Technology

Despite Volatility, SunTrust Positive on Top Internet and Digital Media Stocks

Amazon

This absolute leader in online retail and a dominant player in cloud storage and computing business absolutely blew out second-quarter results. Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) serves consumers through retail websites that primarily include merchandise and content purchased for resale from vendors and those offered by third-party sellers.

The company serves developers and enterprises through Amazon Web Services, which provides computing, storage, database, analytics, applications and deployment services that enable virtually various businesses. AWS is also the undisputed leader in the cloud now, and many top analysts see the company expanding and moving up the enterprise information value chain and targeting a larger total addressable market.

Amazon’s AWS is expected to be the big winner in the U.S. Department of Defense’s new $10 billion JEDI cloud project. Based on conversations with customers and partners serving various U.S. government agencies, many on Wall Street feel that AWS is best-positioned to win the lion’s share of the contract, given its leadership position in the federal government vertical and the apparent success of its big CIA cloud contract.

Note that the $2,000 SunTrust price target is less than the analysts’ consensus estimate of $2,083.24. The shares closed trading at $1,777.44 apiece on Tuesday.

Expedia

This online travel leader is poised for a potentially big second half of 2018. Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) is the leading internet travel pure-play with exposure to online travel in the United States, Europe and Asia. The company’s portfolio of brands includes Expedia, Orbitz, HomeAway, Travelocity, Hotels.com, Trivago, Egencia, Hotwire, Wotif, Venere and Classic Vacations.

Top analysts see it as a story of improving execution, and they also think that the company is starting to finally match Priceline’s growth metrics. The company has raised the dividend and is buying back stock, and both are shareholder friendly actions. In addition, Expedia posted huge second-quarter results that blew past Wall Street expectations.

Expedia investors are paid a 0.9% dividend. The massive $180 SunTrust target price compares with the $150.83 consensus price target and the most recent close at $133.84 per share.

Facebook

The huge social media leader has been incredibly volatile since posting absolutely horrible results. Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) is the largest social network with over 2.0 billion monthly active users and over 1.4 billion daily active users. The company generates revenue from advertising and from payments, with over 95% of revenue from advertising. It generates close to 50% of revenues in the United States and Canada and is expanding rapidly in international markets.

Its solutions also include Instagram, a mobile application that enables people to take photos or videos, customize them with filter effects, and share them with friends and followers in a photo feed or send them directly to friends; Messenger, a messaging application for mobile and web on various platforms and devices, which enable people to reach others instantly, as well as enable businesses to engage with customers; and WhatsApp Messenger, a mobile messaging application.

Despite the terrible earnings results and metrics, which caused the shares to sell off a stunning 20%, a remarkable 60% of small businesses use Facebook’s advertising platform to expand their reach. The ability to grow that number is a huge forward positive for the beleaguered social media giant.

SunTrust has set its price target at $200. The consensus target was last seen at $212.30, and the shares closed trading on Tuesday at $172.58.

Despite the recent volatility, especially associated with Facebook, social media and the popularity of the internet aren’t going anywhere, and while recent issues like privacy need to be addressed and resolved, you can bet that investors will continue to buy the sector’s large cap leaders.

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