Strong earnings growth is one of the most important factors to look at when researching stocks. Positive earnings surprises are another critical factor that helps buoy stock prices. A Thomson Reuters report dated May 8 showed that within the S&P 500, the sectors with the biggest number of firms topping views were in health care, utilities, telecommunication services, technology and, surprisingly, energy. In the health care space, 82% of companies
Netflix stock surged to a record high Friday on reports that the subscription Internet television service is negotiating with partners to launch in China. Netflix (NFLX) jumped 4.5% to close at 613.25. Intraday its shares notched an all-time high of 618.44. Year to date, Netflix stock is up 67%. In just the past four weeks, it has climbed 29%. Netflix is in talks with several Chinese online broadcast firms to enter China through a partnership, according to reports by Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal. Netflix has spoken with Shanghai-based BesTV New Media and Wasu Media, which is partially owned by Alibaba (BABA) founder Jack Ma.
Casual video game maker King Digital Entertainment (KING) lost an alarming number of paying customers in the first quarter, which likely impacted its weak second-quarter guidance. King stock fell as much as 8% on Friday after the company posted first-quarter results that beat views; it had given disappointing Q2 guidance late Thursday. But King stock recovered to close up a fraction, near 15, on the stock market today. King, best known as the maker of “Candy Crush,” said that it had 364 million unique monthly active users in Q1, up from 352 million in Q1 2014. Wall Street was modeling for 346 million unique monthly users. But the number of paying customers dipped 29% to 8.5 million from 11.9 million a year earlier. And the number is forecast to decline again in Q2. King competes in the mobile and casual games sector with companies like Electronic Arts (EA), Glu Mobile…