There were a pair of noteworthy Street research notes this morning on Microsoft (MSFT), which reports results for its fiscal fourth quarter ended June after the close on Thursday.
UBS analyst Brent Thill this morning repeated his Buy rating and $38 price target on the stock, while raising his forecast for [...]
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Tree.com (TREE), the old Lending Tree, is off sharply this morning after Citigroup analyst Mark Mahanaey downgraded the stock to Hold from Buy, with a new target of $10, down from $12.
Mahaney noted that the company’s Q1 results, announced last week, came up short of his forecast: TREE posted revenue [...]
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Citigroup analyst Kota Ezawa this morning cut his rating on Sony (SNE) to Hold from Buy, with a new target of 3,800 yen, up from 3,700. The analyst writes that Sony’s share price “now reflects investors’ hopes on restructuring” as well as the potential of new businesses. Ezawa trimmed his financial forecasts for Sony for the March 2011 and 2012 fiscal years, to reflect currency factors and a less optimistic view on the television business.
Ezawa says he has pushed out his forecast for a return to profitability for Sony’s TV business to fiscal 2012, from 2011; he adds that “the pace of change in the international competitive landscape of consumer electronics is intensifying again.”
SNE is down 54 cents, or 1.4%, to $36.88.
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The giant electronics distributor Avnet (AVT) this morning said it will acquire Bell Microproducts (BELM) for $7 a share in cash, or about $594 million including the assumption of $342 million in debt. The deal is subject to approval of Bell’s holders, and is expected to close in 60-120 days.
Bell, which has about $3 billion in sales in 2009, is distributor of storage products and other IT hardware; it has over 1,900 employees.
Avnet said it now expects March quarter revenue from its Electronics Marketing Group of $2.75 billion to $2.85 billion, narrowing the old range of $2.55 billion to $2.85 billion. The company sees revenue from its Technology Solutions Group of $1.7 billion to $1.85 billion, again narrowing the forecast from the original range of $1.55 billion to $1.85 billion. Overall revenue is expected to be $4.45 billion to $.7 billion, with EPS of 60-66 cents, which is up from previous guidance of 53-61 cents.
In this morning’s trading:
Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily
The giant electronics distributor Avnet (AVT) this morning said it will acquire Bell Microproducts (BELM) for $7 a share in cash, or about $594 million including the assumption of $342 million in debt. The deal is subject to approval of Bell’s holders, and is expected to close in 60-120 days.
Bell, which has about $3 billion in sales in 2009, is distributor of storage products and other IT hardware; it has over 1,900 employees.
Avnet said it now expects March quarter revenue from its Electronics Marketing Group of $2.75 billion to $2.85 billion, narrowing the old range of $2.55 billion to $2.85 billion. The company sees revenue from its Technology Solutions Group of $1.7 billion to $1.85 billion, again narrowing the forecast from the original range of $1.55 billion to $1.85 billion. Overall revenue is expected to be $4.45 billion to $.7 billion, with EPS of 60-66 cents, which is up from previous guidance of 53-61 cents.
In this morning’s trading:
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Red Hat (RHT) shares remain stuck in the red after management told analysts on a conference call this afternoon that the company expects to make $835 million to $850 million this year. At the midpoint of that range, $842.5 million, the forecast is in line with analysts’ average estimate.
The company said that with an expected tax rate of 35%, and no investment gains (unlike the $11 million last year), the company should turn in 71 cents to 74 cents per share in profit for the year, excluding stock options and other expenses. That’s below the 76 cents per share analysts have been forecasting.
The forecast follows a narrow Q4 earnings beat, announced after the bell.
Red Hat shares are now down 90 cents, or 3%, at $29.80.
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Shares of database and data warehouse appliance maker Netezza (NZ) are up 74 cents, or 6%, at $13.54 following the company’s analyst day presentation yesterday. The company reiterated its fiscal 2011 (ending January) financial outlook provided March 3 and raised the forecast for its operating margin “long term” to 17% to 22% from a prior range of 15% to 20%.
Pacific Crest analyst Nabil Elsheshai reiterated an “Outperform” rating on the stock and a $14 price target, writing that the company’s product lineup for coming months looks “strong” and it has growing “momentum” in its distribution channel, and noting the company inked a partnership with Accenture (ACN). Oracle (ORCL) remains a threat, he adds, but mentions Netezza management argues Oracle is focusing more on traditional database applications with its “Exadata 2″ product.
Thomas Weisel’s Doug Reid reiterated an “Overweight” rating and raised his target price to $16 price target, noting that the increased outlook on operating profit “adds confidence to our positive long term outlook.” Netezza is increasingly outsourcing R&D duties to Pland and India, which will help expenses. Reid believes the company has a defensible product given that it focuses on the analytics that are applied to data, rather than database look-ups and such. Reid introduced a fiscal 2012 estimate of $275.3 million in revenue and 57 cents in EPS.
– Tiernan Ray, Barrons.com
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At Motorola (MOT), sales of the company’s Android phones seem to be doing just fine. As for their legacy phones…less fine.
BroadpointAmTech analyst Mark McKechnie this morning bumped up his March forecast for Motorola Android phone sales to 1.9 million units from 1.7 million; he also lifted his 2010 forecast to 13 million units, from 12 million. (The company has projected 11-14 million units for the year.)
On the other hand, he chopped his forecast for “legacy” – i.e., “old” – MOTO phones for the quarter to 7.5 million units, from 8.8 million. For the full year, he goes to 42 million, from 47 million.
The trouble is that sales of the old phones are slowing faster than the new phones are ramping. Ergo, he trimmed his EPS forecast for the March quarter to a loss of 2 cents, from a loss of a penny. His full year forecast drops to 22 cents, from 25 cents.
That said, McKechnie keep his Buy rating and $10 target on the stock, on the theory that Android will be successful and that MOT will remain dominant player.
MOT today is down 10 cents, or 1.4%, to $7.28.
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Intel (INTC) shares are moving higher on widespread rumors that the company might pre-announce Q1 results above previous guidance. The rumors were first reported on Briefing.com and TheFlyOnTheWall, and have since been picked up by Reuters.
When it reported Q4 results, Intel projected Q1 revenue of $9.7 billion, plus or minus $400 million, with gross margin of 61%, plus or minus two points. The Street consensus is for $9.79 billion in revenue and profits of 37 cents a share.
JMP Research analyst Alex Gauna this morning repeated his Market Outperform rating and $30 price target on the stock, while increasing his 2010 forecast to $1.85 a share, from $1.80. For 2011, he now sees $2.10, up from $2.05. Gauna is looking for Q4 revenue of $10.1 billion – the high end of the forecast range – and profits of 40 cents a share.
The higher estimates, he writes, reflect “checks indicating ongoing momentum” in server processors that should continue in the wake of upgrades today of its Xeon processor line.
INTC is up 75 cents, or 3.5%, to $21.92.
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