Here are some things going on this afternoon in your world of tech:
Shares of Groupon (GRPN) are recovering off of their worst levels of the session, currently $1.18, or almost 20%, at $4.80, but up from a low of $4.24, after the company last night slightly missed Q4 estimates, reporting revenue of $638 million and a loss of 12 cents, versus consensus for $640 million and profit estimates that ranged from a loss of a penny to profit of 3 cents per share, and projected this quarter's revenue at $560 million to $610 million, well below the consensus $650 million.
There have been three downgrades of the stock, thus far, that I can see, with Raymond James and Merrill Lynch analysts cutting their ratings to Underperform, while Wells Fargo cut the stock to Market Perform from Outperform. Wrote Raymond James's Aaron Kessler, “While we believe Groupon is taking the right measures in lowering take rates and moving consumers towards deal bank (vs. push email), in the near term we expect top- and bottom-line growth to be limited and expect the shares to remain pressured until growth and margins recover, likely not until late 2013 at the earliest.”
Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, who last week raised his rating on the shares to Overweight, today sticks by that move, while declaring M&A culpa, and cutting his price target to $7 from $8, after cutting estimates, declaring “While the decrease in take rate was disappointing [...] the quarter did see some incremental progress internationally and continued NA growth (Rev +109%).”
“Specifically, Gross billings ex-goods grew 6% y/y, up from -13% in Sep-12, while direct revenue grew 31% q/q compared with -3% in Sep-12.”
Shares of organic light-emitting diode manufacturer Universal Display (PANL) are up $4.10, or almost 15%, at $32 after the company last night reported Q4 revenue of $28 million, topping the consensus for $26 million, but missed on the bottom line with a profit of 12 cents versus the 14 cents analysts were expecting, and forecast this year's revenue at $110 million to $121 million, less than the $125 million Street consensus. Bulls on the stock today may be lowering estimates, but they are also sticking to a view of “catalysts” to come.
Rob Stone of Cowen & Co., reiterating an Outperform rating, writes “The [Samsung Electronics] Galaxy S IV launch should drive demand and start the ramp of green emitter and host adoption.”
“New opportunities include TVs (volume shipments in 2014), lighting, flexible displays, and encapsulation.”
Shares of solar energy technology provider SunPower (SPWR) are up 68 cents, or almost 6%, at $12.36, after Citigroup's Shahriar Pourreza reiterated a Buy rating and raised his price target to $16, insisting that a more than doubling in the stock this year doesn't mean the shares can't go higher, writing that “If you go back just 18 months, SPWR shares still Expected share price return generate negative returns.”
“So while some of the recent outperformance is attributed to Expected dividend yield a bounce from relatively depressed levels, there are other forces at play [...] a noticeable pick-up ofinterest from our long only community as the sector outperforms, a general risk on mentality as investors begin to price in bottoming global solar fundamentals and, some exuberance from the emergence/expansion of 3rd party financing.”
A number of smartphone and chip analysts today were trying to figure out what to make of wireless chip provider Avago Technologies's (AVGO) announcement Tuesday of a quarterly forecast below expectations, and the departure of its CFO. There was some disagreement as to how it may reflect upon Apple (AAPL), a large customer of Avago's. Some suggest the outlook from Avago is a result of diminished prospects for the iPhone. But Raymond James's Tavis McCourt argues the news is “consistent with our expectation the iPhone 5S will launch a few weeks earlier than last year's iPhone 5.”
Apple shares today are up 80 cents at $445.37, bouncing back from a sell-off following yesterday's annual shareholder meeting, and despite an announcement from Samsung it plans to host a gigantic event in New York on March 14th for its next “Galaxy S” phone.
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