Category Archives: oud

Investing Action Plan For Wednesday: Tesla, Fitbit, Priceline, Shale

Here’s your Investing Action plan for Wednesday: What you need to know as an investor for the coming day. Tesla Motors ( TSLA ), Fitbit ( FIT ),  Priceline ( PCLN ), Whole Foods Market ( WFM ) and several shale energy companies report earnings on Wednesday. Investors should also pay attention to U.S. oil inventory and production data as well as economic reports on productivity, service sector activity and jobs. Tesla Motors Luxury electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors will report first-quarter financial results after the market closes Wednesday. The consensus estimate on revenue is $1.59 billion, up 45% year over year. The consensus is for a per-share losses of 58 cents, worse than to loss of 36 cents, as polled by Thomson Reuters. Investors will be looking for management comments on Tesla’s delivery targets, as production of the Model X ramps up. Tesla stock hit a seven-month high of 269.34 earlier this month following upbeat Model 3 preorders. But shares have pulled back, falling 3.9% on the stock market today to 232.32, approaching its 50-day and 200-day moving averages. Mobileye ( MBLY ), which provides advanced driver assistance systems for Tesla and several other automakers, reports Thursday morning. Mobileye stock fell 2% Tuesday. Priceline Priceline is expected to report double-digit Q1 sales and earnings growth when it reports before the market open Wednesday. The consensus is for revenue of $2.12 billion, up 15% year over year, and EPS of $9.65, up 19%. A week ago CEO Darren Huston tendered his resignation over an inappropriate-at-work relationship. Priceline stock fell 0.15% to 1354.64. It’s close to a buy point at 1,361.73. Fitbit Fitbit ( FIT ) reports after the close Wednesday. The consensus is for revenue of $443 million , up 32% year over year but the third quarter in a row of deceleration. EPS is pegged at 3 cents, a plunge from a profit of 27 cents a year ago. The maker of wearable fitness devices beat Wall Street’s sales and earnings targets for the holiday quarter, but its guidance for the current quarter fell well short of expectations. Fitbit stock tumbled 6.5% Tuesday to 17.18. Shares have rallied since late February but are still far below their August 2015 peak of 51.90. Whole Foods Market Whole Foods Market is expected to report fiscal Q2 revenue of $3.75 billion, up 3%, and EPS of 41 cents, down 5%. The stock fell 1% Tuesday. Meanwhile, natural foods products grocery rival  Sprouts Farmers Market ( SFM ) reports earnings Thursday morning. Sprouts slid 3.4%. Shale Earnings While a few shale companies have already reported, some of the leaders are coming up, as crude prices rebound to the highest levels since November. Results will be grim, but investors will be looking to see if shale producers plan to slash capital spending even further, or announce plans to step up drilling. Continental Resources ( CLR ) on Wednesday is expected to report a per-share loss that widens to 37 cents from a 9-cent-loss a year ago. Revenue is seen falling 24.5% to $440 million, marking a fifth straight decline. Carrizo Oil and Gas ( CRZO ) and Noble Energy ( NBL ) will announce quarterly results before the market opens Wednesday. Oil Inventories The Energy Information Administration at 1:30 p.m. ET will release U.S. petroleum inventories and production levels. Supplies are near record highs, but U.S. crude output has been falling as shale companies slash drilling. Late Tuesday the American Petroleum Institute estimated that weekly crude inventories rose by 1.3 million barrels, while gasoline stockpiles slid 1.2 million barrels. Economic Reports Employment: ADP will release its estimate of private-sector payrolls for April, ahead of the Labor Department’s big employment report on Friday. Economists expect ADP to report a gain of 193,000 jobs. Productivity: The Labor Department releases nonfarm productivity figures for Q1. Economists expect a 1.2% annualized decline after Q4’s 2.2% drop. Trade deficit: The Commerce Department releases U.S. trade figures for March. The trade gap likely shrank to $41.4 billion vs. February’s $47.1 billion. Service sector: ISM releases its nonmanufacturing index for April. Economists expect the service-sector gauge to show a reading of 54.7, little changed from the solid gain of 54.5.  

