Tag Archives: Pacific Crest Securities

Facebook Stock Just Pennies Shy of Hitting IPO Price Again

By Reuters

Hand holding a smartphone with a Facebook logo in front of dollar bills, symbolic image for the Facebook IPO

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Alamy

By Alexei Oreskovic

Facebook’s (FB) stock on Tuesday came within a hair of reclaiming its $38 debut price for the first time since going public in 2012, a milestone in the social networking company’s effort to wipe away Wall Street’s skepticism of its business.

The stock has surged more than 40 percent in the past week after the company reported blowout quarterly results that showed Facebook’s progress building a mobile advertising business. Shares of Facebook climbed as much as 7 percent to $37.96 in heavy trading on Tuesday, before settling back to finish the regular session at $37.63.

The social network, with 1.15 billion users, has never traded at or above $38 since the first few days after its initial public offering in May 2012.

Facebook’s market value was cut in half in the months following the IPO as concerns about issues ranging from slowing revenue to massive insider selling made the Internet company’s stock a Wall Street punch line.

“Most companies of that size don’t re-accelerate their growth rate. Facebook’s been an exception,” said Aaron Kessler, an analyst with Raymond James. “I would say they’re in better shape today than they were at the IPO price and the stock is still below that.”

Facebook options volume was frenzied on Tuesday, as overall turnover was 3.8 times the recent daily average, according to options analytics firm Trade Alert. Traders on Tuesday exchanged 694,000 calls and 300,000 puts on Facebook.

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The most popular options were the weekly $38 and $37 strike calls expiring this Friday as most traders expected gains in coming days. One player liked the weekly $32.50 strike puts expiring on Aug. 9, which appeared to be bought 15,000 times for only a dime, said options strategist Frederic Ruffy.

Facebook’s recent success building a mobile advertising business — an area where many of its rivals have struggled — and the online service’s expanding number of daily users have won back investors’ respect and confidence in its prospects. That has fueled a rebound in the shares, which are up more than 50 percent in July.

Facebook said last week its mobile advertising revenue grew 75 percent in a span of three months, trouncing analyst targets and delivering the company’s strongest revenue growth since the third quarter of 2011. Many analysts raised their price targets above the $38 level following Facebook’s quarterly report last week.

The second quarter results “were really a game-changer in terms of how Facebook is perceived on the Street,” said Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson. “It was pretty close to the perfect quarter.”

Facebook announced plans on Tuesday to help market and distribute mobile games on its social network in exchange for a cut of revenue that the games generate, raising hopes that the company could tap a new business. And many investors expect Facebook …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Analyst Ratings Storm Sinks Silver Spring Networks

By Travis Hoium, The Motley Fool

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Although we don’t believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes — just in case they’re material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of grid supplier Silver Spring Networks fell as much as 10% today after a slew of analysts initiated coverage.

So what: Companies that were involved in underwriting the company’s IPO released ratings, and they ranged from an overweight rating by Evercore and a $24 price target to neutral ratings and $19 targets from Piper Jaffray and Goldman Sachs. Pacific Crest Securities said the company may struggle with a decline in big metering infrastructure deals, although they weren’t bearish enough to give an underperform rating.  

Now what: This is really a lot of noise, and I’d be more concerned about what management says on its earnings call in May. Brand-new companies to the market come with a lot of risk, so I’d wait to make a judgment until we get our first public earnings report. That’s when the rubber hits the road, and we can see what the pace of orders looks like and what management expects over the rest of 2013.

Interested in more info on Silver Spring Networks? Add it to your watchlist by clicking here.

The article Analyst Ratings Storm Sinks Silver Spring Networks originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Travis Hoium has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Goldman Sachs. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don’t all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Apple Falls Again As Dow Slips

By John Divine, The Motley Fool

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Nearing the end of the first quarter, the Dow Jones Industrial Average pumped the breaks, ending a bit lower today. With the markets closed for Good Friday, tomorrow is the last trading day of the month. A quick look back reveals just how bullish 2013 has been: Should the market trade evenly tomorrow, the benchmark index is on pace for 50% gains this year. Still digesting the messy Cyprus situation, the Dow ended down 33 points, or 0.2%, to finish at 14,526. 

Only a third of blue-chip stocks rose today, and UnitedHealth Group led all outperformers with gains of 1.7%. Though the sweeping changes in health care set to take place as a result of the Affordable Care Act haven’t fully taken place yet, investors hope that the larger pool of people with insurance will help providers like UnitedHealth. On top of that, the stock has some momentum behind it: It’s up more than 6% in the last month.

Still reeling from the fiscal concerns emanating from Europe, JPMorgan Chase finished 1.8% lower, to mark the third consecutive day where a financial ranks at the bottom of the Dow. But fears of being dragged down by foreign happenings aren’t the only thing holding JPMorgan back. The company’s also facing scrutiny from Washington, as investigations about everything from the Madoff scheme to rogue traders plague the bank.

Elsewhere, shares of Biogen Idec added 3.2% as Wall Street cheered news that the company’s new multiple sclerosis won FDA approval. The drug, Tecfidera, is projected to be the top oral treatment for MS, putting annual U.S. sales between $240 million and $300 million by some estimates. 

