Author Archives: Scalper1

Cisco, Sony Deals Herald Internet Of Things M&A Boom, Says Report

Cisco Systems ’ ( CSCO ) purchase of Jasper Technologies and Sony’s acquisition of chipmaker Altair Semiconductor could be the start of an Internet-of-Things buying spree in 2016, says a Strategy Analytics report. “IoT M&A activity could potentially reach the $20 billion mark in 2016,” says Strategy Analytics. IoT refers to wireless technology that connects industrial, medical, automotive and consumer devices to the Web. Cisco agreed to buy IoT software platform provider Jasper for  $1.4 billion last week. Privately held Jasper’s CEO, Jahangir Mohammed, will run Cisco’s new IoT software business unit. Sony ( SNE ) in late January agreed to buy Israel-based Altair for about $212 million. Altair makes low-power, high-performance modem chips and related LTE technology, a 4G smartphone standard. In many cases, IoT involves analysis of data streams sent from sensor-equipped devices. AT&T ( T ) in January said it would partner with Cisco, Ericsson, General Electric ( GE ), IBM ( IBM ), Intel ( INTC ) and Qualcomm ( QCOM ) to expand its “smart cities” initiative for Web-connected devices. Verizon Communications ( VZ ), meanwhile, has developed software tools for IoT applications. The Strategy Analytics report says that security will be a big issue for companies deploying IoT systems. The report forecasts strong growth in IoT-related analytics software.

New Liquid Alts Funds Launched In January

New liquid alternative mutual funds and ETFs launched in January include: HedgeRow Income and Opportunity Fund (MUTF: HROAX ) GuidePath Managed Futures Strategy Fund (MUTF: GIFMX ) Toews Tactical Defensive Alpha Fund (MUTF: TTDAX ) Ivy Targeted Return Bond Fund (MUTF: IRBAX ) Reality Shares DIVCON Dividend Guardian ETF (BATS: GARD ) Reality Shares DIVCON Dividend Defender ETF (BATS: DFND ) HedgeRow Income and Opportunity Fund HROAX launched on January 21. The fund seeks a combination of income and capital appreciation by establishing both long and short positions in domestic stocks, mostly large caps from the S&P 500. Its net expense ratio is 1.25%. GuidePath Managed Futures Strategy Fund GIFMX debuted on January 19. It pursues a managed-futures strategy using the fund’s sub-advisor’s proprietary quantitative models to identify price trends across asset classes: stocks, bonds, interest rates, currencies, and commodities. The fund is sub-advised by AssetMark. The fund’s investment objective is to generate positive absolute returns over time. Its net expense ratio is 1.05%. Toews Tactical Defensive Alpha Fund TTDAX made its debut on January 7. It employs a long/short equity strategy in pursuit of long-term capital growth, with a secondary focus on limiting risk during downturns. Its investments may include U.S. stocks of all capitalization sizes, foreign large-cap stocks, ETFs that invest primarily in common stocks, bonds, cash equivalents, and derivatives including but not limited to equity index futures. The fund’s net expense ratio is 1.00%. Ivy Targeted Return Bond Fund IRBAX launched on January 4. Employing a “nontraditional bond” strategy, the fund seeks total return through a combination of current income and capital appreciation. Sub-advisor Pictet Asset Management invests at least 80% of the fund’s net assets in debt securities with maturities of at least one year, and gauges its performance against the Barclays Capital U.S. 1-3 Month Treasury Bill Index. The fund has a net expense ratio of 0.90%. Reality Shares DIVCON Dividend Guardian ETF GARD, an exchange-traded fund, debuted on January 14 . The ETF tracks the Reality Shares DIVCON Dividend Guard Index , which is based on the idea that companies that increase their dividends tend to outperform the broad market, and companies that cut or suspend their dividends tend to underperform the broad market. GARD may or may not have short positions: based on Reality Shares’ proprietary methodology, the ETF may either consist of 100% long exposure or a “50/50” long/short approach. Reality Shares DIVCON Dividend Defender ETF Like GARD, DFND was also launched on January 14. Also like GARD, DFND tracks a Reality Shares DIVCON Index – this time, the Dividend Defender Index . Unlike GARD, DFND has a long portfolio and a short portfolio at all times. The ETF’s long portfolio consists of the 30 stocks from the initial universe of 500 that have the highest DIVCON ratings – “DIVCON ratings” are based on how likely a stock is to raise or cut its dividend. Jason Seagraves contributed to this article.

