Tag Archives: msft

Amazon Hits New High As Market Cap Nears $332 Billion

Amazon.com ( AMZN ) stock hit a record high of 704.55 Tuesday, passing its previous high of 696.44 set on Dec. 29 and giving the e-commerce giant a market valuation near $332 billion. The stock ended the regular trading session up 3.4% to 703.07 on the stock market today . Amazon has gained 62% in the past year. The jump comes as Sanford Bernstein analyst Carlos Kirjner raised his price target on Amazon to a whopping 1,000, which is 47% above its close of 679.75 on Monday. IBD’s Take: How healthy is Amazon’s stock and how does it compare to rivals? Find out at IBD Stock Checkup “We think Amazon’s businesses are now so large, fast-growing, and profitable that it is harder and harder for the company to find new areas of investment to keep up with the growth in gross profits,” Kirjner wrote in the report, according to a report from Bloomberg . Among areas of investment and growth is Amazon Web Services, its cloud computing unit that’s on pace to reach $12.5 billion in revenue this year. And thanks to its early entry in the business, AWS is now the leader in cloud computing, with a market share of 31%. The next closest competitor is Microsoft ( MSFT ) with 9%, followed by IBM ( IBM ) and Alphabet ‘s ( GOOGL ) Google Cloud. Among analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, 11 have a strong buy rating on Amazon, 28 say buy and 4 say hold. The move up in Amazon comes as the company on Tuesday announced a new platform on its streaming video service that goes head-to-head with Alphabet-owned YouTube. The new platform, called Amazon Video Direct , lets anyone upload clips or their own licensed videos. Alphabet, which hit an all-time high of 810.35 on Feb. 5, rose 1.4% to 739.38 on Tuesday.  Alphabet posted its fifth straight gain, but it is still below its 50-day moving average.

Rackspace Posts Q2 Revenue Miss, ‘Lacks Catalysts’ In Cloud Sector

Rackspace Hosting ( RAX ) stock fell after the cloud computing service provider late Monday reported Q1 revenue that missed estimates and forecast current-quarter sales below views. Shares in Rackspace had fallen 2.5% in early trading on the stock market today , but by early afternoon, the stock was up 2.6% to above 23. “The lack of near-term catalysts for growth, in a cloud sector marked by growth, will likely result in continued weakness in the shares despite an aggressive buyback program,” Michael Bowen, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, said in a report. Rackspace repurchased $68 million of its own stock in Q1. It plans to buy back at least $65 million in the current quarter. After that, it would have about $500 million remaining in a share repurchasing program. Rackspace has struggled in competing with the much larger Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing arm of Amazon.com ( AMZN ), as well as Microsoft ‘s ( MSFT ) Azure service and Alphabet ‘s ( GOOGL ) Google in the IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service) market. Amazon’s AWS is the biggest provider of IaaS, in which client companies rent computers and data storage via the Internet cloud. Rackspace has been shifting to providing service for public clouds aside from its own, including AWS and Microsoft’s Azure cloud. Rackspace said Q1 earnings rose 21% to 34 cents a share, with revenue up 8% to $518 million. Analysts had modeled for profit of 22 cents and revenue of $519 million. In the current quarter, Rackspace forecast revenue of $521.5 million at the midpoint of its guidance vs. consensus estimates of $523.9 million. Rackspace stock has plunged 58% from 12 months ago. Shares are down about 13% in 2016 so far. Rackspace has an IBD Composite Rating of 53 out of a possible 99.

Apple Must Step Up In ‘Bots’ As Facebook, Microsoft Advance, Says UBS

Apple ( AAPL ) needs to jump into “bot” platform development or its app-based software ecosystem will be threatened, says a UBS report. Facebook ( FB ) recently introduced “chatbots” built into its messaging service while  Microsoft ( MSFT ) launched its “Bot Framework” software tools for developers, putting pressure on Apple to respond, says the UBS report. Alphabet ’s ( GOOGL ) Google, like Apple, has lagged amid a flurry of bot announcements. But Google plans a bigger push into artificial intelligence , its CEO recently said. A bot is software that automates tasks. Consumer applications for bots include buying movie tickets or making hotel reservations. Businesses are using bots to handle things such as customer service or scheduling meetings. Chatbots, meanwhile, are software programs that simulate conversation about a range of topics. The UBS report is based on a meeting with Bruce Wilcox, director of natural language strategy at Kore, a startup developing bots for enterprise platforms such as Salesforce.com ( CRM ). Apple has been moving into the enterprise market — large companies and government agencies — by partnering with IBM ( IBM ). According to Wilcox, bots will displace apps in many tasks if using them is made simple. “Do I think that Apple’s in trouble if it doesn’t do something in a bot’s world? Sure, because why would you want to download and install all sorts of apps from the App Store when you can get access to bots effectively through one app?,” Wilcox told UBS. “ iPhones have had a charisma of a better user experience,” he added. “Bots are going to be wiping out user interface distinctions. The App Store will sell fewer things. People will have less reason to buy an iPhone. So yes, Apple’s going to have to do something.” Apple may be able to use its Siri voice recognition technology along with artificial intelligence to catch up in bots, says the UBS report. Amazon.com ( AMZN ) is expected to forge ahead with its virtual assistant, called Alexa. “Apple’s Siri is a question/answer bot. You ask it a question, it gives you an answer. End of discussion. She finds the answer to questions but does not control the world. Bot platforms try to do both,” said Wilcox. “Alexa is sort of a bot platform. You can route your requests through her to some specific bot effectively. So it is a bot platform. Facebook is in a good position because they have a dominant messaging platform. Facebook has zillions of users. Developers have a strong incentive to get that user base available to themselves.”