By Randy Lacen:
The PC is now obsolete. One of IBM’s (IBM) primary designers says he chucked his PC in favor of a tablet because he believes that “the PC is going the way of the vacuum tube, typewriter, vinyl records, CRT and incandescent light bulbs.” The feeling is mutual, at Facebook (FB).
The tablet PC, in recent memory, has made a profound influence on the tech space noting that many PC owners right now are considering owning an iPad over the traditional desktop model, which is placing tremendous pressure on Microsoft (MSFT) as it preps Windows 8 and Windows on ARM for release on its future tablet sales. Facebook is now seeking to enter the mobile advertising space and capitalize on the tremendous opportunity that lies ahead for the favored social network company.
Facebook does not need to build a $3 billion mobile ad business overnight and Facebook is not losing money
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By Bret Jensen:
SeaChange International’s (SEAC) stock price has done little since I last wrote about it in March, although it has outperformed the overall stock market. Recent events and announcements should soon power some stock price appreciation for this undervalued name.
Here’s a look at some recent positive news on SeaChange:
- It sold its OnDemand group to Avail-TVN for $27 million in cash. This furthers it aims to become a pure play software firm.
- Insiders purchased more than $1 million in new shares in April.
- Earnings estimates for FY2013 have gone up substantially in the last 30 days.
- It was upgraded to Market Outperform by Avondale at the end of March.
According to the business description on Yahoo Finance, SeaChange “provides multiscreen video products and services that facilitate the aggregation, licensing, management, and distribution of video, television programming, and advertising content to cable system operators, telecommunications companies, broadcast television companies, and mobile
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By Investment Underground:
By Doug Ehrman
Medtronic Inc. (MDT) is scheduled to release earnings on May 22, 2012, and ahead of that announcement, the company is looking strong. Given the relative position of the company amongst its peers, there are viable alternatives for every level of risk tolerance, regardless of whether one is reading this before or after earnings have been released – although maximum flexibility is available when one makes a plan early in the process. Medtronic has a strong history and stacks up well against its peers; it should be considered as a core portfolio holding.
Earnings Expectations And History
The average of analyst estimates for Medtronic is 98 cents per share. This would represent an increase of 8.9% relative to the same quarter a year earlier. This projection contains a rise in profits to $3.45, representing an increase of 2.4%. It also includes an expected decline of 1.6% in revenues,
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By Parsimony Investment Research:
While timing isn’t everything, patiently waiting for a low risk entry point in a stock will certainly put the odds of investment success in your favor.
Apple (AAPL) bulls will argue until they are blue in the face about how cheap Apple shares are on a fundamental basis and how the stock will be headed to $1,000 very soon. They certainly don’t want to miss the train when it leaves the station and a day like today (where Apple shares are up 5%) has Apple bulls shouting “all aboard.”
As we highlighted in an article last week titled “Apple Is Almost In The Buy Zone,” Apple’s current correction is likely not fully completed and we think that investors should be cautious about jumping back on the train so fast.
Our “Buy Zone” remains in the $450-$515 range based on our fundamental and technical support levels (see link above for details).
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The much-hyped super-large Facebook (FB) IPO probably gave the company the largest market cap ever for an initial public offering. However, the IPO failed to take off on the first day. There are many theories regarding this lackluster performance, including blaming the poor price performance on Nasdaq’s inability to fulfill orders. On the other hand, there is also talk about the underwriting banks propping up the IPO to the offering price of $38.
The one thing that is missed in most analysis is this: How much money can you make by investing in Facebook? In my opinion, you can hope to triple your money in five years. However, I’d say that the stock is quite likely to stay at it’s current price for some time, until the company proves its ability to grow earnings. But I may be wrong (see Amazon (AMZN)).
Let’s look at Facebook from the standpoint of
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By Bret Jensen:
Riverbed Technology (RVBD) announced today that is was doubling its stock buyback authorization to $300 million. The stock moved up some 8% in Monday’s trading. Although the one-day move might be overdone, this beaten-down technology could have further appreciation ahead of it. Tech investors should consider it for investment on the next “dip.”