Could ‘More Nimble’ Security Rivals Swipe Qualys’ Market Share?

DA Davidson analyst Jack Andrews likened Qualys’ ( QLYS ) disappointing Q4 to the 1994 action flick “Speed.” And even Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock would struggle to pilot this speeding vehicle. “Qualys reminds us of an automobile driver who is trying to simultaneously replace critical engine parts while maintaining an appropriate speed limit on a busy road,” Andrews wrote in a research note Tuesday. “There are simply too many moving parts to fully support a buy rating.” Andrews downgraded Qualys stock to neutral and cut his price target to 25 from 51. At least three other analysts slashed their price targets on Qualys stock after the cloud security vendor late Monday reported Q4 and 2015 sales that missed Wall Street views. Its Q1 guidance also lagged the consensus. Qualys stock was down 23% in afternoon trading in the stock market today , hitting a 30-month low near 17. For Q4, Qualys reported 21 cents earnings per share ex items on $44.4 million in sales, up 40% and 21.5%, respectively, from the year-earlier quarter. EPS topped expectations for 17 cents, but sales missed the consensus of 16 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters for $44.6 million. Qualys ended the year with $164.3 million in sales and 70 cents EPS ex items. Current-quarter sales guidance for $44.7 million to $45.4 million would be up 20% at the midpoint, but that’s more than $1 million short of the consensus. EPS guidance for 14-16 cents missed Wall Street views for 18 cents. New Products Could Buoy Growth Last quarter was Qualys’ slowest in more than two years, Pacific Crest analyst Rob Owens noted in a research report. Owens rates Qualys stock as sector weight. Vulnerability management (VM) comprises 78.7% of Qualys’ Q4 sales and grew 18% vs. the year-earlier quarter and 19% for the year, Credit Suisse analyst Sitikantha Panigrahi wrote in a report. Noncore products — Web application scanning, policy compliance and Web application firewall — rose 35% year over year in Q4, but decelerated sequentially from 40% growth in Q3 and 50% in Q2, Panigrahi wrote. Panigrahi reiterated his outperform rating on Qualys stock but cut his price target to 35 from 45. But Summit Research analyst Srini Nandury reiterated his buy rating on Qualys stock but dropped his price target to 35 from 50. Nandury expects at least 20% near-term sales growth on new product launches this month. The new series will be based on Qualys’ ElasticSearch capabilities and Cloud Agent platform, Qualys CEO Philippe Courtot said in the company’s earnings conference call. “Many businesses are yet to deploy VM solutions in any meaningful way,” Nandury wrote in a report. “Upcoming products are expected to contribute meaningfully by year-end.” Security Stocks Hit In High-Tech Sell-Off Yet, Pacific Crest’s Owens questioned whether Qualys could maintain its VM leadership in a tough market. IBD’s 41-company Computer Software-Security industry group closed down nearly 7.2% Monday, after falling 7.4% Friday. The group was down another fraction midday Tuesday and touched its lowest point since June 2014. “We continue to believe that Qualys is beginning to cede share to smaller, more nimble competitors in their core VM space, and that others may offer a stronger value proposition with their complementary solutions and messaging,” Owens wrote. Smaller rivals include Rapid7 ( RPD ) — a $408 million market value to Qualys’ $609 million — and privately held Beyond Security, Critical Watch, Core Security, SAINT, Tenable Network Security and Tripwire. Owens added: “While everything is ‘on sale’ in this bear market, we prefer names that could offer more upside should things stabilize.” The unstable stock environment got no help last week from weak   quarterly reports from LinkedIn ( LNKD ) and Tableau Software ( DATA ). Cybersecurity competitors Palo Alto Networks ( PANW ) and  Proofpoint ( PFPT ) were recovering somewhat Tuesday, both up 1% Tuesday afternoon, but   FireEye ( FEYE ) stock was down 2.5% Tuesday afternoon, after falling 9.5% Monday.