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Apple Watch Shipments Slowing Ahead Of Version 2

Apple Watch shipments will rise just 21% this year, despite having 12 months of sales to last year’s eight, market research firm IDC predicted Thursday. Apple ( AAPL ) launched its smartwatch on April 24 with limited availability in nine countries, including the U.S. IDC estimates that Apple shipped 11.6 million units of Apple Watch in 2015 and is likely to ship 14 million units in 2016. Apple Watch “is likely to see some slowdown in the early part of 2016 as anticipation builds for the second-generation device,” IDC said in a press release . “However, with newer hardware and an evolving ecosystem, Apple will remain the smartwatch leader” through 2020. Apple and its suppliers have not yet signaled when a second-generation Apple Watch will hit the market. Apple is expected to unveil new watch bands for the wearable at a spring product launch event on Monday. Apple Watch leads the nascent smartwatch market and is expected to claim 49.4% market share this year, IDC says. Alphabet ’s ( GOOGL ) Android Wear operating system is expected to be on 6.1 million smartwatches shipped this year, accounting for 21.4% of the market and good enough for second place, IDC says. IDC predicts that Apple Watch shipments will reach 31 million units in 2020, with a 5-year compound annual growth rate of 22%. Meanwhile, Android Wear smartwatches are seen growing to 28.8 million units in 2020, with a 5-year CAGR of 48%. RELATED:  Smartwatch Shipments Skyrocket In Q4, Passing Swiss Watches  

Attorneys Target SunEdison Yieldco TerraForm Power In Probes

Four law firms are investigating whether SunEdison ( SUNE ) yield company TerraForm Power ( TERP ) violated securities laws in conjunction with its annual report filing delays. Two say their probes concern the fraud and insider trading sections of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. TerraForm Power is facing a series of potential investor class action lawsuits and could be delisted from the Nasdaq if it doesn’t come into compliance. The SunEd yieldco has until May 16 to regain compliance or submit a plan to do so, though it could be granted an extension until  Sept. 12 . In midday trading Thursday, TerraForm Power stock was trading down more than 6%. SunEdison was down more than 3% on the  stock market today . Shares closed down 7.9% and flat, respectively, on Wednesday. Goldberg Law Firm said it is investigating whether TerraForm Power violated securities rules by issuing “misleading” information to investors and cites “claims of potential misrepresentations” by the company. Its investigation is focusing on Terraform’s Feb. 29 announcement that it would delay filing its form 10-K annual report with the SEC. Rosen Law Firm; the Pomerantz law firm; and Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman launched TerraForm Power investigations too. On Feb. 29, SunEdison said it needed more time to wrap an audit into its liquidity stance, stemming from allegations of financial misconduct by former executives. Early Wednesday, the firms again delayed their 10-Ks, but SunEd said it found no “material weaknesses” thus far. TerraForm Power blamed its parent company for the holdup, saying its accounting systems are tied to SunEd’s. On this news, TerraForm Power “fell sharply during intraday trading on March 16,” Rosen Law Firm said in a press release. “Rosen Law Firm is investigating a potential class action lawsuit to recover losses suffered by TerraForm Power investors,” the firm wrote.

Microsoft Stock Gets Thumbs Up From Oppenheimer

Microsoft ( MSFT ) received a vote of confidence Thursday from investment bank Oppenheimer & Co., which assumed coverage of the software giant with an outperform rating. Oppenheimer analyst Timothy Horan set a 12- to 18-month price target of 62 on Microsoft stock. Microsoft shares were up more than 1% to near 55 in midday trading on the stock market today . Microsoft gets a 75 Composite Rating from IBD out of a possible 99; the Composite Rating looks at earnings growth, stock price gains and a raft of other factors. Microsoft “is putting the right strategy in place to be at the forefront of the next generation of computing and to defend and grow market share,” Horan said in a report. “Instead of fighting the inevitable shift to the cloud, Microsoft is fully embracing it.” The company is offering enterprise customers a fully integrated hybrid cloud system that connects on-premise hardware and software with Internet cloud services, he said, adding that Microsoft has a competitive advantage through its large installed base of enterprise customers. “Microsoft controls over 90% of the enterprise office suite and about 75% of the enterprise operating system market,” he said. “As workloads shift to the cloud, we believe Microsoft will be successful in bundling in premium (software- and platform-as-a-service) products, enabling it to defend its market share and expand its total addressable market with new product offerings.” Oppenheimer believes that most information technology functions will shift to cloud services by 2020. Horan believes that Microsoft will be able to reach its goal of $20 billion in cloud revenue by fiscal 2018, up from a current annual run rate of $9.4 billion. Microsoft’s major cloud products include Office 365, Azure and Dynamics CRM Online. It competes in cloud computing with Amazon.com ( AMZN ), Alphabet ’s ( GOOGL ) Google, Salesforce.com ( CRM ) and others. RELATED:  Microsoft Azure Cloud Service Seen Turning Profitable This Year