Tag Archives: apple

Alphabet Moonshot Company Nest Missed Revenue Outlook: Report

Employees are flying away from Nest, the smart home device maker that was acquired by Google for $3.2 billion in 2014 to compete with Apple ( AAPL ) in that growing market, but which isn’t generating the revenue that Google parent company Alphabet ( GOOGL ) had expected. A Re/Code report Thursday said that Nest’s initial three-year budget will run out at the end of 2016 unless Alphabet agrees to continue funding its Internet-connected home device division, and employees are nearing the point when their stock vests, meaning those workers will be able to finally cash in their shares. “Once the vesting period sunsets, some key executives could feel free to depart, something that several people close to the company said is very possible given the growing crisis,” said Re/Code . Nest’s original budget was around $500 million annually, the report said, and Nest’s revenue has fallen short of expectations. According to Re/Code, the company generated $340 million in revenue in 2015 — far below Wall Street estimates, which projected $400 million to $672 million in revenue. While Nest beat the $300 million internal sales target that Google set for the company when it was acquired, it made its numbers only by acquiring security camera maker Dropcam, according to the report. At a November meeting for engineers at Nest’s Palo Alto, Calif., headquarters, the company’s co-founder Matt Rogers said he was “losing sleep” over an exodus of staffers—roughly 70 in about six to 12 months, out of its workforce of roughly 1,000, according to a report in The Information last week. Nest CEO Tony Fadell allegedly pointed out that many of those departing employees had come from either Google or from Dropcam, which Nest bought in mid-2014. According to Business Insider, Fadell went on to say that about half of Dropcam’s 100 employees had left and that “a lot of the employees were not as good as we hoped. … Unfortunately, it wasn’t a very experienced team .” Alphabet’s executives have repeatedly said they intend to hold the lid on spending by the company’s speculative “moonshot” companies, a wide-ranging group that includes Nest. Alphabet, created last year as the parent company for Google and non-core businesses, broke out financials for its non-core ‘Other Bets’ long-shot subsidiaries for the first time in Q4, showing they lost $3.57 billion as a group in 2015, up from a $1.94 billion loss in 2014. Google’s ‘Other Bets’ segment posted revenue of $448 million in 2015, up 37% year over year, with the majority of revenue generated by the company’s smart home device group Nest, its fast Internet service Google Fiber and its health segment Verily, Alphabet and Google CFO Ruth Porat said on the company’s earnings conference call with analysts in February. Nest’s smart thermostat is its flagship product, while the company also earns revenue from its energy partnerships with utility companies. Nest also sells its Protect smoke detector and Nest Cam, the home-monitoring video successor to Dropcam. Other products, primarily in home security, have long been in the works, Re/Code said . Alphabet stock was down a fraction in midday trading in the stock market today , near 763. Apple stock was also flat, near 109.

March Madness: ‘Final Four’ IBD 50 Stock Performers This Month

After college basketball teams duked it out all month long during “March Madness,” the four best performing teams will compete at the NCAA Final Four this weekend. Here’s a look at the IBD 50’s “Final Four” performers this month: Inphi ( IPHI ), Broadcom ( AVGO ),   Ulta Beauty ( ULTA ) and AMN Health ( AHS ). Inphi Leads IBD 50 Pack Inphi is up 33% in March. The chipmaker received bullish analyst commentary this month, including an upgrade to buy from Deutsche Bank, as Inphi announced new products. Shares cleared a double-bottom base buy point on March 17, and gapped up to clear a secondary entry just a few sessions later. The stock is now trading near all-time highs, down 1.4% Thursday. Apple Supplier Climbs On Earnings Apple ( AAPL ) supplier Broadcom has gained 17% this month, fueled by a first-quarter earnings beat and estimate-topping second-quarter guidance. Shares cleared a double-bottom base buy point on March 4 and climbed out of an 8-month-long consolidation less than two weeks later. The stock set another all-time high intraday, turning down 0.9% in the afternoon. Meanwhile, Apple fell fractionally Thursday. Ulta Gains Look Good Ulta Beauty also gained 17% for the month. Nearly all of those gains came on March 11, after the beauty products retailer issued a view-topping quarterly report the prior evening. The move helped the stock break out of a consolidation base with a 188.58 buy point. The stock has traded in a tight range since, and is still in buy range as it dipped 0.4% Thursday. Health Care Stock AMN Powers Higher AMN Healthcare jumped 19% in March, building on gains from the health care staffing firm’s better-than-expected earnings report in February. Shares reclaimed their 200-day line near the start of the month and have been able to find support above that level as they continued to climb higher. The stock hit a six-month high on Thursday, up 0.6% in afternoon trading, and is trading 9% below its high reached last September. Where Are Facebook, Alphabet? The IBD 50 list also sports names like Facebook ( FB ) and Google owner Alphabet ( GOOGL ), which have racked up modest gains this month. Facebook has risen 7% and Alphabet has also gained 7%. Both are working on the right side of consolidations, with Facebook particularly close to a buy point. Facebook and Alphabet shares fell fractionally Thursday afternoon. Image provided by Shutterstock .

