Tag Archives: oud

Amazon Hits New High As Market Cap Nears $332 Billion

Amazon.com ( AMZN ) stock hit a record high of 704.55 Tuesday, passing its previous high of 696.44 set on Dec. 29 and giving the e-commerce giant a market valuation near $332 billion. The stock ended the regular trading session up 3.4% to 703.07 on the stock market today . Amazon has gained 62% in the past year. The jump comes as Sanford Bernstein analyst Carlos Kirjner raised his price target on Amazon to a whopping 1,000, which is 47% above its close of 679.75 on Monday. IBD’s Take: How healthy is Amazon’s stock and how does it compare to rivals? Find out at IBD Stock Checkup “We think Amazon’s businesses are now so large, fast-growing, and profitable that it is harder and harder for the company to find new areas of investment to keep up with the growth in gross profits,” Kirjner wrote in the report, according to a report from Bloomberg . Among areas of investment and growth is Amazon Web Services, its cloud computing unit that’s on pace to reach $12.5 billion in revenue this year. And thanks to its early entry in the business, AWS is now the leader in cloud computing, with a market share of 31%. The next closest competitor is Microsoft ( MSFT ) with 9%, followed by IBM ( IBM ) and Alphabet ‘s ( GOOGL ) Google Cloud. Among analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, 11 have a strong buy rating on Amazon, 28 say buy and 4 say hold. The move up in Amazon comes as the company on Tuesday announced a new platform on its streaming video service that goes head-to-head with Alphabet-owned YouTube. The new platform, called Amazon Video Direct , lets anyone upload clips or their own licensed videos. Alphabet, which hit an all-time high of 810.35 on Feb. 5, rose 1.4% to 739.38 on Tuesday.  Alphabet posted its fifth straight gain, but it is still below its 50-day moving average.

NetEase, Sina, Weibo Ready For China Earnings Closeup

Continuing a string of earnings reports from China Internet companies, NetEase ( NTES ), Sina ( SINA ) and Weibo ( WB ) are set to report first-quarter earnings after the close Wednesday. JD.com ( JD ), one of China’s largest Internet companies, posted mixed Q1 earnings early Monday and gave an outlook slightly short of views. Its shares were among many U.S.-traded techs that fell Monday after Chinese markets retreated overnight on renewed concerns about that nation’s economic recovery. JD, China’s largest online direct sales company, reported revenue of $8.4 billion, slightly above the consensus and up 48% in local currency year over year. But its Q2 guidance was slightly below consensus. China e-commerce giant Alibaba ( BABA ) reported fiscal Q4 earnings  last Thursday. Alibaba showed a 30% increase in revenue to $3.75 billion, beating the Wall Street consensus and marking the company’s highest growth rate in the past four quarters. China gaming company NetEase is expected to see earnings rise 55% in local currency to $2.29 a share, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters. Revenue is expected to jump 115% to $1.2 billion, year over year. NetEase stock, which is down 26% this year, was trading near 143.60, up 3%, during afternoon trading in the stock market today . NetEase is hitting resistance at its 50-day line Sina, which operates the largest Chinese-language Web portal, is expected to post a loss of 4 cents a share, swinging from a 4 cent profit year over year. Revenue is expected to rise 5% in local currency to $277.5 million. Sina stock, which hit a low this year of 39.58 on Feb. 11, was trading near 49.50, up 1%. Weibo, which operates a microblog site similar to Twitter ( TWTR ), is projected to show an 18% increase in revenue to $113.6 million. Weibo is projected to see earnings of one penny a share, vs. nearly break-even a year earlier. Weibo was a part of Sina before its IPO in 2014, and Sina remains a majority shareholder. Weibo this year hit a low of 12.09 on Feb. 21. Weibo stock was near 23.25, up 8%.

Google Has Raked In $21 Billion In Android Profit, Oracle Says

Alphabet ’s ( GOOGL ) Google has earned $21 billion in profit from more than 3 billion activations of Android-based smartphones, Oracle ‘s ( ORCL ) lawyer said in opening arguments in the second trial pitting the database maker against the Internet search giant. Oracle claims Google violated its copyright on parts of the Java programming language when it created the Android mobile operating system, now used in mobile phones worldwide. Oracle is seeking $8.8 billion in damages. Oracle lawyer Peter Bicks said Google has raked in $42 billion in revenue from Android-based smartphones, according to a Bloomberg report . Google “took a short cut, and it was at Oracle’s expense,” Bicks reportedly told the jury in San Francisco federal court. Oracle claims Google infringed on copyrights covering 37 Java application programming interfaces, or APIs — the critical shortcuts that allow developers to write programs to work across software platforms. Even if Google loses, analysts have noted its strong balance sheet. Google reported $75.3 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities in its Q1 earnings release. Android’s chief competition is Apple’s iOS software, used in iPhones and other Apple mobile devices. Unlike Apple ( AAPL ), Google has made Android open source and widely available to mobile phone makers, such as Samsung. Google says it should be able to use Java without paying a fee under the fair-use provision of copyright law. Oracle acquired Java when it purchased Sun Microsystems in 2010.