Tag Archives: aapl

Tesla Motors Soars After Predicting Up To 90,000 Deliveries In 2016

Tesla Motors ( TSLA ) reported a surprise fourth-quarter loss late Wednesday but shares spiked as the electric car maker was bullish on deliveries and said it would unveil its Model 3 mass-market car on March 31. Analyst consensus in a Thomson Reuters poll had called for Q4 earnings per share of 10 cents excluding various items. But Tesla reported an adjusted loss of 87 cents instead, deepened from 13 cents a year earlier. Tesla revenue rose  59%  to $1.75 billion in Q4, short of the $1.79 billion Wall Street view. However, Tesla expects to deliver 80,000 to 90,000 new Model S and Model X vehicles in 2016. Stifel analyst James Albertine had said in a research note Sunday that guidance might come in lower than the 80,000-85,000 vehicles that Tesla had previously anticipated. Tesla delivered 50,658 vehicles in 2015. That includes 17,478 vehicles in Q4, with 206 of the new Model X crossover SUV. Albertine said in a research note late Wednesday that he was “positively surprised” by Tesla’s reiteration of guidance. He noted that “customer deposits ticked higher sequentially, perhaps suggesting demand intact.” Tesla stock spiked 9% to 156.50 in late trading. Shares had closed down 3.1% to 143.67 in Wednesday’s regular session. “I think these are very strong numbers,” Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry told IBD Wednesday after Tesla’s report. “The guidance is very, very strong: 80,000 to 90,000 of the new Model S and Model X will be delivered in this fiscal year … growth of 60% to 80% a year.” Tesla’s ‘Loss Is A Positive’ The reason, he says, is that customers “want to buy innovative products” — which Tesla excels at making. Chowdhry added: “The loss is a positive. Why? Because they are investing in the future.” A demand chart that Tesla provided with its shareholder letter, on sales of large luxury vehicles “bodes extremely well for the future,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on a conference call with analysts. “The Model S was the best-selling premium sedan in the United States of any kind last year. Our sales increased by 51% and everybody else declined.” The 25,202 Model S sedans sold in 2015 topped Daimler ’s ( DDAIF ) Mercedes-Benz S-Class, which sold 21,934 units. The rest on the list all sold under 10,000 units: The BMW 6-Series and 7-Series, Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class, Volkswagen ’s ( VLKAY ) Audi A7 and A8, Tata Motors ’ ( TTM ) Jaguar XJ, Toyota ’s ( TM ) Lexus LS and the Porsche Panamera. Many analysts have questioned Tesla’s ability to ramp up production. For the current Q1 analysts had forecast 8 cents earnings per share, swinging from a year-ago loss, on revenue up 69% to $1.87 billion. Tesla Motors isn’t highly rated by IBD now and has fallen lately, with several analysts cutting views. Tesla stock was down 40% this year through Wednesday’s closing bell, in a market now in correction on concerns about the world economy and falling oil prices. The S&P 500 has fallen 9%, Ford ( F )   20%, General Motors ( GM ) 19%, Toyota 13% and the biggest stock of all, Apple ( AAPL ) 10%. Ford, General Motors, Toyota and Apple shares all fell fractionally Wednesday. “For 2016, we are planning for even faster delivery growth than last year. We plan to be net cash flow positive and achieve non-GAAP profitability for the year, even after investing about $1.5 billion to add more production capacity, start cell production at the (battery) Gigafactory, and establish additional customer support infrastructure.  Moderate GAAP profitability is expected in the fourth quarter. These investments will help prepare the way for Model 3, which is on schedule to be unveiled on March 31st and to start production and deliveries in late 2017,” Musk said in a letter to shareholders. “Tesla is approximately doubling its cumulative sales every year, I’m not sure if this has happened in the car industry for nearly a century,” Musk said on the call. But not everyone is so bullish on Tesla’s future. “Tesla likes to bill itself as a tech company, not an automobile company, but even tech companies have to turn a profit eventually,” said Karl Brauer, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book. “While volume and revenue are both growing, costs continue to outpace both. Tesla can keep positioning itself for rapid future growth, and its investments in the battery factory and Model 3 suggest it might happen. Someday. The timing of the Model 3 also concerns me because it’s at least a year after the Chevrolet Bolt arrives, and additional pure electrics with a similar range could easily show up by late 2017.” Image provided by Shutterstock . RELATED: 3 Keys To Tesla Earnings As $35K Model 3 A Go: Low Ride, Ramp, View

