Category Archives: apple

Teens Still Crave iPhones, But Not So Much Into iPads, Apple Watch

Apple ‘s ( AAPL ) iPhone remains a sought-after item for U.S. teenagers, but young people are losing interest in iPads and have little interest for now in the Apple Watch. Those are among the findings of Piper Jaffray’s latest semiannual Taking Stock With Teens survey, released late Tuesday. Piper Jaffray surveyed 6,500 teenagers using classroom visits and electronic surveys for its latest report. Of those surveyed, 1,300 teens were in the upper-income group. IPhone ownership among U.S. teens rose to a high of 69% in Piper’s spring survey, vs. 67% in fall 2015. Plus, some 75% of teens expect their next phone to be an iPhone, up from 74% last fall. “Apple maintained steady momentum in iPhone ownership among teens,” Piper analyst Gene Munster said in the investment bank’s research report. “We continue to expect small positive changes in the share numbers for iPhone given purchase intent and the over indexing of teens to the U.S. in total, where we believe iPhone has around 50% share.” The latest Piper survey also found that tablet interest among teens is declining along with the product segment overall. Teen tablet ownership declined for the third consecutive survey to 59% this spring from 61% last fall. Apple iPad share was stable at 64% among tablet owners vs. 65% last fall. In the new category of smartwatches, 12% of teens said they own a smartwatch and Apple Watch represented 71% share of those owners, Munster said. Looking forward, 10% of teens say they are interested in purchasing an Apple Watch compared with 8% last fall, which represents a stabilization in interest after falling the last two surveys. The teen survey reinforced that the Apple brand “remains healthy among the young demographic,” Munster said. He reiterated his overweight rating on Apple stock with a price target of 172. Apple stock rose 1.3% to 110.44 on the stock market today . Looking at other consumer electronics, Fitbit ( FIT ) performed well in the survey, while GoPro ( GPRO ) showed weakness. The U.S. teen survey showed strong intent to purchase fitness trackers. Some 22% of upper-income teens plan to buy a fitness tracker in the next six months vs. 15% last spring, Piper analyst Erinn Murphy said in the report. Fitbit was the No. 1 fitness band at 72% ownership share, up from 53% in the fall. GoPro action cameras declined on teen wish lists, getting less than 1% vote for the first time in two years. Just 0.9% of teens listed GoPro as one of two top birthday gifts.

Pain Or Gain Ahead For Bank ETFs?

