what is getting closer and closer to that $100 mark. This sector will be interesting to watch in the next two years because Thomson Reuters is expecting that revenues are at he peak already in their current fiscal years ending next June. Both companies are expected to have declining sales in the following year.

Seagate’s $27.15 price compares to a 52-week range of $15.00 to $35.71 and Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target of $33.97. Western Digital’s share price of $35 compares to a 52-week range of $24.96 to $45.94 and Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target of $40.44. Both of these stocks show up in just about any deep value screen that can be run by investors. Now you know why. Investors generally call situations like this a value trap.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Consumer Electronics, Semiconductor, Technology, Technology Companies Tagged: STX, WDC

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell — October 23, 2012: Markets Follow Earnings Lower (BTU, BHI, P, YHOO, MNST, CE, WDC, TXN, MMM, ARMH, AKS, COH, HOG, RSH, UPS, UTX, XRX, AMGN, BRCM, FB, JNPR, NFLX, T, BA, GLW, DAL, LLY, EMC, GD, LCC, DD, BSDM)

Paul Ausick — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 20:03:52 +0000

The three major U.S. stock indexes opened lower this morning and remained in negative territory all day. The decline is down to weak earnings from many U.S. firms reporting results today. In Europe, Moody’s downgraded five of Spain’s regions and the Spanish government that third quarter GDP would shrink by 0.4%. In Asia, Citigroup lowered its estimate for Chinese GDP growth from 7.9% to 7.7%. All in all, not a good day for equities, which were down about 1.5%, although tech stocks performed better than other sectors.

The U.S. dollar index rose today, now up 0.42% at 79.984. The GSCI commodity index is down about 1.2% at 648.50, with commodities prices mostly lower today on the strong dollar. WTI crude oil closed down 2.2% today, at $86.67 a barrel, crude’s lowest closing price in more than three months (more coverage here). Brent crude trades down 0.74% at $109.33 a barrel. Natural gas is up 2.4% today at about $3.54 per thousand cubic feet. Gold closed at $1,709.40 an ounce, down 1% for the day, and the lowest close in about six weeks.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down nearly 243 points to 13,102.91 (-1.82%), the NASDAQ fell more than 26 points (-0.88%) to 2,990.46, and the S&P 500 fell -1.44% or nearly 21 points to 1,413.13.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU) cut to ‘neutral’ at Goldman Sachs; Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) cut to ‘hold’ at SocGen; Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P) started as ‘overweight’ at JPMorgan; Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) raised to ‘positive’ at Susquehanna; and Monster Beverage Co. (NASDAQ: MNST) maintained as ‘buy’ but removed from ‘Conviction Buy List’ at Goldman Sachs.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night resulted in some price moves today, including these as of the last half hour of trading: Celanese Corp. (NYSE: CE) is up 2% at $38.19; Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC) is down 2.2% at $34.50 (more coverage here); Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) is down fractionally at $27.78 (more coverage here); Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is up 6.2% at $16.75 (more coverage here); 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) is down 4% at $88.80 (more coverage here); AK Steel Holding Corp. (NYSE: AKS) is down 6.2% at $5.17 (more coverage here); ARM Holdings plc (NASDAQ: ARMH) is up 10.7% at $31.13 after posting a new 52-week high of $31.89 earlier today; Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) is up 7.2% at $58.06; Harley-Davidson Inc. (NYSE: HOG) is up 8% at $47.03; RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH) is up 5% at $2.51 (more coverage here); United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS) is up 3.1% at $73.76 (more coverage here); United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) is down 0.8% at $77.19; and Xerox Corp. (NYSE: XRX) is down 5.3% at $6.66 (more coverage here).

Before markets open tomorrow we are scheduled to hear from Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN), Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM), Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR), Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA), Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW), Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL), Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE: LLY), EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD), and US Airways Group Inc. (NYSE: LCC).

Some standouts from today include the following stocks:

E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (NYSE: DD) is down 9.6% at $45.00. The chemicals maker lowered its outlook and announced 1,500 job cuts today. More coverage here.

BSD Medical Corp. (NASDAQ: BSDM) is up 18.3% at $2.00. The medical equipment maker reported good results from a study on its treatment for rectal cancer. More coverage here.

Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST) is down 9.5% at $41.41 after posting a new 52-week low of $40.06 earlier today. The drinks maker is staggering following word that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating reports of deaths after people consume the company’s energy drinks.

Stay tuned for Wednesday. The FOMC meeting continues today. We have noted the following event on the schedule (all times Eastern):

7:00 a.m. – Mortgage Bankers Association purchase applications
8:58 a.m. – Flash PMI manufacturing index
10:00 a.m. – New home sales
10:00 a.m. – FHFA house price index
10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly petroleum status report
1:00 p.m. – 5-year Treasury note auction
2:15 p.m. – FOMC meeting announcement

Paul Ausick

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, HI/LOW, Market Close Tagged: AKS, AMGN, ARMH, BA, BHI, BRCM, BSDM, BTU, CE, COH, DAL, DD, EMC, FB, GD, GLW, HOG, JNPR, LCC, LLY, MMM, MNST, NFLX, P, RSH, T, TXN, UPS, UTX, WDC, XRX, YHOO

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AMCX, AMGN, BHI, CPST, CHKP, DUK, EIX, MNST, NTAP, OSG, P, PHI, BTU, WDC, YHOO, BKCC, FSC, QLYS, MCC, PNNT)

Jon C. Ogg — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 12:50:42 +0000

These are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen in Wall St. research notes this Tuesday.

AMC Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: AMCX) cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.

Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) cut to Hold at Soc-Gen.

Capstone Turbine Corp. (NASDAQ: CPST) started as Neutral at Roth Capital.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP) raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.

Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) started as Overweight at JPMorgan.

Edison International (NYSE: EIX) cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Monster Beverage Co. (NASDAQ: MNST) maintained Buy but removed from Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.

NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) cut to Neutral at Baird.

Overseas Shipholding Group Inc. (NYSE: OSG) cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.

Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P) started as Overweight at JPMorgan.

Parker Hannifin Corp. (NYSE: PHI) cut to Hold at Argus.

Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU) cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) cut to Underperform at CLSA.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) raised to Positive at Susquehanna.

Credit Suisse: BlackRock Kelso Capital Corp. (NASDAQ: BKCC), Fifth Street Finance Corp. (NASDAQ: FSC), Qualys Inc. (NASDAQ: QLYS) and Medley Capital Corp. (NYSE: MCC) all started as Neutral. PennantPark Investment Corp. (NASDAQ: PNNT) started as Outperform.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Analyst Calls Tagged: AMCX, AMGN, BHI, BKCC, BTU, CHKP, CPST, DUK, EIX, FSC, MCC, MNST, NTAP, OSG, P, PHI, PNNT, QLYS, WDC, YHOO