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Fitbit Device Demand Solid; GoPro Weak; Garmin Mixed

Retail checks by Morgan Stanley showed good news for Fitbit ( FIT ), bad news for GoPro ( GPRO ) and mixed news for Garmin ( GRMN ). Fitbit’s new Blaze smart fitness watch and Alta fitness wristband appear to be selling well and could drive upside to Fitbit’s Q1 earnings and Q2 guidance, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty said in a research report Monday. “Our checks indicate demand for Blaze and Alta were ahead of expectations, and retailers are already putting in reorders for the Blaze, which shipped earlier than the Alta,” Huberty said. Fitbit reported March 31 that it had shipped more than 1 million units each of the Blaze and Alta within their first month of availability. “We expect management will remain conservative on guidance but still expect Q2 estimates to move higher post-earnings,” she said. Meanwhile, retail checks for GoPro action cameras point to year-over-year declines in sell-through, with retailers still working down channel inventory. “Our conversations suggest enthusiasm for the product category continues to wane, and the upcoming Hero 5 is unlikely to recapture retailer shelf space lost during the recent spring reset,” Huberty said. She is cautious on GoPro’s upcoming quadcopter “flying camera” product, though the market appears to be picking up. Competitors are expected to launch lower-priced drones, hurting sales of GoPro’s premium product. Fitbit rival Garmin is retaining market share in high-end sports watches, but it appears to be losing share in activity trackers, Huberty said. In afternoon trading on the stock market today , Fitbit stock was up 5.5%, above 15, while GoPro was down 3%, near 12, and Garmin stock was up 1.5%, above 40.

Airbnb Threat To Priceline, Expedia Overstated: Analyst

Though Airbnb continues to make headlines over its disruption of the travel industry , new research says that online travel agency kings Expedia ( EXPE ) and Priceline ( PCLN ) shouldn’t be as concerned as the hype suggests. In fact, Cowen analyst Kevin Kopelman says in a research report Monday that Airbnb’s competitive pressure on the hotel industry may drive such businesses to further embrace Expedia, Priceline and TripAdvisor ( TRIP ). Airbnb is an online service that lets people rent homes, rooms in homes, and apartments to travelers. The report, based on a survey of 1,400 travelers, also indicated that Airbnb customers aren’t abandoning hotels at all — quite the opposite. It found that 99% used hotels and that many respondents predicted increasing their use of hotels in the coming year. And 72% of those surveyed said that they would consider an Airbnb competitor. All the major online travel agencies are making heavy investments in so-called alternative accommodations, or Airbnb-like inventory. Airbnb has come under fire as of late in its home city of San Francisco after the municipal government released a report indicating that most of its “hosts” — what Airbnb calls people renting property on the platform — aren’t obeying regulations . It’s unclear the extent to which illegal rentals on the site — it’s an issue in other major markets such as New York City as well — will have on the privately held company’s top line. According to the Wall Street Journal , Airbnb may have hauled in $850 million in revenue last year. In 2015, Airbnb waged a campaign to fight proposed new regulations that would have further tightened the short-term rental market in San Francisco. The company spent more than $8 million in fighting and defeating the proposed measure . Airbnb’s opponents have vowed to continue to fight. In early afternoon trading on the stock market today , Priceline stock was up a fraction, near 1,281. Highly rated — its IBD Composite Rating is 92, where 99 is the highest — Priceline is forming a cup-with-handle base with a buy point of 1,371.63. TripAdvisor stock was down more than 2% Monday afternoon, while Expedia stock was flat. Those companies have weak CRs of 50 and 58, respectively. Image provided by Shutterstock .

Future Of Facebook Will Come Into Focus At F8 Developer Conference

Facebook ( FB ) will capture loads of attention, starting Tuesday, at its annual two-day conference for software developers, which is led off each year with a keynote address by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. This year’s F8 Developer Conference  in San Francisco features more than 40 sessions, along with product announcements and interactive demos. As he did last year, Zuckerberg is expected to make the widely-used Facebook Messenger chat service a key part of the conference. Two sessions are dedicated to Messenger — the first is at noon Tuesday and is titled “Messenger: Connecting People and Business.” At this event, Facebook is expected to announce plans to integrate so-called chatbots into its mobile Messenger platform. Chatbots are digital characters infused with artificial intelligence that can mimic human conversation. The idea is that businesses on Messenger could use them to interact with customers with automated response systems that could help boost sales. Messenger is one of Facebook’s fastest-growing products, with more than 900 million users. A second session on Messenger takes place Wednesday at noon, entitled “Messenger: The Future of Communications.” Facebook is also expected to pump up the volume on its Live video-streaming service for mobile device users. Facebook recently expanded the Live feature to all users, following an exclusive arrangement with celebrities and other public figures, and it is aggressively promoting the service to businesses that use Facebook. Facebook Live is a rival to Twitter ( TWTR ) Periscope. One session is titled “The Future of Video on Facebook.” Another focus will be on Oculus, the maker of virtual reality headsets that Facebook acquired for $1.9 billion two years ago. The Oculus Rift VR device began shipping last month, and Facebook could provide information on sales. Facebook has two sessions on Oculus and virtual reality, one geared toward getting software developers to create more immersive, 360-degree videos for the device. Facebook has seven sessions centered on the topic of growth and monetization of services. They include “Best Practices for Advertising on Facebook and Instagram,” and other topics related to mobile user engagement and advertising. Another big focus is on the topic of data analytics. Facebook stock was near 110, down a fraction, in early afternoon trading in the stock market today . The stock has reversed since reaching 116.99, just short of an all-time high, on March 30, but it could be forming a cup-with-handle base.