Apple Supplier ARM Topples On Mobile Decline; Eyes IoT, Cloud

U.K.-based  Apple ( AAPL ) supplier ARM Holdings ( ARMH ) stock toppled Wednesday, as its earnings disappointed despite Q4 sales topping Wall Street expectations, amid a strategic shift into the Internet of Things and cloud markets. ARM stock fell 8.8% Wednesday, to 37.74, and touched its lowest point since July 2013. Shares under-performed IBD’s 41-company Electronic Semiconductor-Fabless industry group, which fell a fraction after touching a 16-month low this week. ARM isn’t pretending the smartphone market hasn’t stalled, Rene Haas, the company’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer, told IBD. But ARM still has headroom for growth, he said. “It’s nothing we haven’t been expecting nor planning for,” he said. “But about half our revenue comes from outside smartphones.” For Q4, ARM reported $407.9 million in sales and 8.2 pence (12 cents) earnings per share ex items. Both measures were up 14% year over year, ARM said. The consensus of 11 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters modeled $398.1 million and 38 cents (26.2 pence). The designer of mobile chips saw sales rise 15% for the year, to $1.49 billion. EPS rose 25% to 30.2 pence (44 cents). Fourth-quarter licensing sales fell 2% to $1.58 million, but royalty sales rose 31% to $216.7 million. Software/tool sales rose 19%. However, smartphone-chip sales fell 3%. ARM guided to 2016 sales “broadly in line with market expectations” at roughly 9.7% year-over-year growth to $1.63 billion in sales, William Blair analyst Anil Doradla wrote in a research report. Doradla reiterated his outperform rating on ARM stock, but Canaccord Genuity analyst Matthew Ramsay cut his price target to 55 from 60, citing continued macroeconomic semiconductor uncertainty. He maintained his buy rating on ARM stock. ARM Finagles Stalled Mobile Industry Roughly 45% of ARM’s sales stem from smartphones, down from 60% in 2010. The smartphone slowdown won’t slug ARM nearly as hard as its rivals, Haas told IBD. During Q4, ARM shipped 4 billion chips. Half of the smartphone chips shipped contained ARM’s 64-bit processor, which commands higher royalty fees than ARM’s older, 32-bit processor. About 40% of smartphone chips shipped contained ARM’s graphics processing unit (GPU), Mali, and 10% held eight or more cores. “What that means is that even as growth slows from a unit standpoint, we still have good room to grow because underneath the hood we have three strong factors that drive growth in the market,” Haas said, referring to processors, GPUs and cores. ‘Cars Are Just Getting Smarter’ In 2016, ARM expects to grow further into the cloud and Internet of Things markets, Haas said. Licensing in both segments could be a boon. Networking market share grew to 15% in 2015 vs. 10% in 2014, and ARM now counts Broadcom ( AVGO ) and Marvell Technology Group ( MRVL ) among its networking chip clients. Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ), Nvidia ( NVDA ) and Qualcomm ( QCOM ) also use ARM-based server chips, according to ARM. “That (5% jump in networking) is a pretty big jump, given what’s going on in that marketplace and given that those markets have some stickiness once you’re inside,” Haas said. In the Internet of Things market, Haas expects ARM to benefit from burgeoning automotive intelligence. Most “embedded technologies” — thermostats, motors, drones and vehicles — use older technology. But the 8-bit micro-controllers powering those technologies are rapidly being replaced by the 32-bit architecture, Haas says. “The fact is cars are just getting smarter,” he said. “There are cars today that could have 100-plus chips inside them. A smartphone might only have one or two chips using ARM technology.”

Better Get Your App On Or Risk Fading Into Oblivion

When the Apple ( AAPL ) App Store and Alphabet ‘s ( GOOGL ) Google Android Market (now Google Play) burst onto the scene in 2008, they created two powerful channels for app distribution that fueled a smartphone revolution and pushed PCs to the back seat. What also emerged was an explosion in apps that have become dominant factors in business success. Sales of mobile apps are projected to reach $51 billion in 2016 and to exceed $101 billion in 2020, driven by strong growth in smartphones in developing economies, says a report by market tracker App Annie. The $51 billion would mark a 24% increase from last year, said the report . App Annie estimates the number of apps downloaded will jump 33% this year to 147.3 billion, led by China. Google Play and third-party Android stores will maintain their dominance between now and 2020 in terms of the number of apps. But Apple will continue to lead in the all-important category of revenue. “Apps have become the primary way we engage with media, brands and ultimately with each other,” the report said. “Now all companies need to view themselves as app publishers, irrespective of their mobile strategy.” Google Play downloads are set to more than triple to 166.4 billion in 2020. The vast majority of this growth will be driven by rapidly growing smartphone adoption in under-penetrated emerging markets like India, Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia, says App Annie. It expects Apple downloads to rise 46% to 35.2 billion over the same period. On the revenue side, App Annie forecasts Apple to remain the highest-grossing store through 2020, doubling to reach $44.8 billion in 2020. But Google Play and third-party Android stores will see faster growth in this span, with combined revenue rising to $55.7 billion in 2020 from $18.3 billion last year. The report said apps drive engagement and brand loyalty and can be monetized directly through app stores, advertising, commerce or any combination of the above. Apple stock was near 94.27, down 0.8% in the stock market today . Alphabet stock was up close to 1%, near 707.