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ServiceNow Stock Jump Puts Software Slump Mostly In The Dump

Realizing that more big customers than ever are paying bigger dollars for ServiceNow ( NOW ) software in the cloud, investors bought up ServiceNow stock Thursday, healing much of the pain that they endured through the infamous Software Slump of January and February. ServiceNow stock shot up 18% in morning trade on the stock market today before easing back to a 15% gain, near 74.50, Thursday afternoon. It’s 18% off a record high at 91.28 set Dec. 4, but it’s more than 60% up from the nearly two-year low of 46 reached Feb. 8. ServiceNow late Wednesday issued first-quarter earnings and sales that exceeded Wall Street estimates. Shares of rival  SAP ( SAP ) were down a fraction Thursday afternoon, but  Salesforce.com ( CRM ) stock was up 1%. “We now have 249 customers each paying us more than $1 million in annualized contract value, an increase of 48% year over year,” ServiceNow CFO Michael Scarpelli said in the company’s earnings release. “We also landed a record 13 upsells in the (first) quarter, each with an annualized contract value greater than $1 million.” Those results helped drive Q1 revenue up 44% to $350.9 million vs. the $301 million expected by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. Non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) EPS rose to nine cents from a penny in the year-earlier quarter. Analysts had expected seven cents. Excluded from the adjusted earnings, among other things, were $270 million in legal expenses to settle patent infringement lawsuits that BMC Software and Hewlett Packard Enterprise ( HPE ) brought against ServiceNow. It brought the bottom line to a $333 million net loss vs. $58 million lost a year earlier, or a $2.06 GAAP loss per share vs. a 38-cent loss in 2015’s Q1. Analysts and investors prefer to concentrate on the apples-to-apples non-GAAP comparisons. William Blair analyst Justin Furby reiterated his firm’s outperform rating on ServiceNow without a price target, though he said, “The stock can double (or more)” over the next five years. “All other first-quarter metrics (revenue, non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP EPS, deferred revenue, free cash flow) came in ahead of guidance and the Street, and the company’s second-quarter billings outlook of 31%-33% growth (37%-39% subscription billings growth) bracketed the consensus view of 32%,” said Furby in a Thursday research note. Canaccord Genuity analyst Richard Davis maintained a buy rating with a 90 price target on ServiceNow. “We believe full-year guidance is likely conservative and sets the company up to outperform for the remainder of the year,” he said in a Thursday note. FBN Securities analyst Shebly Seyrafi raised his price target on ServiceNow stock to 90 from 80.

3 Top Chipmakers Breach Key Levels, But One Is In Profit-Taking Zone

Loading the player… Chipmaker Mellanox Technologies ( MLNX ) is plunging in giant volume in the stock market today on the heels of disappointing guidance issued late Wednesday. Mellanox beat Q1 earnings and revenue expectations, but its Q2 revenue outlook widely missed expectations. Shares gapped below their 50-day moving average and neared the 200-day line in intraday trade, tumbling more than 12%. Let’s take a look at how some highly rated chip peers are doing: Cirrus Logic ( CRUS ), Inphi ( IPHI ), MaxLinear ( MXL ) and Silicon Motion Technology ( SIMO ). Apple ( AAPL ) supplier Cirrus Logic is falling 3.1% in quick turnover, dropping below its 50-day moving average. Shares are now trading 10% below their May high and a potential buy point from a long consolidation pattern. The drop comes ahead of Apple’s earnings report next Tuesday, where we’ll get a sense of the consumer tech giant’s iPhone production — which has an impact on its suppliers. Meanwhile, Apple shares fell 1.2% intraday. Inphi is dropping back below buy range from a cup base it initially broke out of about a month ago, losing 5.2%. Shares are still extended from a double-bottom entry but are now 10% below their April 1 high. MaxLinear is continuing its rebound today, rising 1.1%, after breaching its 50-day line in Tuesday’s session. On Wednesday, the company tightened its Q1 revenue guidance and raised its gross margin target. And Silicon Motion Tech hit another all-time high in above-average volume in intraday trade, paring its gains to a 0.6% rise by the afternoon. The stock is now in profit-taking zone, with a gain of more than 20% since breaking out of a long cup-with-handle base last month.

Viacom, Dish Stocks Gain On New Contract, Sling TV Part Of Deal

Dish Network ( DISH ) will make some Viacom ( VIA ) cable networks available on its Sling Web TV service as part of a programming deal that sent shares of both the satellite TV broadcaster and the media company up on Thursday. Viacom stock was up nearly 11% in afternoon trading in the stock market today . Dish Network stock was up 1.5%. Terms of the programming contract renewal, announced Thursday morning, were not disclosed. The deal averted a blackout of 18 Viacom channels on Dish Network’s satellite TV service. A protracted battle might have hurt both companies, analysts say. Viacom stock is down more than 35% in the past 12 months, while Dish stock has shed about 30%. “We view the overhang removal (for Viacom) as significant and believe the deal allows the company more flexibility and time regarding options for a Paramount partial sale stake,” said Benjamin Mogil, an analyst at Stifel, in a research report. Dish stock has dropped amid investor concern over its wireless strategy. Dish has been unable to find a buyer for its wireless radio spectrum or a wireless partner to offer mobile video services. Its online video service Sling, which starts at $20 monthly, has been growing. UBS analyst John Hodulik on Thursday upped his year-end Sling subscriber estimate to 1.5 million from 1.2 million. Dish recently added a separate Sling package featuring add-on channels from 21 st Century Fox ( FOXA ). Sling will offer Comedy Central, Spike, MTV, Nick Jr. and other channels later this year under the new programming deal.