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Verizon CEO: Go90 ‘Overhyped,’ But ‘Expectations Are Realistic’

Verizon Communications ‘ ( VZ ) Go90 mobile video service was “overhyped,” Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said at an investor conference Tuesday. McAdam downplayed expectations for Go90, speaking at the JPMorgan financial conference in Boston. “I think maybe it did get a little over-hyped, and I’m sure we contributed to that to a certain extent,” McAdam said. “We didn’t believe it was going to move the needle on a $130 billion revenue stream overnight. It’s one of those things you have to work into.” Verizon has not disclosed how many subscribers it has for the ad-supported Go90 service, which targets millennials (ages 18 to 34) and “Gen Zers” (teens). Launched in September, Go90 provides a mix of original Web TV series, live sports, concert streaming, prime-time TV and other offerings. Verizon’s Go90 is usually lumped with emerging over-the-top (OTT) video services, such as  Dish Network ‘s ( DISH ) Sling, but the mobile app also competes for millennial attention with the likes of Alphabet ( GOOGL ) parent Google’s YouTube,  Facebook ( FB ), Instagram and Snapchat. “We have seen enough success to make us excited about continuing to work it. We’re on pace,” McAdam said. “Bottom line is that Go90 is in a good spot from our perspective. We’re going to continue to pursue it. But our expectations are realistic.” At an analyst meeting in April, Verizon executives indicated they might expand Go90 to multiple video streaming platforms this year. As for speculation that Verizon remains the front-runner to acquire the main business of Web portal Yahoo ( YHOO ), McAdam acknowledged interest, though it’s not the first such acknowledgement by Verizon executives. “We can’t talk about Yahoo, but that’s a possibility,” McAdam said at the conference, news website TheStreet reported .  “That’s a possibility to gain greater scale.” Verizon stock was up a fraction, near 49.50, in midday trading in the stock market today .

Varian Spinoff Could Boost Sluggish Topline Growth, Says Analyst

Varian Medical Systems ( VAR ) got a mostly favorable reception from Wall Street Tuesday after it announced late Monday that it’s spinning off its imaging-components business into a separate company. Varian said that it will complete the spinoff by year’s end through a tax-free distribution that will turn the imaging unit into a stand-alone company. The business is “fundamentally different” from Varian’s core business in radiation oncology, Varian CEO Dow Wilson said in a statement, so the two will be better off apart. Varian said that it will incur $35 million in charges but financial guidance for this year is otherwise unchanged. Varian’s management said the spinoff will bring $20 million in “dis-synergies” for the remaining company, mostly through increased general and administrative expenses, but that after a couple of years this should be offset by a combination of cost-cutting and service agreements between the two companies. RBC Capital Markets analyst Brandon Henry gave a thumb’s up and raised his price target on Varian stock to 88 from 85, while affirming a sector-perform rating. “Varian’s Imaging Components business has weighed on the company’s topline growth for the last five quarters,” Henry wrote in a research note, citing slowing customer demand along with competitive and pricing pressures. “However, we expect Imaging Components to return to low-single-digit year-over-year growth in fiscal year 2017.” Varian’s revenue growth has been stuck in single digits for the last four years, and in the most recent quarter was flat. Henry sees the spinoff as an opportunity for the remaining company to broaden its reach in the cancer market. “We do not expect any transformational M&A, as management likes to keep a relatively conservative balance sheet,” he wrote. “However, we expect slightly more topline growth going forward to be from tuck-in M&A than in the past.” Varian stock was up a fraction in early trading on the stock market today , near 83. The stock holds a decent IBD Composite Rating of 76, helped partly by being in the highest-ranked of all the medical groups, Systems & Equipment, which currently stands at No. 19 in IBD’s ranking of 197 industry groups. Top stocks in the group include Intuitive Surgical ( ISRG ), Masimo ( MASI ) and Cantel Medical ( CMN ).

Microsoft Stock Oversold, Gets Upgrade On Cloud Prospects

Microsoft ( MSFT ) stock is “underappreciated” by investors who are overlooking the company’s long-term prospects in cloud computing services, Cowen analyst Gregg Moskowitz said Tuesday. Moskowitz upgraded his rating on Microsoft stock to outperform from market perform, with a price target of 58. Microsoft was up over 2%, above 51, in morning trading on the stock market today . “With shares down 10% year to date on account of disappointing fiscal Q3 earnings, the market has overreacted, with an undue focus on the short term,” Moskowitz said in a research report. He sees Office 365 revenue accelerating and long-term success for Azure cloud infrastructure services. Microsoft’s Office productivity software has reached a turning point in its transition to a subscription service from licensed software, he said. Office sales returned to growth last quarter after a series of declines during the transition, Moskowitz said. Meanwhile, Azure is poised to gain higher capacity workloads from corporate customers as IT resources shift to the public cloud, he said. Cowen’s recent survey of over 300 public cloud customers gives it confidence in Microsoft’s cloud prospects, Moskowitz said. “The survey results were clearly positive for Azure, particularly at the enterprise level,” Moskowitz said. “Among those respondents who are looking to add a new public cloud service, 59% are considering Azure, which was higher than any other offering. “Further, when restricting the data to enterprise customers, Azure held a commanding 10-point advantage over the next closest vendor (53% vs. 43% for IBM ( IBM ) SoftLayer), making it the clear preference within this category of customer.” Other competitors include Alphabet ’s ( GOOGL ) Google Cloud Platform and Amazon.com ’s ( AMZN ) Amazon Web Services. RELATED: Microsoft Sheds Low-End Mobile Phone Business Microsoft Stock Rated Hold, Seen Near Full Value In Choppy Market .