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JA Solar Q4 Earnings Seen Doubling; Rival JinkoSolar Rated Hold

JA Solar ( JASO ) is expected Tuesday to report a second consecutive quarter of triple-digit earnings growth, and rival Chinese solar panel-maker JinkoSolar Holding ( JKS ) got a hold rating Monday, with an analyst questioning its plans for a spinoff. Shares of both companies were up a fraction in late-afternoon trading on the stock market today . JA Solar stock was trading above 9, JinkoSolar stock was near 24. Last week, a Roth Capital analyst reiterated a buy rating on JA Solar stock ahead of its Q4 earnings, due out before the open Tuesday. For Q4, two analysts polled by Thomson Reuters model $683.3 million in sales for JA Solar and 68 cents in earnings per American depositary share, up 18.5% and 143%, respectively, vs. the year earlier quarter. Last week, JA Solar issued preliminary Q4 guidance of RMB 4.4 billion to RMB 4.6 billion (about $680 million to $710 million) in sales. The company upped its shipment outlook to 1.32 gigawatts to 1.35 GW vs. earlier views for 1.1 GW to 1.2 GW. JA Solar’s new guidance has shipments growing 40% year over year. JA Solar expects that it ended the year with 3.92 GW to 3.95 GW in shipments, up 27% at the midpoint. The consensus models $2.1 billion in 2015 sales and $1.77 in earnings per ADS, up 16% and 101%, vs. 2014 metrics. Analysts are sunnier on JinkoSolar. At least two analysts reiterated positive ratings on JinkoSolar stock — buy and outperform — this month after the company’s Q4 earnings report on March 1. But S&P Global Market Intelligence analyst Angelo Zino reiterated a hold rating Monday on JinkoSolar stock. He expects earnings per ADS of $4.82 and $5.50 in 2016 and 2017, compared with $5.01 in 2015. Zino said he remains “wary” of JinkoSolar’s plan to spin off its downstream solar photovoltaic project business this year.

Amazon Tablet Market Share Surges, Thanks To Its Low-Cost Slates

Amazon.com ( AMZN ) jumped to No. 3 in the global tablet market during the fourth quarter, thanks to its lineup of low-cost slates, led by the $50 Fire tablet. In Q4, Amazon shipped 5 million tablets, accounting for 11.5% of the total market. In the year-earlier quarter, Amazon shipped just 1.5 million tablets, accounting for 2.9% of the market, ABI Research reported Monday. Amazon’s tablet shipments soared 233% in Q4 vs. Q4 2014. “Unlike other tablet manufacturers, Amazon views hardware as a commodity and emphasizes focus on its recurring digital content revenue stream, generated from selling digital books, music, TV and video programming to owners of its devices,” ABI analyst Jeff Orr said in a statement . “The incredibly low pricing of the Fire Tablet is a smart and strategic move, as few others can afford to accept a lower margin on their tablet devices in favor of driving a surplus of content-related revenues.” When Amazon launched its cheap tablets last fall, the average vendor selling price for tablets was $323, ABI said. Apple ( AAPL ) maintained its lead in the tablet market in Q4, shipping 16.1 million iPads, or 37.2% of the total market. A year earlier, Apple claimed 41.2% of the tablet market. Apple’s iPad shipments fell 24.8% year over year. Samsung placed second with 9 million tablets shipped in Q4, making up 20.8% of tablet shipments. That’s down from 21.4% market share in Q4 2014. On a year-over-year basis, Samsung’s tablet shipments fell 18.9%. Overall tablet shipments fell 16.6% to 43.3 million units in Q4, ABI said. So far, the leading tablet vendors haven’t followed Amazon by drastically lowering their tablet prices. “Most tablet vendors continue to take a wait-and-see approach to Amazon’s Fire Tablet release,” Orr said. “It’s a path only few can follow, as vendors without content distribution rights and value-added services can only rely on the transaction price of their hardware to stay in business. “For instance, LeEco, formerly LeTV, in China is attempting a similar model. Conversely, content owners may find value in broadening their ecosystems by striking relationships with tablet vendors to get their programming in front of more users.” RELATED: Apple iPad Sales Falling Twice As Fast As Overall Tablet Market .

Netflix Backing Could Pump Up Google Cloud Vs. Amazon.com AWS

Could video streamer Netflix ( NFLX ) give Alphabet ’s ( GOOGL ) Google a boost in its cloud computing war vs. Amazon Web Services? Morgan Stanley speculates that may the case when Netflix pops up at Google’s cloud computing user conference slated for March 23-24. While Netflix is a customer of AWS, part of e-commerce giant Amazon.com ( AMZN ), it also uses Google’s IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service) platform. “Non-Google guest speakers at the conference include Snapchat, Spotify . . . and Netflix,” Brian Nowak, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, wrote in a research report.  “ Snapchat and Spotify are current Google Cloud users. While Netflix is a large AWS client, we believe Netflix uses Google Cloud for back-up storage. “Any endorsement and/or further Google Cloud adoption from Netflix would (help) Google Cloud establish its credibility as a competitor to AWS.” AWS is the biggest cloud services provider — where customers rent computer servers and data storage systems via the Internet — followed by Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Google. Goldman Sachs recently speculated that Google could announce price cuts at the user conference, where the new boss of Google’s cloud business, Diane Greene, will make her debut. Greene is the founder and former CEO of VMware ( VMW ), whose virtualization software is a staple in cloud data centers. One question for Alphabet shareholders, says Nowak, is whether Google’s capital spending on cloud infrastructure — data centers packed with servers and communications gear — will increase. “We expect (industry) cloud-related data center spending to grow 18% in 2016, up from 15% in 2015, and Google is a key driver, contributing one-fifth of the acceleration,” Nowak wrote. Image provided by Shutterstock .