Author Archives: Scalper1

Why Investors Should Care About Capital Allocation

Capital allocation is essentially what companies do with their financial resources to maximize shareholder value. Generally, growth companies plow cash into research and development, while companies past the growth stage initiate programs like buybacks and

Apple Q2 Earnings To Clash With New Cash Return Plan

Apple ( AAPL ) investors will have two major reports to chew on next week: the company’s fiscal second-quarter earnings report and the annual revision to its capital return program. Both are expected to come out on Tuesday after the market close. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect Apple to earn $2 a share on sales of $51.97 billion in the March quarter. On a year-over-year basis, earnings per share are forecast to fall 14% with sales down 10%. It would mark the company’s first quarterly decline in EPS in nearly three years and first drop in sales since 2003. Apple’s iPhone is expected to post its first-ever unit sales decline year-over-year in fiscal Q2. For the current quarter, Wall Street is modeling Apple to earn $1.76 a share, down 5%, on sales of $47.32 billion, also down 5%. UBS analyst Steven Milunovich on Friday reiterated his buy rating on Apple with a price target of 120. His favorable opinion of Apple stock is based on positive expectations for the company’s upcoming iPhone 7, which is expected to launch in September. Milunovich expects iPhone unit sales to rise about 10% in fiscal 2017, which starts Sept. 24. “Even without killer new features, the iPhone 7 should prompt improved upgrade demand with more than 200 million iPhone users not having moved to a large screen,” he said in a research report. Meanwhile, Apple is poised to boost its quarterly dividend and share repurchases as part of its annual capital return program . Last year, Apple increased its quarterly dividend by 11% to 52 cents a share and raised its share repurchase authorization to $140 billion from the $90 billion level announced in 2014. Image provided by Shutterstock . RELATED: Apple iPhone Keeps Samsung At Bay In U.S. Smartphone Market Apple Outlook Cut As iPhone 7 Doesn’t Seem Like Must-Have Device

Amazon Food Rival Kitchit Shutting Down Wednesday, Source Says

Personal chef booking platform Kitchit will soon run out of funding and will cease operations on Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the situation at the startup. But Kitchit CEO Brendan Marshall denied any decision to shut down has been made. “Like many startups in our proximity, Kitchit is navigating turbulent times,” Marshall told IBD via email. “That said, no such decision has been reached and we continue to be actively engaged in fundraising conversations. We recently served our 100,000th customer and hope to serve many multiples of that number in the future.” But a source told IBD that Marshall announced the decision to close up shop. Also, Kitchit’s website is not currently accepting bookings. The company has raised $8.1 million in two funding rounds, according to CrunchBase , from more than 20 individual investors, but the vast majority of the funding came from Javelin Venture Partners, which chipped in $7.5 million. The news of Kitchit’s possible closure comes hot on the heels of New York-based Kitchensurfing, a similar firm, shutting down , and might signal trouble in the food delivery sector. Kitchit began as an online marketplace where diners can find and hire personal chefs with custom menus. But the company discontinued that service in August to focus on its less-expensive service Kitchit Tonight. Kitchit Tonight offers pre-prepared food that’s assembled at a customer’s home by a chef for $39 per person. Launched in San Francisco four years ago, Kitchit expanded to Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. The company does business in a fiercely competitive market that includes well-funded startups such as DoorDash — which delivers meals prepared at restaurants — as well as e-commerce leader Amazon.com ( AMZN ) and GrubHub ( GRUB ). Amazon offers food delivery through its Amazon Restaurants business . Yelp ( YELP ) and Square ( SQ ) also have food delivery businesses. Noah Doyle, the managing director at Javelin who oversees Kitchit, did not immediately return a request for comment.