Author Archives: Scalper1

Yahoo Lacks ‘Growth Pulse,’ Stock Down On Latest Turnaround Plan

Yahoo ( YHOO ) outlined a new turnaround strategy late Tuesday along with a Q4 revenue beat, but the beleaguered Web portal’s new plan “sounds a lot like the old plans,” according to Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson, who lowered his 2016 revenue and earnings estimates for the company. “Yahoo beat Q4 estimates but is still struggling for organic growth,” wrote Wilson in an industry note. He said that Yahoo’s new plan “looks more dire than the previous plan.” Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said that the plan includes a new round of job cuts and a possible reverse spinoff of the core business. And, she said, “The board will also engage with other qualified strategic proposals.” Analysts say that Yahoo’s latest plan essentially puts the company on the sales block. “After 10 reported layoffs, countless plans and CEO after CEO, it is hard to blame management or the strategy,” wrote Wilson. “The core search and display assets are limited by scale and data, and we do not see a way out of it save for linking with a platform that is not so limited.” Yahoo stock closed down 4.8% at 27.68 on the stock market today . Earlier in the day, Yahoo slid to 26.57, its lowest point since September 2013. Yahoo stock is down 38% over the past 12 months. Yahoo stock got at least six price-target cuts from investment banks Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities analyst Martin Pyykkonen downgraded it to sell from neutral, saying that he couldn’t find “a growth pulse” on Yahoo stock, as advertising dollars increasingly slip away to rivals. “ Facebook ( FB ), Alphabet ( GOOGL ), Netflix ( NFLX ), etc. are obvious, but there are also a vast number of smaller properties taking usage and traffic away from Yahoo and its properties,” Pyykkonen said. Nomura analyst Anthony DiClemente said that while Yahoo’s core business was “modestly higher” in Q4, the company’s guidance for Q1 and 2016 missed his expectations. “We were discouraged by Q1 guidance, which suggests 13% margins; guidance for Q1 implies net revenue and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) declines of 19% and 53% year over year, respectively,” said DiClemente. Nomura lowered its target price on Yahoo stock to 34 from 40, adjusting for recent changes in the valuation of Yahoo’s holdings in China e-commerce giant Alibaba Group ( BABA ). Yahoo owns a 15% stake in Alibaba, about 385 million shares. After an initial plan to spin off its Alibaba shares, Yahoo reversed course following tax concerns. On Tuesday, Yahoo indicated that a reverse spinoff of its stake in Alibaba still remains a possibility. But Yahoo will close its offices in Dubai, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Milan. Alibaba stock was down 3%, near 63, in midday trading Wednesday, and its shares are down more than 30% in the past 12 months. Along with its Q4 earnings, Yahoo announced that it will cut 15% of its workforce — roughly 1,600 jobs — and look to sell non-core divisions and assets, such as patents and real estate, as part of a strategic plan to return the company to what it forecasts as modest though accelerating growth in 2017 and 2018. The company’s turnaround plan includes continued investment in what the company calls “Mavens,” Mayer said. Mavens refers to Yahoo’s mobile, video, native and social businesses, where its ad revenue is growing. Mayer said that Yahoo’s consumer products division will consist of three global platforms — Search, Mail and Tumblr — and that it will focus on four vertical markets: news, sports, finance and lifestyle. Yahoo said that Q4 earnings excluding items plunged 57% from the year-earlier quarter to 13 cents a share, meeting the views of FactSet and analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. Yahoo said that revenue minus traffic acquisition costs — what the company pays other sites to carry its ads — fell 15% to $1.002 billion. Still, it that beat FactSet’s $948.2 million forecast. Yahoo added that its total revenue in Q4 rose 1.6% to $1.27 billion, where Thomson Reuters had expected $1.19 billion. For Q1, Yahoo is guiding GAAP revenue at $1.005 billion to $1.09 billion, down 17.9% to down 11%.

Source Saying Amazon May Launch 400 Retail Bookstores Retracts

General Growth Properties ( GGP ) CEO Sandeep Mathrani has indicated that a statement he made concerning Amazon during GGP’s earnings conference call Tuesday was not intended to represent Amazon’s plans, GGP said in a statement released after the close Wednesday. There was no further immediate information. Amazon.com ( AMZN ) has a goal of opening 300 to 400 brick-and-mortar stores “as I understand,” Mathrani said on that call Tuesday. The CEO of the shopping mall developer indicated in that call that Amazon’s plans may disrupt existing bookstore chains such as still-struggling Barnes & Noble ( BKS ). Amazon nor General Growth Properties have returned requests for comment. Despite the problems that Barnes & Noble and other large chain stores are having, the New York Times reported that independent booksellers are experiencing sales growth in “many parts of the country, showing how reluctant some book fans have been to give up browsing store shelves.” Amazon’s first bookstore, opened in the University Village shopping mall in Seattle, features thousands of books — at the same price as on Amazon’s website — as well as some of the gadgets that Amazon produces, including the Kindle tablet, Fire TV and Echo virtual assistant. The Times also reported that Amazon re-hired Jennifer Cast, an early executive and confidant of CEO Jeff Bezos, to preside over the bookstore in Seattle. Amazon-owned footwear business Zappos also has experimented with retail stores in the U.S.

This FANG Stock Just Tripped A Very Bearish Signal

Loading the player… FANG stocks Facebook ( FB ), Amazon ( AMZN ), Netflix ( NFLX ) and Google parent Alphabet ( GOOGL ) are all falling in heaving volume in the stock market today . Amazon is now tripping a bearish signal, shortly after the e-commerce giant’s quarterly report missed analyst expectations. Wall Street’s disappointment comes even as Amazon has continued to make outsized market share gains, posting a new record for annual sales and its largest profit in at least four years. But shares closed down 3.8% in heavy volume on Wednesday, dropping below the critical 200-day line in intraday trade for the first time in about a year. The stock has pared some of its losses, but unless Amazon can close the session above the line, that’s a bearish signal. It’s now more than 20% below its high reached in December. Fellow FANG stock Netflix has been trading below its 200-day line for several weeks now. On Wednesday, the stock finished 0.8% lower. After reversing lower from a new high in Tuesday’s session, Facebook is falling for a second day in big volume, threatening to round-trip from its recent breakout. Shares ended Wednesday down 1.7%. Google parent Alphabet fell 4% in heavy turnover and undercut the 50-day line after retaking that level last Friday. It’s now 7.5% below its intraday high reached in Tuesday’s session after the Alphabet’s strong Monday night earnings report.