Tag Archives: yhoo

Verizon Revenue Misses, Warns Strike May Hit Q2 Profit

Verizon Communications ( VZ ) early Thursday reported in-line Q1 EPS but its revenue missed Wall Street views. The phone company reiterated guidance for flat full-year adjusted earnings. Verizon said current-quarter profit could be pressured by the strike of 39,000 wireline workers, which began April 13. Verizon said Q1 profit rose 4% to $1.06 from the year-earlier period, with revenue rising less than 1% to $32.17 billion. Analysts had modeled revenue of $32.46 billion. Excluding AOL, acquired in June 2015, Verizon said Q1 revenue fell 1.5%. Wireless revenue fell 1.4% to $22 billion. Verizon, which has stated its interest in acquiring Yahoo ( YHOO ), had $104 billion in net debt as of March 31, down slightly from $109 billion a year earlier. Verizon said it had a net loss of 8,000 postpaid phone subscribers, far less than the 138,000 postpaid phone customers shed in the year-earlier period. The company said it added 36,000 FiOS video customers in Q1, down from the 90,000 added in Q1 2015. It added 98,000 FiOS Internet customers, down from 133,000. In early April, Verizon closed a deal to sell wireline assets in California, Florida and Texas to Frontier Communications ( FTR ) for $10.5 billion. Verizon stock was down 2% in premarket trading Thursday, near 52. Verizon stock touched a 16-year high of 54.49 on April 5. Top rival  AT&T ( T ) is slated to report its Q1 earnings on April 26.

‘Elephant’ Intel Dances, But 12,000 Layoffs Could Signal Recession

No. 1 chipmaker Intel ( INTC ) will cut 12,000 jobs by mid-2017, and that will help kick off a “recession” with nearly 400,000 tech positions to be cut this year, a Global Equities Research analyst predicted Tuesday. Late Tuesday, Intel added another domino to the layoff train, joining  VMware ( VMW ), Yahoo ( YHOO ), BlackBerry ( BBRY ), Autodesk ( ADSK ) and NetApp ( NTAP ), which recently announced plans to collectively lay off 5,125 employees. Intel’s 12,000-cut represents 11% of its global workforce. Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry says it’s just a drop in a 369,000 bucket (his prediction for tech layoffs that will be announced this year) and argued against a Federal Reserve rate increase amid what he calls a likely oncoming recession. PC Transition Will Be ‘Messy’ On Wednesday, Wall Street was largely split on Intel’s mixed Q1 , with at least five analysts still rating Intel stock a buy. At least two analysts cut their price targets, however, and another downgraded Intel stock. In early afternoon trading on the stock market today , Intel stock was up 1.5%, near 32. But shares are down 8% for the year vs. a 3% decline in IBD’s 39-company Electronic-Semiconductor Manufacturing industry group. For Q1 ended April 2, Intel reported $13.7 billion in sales and 54 cents earnings per share, up a respective 7% and 20% year over year. The consensus of 45 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected $13.8 billion and 48 cents. PC chip sales rose 2%, but that trailed stronger growth in data center, Internet of Things and security — up a respective 9%, 22% and 12%. Nonvolatile memory chip sales fell 6%. Current-quarter sales guidance for $13.5 billion, plus or minus $500 million, lagged the consensus for $14.2 billion. Intel’s April quarter benefited from an extra week. Intel’s transition from a PC-oriented company will be “messy,” Credit Suisse analyst John Pitzer wrote in a research report. Late Tuesday, CEO Brian Krzanich said the layoffs would allow Intel to save $750 million in the first year and $1.4 billion per year starting by mid-2017, so that the company can “intensify” investments in key growth areas. Pitzer reiterated an outperform rating and a 40 price target on Intel stock. ‘Trying To Be More Nimble’ PCs represented 55% of Intel’s Q1 sales vs. 58% a year earlier. In 2011, the client computing group accounted for 65% of Intel’s revenue. The company is aiming to trim that to 50%, which Semiconductors Advisers President Robert Maire calls a “milestone.” “Intel is certainly trying, perhaps with varying degrees of success, to get revenue from many other markets,” Maire wrote in a research report. “While individually, none hold a candle to the PC market, collectively they have been a great offset.” Unlike other companies, Intel isn’t in the red while transitioning, Maire noted. He likened the restructuring — which includes transitioning CFO Stacy Smith into a role leading sales, manufacturing and operations — to teaching an elephant to dance. The elephant theme was popular Wednesday. “Who says elephants can’t dance?” Summit Research analyst Srini Sundararajan queried in a report. Sundararajan reiterated his buy rating and 37 price target on Intel stock. “Keeping (2016) capital expenditures the same ($9.5 billion at the midpoint) while proceeding with a layoff confirms that Intel is trying to be more nimble and refocusing itself away from the PC,” he wrote in a report. During Q2, Intel will recognize a $1.2 billion restructuring charge. But the second half of 2016 looks promising, Sundararajan said. Intel dropped full-year guidance to mid-single-digit growth vs. earlier views for mid- to high-single-digit growth. Sundararajan says this suggests a big second-half-year recovery, with revenue up 13%.