According to the business description on Yahoo Finance, Riverbed Technology “provides solutions to the fundamental problems associated with information technology performance across wide area networks (WANs) in the United States and internationally.”
Here are seven reasons why Riverbed Technology is undervalued at just over $16 a share:
- The company has almost $500 million of net cash on its books, which represents more than $3 a share.
- It has a five-year projected PEG of under 1 (.74).
- Analysts expect robust revenue growth in the mid-teens for both FY2012 and FY2013.
- The company more than doubled operating cash flow
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By Steven Bauer:
Starbucks (SBUX) is an excellent company that you should be pleased to own. It has good fundamentals, but recently the price has begun to pull back. The valuations appear to be on the decline as are the technicals.
SBUX continues to beat earnings estimates. This time it was an increase over last years second quarter by 18%. Revenue and margins also increased year over year by 15% to over $3.2 billion. Strong business in Asia outpaced Europe with world wide openings of 176 new stores. Starbucks plans to open over 1,000 new stores in the coming year.
The partnership with Green Mountain Roasters (GMCR) is moving along nicely. New coffee machines will be on the market in the near future.
Current Valuation for Starbucks
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Current Price:
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$51.50
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Comments: These are not strong Valuations and Target Price Projections. The Valuation Divergence is negative. When I do further fundamental studies, the results
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By Spencer Osborne:
With Sirius XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ:SIRI) holding its shareholder meeting on May 22, it is no surprise that preliminary auto sales figures for May are not the focus of investor attention. With the stock sitting below $2.00 per share most that are invested in this company are worried about far more than how many cars will be produced and sold in May. However, savvy investors comprehend that while the shareholder meeting this year is of great importance, it is perhaps more important to keep a watchful eye on the channel that delivers subscribers to the satellite radio provider.
The good news is that auto sales this May, when compared with last May, will look very impressive. Last year we saw the impacts of the tsunami in Japan that carried lasting effects. In fact, the effects of that disaster are still being felt today thanks to year-over-year comparisons.
The bottom line
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By Justin Weinstein:
Over the past week, both Home Depot (HD) and Lowe’s (LOW) have reported first quarter earnings. Though both companies missed analysts’ estimates, HD still pulls ahead as being a stronger buy into the second half of 2012. Sales have been an issue for both home improvement retailers, which can largely be attributed to the warmer than expected winter months. Over the past year, HD has outpaced LOW in terms of pricing and has been better able to anticipate what consumers’ needs are. The following is a recap of both HD and LOW first-quarter 2012 results:
Same Store Sales:
- HD: 6.1% (domestically)
- LOW: +2.6%
Earnings (% change):
FY Outlook:
- HD: Raising sales estimates to 4.6% from 4%.
- LOW: Expects sales to increase between 1% and 3%.
These quarterly results indicate that HD is handling the difficult housing market better than its largest competitor LOW. For this reason,
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By Dividend Monk:
The Coca-Cola Company (KO) is the largest beverage company in the world, and among the most well-known of dividend stocks.
- Seven Year Revenue Growth Rate: 11.3%
– Seven Year EPS Growth Rate: 9.1%
– Seven Year Dividend Growth Rate: 9.4%
– Current Dividend Yield: 2.75%
– Balance Sheet: Fairly Strong
Currently, I view Coca Cola as being on the high side of fairly valued. The current valuation may be expected to provide 8+% returns over a long term, which after taking into account Coca Cola’s resiliency and dependability, looks acceptable in today’s market.
Overview
The Coca-Cola Company, with one of the strongest brands in the world, is the largest non-alcoholic beverage company around. Established in 1886, Coca Cola has been growing sales for over a century now and has a presence in over 200 countries with more than 500 total brands, ranging from carbonated beverages to juices to teas
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By Sammy Pollack:
To say that the Facebook (FB) IPO has been a disaster would be an understatement. FB is now trading significantly below the IPO price of $38.
