Author Archives: Scalper1

Intel Could Slough Billions Off Q1 Sales On Notebook Depression

No. 1 chipmaker Intel ( INTC ) could slough $1.2 billion off Q1 sales amid a notebook PC depression, a Nomura analyst wrote Friday as he slashed his price target on Intel stock. Notebook shipments are expected to plunge 28% sequentially in Q1, Nomura analyst Romit Shah wrote in his research report, which he said suggests PC shipments will slump as well. The report comes less than two months after Intel acknowledged that a fatal bug in its Skylake processor could freeze Windows and Linux operating systems under certain work conditions. Intel has since released a fix, but the stock slipped nearly 7% in the three days following that Jan. 6 acknowledgement. Intel stock was down more than 1.5% in afternoon trading on the stock market today , near 29, after Shah cut his price target to 35 from 38. Intel stock touched a five-month low below 28 on Feb. 11. Shah lowered his revenue forecast for Intel’s Q1, now seeing a 20% sequential decline vs. his earlier view for a 7% decline. Citigroup analyst Chris Danely  lowered his notebook forecast on Wednesday, according to ValueWalk.com. Danely forecast a 38% month-over-month decline in notebook shipments for January, where the three-year average had been a 14% decline. Citigroup expects a 20%-25% sequential decline in Q1 notebook shipments, said the ValueWalk story. Shah’s analysis puts Intel’s Q1 sales and earnings per share ex items at $13 billion and 35-40 cents. Intel previously guided to $13.6 billion to $14.6 billion in sales, which implies 50 cents EPS minus items, he wrote. But Q1 remains is typically “a back-end loaded quarter,” Shah wrote, and he reiterated a buy rating on Intel stock.

Solar Stocks Rank High, But Investors Find Problems Under The Hood

In December, the solar energy industry group seemed headed to mediocrity with federal subsidies for installation of residential and commercial systems winding down. Then, as part of a budget compromise, Congress extended the investment tax credit for solar projects. Instead of dropping to 10% this year, the subsidy will be 30% through 2019, falling to 26% through 2020 and down to 21% in 2021. The industry group shot up 35% in December, although it has given up that gain and then some as the market dragged everything down in the first six weeks of this year. The group ranked No. 14 out of 197 groups in Friday’s IBD. Still, the chart of the industry group doesn’t look all that sunny. It’s found resistance at its 200-day moving average and has been making lower lows in recent weeks. It only has a Relative Price Strength Rating of 95 because all the other groups have done worse. Five stocks in the group have Composite Ratings greater than 90. A leading beneficiary of the extension of solar tax credits is Israel-based SolarEdge ( SEDG ), which makes optimizers and converters that turn the sun’s light into electricity. Its customers include the two biggest residential installers, SolarCity ( SCTY ) and Vivint Solar ( VSLR ). It also partners with Tesla Motors ( TSLA ) on an in-home stationary battery that can be used to store solar energy for later use. SolarEdge is ranked No. 1 out of 23 stocks in the group. Its Composite Rating is a best-possible 99. It came public March 26, 2015, with a offering price of 18. It’s been a rough ride for shareholders, but the stock now trades near 25. The No. 2 stock in the group by Composite Rating is JA Solar ( JASO ), a Chinese company that makes solar cells that are assembled and integrated into modules that create electricity from solar power for residential, commercial and utility-scale power generation. The Composite Rating is 98. The stock has set up in a cup-with-handle base, but investors should be wary. It trades below 10. Few stocks that cheap attract enough institutional interest to advance. Analysts see just 5% profit growth in 2016. The No. 3-ranked stock is First Solar ( FSLR ), based in Tempe, Ariz. The company builds and operates some of the world’s largest grid-connected solar power plants in the world. Most of its plants are in the U.S. and Europe. The company also makes solar modules. It has a Composite Rating of 97. In its Q3 earnings report Oct. 29, the stock gapped up and closed nearly 10% higher. The company blew away analysts’ estimates. When the company reports Q4 after the close on Tuesday, analysts are expecting earnings of 77 cents a share, a 59% decrease from a year earlier. Analysts expect an 8% EPS decline in 2016.

Amazon.com Content Push Takes A Woody Allen Plot Twist

In  Amazon.com ‘s ( AMZN ) latest bid to dominate the video streaming business — it added the service as a perk for its Amazon Prime loyalty program subscribers — the company announced Thursday that it had acquired the rights to famed film director Woody Allen’s forthcoming movie. The yet-to-be-named film is set to be released this summer in a standard theatrical release and then will be available exclusively to Prime members via video streaming, Amazon said. “Woody Allen is a brilliant filmmaker,” Roy Price, head of Amazon Studios, said in the company’s press release. “We’re so proud to be in business with him for both his next film and his first ever TV series.” Amazon also said that it’s hired Allen to produce an as-yet untitled six-episode television series that will begin shooting next month and star Miley Cyrus and Elaine May. The Seattle-based company has been upping its portfolio in the increasingly crowded video-streaming sector vs.  Netflix ( NFLX ),  Time Warner ’s ( TWX ) HBO and others. Apple ( AAPL ), for example, has been trying to put together its own video-streaming service, it’s been widely reported. In January, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners released research that indicated that Amazon Prime had 54 million U.S. members, compared with 44.7 million for Netflix. But Netflix has more actual viewers; only 40% of Amazon Prime members (21.6 million) use the free video streaming service at least once a week, CIRP said. Amazon Prime also includes free two-day shipping. On Feb. 11 Netflix announced that it had completed its migration to Amazon’s cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services. The move makes Netflix one of the largest companies in the world to rely entirely on the public cloud. Netflix also develops its own original content, and content from Netflix and Amazon is getting more and more award nominations and wins. Several analysts say that Amazon is poised to roll out a stand-alone video streaming service. “As Amazon has begun to re-imagine the multichannel TV bundle, we believe they are looking to create their own stand-alone bundle of on-demand and potentially linear (live event) video programming,” BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield said in a research report last month. “In December 2015, Amazon announced it was offering add-ons to Prime such as Showtime, Starz, TriBecA Shortlist, Lifetime Movie Club, among many others. And this is just the start, as we expect other services such as WWE Network to become available in the future.” Amazon said that Allen’s film is a romantic comedy that stars Jeannie Berlin, Steve Carell, Jesse Eisenberg, Blake Lively, Parker Posey, Kristen Stewart, Corey Stoll and Ken Stott. In afternoon trading in the stock market today , Amazon is up 1%, near 530. The company has an IBD Composite Rating of 73, where 99 is the highest. Image provided by Shutterstock .