Most Overvalued & Undervalued Tech Stocks Foreign revenues and other factors that once offered safety are now threats, and investors are doubting the growth prospects of Internet giants. See if Amazon, Cisco, Dell, eBay, EMC, Google, HP, Microsoft, Intel, Yahoo are undervalued, fairly valued or overvalued. What's Hurting Tech Stocks Overvalued or Undervalued? - BusinessWeek
Best Places to Live 2008 Topnotch schools, good jobs, affordable housing, low crime, an active outdoor culture help Plymouth, Minnesota to replace Middleton, Wisconsin on top of Money Magazine's annual list of the Best Places to Live in America. Other places in the top 10 include Ft. Collins, Colorado, Naperville, Illinois, Irvine, California, Franklin Township, NJ, Norman, Oklahoma, Round Rock, Texas, Columbia/Ellicott City, Maryland, Overland Park, Kansas and Fishers, Indiana. Best places to live 2008 - from MONEY Magazine Also: Texas is Home to Most Cities on Best Places List
EMC Corp.'s (NYSE: EMC) once-high flying VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) finally found the wherewithal to replace its CEO, Diane Greene. The company replaced her yesterday with former Microsoft executive Paul Maritz. Microsoft is shaping up to be VMware's main competitor as computing environments in many business circles would like to jump on the virtualized bandwagon instead of dedicated hardware platforms for specific purposes.
Although VMWare was a hot IPO back in August of last year -- touching the $125 mark in October -- the stock started a downward slump right before Christmas and has been on a see-saw ever since. VMW shares are sitting less than four points from all-time lows this morning after a 25% drop Wednesday. In fact, this month has seen a 39% share price slump on the back of an overall 52% drop in 2008. Those numbers are sure to get any CEO in hot water. Although Greene reportedly constantly clashed with EMC management (EMC owns a large majority of VMware), the final axe swing surely came on the back of the share price depression currently underway. EMC management, in other words, bowed to the needs of the market in canning Greene.
Greene has been referenced as inadequate to lead a company into the world of a $2 billion annual business (its projection for 2008). I don't buy it -- she has a Master's Degree in Computer Science from UCal Berkeley along with another advanced degree. At heart, she's a brilliant computer nerd. As the head of a leading software virtualization company, her credentials and investment in VMware sound like a perfect fit. At the end of the day, though, financial performance in the eyes of a public share price is the driving force in executive retainer decisions. Greene helped co-found VMware and is heavily invested in it, but the market is not investing in her any longer. Let's hope Maritz can do a better job.
Nearly two years after Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) bought YouTube for over $1.6 billion, it seems that it is not the cash cow Google had hoped it could become. Getting ad revenue from YouTube, The Wall Street Journal says, is not an easy task. Despite the site's popularity with surfers, it isn't popular with big corporate advertisers. World-wide revenue from YouTube ads is likely to total about $200 million for the full year, less than Google's expectation. Google has been trying to show it is not a one-trick pony, YouTube was critical in that.
According to The New York Post, "A blind trust run by Mayor Bloomberg is willing to pay between $4.5 billion and $5 billion to buy Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER)'s 20 percent stake in Bloomberg LP."
If you missed it Tuesday, VMware (NYSE: VMW) sank over 24%, taking EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) shares down 11% with it. The drop is attributed to two main issues, "VMware's warning that revenue for the current year will fall short of expectations," and doubt "EMC would spin out the remainder of VMware's shares." But this morning, after the abrupt replacement of co-founder and CEO Diane Greene by former Microsoft Corp. official Paul Maritz, Wall Street still doesn't seem to be fully satisfied.
Oil was down another $5.00 per barrel today, yet that failed to cause a major rally despite a $9.00 in just two days. Today's end of day rally was led by financials after an FDIC conference which led to excitement about the sector. If you were looking for any brightness in home sales, May's pending home sales came in at -4.7% year over year. We also saw wholesale inventories in May rise by +0.8%. Perhaps more interesting is that the MAY Consumer Credit rose more than expected to $7.8 Billion. Below are the unofficial closing bell levels for today: DJIA 11,384.21 (+152.25) S&P500 1,273.68 (+21.37) NASDAQ 2,294.42 (+51.10) 10YR T-Note 3.88% (-0.05%) 52-WEEK LOWS TOP 10 ANALYST CALLS
Hank Paulson's speech gave some support after his speech didn't ring of the "Death of GSE's" and shares of Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) were up over 10% at $17.40 in today's final minutes.
ThinkPanmure reiterated its "buy" rating on Taleo (NASDAQ:TLEO) ahead of the company's analyst meeting, according to the AP.
Goldman Sachs upgraded International Paper (NYSE:IP) from "buy" to "neutral", according toBriefing.com. The news service also writes that Morgan Stanley raised its price target on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) from $185 to $210.
EMC Corp (NYSE:EMC) was cut to "neutral" at Bernstein, according to 24/7 Wall St.
The USA's air-travel map is shrinking fast, dropping scores of routes and flights that airlines simply can't afford anymore in a world of $130-a-barrel oil. The nation's most popular vacation destinations will be among the biggest air-service losers. Many flights to Honolulu, Orlando, Las Vegas and other favorite vacation venues have vanished or will soon because cheap tickets bought by tourists don't cover the cost of getting there.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Acergy, Casey's General and Corinthian Colleges were today's noteworthy downgrades:
Citigroup downgraded shares of Acergy (NASDAQ: ACGY) to Sell from Hold as they see risk to the company's backlog and believes the recent share rally is not supported by business operations.
Casey's General (NASDAQ: CASY) was downgraded at Friedman Billings to Underperform from Market Perform citing headwinds that include weak gas comps.