Yahoo Earnings Beat Despite Ongoing Challenges; Acquisition Near?

Yahoo ( YHOO ) stock opened higher Wednesday after the company late Tuesday assured investors it’s working diligently to find a buyer for its core, and perhaps other, businesses. Executives didn’t give any specifics, however, and its Q2 revenue outlook fell short of Wall Street estimates, as the Web company continues to cut costs. CFO Ken Goldman said the company’s headcount, including contractors, was down to 9,200, which it said is down 42% from the start of 2012. RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney hiked his price target on Yahoo stock to 38 from 33, citing the rise of its Asian assets and his sum-of-its-parts analysis of the company. But he maintained his market perform rating on Yahoo stock. Most analysts maintained the equivalent of neutral ratings and maintained their price targets. Yahoo stock was up 2.5%, above 37, in early trading in the stock market today . “We are moving forward at the fastest possible pace,” Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said on the company’s earnings conference call last Tuesday. Verizon Communications ( VZ ), which bought AOL last year for $4.4 billion, is widely considered to be the front-runner for Yahoo’s core business. It’s uncertain what Yahoo will do with its 15% stake in China e-commerce leader Alibaba ( BABA ) or its big stake in Yahoo Japan. Late Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that besides Verizon, bidders include U.K. publisher Daily Mail, buyout firm TPG and an investor group that included Bain Capital, Vista Equity Partners and former Yahoo interim CEO Ross Levinsohn. Mayer, then a top executive with Google (now part of Alphabet ( GOOGL )), was chosen over Levinsohn and others for the top spot at Yahoo in 2012. Private-equity firms, Silver Lake and Advent International also expressed interest in bidding, the WSJ said. Yahoo continues to attract more than 1 billion unique visitors a month to its online properties, long among the leaders on that score, but it’s spent a decade failing to spark much, if any, revenue growth. Yahoo Revenue Declines Accelerating For Q1, Yahoo said its earnings per share minus items fell 47% to 8 cents from 15 cents in Q1 2015, but analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected just 7 cents. Revenue fell 11% to $1.09 billion, just above the $1.08 billion that analysts had expected. For Q2, the company forecast revenue of $1.05 billion to $1.09 billion, down 14% at the midpoint and lagging consensus views of $1.102 billion. Facebook ( FB ) and Alphabet continue to gain in mobile and digital advertising at the expense of Yahoo and others. Cowen analyst John Blackledge, in a research note, pointed out the company posted a deceleration in mobile revenue growth and in growth for what its calls MAVENs, referring to the higher-growth areas of mobile, social, video and native advertising. He maintained a 32 price target on Yahoo stock. Yahoo did say MAVENs accounted for 38% of its total traffic-driven revenue, up from 33% in Q1 2015. William Blair analyst Ralph Schackart kept his market perform rating, citing “Yahoo’s weak core business fundamentals,” in a research note. “Yahoo’s search business continues to experience headwinds from declining desktop traffic, with paid clicks down 21% year over year in the first quarter after being down 10% last quarter,” Schackart wrote. “Further, search partnerships and increased affiliate traffic have caused traffic acquisition costs to grow at a faster rate than gross revenue, resulting in net search revenue declining 21% year over year in the first quarter.”