Successful ETF Launches Of Q1

The ETF industry is growing by leaps and bounds irrespective of whether the markets are on a bull or bear run. Thanks go largely to unique strategies, creativity, transparency, diversification benefits, enhanced tax competences, low turnover and low cost. In fact, ETFs are now considered as a preferred investment vehicle across the globe over mutual funds and hedge funds. U.S. ETFs have gathered about $2.2 billion of capital so far in 2016, as per etf.com . Though it is much lower than $59 billion inflows seen in the year-ago period, both existing and new issuers remain active in binging innovative products to the market. About 37 ETFs have been launched in the first quarter, taking the total number of ETFs to 1,863 and total assets to over $2.1 billion. Below, we highlight four ETFs that have gathered maximum attention from investors and have a huge potential to dominate the market in the coming months. SPDR SSGA Gender Diversity Index ETF (NYSEARCA: SHE ) Several researches found that companies that have female employees in the top brass have a tendency to outperform the market. As per the latest study from market index provider MSCI , companies with boardrooms featuring “strong female leadership” have generated 36.4% greater return on equity since 2009 than male-dominated companies. A new study by Quantopian, a Boston-based trading platform, has revealed that companies with female CEOs in the Fortune 1000 generated 226% better returns than the S&P 500 over the past 12 years (read: Women Leaders ETFs Head to Head: WIL vs. SHE ). Given the long history of outperformance, investors have shown their eagerness to add female-centric companies to their portfolio. This is easily depicted by the successful debut of SHE, which has attracted nearly $265 million in assets since its inception on International Women’s Day. It is the most popular ETF launch of Q1. The fund offers exposure to the companies that have managed to recruit and retain women in leadership positions by tracking the SSGA Gender Diversity Index. Holding 140 stocks in its basket, it is moderately concentrated in the top firms with each holding less than 6.6% share. In terms of sector, financials, healthcare, information technology, consumer discretionary, and industrials occupy the top five positions with double-digit exposure each. The fund charges 20 bps in annual fees and trades in solid volume of 310,000 shares a day on average. PowerShares DWA Tactical Multi-Asset Income Portfolio (NASDAQ: DWIN ) Amid heightened uncertainty and volatility, investors are seeking to employ strategies that could fetch higher returns with lower risk to their portfolio. This has raised the appeal for multi-asset ETFs, which offer huge diversification benefits by investing across different asset classes having low correlations with each other. These products aim to provide a high level of current income with stability and potential for long-term appreciation while they simultaneously avoid the downside risk of specific asset classes (read: Multi-Asset ETFs to Counter Volatility ). As a result, DWIN has become extremely popular among investors in its first month of debut having amassed $35.5 million in AUM. It is a fund of five funds and tracks the Dorsey Wright Multi-Asset Income Index, which seeks to capitalize on seven different income-producing market segments including corporate bonds, emerging market debt, dividend stocks, MLPs, REITs, and preferred shares based on relative strength and current yield criteria. Currently, each of the five ETFs in the basket accounts for around 20% of the assets, making the portfolio highly diversified. The fund is quite expensive, charging 69 bps in fees and expenses while volume is light at around 40,000 shares. ETRACS 2xMonthly Leveraged S&P MLP Index ETN Series B (NYSEARCA: MLPZ ) This is a leveraged ETN targeting the MLP corner of the broad energy segment. It delivers twice (2x or 200%) the returns of the monthly performance of the S&P MLP Index. Launched on February 8, the note is catching investors’ eye amid wild swings in oil prices. This is because most MLPs, which are engaged in the processing and transportation of energy commodities such as natural gas, crude oil, and refined products, are best positioned to withstand the decline in oil prices and be the major beneficiaries of an oil boom in the long term. These have relatively consistent and predictable cash flows, making them safer and less risky than other plays in the broader energy space. Additionally, the leveraged factor tacked on it is encouraging investors to make big gains on quick turns in oil prices. MLPZ has gathered about $34.9 million in its asset base since its inception but trades in light volume of about 30,000 shares. Expense ratio comes in at 0.95%. ETRACS 2xMonthly Leveraged Alerian MLP Infrastructure Index ETN Series B (NYSEARCA: MLPQ ) MLPQ is also a leveraged MLP ETN launching on February 8 and providing two times exposure but tracks the Alerian MLP Infrastructure Index. It saw slightly lower inflows of $34.7 million and even lower average daily volumes than MLPZ. However, it charges lower fees by 10 bps. Link to the original post on Zacks.com