Author Archives: Scalper1

Netflix Stock Gets Belated Price-Target Cut From UBS

Nearly a week after Netflix ( NFLX ) reported mixed first-quarter earnings and gave disappointing second-quarter guidance, UBS analyst Doug Mitchelson joined the crowd on Wall Street and lowered his price target on Netflix stock. About a dozen analysts cut their price targets on Netflix within a day of the Internet TV service releasing Q1 results after the close April 18. At the time, Mitchelson reiterated his buy rating on Netflix and his price target of 147. On Monday, Mitchelson maintained his buy rating but cut his price target to 141. Netflix stock was down 2.5%, near 93.50, in afternoon trading on the stock market today . Earlier, Netflix stock touched a two-month low of 92.80. Last Monday, Netflix had ended the regular session at 108.40. “We believe expectations for growth have been reset, and catalysts rebuilding for Netflix, after a negative catalyst period (global rollouts completed ex-China and Q2 seasonality not modeled right by the Street),” Mitchelson said in a report. Netflix should show stronger international growth the rest of the year, exiting the seasonally weak first half, he said. Profit margins in the second half of the year “should ramp aggressively” as price increases flow through to the bottom line and global rollout costs ease, he said. Mitchelson predicts that Netflix will penetrate 60% of U.S. broadband homes by 2020 (61.3 million subscribers) and 13.8% of international broadband homes by 2020 (101.4 million subscribers). “We believe Netflix’s core competencies in both content and technology will drive a virtuous circle of greater subscribers and increased viewing time, enabling higher ARPU (average revenue per user), which will fuel increased content spending and attract/retain more subscribers globally,” he said. Image provided by Shutterstock . RELATED: 5 Key Takeaways From Netflix’s Troubling Q1 Earnings Report .

Comcast Q1: NBCU Film Weak, TV Ads Gain; Theme Parks Strong

Comcast ( CMCSA ) is expected to report flat Q1 EPS with revenue rising 4%, though analysts expect a strong quarter in video subscriber additions. At NBCUniversal, analysts say ad revenue could be a bright spot at TV broadcasting, though film revenue will fall from the year-earlier quarter amid a weaker slate of movies. Theme parks might get a boost from late March school breaks tied to Easter. Comcast stock has risen 7.5% in 2016, despite regulatory headwinds. The nation’s No. 1 cable TV firm is slated to release Q1 earnings before the open Wednesday. Comcast holds an IBD Composite Rating of 74 out of a possible 99. Cable TV firms have been squabbling with the Federal Communications Commission over broadband privacy issues as well as the agency’s plans to open up the set-top box market  to more competition. Some analysts say there could be more scrutiny of broadband pricing and data caps depending on the outcome of the 2016 election. In Q1, rival Verizon Communications ( VZ ) said it would expand its FiOS broadband and TV services to Boston, a Comcast market, though its timing is unclear. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect Comcast to report profit of 79 cents, even with the year-earlier period, which would be its worst showing in at least 19 quarters. Analysts estimate revenue will rise 4% to $18.64 billion, its smallest percentage rise in four quarters. Comcast stock was down a fraction in afternoon trading in the stock market today , near 60.50. On Comcast’s earnings call, executives might discuss NBCU’s upcoming contract renewals with Dish Network ( DISH ) and Verizon Communications ( VZ ), and a programming dispute with 21 st Century Fox ’s ( FOXA ) ( IBD ) YES sports network. Charter Communications ( CHTR )  will be the No. 2 cable TV firm if federal regulators approve its acquisitions of  Time Warner Cable ( TWC ) and Bright House Networks. Both Charter and TWC report earnings on Thursday.

Apple Retina MacBook 2016: Intel, Broadcom Inside; NXP Loses?

Heavyweight chipmakers Broadcom ( AVGO ), Intel ( INTC ) and Texas Instruments ( TXN ) again dominated as chip suppliers for the Apple ( AAPL ) Retina MacBook 2016, according to an iFixit teardown , which notes the MacBook finally joined its iPhone and iPad cousins in rose gold solidarity. The 12-inch MacBook comes equipped with “a faster processor and zippier flash memory.” Intel again supplied the core processor and an HD graphics card, and both flash-memory NAND chips (256 gigabytes) came from Toshiba. Samsung and Micron Technology ( MU ) split the difference in other memory vectors. Two Samsung chips provide a total 8 GB of RAM, and Micron supplied a single 4 GB DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) chip. Broadcom re-won its touchscreen controller and what iFixit believes to be a wireless chipset, and STMicroelectronics ( STM ) again supplied a microcontroller. Texas Instruments supplied a total of four chips, including a system management controller. The Dallas-based chipmaker showed up six times in the earlier iteration, but the 2016 teardown wasn’t as extensive as the 2015 teardown , iFixit said. Fellow Apple supplier NXP Semiconductors ( NXPI ) was seemingly ousted from the Retina MacBook 2016 logic board. In the 2015 model, the teardown showed NXP supplied a microcontroller and two interface expanders. Like its 2015 counterpart, the Retina MacBook 2016 earned a 1 out of a possible 10 in repairability from iFixit. The main reason is because the display is a single, fused unit, so “if the display needs replacing, it’ll cost a pretty penny.” In early afternoon trading on the stock market today , shares of both NXP and STMicroelectronics were down 2%, while Intel and Micron stock were each down 1%. Broadcom stock was lower by a fraction, and Texas Instruments stock was up a fraction.