Author Archives: Scalper1

Disney Leads 3 Big-Name Media Stocks Making Notable Moves

Loading the player… Let’s take a look at three media-related stocks making notable moves Tuesday: Walt Disney ( DIS ), Twitter ( TWTR ) and Netflix ( NFLX ). Disney was dropping more than 2% in heavy trade on the stock market today after announcing late Monday that Chief Operating Officer Thomas Staggs will be leaving his current position, effective May 6. He’ll stay on as special advisor to the CEO through the fiscal year, which ends in October. But investors are concerned because Staggs was set to take over the chief executive position from Robert Iger in two years. The gap down came in big volume and sent shares back to their 50-day line, where the stock is now trying to find support. Disney is trying to recover from a steep decline, triggered by ESPN subscriber losses, which put shares nearly 30% below their November peak. The stock is now trading about 20% below its high reached last August. Twitter To Stream NFL Games Twitter won rights to live-stream 10 Thursday Night Football games, which will also be broadcast on network TV channels. Verizon ( VZ ), Yahoo ( YHOO ) and Amazon ( AMZN ) were bidding for the rights too, according to Bloomberg. Facebook ( FB ) also had a bid but pulled it last week. Twitter shares were trading slightly higher in heavy turnover. The stock initially rose and then reversed lower in choppy action. Shares were able to retake the downward-sloping 50-day line in Monday’s session and were trying to find support there Tuesday. Twitter is 67% below its 52-week high. Meanwhile, Facebook rose fractionally intraday, Amazon and Verizon fell less than 1%, and Yahoo lost 1.9%. Netflix Reports Earnings Soon Netflix is due to report its first-quarter results in less than two weeks, on April 18. Analysts expect earnings to drop 64% as costs rise. Revenue is projected to increase by 25%. In May, the price of a Netflix subscription will go up by $2. UBS said in a report Monday that the price hike will translate to a low churn of 3% to 4% over the second and third quarters, as Netflix has strong pricing power. The analyst sees a total of 450,000 net U.S. subscriber additions in Q2. Netflix is rising 0.2% in above-average volume, but it’s still hitting resistance at its 200-day line. Shares lost support at that level around the time of Netflix’s last quarterly report. The stock is trading 21% below its December high. Image provided by Shutterstock .

GoDaddy Shares Fall On Stock Offering By KKR, Silver Lake

GoDaddy ( GDDY ) stock fell after the web-hosting and domain registration firm announced a proposed class A common stock offering of 16.5 million shares. Selling stockholders include entities affiliated with big investment firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co . ( KKR ), Silver Lake Partners and Technology Crossover Ventures, as well as YAM Special Holdings. GoDaddy said YAM Special Holdings, formerly known as the Go Daddy Group, is owned by its founder, Bob Parsons, as well as company officers and employees. GoDaddy said it will not receive any proceeds from the share sales. GoDaddy stock was down 7.5% in midday trading in the stock market today . Shares in Scottsdale, Ariz.-based GoDaddy are down more than 6% in 2016 so far, but they have gained roughly 50% since GoDaddy’s  initial public offering  a year ago. GoDaddy’s core business is selling and managing Internet domain names. It has expanded into website hosting services for small businesses and cloud computing services. GoDaddy garners one-fourth of its revenue from outside the U.S. GoDaddy has an IBD composite rating of 73 out of a possible 99.

HP Ghosts Apple With Spectre, World’s Thinnest Notebook PC

HP Inc. ( HPQ ) is making a play for the premium notebook computer market long dominated by Apple ( AAPL ). At a luxury products conference in Versailles, France, on Tuesday, HP introduced its Spectre notebook, which it billed as the world’s thinnest laptop. Spectre’s aluminum chassis is as thin as a AAA-battery at just 10.4 millimeters. That compares with 13.1 mm for Apple’s MacBook. Spectre has a full HD 13.3-inch diagonal edge-to-edge display and Bang & Olufsen sound. It is powered by Intel ( INTC ) Core i5 or i7 processors, depending on the model. It will be available for preorder online on April 25 starting at $1,169.99. It is expected to be in Best Buy ( BBY ) stores on May 22 starting at $1,249.99. HP also announced limited edition versions of its Spectre notebooks from designers Tord Boontje and Jess Hannah. “The HP Spectre is the thinnest notebook in the world, and unlike the majority of other super thin PCs on the market, this laptop doesn’t compromise power or features,” said Kevin Frost, HP vice president and general manager for consumer personal systems, in a statement. The Spectre notebook weighs 2.45 pounds and has high-gloss copper accents that give it a jewel-like finish. It boasts up to 9.5 hours of battery life per charge. Also Tuesday, HP refreshed its Envy line of notebooks with screen sizes of 15.6 and 17.3 inches. The 15.6-inch Envy starts at $679.99. The 17.3-inch Envy starts at $1,029.99. HP stock was down 1%, near 12, in midday trading on the stock market today . Shares touched a nearly three-year low of 8.91 on Feb. 11. On Monday, UBS analyst Steven Milunovich reiterated his neutral rating on HP stock with a price target of 11. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company faces near-term challenges in PCs and printers but has longer-term opportunities in copiers and 3D printers, he said. RELATED: HP Stock Slumps On Continued Weak PC, Printer Sales Outlook