The going has been tough for bank ETFs for quite some time now mainly due to the twin attacks of a delay in further Fed rate hikes after a liftoff in December and the energy sector lull. Moreover, UBS Group AG’s (NYSE: UBS ) moderate earnings for the fourth quarter of 2015 triggered a sell-off in banking stocks because the bank pointed to several macroeconomic headwinds and geopolitical issues that will bother its operations in the near term. Not only banking stocks, broad-based risk-on sentiments took a backseat in the first quarter of 2016. Now, with the earnings season impending and the broader markets rebounding, albeit slowly, let’s catch a glimpse of the looming headwinds and tailwinds to the banking sector. Headwinds Tightening Yields: The benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury note yield slipped to 1.76% on April 6, 2016 (down 48 since the start of the year) while the yield on the short-term Treasury note (one year of maturity) fell to 0.55% on the same day (down just 6 bps since the beginning of 2016). The narrowing gap between the short and long-term yields has been a cause of concern for the backing sector (read: Bank ETFs Hurt by the Dovish Fed ). In fact, in early March, the spread between the two-year and 10-year Treasury yields tapered the most since 2009. Narrowing spread between long- and short-term rates hurts net interest margin, which a key metric for the banking sector. Energy Sector Exposure: U.S. banks have significant exposure to the long-ailing energy sector where chances of credit default are higher. In February, the S&P cut its outlook on several regional banks with the highest energy sector exposure citing a likely increase in non-performing assets. Among the biggies, Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC ) reported around $42 billion oil and gas credit in February. The situation is the same for JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM ), the energy loan of which accounts for 57% of the investment-grade paper. JPMorgan has ‘ set aside $600 million’ for loan losses emanating from the energy, metals and mining sectors. Panama Papers Scandal: The leaked documents from Panama Law firm Mossack Fonseca & Co. revealing global business leaders and officials moving money to international tax havens may take a toll on bank stocks. Banks may now face more stringent scrutiny and litigation issues to arrest means of evading taxes. Tailwinds Increased Activity: Having described the stress situation, we would like to note that fears of a 2008-like recession or financial market crash are perhaps exaggerated. The lower interest rates should boost capital market activities and benefit banks in other ways. After all, bank stocks have gained their lost ground in the U.S. in a rock-bottom interest rate environment (see all Financials ETFs here). Compelling Valuation: The finance sector has a current-year P/E of 12.6 times, reflecting a 27.6% discount to the S&P while its next-year P/E stands at 11.5 times, reflecting a 25.3% discount to the S&P 500. Such an intriguing valuation might also help the sector to score gains as and when favorable industry dynamics hit the space. ETF Impact All in all, bank stocks are on the fence with pain and gain on either side, though downside risks look higher at the current level. So, investors seeking a financial sector exposure can have a look at the following ETFs: The PowerShares KBW Bank Portfolio ETF (NYSEARCA: KBWB ) , with considerable exposure to Wells Fargo, JPMorgan and US Bancorp (NYSE: USB ). The fund has a Zacks ETF Rank #3 (Hold) with a High risk outlook. SPDR S&P Bank ETF (NYSEARCA: KBE ) also has similar holdings; but it holds stocks in an equal-weighted manner. No stock accounts for more than 2.19% of the fund and diversifies stock-specific risks pretty well. KBE has a Zacks ETF Rank #3 with a High risk outlook. SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (NYSEARCA: KRE ) takes into account companies that do business as regional banks or thrifts. KRE also has a Zacks ETF Rank #3. iShares MSCI Europe Financials Sector Index ETF (NASDAQ: EUFN ) measures the combined equity market performance of the financial sector of developed market countries in Europe. The fund has a Zacks ETF Rank #3. Link to the original post on Zacks.com

Could $2 Bil Sway NXP Semiconductors To Curb Its Apple Exposure?

NXP Semiconductors ‘ ( NXPI ) rumored $2 billion price tag for its Apple ( AAPL )-facing standard products division is “significantly” undervalued, says Credit Suisse. A $3 billion to $3.2 billion bidding price seems more accurate, Credit Suisse analyst John Pitzer wrote in a research report Tuesday. The standard products division is expected to generate $1.54 billion in 2016 sales, about 12% of NXP’s total revenue. But the division is struggling. In 2015, sales of its standard products — signal discretes, power discretes, protection and signal conditioning — fell 3% to $1.24 billion. Q4 sales fell 18% year over year, to $271 million. For the current quarter, NXP guided $275 million to $285 million in sales, down 13% at the midpoint vs. the year-earlier period and up 3% sequentially. Chinese bidders reportedly are interested in the segment, which supplies components for handsets, computing, consumer and automotive, Pitzer wrote. Smartphone customers include Apple, Huawei and Samsung. Although China consumes roughly half of the world’s $350 billion in chips, the country’s chip companies account for just 2.5% of the sector’s revenue. The country is looking to curb its reliance on foreign chips by building its own thriving industry. But chip technology is closely guarded and a rumored $23 billion Chinese bid for U.S. memory chipmaker Micron Technology ( MU ) had analysts scoffing last year. U.S. regulators likely would have killed that deal, they said. NXP, though, wouldn’t face nearly as stringent regulatory hurdles, Pitzer wrote. NXP is based in the Netherlands and its standard products division is located outside the U.S. Also, he points out, the segment isn’t producing specialty technology. “This portfolio consists of a large variety of catalog products, using widely-known production techniques with characteristics that are largely standardized throughout the industry,” he wrote. On Monday, NXP topped the chip count in an iFixit teardown of the 9.7-inch iPad Pro . The chipmaker supplies a Touch ID sensor, a controller and a charging component. NXP also supplied a controller for the new iPhone SE . Its Freescale acquisition in December opens NXP up to the high-margin automotive industry. NXP said “90% of auto innovation” is in electronics and it plans to lead the industry in terms of infotainment, vehicle networking, body, safety and secure access. NXP stock was flat, near 83, in afternoon trading on the stock market today . Its shares are down 1.5% this year.