Banc of America downgraded shares of Corinthian Colleges (NASDAQ: COCO) to Neutral from Buy as they believe the post-legislation lending overhang will limit further share upside until COCO can show its students can access federal funds with minimal disruption.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
Bernstein cut EMC Corp (NYSE: EMC) to Market Perform from Outperform.
EMC (NYSE:EMC) Cut To Market Perform from Outperform at Bernstein, according to24/7 Wall St. The financial website also reports that Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) Raised to Overweight at Lehman.
Thomas Weisel initiates Walgreen (NYSE:WAG) as "overweight" according to Briefing.com. Friedman Billings has taken Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) off its "best picks" list.
The markets got some extra relief today as weekly jobless claims only rose by 6,000 to 371,000. The Philly Fed also showed that manufacturing contracted slower than expected as output fell by 0.7% in April. Below are the unofficial closing prices for major index levels:
China Architectural Engineering, Inc. (AMEX: RCH) enjoyed another massive day as its stock rose another 23% to $10.17 late in the day based on construction, architecture, and engineering needs that will be necessary in China after that earthquake.
Double-Take Software (NASDAQ: DBTK) products and services enable customers to protect and recover computer files. Its software helps users to reduce or eliminate data loss and recover applications, through automatic or manual means. Customers include law firms, financial institutions, hospitals, school districts and government entities. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) are among the firm's strategic partners. EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) and Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) are major competitors.
The company surprised the Street last week, when it reported Q1 EPS of 13 cents and revenues of $23 million. Analysts had been looking for 11 cents and $22.2 million. Management also guided Q2 EPS to 15-16 cents (14 cent consensus), Q2 revenues to $24.4-$25 million ($24.44M consensus), FY08 EPS to 65-67 cents (65 cent consensus) and FY08 revenues to $101.7-$103.5 million ($102.29M consensus).
EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) said its first-quarter profit dipped 14% on acquisition-related charges, but it posted a 17% revenue gain to $3.47 billion that beat Wall Street forecasts. Excluding items, EMC's profit was $477.3 million, or 23 cents per share. Also, VMware (NYSE: VMW) reported a 5% profit rise on faster-than-forecast sales growth. The company is mostly held by EMC. EMC shares are up about 5.5% in premarket trading. VMW shares are up 13.75% in premarket trading.
Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM), spun off last month by Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) reported first-quarter earnings this morning, posting a 29% increase in profit to $1.87 billion, or 89 cents a share as new varieties of Marlboro cigarettes such as clove flavored ones as well as acquisitions spurred sales in Indonesia, Pakistan and Mexico. The weak dollar also helped boost the bottom line. Revenue climbed 18% to $15.6 billion. The results beat the 78 cents analysts were looking for. Altria reports quarterly results Thursday. While Altria now does all its business in the U.S. where smoking has been on the decline, cigarette companies tend to do well in a weak economy.
Last night we heard that eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) is suing Craigslist for unfairly trying to dilute eBay's 28% stake in it by more than 10%. Craiglist today is firing back, saying the online auctioneer's actions are unethical and smelling of a hostile takeover.
Stocks: Where the Big Bucks Lurk A closer look at S&P's list of stocks with big cash hoards and top analyst rankings show these 20 companies are sitting pretty. They include Apple, Boeing, Coca-Cola, Disney, EMC, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, J&J, Microsoft, Oracle, Paychex, P&G to name a few. Cash-Rich Companies
Mom's New Battle: The Food Price Bulge As American families face the double whammy of higher gas and food prices, moms nationwide are resorting to considerable ingenuity to stretch their monthly grocery budget. Beyond clipping coupons, families are embracing generic grocery brands, and making their own baby food and detergent. Soaring food prices elicit creative solutions from moms - CNNmoney
Tech companies suffered in the big internet explosion in 2000. Part of the problem was that many of them did not have adequate cash reserves to make it through the storm. They are concerned that the 2008 recession will be deja vu all over again.
According toThe Wall Street Journal, "As of late last month, the technology sector -- which already had been heavy on cash in the past few years -- held nearly $232 billion in cash and cash equivalents, up more than 6% from nearly $218 billion a year earlier, according to Standard & Poor's."
The move is mindless and completely unnecessary. Ebay (NASDAQ: EBAY) now has $3.6 billion and EMC (NYSE: EMC) has $4.5 billion according to the S&P numbers. The idea of building assets on the balance sheet makes no sense because both companies make money and have forecast to make money for the rest of the year. EMC had operating income of over $1.7 billion last year.
Wall Street does not like to see "unused" cash sitting around making 2.5% interest. Companies that do not have announced M&A programs, big share buy-backs, or special dividends are going to be punished for balance sheets that are too good.
And they should be.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
EMC Corp.'s (NYSE: EMC) once-high flying VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) finally found the wherewithal to replace its CEO, Diane Greene. The company replaced her yesterday with former Microsoft executive Paul Maritz. Microsoft is shaping up to be VMware's main competitor as computing environments in many business circles would like to jump on the virtualized bandwagon instead of dedicated hardware platforms for specific purposes.
Before the bell: Futures lower as oil rises, despite Alcoa earnings
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MOST NOTEWORTHY: Acergy, Casey's General and Corinthian Colleges were today's noteworthy downgrades:
and services enable customers to protect and recover computer files. Its software helps users to reduce or eliminate data loss and recover applications, through automatic or manual means. Customers include law firms, financial institutions, hospitals, school districts and government entities. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) are among the firm's strategic partners. EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) and Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) are major competitors.
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:
Before the bell: Earnings have soured mood again
Earnings preview for Ford
Apple shares rise on report Steve Jobs is free of cancer
Toyota whups GM in the first half of 2008
