Showing posts with label Pacific Crest Securities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pacific Crest Securities. Show all posts

Monday, November 24, 2014

Investing Ideas November 2014

Yum Brands,parent of Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut,has been upgraded from hold to buy at Janney Capital Markets,mainly on undervaluation.The firm got a new price target of 88.00 a share.*
Don't expect Apple Computer to go higher,according to Pacific Crest Securities.There is a potential lack of growth beyond the iPhone 6,and the iWatch and other products won't be able to make up for it.*
Lumber Liquidators was raised from equal weight to overweight at Morgan Stanley,with an 85.00 a share price target.The company has about 10% square footage growth and powerful store remodel/relocate benefits in its favour.Rising home prices and lower fuel costs should also help Lumber Liquidators.*
The low gas prices should also help big box retailers such as Target and Best Buy,says Stifel Nicolaus.Another plus is the strength of their online businesses alongside their brick and mortar stores.Wal-Mart has already seen share price appreciation from these factors.*
Yum Brands(YUM),Best Buy(BBY),Wal-Mart(WMT),Target(TGT),Apple Computer(AAPL)

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Scrutinising Microsoft:Is The Future Promising

In its recent report to shareholders,Microsoft beat on the earnings estimate,but missed on revenue.The company will begin a new product cycle in October with the release of Windows 8.Brendan Barnacle of Pacific Crest Securities said we are a little concerned about the hype around Windows 8,so we might take a little off the table.
Microsoft experienced a net loss of 492 million dollars-the first in its 26 year history as a public corporation.That was mainly from a writedown it took in connection with its 2007 acquisition of online display ad company aQuantive,however.Excluding that,earnings were 0.73,versus the estimate of 0.62 a share.Microsoft's 2012 fiscal year revenue,or sales,was a record 743 billion dollars.
On 10-26,Microsoft will release its first tablet computer,the Surface.PC users on Windows 7,Vista or Windows XP will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 for the price of 40.00 until the end of January 2013.
The online services division,including the Bing search engine,lost about 472 million on the quarter.Revenue for the Windows PC division was down 58 million versus the year ago quarter.
The company's enterprise segment was up 7% as businesses placed multiyear orders for Office 15 and database software.This enterprise business helped make up for consumers deferring purchases until Windows 8 comes out or buying competitors' products.The deferred revenue number was pretty good,said Mr.Barnacle of Pacific Crest Securities.This number gives you an indication of future growth,so that's encouraging.He rates Microsoft as "sector perform."Given all that we know about the weakness in PCs,it's not surprising that the sales numbers came in a little light,particularly on the Windows side.
The company's revenue in Entertainment and Devices,including the Xbox gaming console,rose an outstanding 20% to 1.78 billion dollars.Sales and marketing costs were cut 3.5% to 3.78 billion.
All in all,the company has a good deal to look forward to as it gears up for the Windows 8 release and the Surface tablet,continuing to serve its enterprise customers and Xbox denizens in the meantime.It's doing a reasonable job for a mature corporation navigating the highly competitive environment it finds itself in.
Microsoft(MSFT)