In addition to the bad stock performance, the IPO has also been characterized by major technical probelms. Conformation reports, usually available shortly after a trade is placed, were delayed hours. Institutional investors who had put in large orders did not know whether they had been filled or not, and at what price.
The blame for the technical problems should be attributed to Nasdaq (NDAQ) as it was the exchange Facebook decided to list on. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Nasdaq CEO Bob Greifeld said, “this was not our finest hour” and that the exchange is “humbly embarrassed.” This embarrassment is sure
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By Jin She:
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) shares plunged to ~$16 recently from its 52-week high of ~$21 in April due to the negative outlook. My DCF valuation model shows that the current stock price has likely factored in very pessimistic future profitability and growth prospects which I believe are extremely unrealistic given the firm’s fundamentals.
Street analysts have modest estimates for both revenue and EPS growth in the current and next fiscal years. EBITDA margin is expected to be sustained and slightly improved. The data is summarized below:
(click to enlarge)
Now let’s turn to the DCF analysis. My model has 10 discrete projected periods plus a terminal year. I began with a baseline case which incorporates consensus assumptions into the model. Those assumptions yield a stock value of ~$25, which is ~52% above the current price. Details are summarized below:
(click to enlarge)
To stress test the stock price and assess
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By Dividend Kings:
Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) reported last week relatively solid third-quarter results. The company reported third-quarter per share earnings of $0.48, an increase of 21% over the same period last year. This is a penny ahead of Wall Street estimates. Despite these good results, investors were cautious on the company’s outlook after its CEO John Chambers said that the uncertainties surrounding Europe will have an impact on the company’s performance moving forward.
Research firm Gartner has recently published that it has downgraded its global IT spending to 2.5% from previous estimates of 3.7%. With the U.S. and European economies still on shaky grounds, IT spending of government and companies will remain weak. CEO Chambers confirmed this with fourth-quarter estimated earnings per share of 44 to 46 cents, lower than consensus estimates of 49 cents. He also acknowledged that it is hard to speculate what would happen in the next 6 months for the
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By Devon Shire:
On May 3, 2012 I wrote an article for Seeking Alpha titled “A Look at Chesapeake Energy’s Board of Director Compensation.” As you may have already guessed, I was not arguing that the Chesapeake (CHK) Board was underpaid. My conclusion was basically this: On an hourly basis, that would suggest each board member is getting paid $500,000 / 24 hours = $20,833 per hour. And I thought I was overpaid.
As a shareholder, I’m paying $20,833 per hour to board members who, in my opinion, have helped create the current massive undervaluation in Chesapeake’s stock price today by not putting shareholder interests before the interests of the CEO of the company.
Late last week Chesapeake came out with a press release. That press release revealed the following compensation reduction for its Board of Directors:
OKLAHOMA CITY–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May. 18, 2012– The Board of Directors of Chesapeake Energy Corporation today announced that
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By Caiman Valores:
Since my last Ecopetrol (EC) update there have been news stories publicizing an extraordinary event; Colombia’s Ecopetrol surpassed Brazil’s Petrobras (PBR) by market cap on Tuesday 15th May 2012, to become the largest company in South America. At the time of writing this article, Petrobras had resumed its dominant position with a market cap of $128 billion compared to Ecopetrol’s $120 billion. In addition, since that update Ecopetrol’s share price has fallen by 10%, with the company now trading at around $58. However, the company has still risen by 31% from the start of 2012, compared to Petrobras which has plunged by 23% during the same period to be trading at around $20. I have been bullish on Ecopetrol for some time and I still believe that it is a solid investment opportunity for investors seeking exposure to Latin America’s oil boom. The question for investors is whether Ecopetrol still
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Investing, Long Term Investment, stock market | admin May 21, 2012 | 
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