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Apple Supplier NXP Semiconductors Earnings Beat Amid ‘Challenges’

Apple ( AAPL ) supplier NXP Semiconductors ( NXPI ) reported much-better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings and revenue late Wednesday, despite some “challenges.” Fellow iPhone chipmaker Qorvo ( QRVO ) on tap after the market close Thursday. NXP Semiconductors earned $1.25 a share excludng various items, down 7% vs. a year earlier but easily exceeding Wall Street estimates for $1.07. Revenue climbed 4.5% to $1.61 billion. Analysts had expected a 16% drop to $1.29 billion. The fourth-quarter results include one month of contribution from newly acquired Freescale Semiconductor. The Freescale deal is aimed at making NXP an automotive chip powerhouse. Automotive-related sales rose 45% to $422 million. The deal also halves its Apple iPhone exposure. For the current Q1, NXP expects revenue of $2.15 billion to $2.27 billion with non-GAAP EPS of $1.05-$1.15. Analysts expect Q1 EPS of $1.09. Revenue also was in line. “Looking forward, our task is to continue to outgrow the market despite the uncertain environment,” said CEO Richard Clemmer. NXP stock rose 6.2% in morning trading On Wednesday, shares closed down 3.1% on the  stock market , near 52-week lows set last month. Apple rose 0.6% intraday. On Wednesdsay, its shares rallied 2%, as Apple regained its market cap crown from Alphabet ( GOOGL ) after Alphabet took the lead on Tuesday.  (Alphabet lost 4% Wednesday.) Late Thursday, Qorvo should report a 16% sales decline to $620.3 million, with non-GAAP EPS down 37% to 94 cents. Qorvo slashed its revenue forecast in December. Goldman Sachs downgraded Qorvo Wednesday, saying it’s losing out to rival radio frequency chipmaker  Skyworks Solutions ( SWKS ), yet another Apple supplier. Qorvo stock rose 3.4% after losing 0.2% Wednesday. Skyworks Solutions dipped 0.4% intraday after falling 0.4% on Wednesday.

Apple Steals ‘Biggest Stock’ Crown As Alphabet Loses Search Chief

Apple ‘s ( AAPL ) gain and Alphabet ‘s ( GOOGL ) fall Wednesday — as Google’s head of search exits — made Apple the biggest stock of all, again — and Apple widened its lead Thursday. At the closing bell Wednesday, Apple stock was up almost 2% to 96.35, giving it a market cap over $534 billion, and Alphabet stock was down 4% at 749.38, with a market cap a little over $515 billion. The trend continued Thursday. In early trading in the stock market today , Apple was up a fraction (market cap near $538 billion) and Alphabet was down 1.5% (market cap near $506 billion). Alphabet initially wrested the top market value title from Apple mid-Monday ahead of its fourth-quarter earnings report, the first that detailed business outside Alphabet’s main Google unit. The two stocks have been jostling for supremacy since. Google Head Of Search Leaving Google’s senior vice president for search, Amit Singhal, wrote in a Google Plus blog post Wednesday that he is leaving Feb. 26, after starting with the company when it was “a small startup” in 2000. “As I entered the fifteenth year of working at Google, I’ve been asking myself the question, ‘what would you want to do for the next fifteen?’ The answer has overwhelmingly been: give back to others. It has always been a priority for me to give back to people who are less fortunate, and make time for my family amidst competing work constraints — but on both fronts, I simply want to give and do more,” Singhal wrote. “Now is a good time to make this important life change. Things are in amazing shape. Search is stronger than ever, and will only get better in the hands of an outstanding set of senior leaders who are already running the show day-to-day.” Google engineering VP John Giannandrea will take Singhal’s place , Re/Code noted, adding that Giannandrea leads Google’s sprawling research and artificial intelligence efforts, and that Google is now merging the research efforts with search, indicating the priority of machine learning at Alphabet. Oh what a journey! Fifteen amazing years at @google . Time for me to take the next turn. https://t.co/TjZhFG1bm6 — Amit Singhal (@theamitsinghal) February 3, 2016 Apple, Alphabet On Their ‘A’ Game? Apple, which gets an IBD Composite Rating of 68 out of a possible 99, was in the lead at the end of Monday’s regular trading as the largest stock of all. Then Alphabet climbed to a $555 billion market cap in extended trading after the close Monday, as investors cheered its Q4 report, vs. Apple at a $533 billion market value. Companies that have held the largest-stock spot in the past include General Electric ( GE ), General Motors ( GM ) and IBM ( IBM ). Alphabet, which gets a best-possible IBD Composite Rating of 99, is down about 3% so far this year, owing to Wednesday’s reversal. YouTube video, mobile search and programmatic ads helped drive Alphabet revenue up 18% from a year earlier to $21.32 billion in its Q4 report, where analysts expected $20.76 billion. Earnings ex items lifted 26% to $8.67 a share, rocketing past the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters for $8.09. Image provided by Shutterstock .

Apple Ordered To Pay $625 Million To VirnetX, Whose Stock Soars

Apple ( AAPL ) must pay more than $625 million in a patent dispute, as deemed by a federal jury in Texas on Wednesday, Reuters reported in the late afternoon. The consumer electronics giant was found to have used patent holder  VirnetX Holding ‘s ( VHC ) Internet security technology without its OK, in Apple’s FaceTime and iMessage features, the report said. Some of the intellectual property has to do with VPNs, or virtual private networking. VirnetX stock shot up more than 89% after hours, after vaulting 29.8% in Wednesday’s regular session, to 4.79. Apple stock slipped 0.5% after hours, following a 2% rise during a trading day in which it regained the title of biggest stock in market cap from Google-owner  Alphabet ( GOOGL ). The case (VirnetX Inc., et al. v. Apple Inc., No. 6:12-cv-00855) is a retrial on some issues thrown out by an appeals court after Nevada-based VirnetX won a $368.2 million verdict vs. Apple, and also includes some newer-generation Apple products, according to a Bloomberg report on the case last month. The verdict was announced before Judge Robert Schroeder in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, in Tyler. It “ includes royalties awarded to Virnet  based on an earlier patent infringement finding against Apple that (law firm) Caldwell Cassady & Curry also won for VirnetX,” the Dallas law firm said in a press release Wednesday evening. “The jury found that Apple’s modified VPN On Demand, iMessage and FaceTime services infringed VirnetX’s patents and that Apple’s infringement was willful,” it said in the release, adding that the award reflects Apple’s continuing use of the patents, as well as the royalties. The Eastern District of Texas is a hotbed for patent litigation. A report out last month from patent risk solutions firm RPX described how many patent holders flocked to the district in 2015: “The Eastern District of Texas, long thought to be the most plaintiff-friendly litigation venue , remains by far the district of choice for NPEs (non-practicing entities) to bring suit,” it said. “In fact, its popularity grew in the last two years.” Patent holders who aren’t outright technology developers are called NPEs, or non-practicing entities. VirnetX, however, describes itself as a company “developing and commercializing software and technology solutions for securing real-time communications over the Internet.”