Tag Archives: aapl

Netflix Retakes Key Level; Apple On Biggest Win Streak Since Sept.

Loading the player… Netflix ( NFLX ) stock has been flying under the radar somewhat, as its performance has lagged over the past few months. But as the market and leading tech stocks continue to recover, the streaming video service is looking to retake a key level in a bullish manner in the stock market today . Netflix on Friday received an upbeat analyst report from RBC Capital Markets, which said that its quarterly survey showed record Netflix viewership. RBC also said half of the respondents felt Netflix had improved its content in the past year. Shares closed up 3.7% in fast turnover, retaking the critical 50-day line and the 100 price level in intraday trade. After hitting a nine-month low around 80 about a month ago, shares have steadily rebounded in quiet trade. Netflix still needs to retake its 200-day line and is trading about 24% below its all-time high reached in early December. Similarly, Apple ( AAPL ) was able to retake its 50-day line and the 100 price level on Tuesday. Apple posted its fourth gain in a row. Apple hasn’t seen consecutive positive action like that since last September. Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook Face Resistance Meanwhile, Google owner Alphabet ( GOOGL ) retook its 50-day line on Tuesday but has since retreated from that level. Alphabet is trading 9% below its February high. Amazon ( AMZN ) looks to be hitting resistance at its 50-day line for a third day in a row. Amazon is trading about 17% below its all-time peak reached in late December. And Facebook ( FB ) is hitting resistance near the 110 price level. Shares broke out past a base with a 110.75 buy point in late January, but the stock quickly turned tail. Facebook is now trading 7% below its high reached during that breakout attempt.

How Much Will Apple Raise Its Quarterly Dividend?

During Apple ‘s ( AAPL ) annual meeting last month, CEO Tim Cook said the company was committed to raising its dividend annually. The question of how much that raise will be won’t be answered until next month when Apple reports its March-quarter financial results. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster on Thursday predicted that Apple will raise its dividend by 5% to 10%. “We believe that prior changes in capital return policy are good indicators for what to expect this April,” Munster said in a report. In April 2015, Apple raised its dividend by 11% to 52 cents a share. And in April 2014, Apple raised its dividend by 8%. Apple also is likely to hike its stock buyback plan significantly, he said. “We expect Apple to add $30 billion-$50 billion to its share repurchase program, based on the past two years of the share repurchase program,” Munster said. “This would generate an incremental 5% EPS growth, excluding revenue in each of the next two years.” Last April, Apple increased its buyback program by $50 billion to a $140 billion total. In January, Apple had $30 billion left on its current repurchase authorization, Munster said. “Our model reflects a share count reduction of 3% in calendar 2016, compared to an actual reduction of 5% in 2015,” he said. “We believe the updated buyback would suggest our share count reduction expectations are conservative.” It took Apple 3-1/2 years to repurchase $110 billion in stock of the authorized $140 billion program, he said. “Every 1% in share-count reduction adds about 9 cents to annual EPS, or about 1%,” Munster said. “Assuming a $110 average stock price, that 1% share count reduction would cost about $6.1 billion. In other words, if Apple increases the buyback by $40 billion, and has $20 billion-$25 billion left on the existing buyback, this would increase EPS by 10% if they completed the entire buyback in a year, excluding revenue growth. Most likely, the buyback will happen over a two-year period, generating about 5% EPS growth in each of the next two years.”

Ad-Blocking Jumps To 38% Globally After Apple iOS Move, Report Says

Six months after Apple ( AAPL ) made ad-blocking possible on iOS mobile phones, eMarketer says that the trend is gaining steam. It could mean that companies including Alphabet ( GOOGL ) search unit Google, French ad firm Criteo ( CRTO ) and others relying on advertising to make money aren’t totally in the clear yet, though they’ve said that ad-blocking isn’t having any effect on their business. Worldwide, 38% of Internet users reported using an ad-blocking tool in Q4 2015, eMarketer notes, citing data from research group GlobalWebIndex. The rise comes after the percentage of people using ad-blocking tools had generally held steady earlier in the year — 28% in Q3 and Q2 and 27% in Q1, according to the survey. The U.S. showed the lowest ad-blocking adoption rate — 9% — of six large nations in North America and Europe, according a June survey by comScore and Sourcepoint. At 27%, France posted the highest ad-blocking rate, the survey said. Ad blockers serve to reduce the amount of bandwidth a user needs by cutting down the amount of content — seen and unseen — that a page has to load. They can also help with privacy by blocking programs that track users’ browsing habits — good for users, bad for advertisers who want to show their ads to people who are the most likely to buy their products. “It’s apparent that significant amounts of time are spent viewing ad-blocked video, and that’s the crux of the problem as far as publishers and advertisers are concerned,” the eMarketer report said. About 16% of the U.S. online population blocked Web ads during Q2 2015, according to a report from Adobe Systems ( ADBE ) and PageFair, an Ireland-based startup that measures ad-blocking costs for publishers. Ad blocking could could cost publishers $41.4 billion globally this year, up from $21.8 billion in 2015, according to that study. Last month, news site Wired became the latest publication to charge users who have installed ad-blocking tools. “We know that you come to our site primarily to read our content, but it’s important to be clear that advertising is how we keep WIRED going: paying the writers, editors, designers, engineers and all the other staff that works so hard to create the stories you read and watch here,” Wired told its readers in a post. On any given day, Wired added, “more than 20% of the traffic to WIRED.com comes from a reader who is blocking our ads.” To snuff out any momentum, Wired said that people using ad blockers will not have full access to articles on its site and gave ad-block users two options — either agree to see ads while visiting Wired, or pay about $1 a week for an ad-free subscription. Media firms including NBC will not allow people using ad blockers to watch videos on their sites, while the Guardian and Washington Post newspapers are prodding people who use ad blockers to pay for subscriptions instead. Support for ad blocking built into Apple iOS 9 means that iPhone and iPad users can install ad-blocking services from Apple’s App Store. Those products give people the power to pull the plug on Web advertising that they deem annoying — everything from banner and pop-up ads to auto-play videos. Apple stock was up more than 1% in afternoon trading on the stock market today , near 103. Criteo was up 1%, while Adobe fell 1% and Alphabet was down a fraction. Image provided by Shutterstock .