Twitter Stock Sinks To An All-Time Low, As Facebook, Google Grow

Well on its way toward a fifth straight day of declines, Twitter ( TWTR ) stock hit an all-time low Tuesday, a collapse that began after it posted Q1 earnings on April 26 which included revenue that missed Wall Street targets, as did its sales guidance for the current quarter. The stock fell 16% the following day, as Twitter collected a wave of price-target cuts and ratings downgrades amid the company’s struggles to add more users. Twitter stock fell as low as 13.90 Tuesday, a penny below its previous all-time low of 13.91, touched on Feb. 11. In the stock market today , Twitter stock closed at 14.01, down 2.7%. The microblog has seen its user growth steadily slow while failing to make many inroads in digital ad growth against juggernauts Facebook ( FB ) and Alphabet ‘s ( GOOGL ) Google. Twitter has gained little ground in social media advertising, Michael Nathanson, an analyst at MoffettNathanson, wrote in a new research report that says Facebook and Google dominate digital ads like no other media marketplace. In November, Twitter brought back company co-founder Jack Dorsey as CEO in a bid to revive the company. Twitter stock is down nearly 40% this year.

‘Apple Fallout’ Likely To Tug Qorvo’s June View, But iPhone 7 Nears

Apple ‘s ( AAPL ) iPhone drag will seize another victim Wednesday, a Goldman Sachs analyst suggested Tuesday, ahead of Qorvo ‘s ( QRVO ) quarterly earnings report, with Wall Street forecasting the chipmaker’s first year-over-year sales decline in eight quarters. But the Apple trough will likely resolve in the second half of the year, when the iPhone 7 ramps, Goldman Sachs analyst Toshiya Hari wrote in a research report. He expects radio-frequency chip rivals Qorvo, Broadcom ( AVGO ) and Skyworks Solutions ( SWKS ) to see growth from the release of the iPhone 7, expected in September. “While unit headwinds and inventory burn at Apple could weigh on results, we believe we are at the trough of the cycle and expect RF fundamental to improve,” Hari wrote. “The RF content growth story is still fully intact.” First, though, heavily-Apple-exposed Qorvo has to survive the March quarter, for which Apple reported its first-ever year-over-year decline in smartphone sales. For Qorvo’s fiscal Q4, the consensus of 20 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters models $599.2 million in sales and 92 cents earnings per share minus items, down a respective 6% and 17% vs. the year-earlier quarter. Qorvo reports after the close Wednesday. Three months ago, Qorvo guided to $600 million in sales and 90-95 cents EPS ex items. Qorvo’s sales and EPS have decelerated for the past three and four quarters, respectively. Last quarter, EPS fell for the first time since September 2012. For the fiscal year, Qorvo is expected to report 52% sales growth, to $2.6 billion. But analyst consensus calls for a 10% decline in EPS ex items, to $4.26. In the stock market today , Qorvo stock rose a fraction to 45.04, while Broadcom fell 2% and Skyworks fell a fraction. Last week, Skyworks’ fiscal Q2 metrics topped analysts’ consensus, but Q3 guidance missed. Then, Skyworks stock dropped 6.9%. Hari says Qorvo stock could experience a similar dip. But Qorvo shares are already down 12% over the past 12 months, and “weakness may not be as pronounced,” he wrote. Hari cut his price target on Qorvo stock to 44 from 47 but kept his neutral rating. He trimmed his Broadcom stock price target to 171 from 175, but he still rates it and Skyworks both a buy. Among the three, Qorvo is the most Apple-exposed, Hari wrote. “We expect investors to focus on its (fiscal Q1) guide (impact of Apple fallout) and execution (share gains at Samsung),” he wrote.