While it’s been a remarkable year for the market as a whole, the same can’t be said for Apple , which is down 15% since New Year’s Day and slipped another 2% to fall for a second straight day, as a Pacific Crest Securities analyst cut projections for second-quarter sales and EPS on tempered expectations for the iPad. While as recently as last fall we saw investors drooling about the tech giant’s prospects, today’s cautious outlook on Apple advises that it may be “attractive for investors with lower return requirements.”

There’s no doubt that Apple is at the center of technology’s largest revolution ever and that longtime shareholders have been handsomely rewarded, with more than 1,000% gains. However, there is a debate raging as to whether Apple remains a buy. The Motley Fool’s senior technology analyst and managing bureau chief, Eric Bleeker, is prepared to fill you in on both reasons to buy and reasons to sell Apple and what opportunities are left for the company (and your portfolio) going forward. To get instant access to his latest thinking on Apple, simply click here now.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Dow Sets Another Record on Strong Economic Data

By Jeremy Bowman, The Motley Fool

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With Cyprus now safely in the rearview window, stocks returned to their usual winning ways today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 112 points, or 0.8%, boosted by some strong economic reports to set yet another all-time closing high. The S&P 500 also finished within two points of a record close, ending at 1,563.

Among the reports pushing stocks higher were a better-than-expected increase in durable orders and exceptionally strong growth in housing prices. Overall, orders for long-lasting products increased 5.7% in February, better than projections of 3.8%, and up from a drop of 3.8% in January. The increase was led by a jump in commercial aircraft purchases, but factoring out the more volatile transportation sector, however, orders fell 0.5%. The Case-Shiller 20-City Index, meanwhile, showed its biggest increase in housing prices in six years as prices jumped 8.1% from a year ago, and home values went up in all 20 metropolitan areas that the index tracks.

The consistently strong economic data seems to have convinced investors that the bull market will continue for the long haul, though there were a couple of reports today that came in below expectations. Consumer confidence dropped all the way to 59.7 from 68.0 in February, as fears of sequestration seem to have worn on average Americans. New-home sales for February were also lower than expected at 411,000 versus 426,000.

On the Dow today, Intel led all comers, gaining 2.9% after word broke that the chipmaker was in talks with Time Warner and Viacom for the rights to TV shows and movies that would allow it to start its own online pay-TV service. Intel would produce its own set-top box, which could be out by the end of the year, shaking up the video wars as the tech heavyweight would be putting its capital up against the likes of Comcast, DirecTV, and Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX). The service would be delivered through users’ broadband connections and would offer subscribers more of an a la carte service rather than a full complement of channels that cable and satellite providers offer, allowing subscribers to choose what channels they like.

Boeing shares were also up 2.1%, benefiting from the strong improvement in durable-goods orders as well as the first successful flight of a Dreamliner jet after the new models were grounded because of battery fires. Boeing said it hopes the Dreamliner fleet will be back in the skies within weeks, but after hours the possibility arose that the FAA could impose a temporary limit on the jet’s range, potentially making ocean crossings impossible, the original intent of the long-haul plane.

Outside the Dow, Netflix jumped 5.4% after Pacific Crest Securities upped its price target on the home-video entertainer to $225 from $160. Analyst Andy Hargreaves pointed out that Netflix’s trove of subscriber data gives it a competitive advantage in generating original content and purchasing outside content, since it has more access to user preferences than its competitors. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

What's Sending Netflix Higher Today

By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

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Netflix jumped out of the gate this morning and has kept moving higher throughout the trading session, rising almost 6%, or $10.50 per share, as of 1:45 p.m. EDT. This comes after analysts at Pacific Crest Securities gave a bullish outlook for the video-streaming giant, boosting its price target on the stock from $160 to $225.

Pacific Crest‘s analysis echoes the bullish sentiment that many investors have long believed about Netflix. Although most investors have focused on Netflix’s domestic business, its international expansion prospects are even larger, and Pacific Crest believes its overseas business could account for nearly a third of total Netflix subscribers by 2015.

That doesn’t mean Netflix will reap this success without effort. Competitors are lining up to threaten the company’s business model. Amazon.com seeks to use the power of its Amazon Prime customer base to drive demand for its own streaming content. The company has traditionally been willing to accept razor-thin margins or even short-term losses in the early stages of a budding new technology in order to build up a strong position in the industry, and that can have negative effects on the companies it’s competing against. But Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is quite familiar with Amazon’s tactics, and the company has also done a better-than-expected job of holding onto its DVD subscribers even after threatening to jettison them in its ill-fated strategic shift back in 2011. That, in turn, has held Coinstar and its Redbox service back, allowing Netflix to keep more profit for itself.

The key to continuing success for Netflix remains obtaining content that people want to see and are willing to pay for. With its recent deal with Disney , Netflix unlocked the door to a vast reservoir of high-value content, and that value will only grow as Disney’s recent acquisition of Lucasfilm adds to its established stable of potential blockbusters from Pixar and Marvel. Moreover, Netflix’s own foray into content creation with its House of Cards series could prove to be the next step in the company’s evolution and help it keep costs down while maintaining high quality.

As long as Netflix keeps growing, its share price has the capacity to follow suit. Even with the massive run in its stock, a further 15% to 20% increase to $225 per share doesn’t look out of the question for Netflix in the near future.

Find out more about Netflix by reading our premium research report on the stock, in which we look at the streaming giant’s best chances for future growth. You’ll learn about the key opportunities and risks facing the company, as well as reasons to buy or sell the stock. The report includes a full year of updates to cover critical new developments, so be sure to click here and claim a copy today.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance