Pacific Crest Reiterates Overweight Rating On T-Mobile Stock

Pacific Crest provides detailed review of T-Mobile earnings, while reiterating an Overweight rating

On Wednesday, in a research note T-Mobile US Inc. third quarter FY15 earnings release was reviewed by Pacific Crest. The sell side firm reiterated a target price of $47 along with an Overweight rating and believes that the company reported strong results for the quarter ended on September 30. The firm told the stock is a buy on weakness.

The revenue for the company came in at $7.85 billion and was unable to beat the $8.31 billion mark estimated by the analysts, because of lower revenue from equipment caused by T-Mobile’s JUMP on Demand leasing program. Pacific Crest also noted that the average revenue per unit also dell year over year and is expected to be a concern for investors. However, low average revenue per unit caused from promotions and on the contrary improved average revenue per account 4.8% year over year.

The telecom company also increased its postpaid subscriber estimates to 3.8 to 4.2 million, similar to the sell side firm expectations, but shareholders were supposing more as strength in broadband remains to indicate a stoppage in addition to postpaid subscribers. The company continues to put its investment in network aggressively, which can be seen by the coverage of its LTE network now at around 300 million PoPs and the disposition of its 700 MHz A Block spectrum, which is most likely to cover around 350 markets by the end of current year.

The firm thinks that offering a broad and reliable network is significant for complying with the requirements of the customers. The firm also believes that the company’s development should cause greater addition in customers and enhanced churn in the upcoming period. The sell side firm believes that the shareholders reaction to lower average revenue per unit and marginally fewer additions in postpaid is overdone as the T-Mobil stock closed in red by 5.7% after the announcement of the quarterly earnings. The firm still expects the company to report robust additions in postpaid next year, which might continue to be caused by Un-Carrier initiatives.

John Legere, T-Mobile Chief Executive Officer said during the earnings announcement. "We've had 10 quarters in a row with over 1 million net new customers. Our momentum is strong and our incredible customer growth is translating directly into solid financial growth which makes it crystal clear that putting customers first is just good business."

T-Mobile stock news reveals that the stock closed down at $39.31 after going green by 0.74% on Wednesday October 28.

AT&T Inc. Third Quarter Earnings Preview

The article takes a look at what the earnings whispers have to say about AT&T Inc.’s upcoming quarterly results

AT&T Inc. is scheduled to report its earnings for the third quarter of fiscal year 2015 on Thursday October 29 after market close. As per earningswhispers.com, the telecom company will beat the analysts’ expectations polled by Bloomberg. The earnings whisper expects the company to post earnings of 69 cents per share, surpassing analysts’ estimates by $0.01. The analysts are expecting earnings of approximately 68 cents.

In the previous quarter, AT&T surpassed revenue and earnings estimates. The company was in a position to report $33.01 billion in revenue with a slight upbeat of nearly 0.04%. The analysts were expecting roughly $33 billion in revenue. On the contrary, earnings per share for the third quarter came in at $0.63 surpassing analysts’ expectations by 8.49% margin.

In the comparable quarter previous year, third quarter fiscal year 2015, the company missed on both EPS and revenues estimates. Revenue for the period came in at $32.95 missing by a slight margin of around 0.75%. Earnings per share for the period amounted to $0.63, while analysts believed the EPS to be around $0.63 cents.

“We now have integrated solutions that are unlike any competitor in the market,” Randall Stephenson, chairman and CEO of the company said in a statement “With our national wireless and video capabilities, as well as our extensive broadband network, we now have assets that make us a unique competitor and the first scaled, fully-integrated U.S. service provider."

The Dallas based company has a satisfactory record in beating analyst revenue and earnings estimates. In the preceding eight quarters, AT&T has managed to surpass earnings expectations 5 times in the past eight quarters. On the other hand, the company missed revenues four times in the past eight quarters.

On the event of the announcement of the financial earnings, analysts at Argus Research has provided the highest target price of $42 along with a Buy rating, while HSBC has assigned the lowest price target of $30 while reaffirming its bearish outlook on AT&T stock.

Out of 40 analysts who cover the company’s stock, 19 gave it a buy, while 18 gave it a hold. The twelve month average target price is $37.77, reflecting an upside potential of around 12.3% over the current share price of $33.81 in the trading session.

AT&T stock news reveals that the stock was up 0.03% to $33.75 at market close on Friday October 24. The company has 52 weeks high and low of $36.45 and $30.97, respectively.

Fords Reported Third Quarter FY15 Earnings

The auto making company has reported a very strong quarter this time again and analysts believe the giant is on the right track, despite the criticism being thrown its way by politician Donald Trump

Fords Motors, which is one of the most dominant auto makers in Detroit has recently reported earnings for the quarter ending on September 30,  they have not come up to the high expectations of the analysts who seem to constantly compare the giant with its rival General Motors. 

Ford reported $2.7 billion in adjusted revenues, which is approximately $1.5 billion more than the prior year quarter. The earnings came in at 45 cents and failed to surpass estimated EPS of 46 cents, however

The one penny difference that was made to the EPS estimated and the one that was reported was due it was $0.21 better than the similar quarter last year.to the expectation of tax deduction rate to 32% by the Wall Street analysts, where the actual tax rate that was presented by the company was 33%.

Analysts in the industry are talking about the kind of strength that was shown by smart car and trucks manufacturers, where the net income turned out to be $1.1 billion more than before, and $1.9 billion in totality. On a completely different side, analysts have also pointed out at the fact that despite the constant criticism that was faced by the luxury car makers coming in from politician Donald Trump, the auto giant has still managed to report so much strength on the index.

Ford Chief Executive Officer and President Mark Fields said during the earnings announcement, "The Ford team delivered an outstanding quarter — with record third quarter profit, best quarter ever for North America, higher wholesales, higher revenue, higher market share and improved margin,"

Trump has been making critical and cynical remarks about the way Fords business has been making large investments in Mexico and this has put off the company on many levels. In a press interview, CEO Mark Fields commented on how the politicians in the country might not be dealing with the right kind of facts and how his company only considers what is right and profitable for it and does not pay attention to rumors and opinions that might harm the giant in any way. 

Ford stock was down 0.14% to $14.72 on Wednesday October 28 as of 09:40 AM EDT.  

Qualcomm Inc Gets Downgraded By UBS Analysts

The wireless giant is now being expected to have a price target of $64 from analysts at UBS

Qualcomm Inc has recently received a cut on the target share price by the analysts at UBS, who ran overresearch on the financials of the company in a note which was released in the market on Tuesday, October 20. The previous price that was expected by the company to reach was noted down at $71 whereas the new target has come around at $64. This cutting down of the target has come to the attention ofindustry analysts as it has been carried out right before the telecom company announces its earnings for the third quarter of the year.

Analyst Stephen Chin, who is the one at UBS covering the Qualcomm stock, has observed a ‘neutral’ rating for the wireless business. This particular rating which has been suggested by him is due to the a number of issues which the chip making company seems to be facing in the present times. According to the note, a decision is yet to be made by the firm which is related to some important strategic alignment which is to be carried out by the giant before the current year ends. Since the decision has not yet been made, it has erupted the feeling of uncertainty among not only the analysts but also in the investors which are not ready to suggest a bullish rating on the giant till it clears out its issue with its strategies. Apart from that issue, the company is also waiting to resolve the issue of proper and correct collection of the total sales it carried out in China when it sold out QTL and QCT in the Asian region, both which are sectors related to technology.

As per the rating given by Mr. Chin to the Qualcomm chip making company, the ratings are seen to be on the low specifically due to the increasing uncertainty and lower than expected figures coming from the OCT collection of sales that are still estimated to be on the lower side due to the amounting pressure on it. On the other hand, the analyst also discussed how the giant firm could be thinking about making a huge split between its two important subsidiaries, namely QCT and QTL, which can bring about a big change in the business it will carry out in the future. However, when the company was questioned about such changes being made, the rumor was dismissed right away by the management as this idea was indeed being considered in the past but it not being thought about anymore.

AT&T Inc Earnings Review by Fargo

The wireless company is expected to report an EPS of 68 cents according to analysts at Fargo

AT&T Inc has prepared itself to report its quarterly earnings for the third one in the line and will do so in October 22 right after the market gets over its day’s trading activities. The telecommunication giant is all set to maintain its position on the index following the earnings report call, which is due to the efforts it has been doing in the business of the company to make things work out in a much more efficient manner. As for its users, the wireless giant is expected to report higher growth in the users belonging to not only the prepaid sector but also to the postpaid one.

AT&T stock was closely covered by the analysts at Fargo in which the wireless business was provided with estimates for the quarter along with a full year prediction for the stock. According to the analysis made, the giant is expected to report a revenue generation coming around at $151.3 billion for the quarter, and keeping in mind the previous estimates that were suggested by the same analysts at $152 billion, it shows that it is believed by the equity firm that things are going to be reported on a lower level now, on a quarter to quarter basis.

As for the EPS suggested by the analyst at Fargo, the estimations have seen a drop from 70 cents to now a 68 cents per share, which is apparently quite towards the lower side if compared to the predictions of analysts at WSJ, who have estimated an EPS of 69 cents. As for the total sales of the firm for the current quarter, the sales go to come around at $40.88 billion as per predictions. As for the free cash flow estimations, the analyst firm is expecting it to report a figure of $4.50 billion, which is much higher than the numbers that were suggested by the analysts at the WSJ, which has been noted down at $4.22 billion for the third consecutive fiscal quarter of the financial year.

As for the consensus estimates, around 18 analysts have provided the company with a buy rating whereas around 19 have suggested a ‘hold’ one. 

Is Apple Stock Get Support From Apple Watch

Analysts who are covering the Apple stock are of the opinion that there is a rise expected to be seen on the index if the software giant reports a higher than before earnings in the upcoming earnings report

Apple Inc. has not been performing that well on the stock index for some time even though the tech giant recently carried out massive sales of its flagship smartphone product, the iPhone 6s. The fact that the giant has rolled out a product, which has failed to amuse the audience as much as it did with its smart phone, has started to become quite apparent in the market now.

According to a report published by the USA Today, it was seen that there has been an air of disappointment in the industry where most of the analysts agree on the fact that the Apple Watch is not the product that was expected to bring about a stir in the smart watch war.

Analysts who are covering the Apple stock are of the opinion that there is a rise expected to be seen on the index if the software giant reports a higher than before earnings in the upcoming earnings report. The surprising factor, which has confused the investors and analysts, is that the iPhone maker seems to be going down on the index unexpectedly and the sales of the smart phones do not seem to have a big difference on the stock activities of the company.

The iPhones were sold to the customers on a sale and even though the company carried out good sales, the Apple stock price was seen to experience a dip by a massive 5.9% in only a matter of six days. However, the loss on the S&P 500 has not come around to be that much with the percentage coming around at 1.5.

All the analysts who have been rating the Apple business positively for the past few months have turned out to be in a confused state, as they cannot make out where the stock is headed with such a negative force. Carl Icahn, who is a prominent investor in the stock of the Californian organization, gave in a few comments on the business activities of the giant but even that did not help the stock value to rise in any way.

For the tech company to survive, analysts believe that Apple Watch could turn around things for it in some way or the other. However, it is also believed that the smart watch released by the giant is not expected to help it as much as it was previously expected to do so which might not help the giant to upgrade itself on the index anytime soon.

McDonald's Corporation Earnings Preview

The food company has turned out to be doing a positive business for quite some time now, and analysts are expecting it to score nicely in the upcoming earnings report

McDonald’s Corporation is all set to make the much talked about earnings for the third quarter of the fiscal year and analysts all around the industry are seen discussing the potential that the giant is expected to have by the end of current quarter. So far, the food company has attracted some fairly positive comments from the equity firms which are covering its stock, but there are also analysts in the same industry who believe that a lot of positivity towards the food stock might be a little too bullish. The giant has scheduled for the earnings to take place on October 22.

Analysts from Zacks have come around to have quite a bullish attitude towards McDonald’s stock, which shows in the $1.4 earnings per share that is being expected by them for the company to announce by the end of the third financial session of the year. The analysts of the financial firm believe that the food giant can actually end up reporting sales that are higher than the ones that were recorded in the last quarter. The firm ended up announcing really low same store sales last session which is one of the reasons why some analysts still believe something like that could show up once again. On the other hand, it was also informed that before the actual earnings release date approaches, analysts in the market will be keeping a close look at the way the stock moves so that changes can be made to the predictions, if it is needed.

McDonald's stock news reveals that in the last trading session, McDonald’s business went ahead to score a share price of $101.7, which showed that the giant still has a chance of living up to the bullish expectations of the analysts in the market.  Furthermore, the food company has been presented with a price target coming up to $103.28, for a period of a year by the analysts. This estimate has been given to the giant by around fourteen analysts firms, in which Zacks is one of them. Moreover, the general sentiment that the stock of the fast food company has is of serious anticipation, as more or less all the equity giants in the industry are looking towards a raise in the stock value of the food company, but still do not know which way the stock turn by the end of the third session. Previously, the firm reported an EPS of $1.26 which turned out to beat expectations of analysts.

Topeka Capital Upgraded Twitter Stock To Buy Followed By CEO Announcement

Twitter Inc Stock Upgraded To Buy At Topeka Capital On CEO Announcement

On Monday, Twitter Inc. announced that it was making Jack Dorsey from interim Chief Executive Officer to permanent CEO. He took charge of the position after Dick Costolo former CEO resigned earlier in June this year. The management of the company said that it was taking into consideration Global Revenue and Partnership President, Adam Bain to the Chief Operating Officer post.

After the announcement was made, Twitter stock was upgraded to Buy from Hold by Topeka Capital while reiterating a price target of $35. The bullish outlook of the firm is on the basis of the latest CEO’s capabilities to speed up the product innovation pace and attract latest talent in marketing, production and valuation.

Analysts at Topeka also positively see promotion of Adam Bain’sas Chief Operating Officer and sees him as a support to new CEO Jack Dorsey in running both Square Inc. and Twitter as CEO. They also added that however the Twitter management was planningto extend itsbusiness, the capacity to establish a robust e-commerce infrastructure is expected to take few years.

The analysts stated, “We would expect further product updates, especially Project Lightning, to spur user growth.If the company is able to achieve some success with its product updates, we believe it should be worth significantly more than the current 5.0x EV/Sales, 18.5x EV/EBITDA and 41.0x P/E on our 2016 estimates.”

Presently, the social media giant is not finding it easy to increase its monthly active user’s number and monetize them effectively. These issues have caused the stock price to go down by 22.7% this year. Increasing pressure from investors has led to ultimate dismissal of Mr. Costolo as the Chief Executive,, who also announced that he might be leaving the board too.

Chris Saaca, well known bull and investor of Twitter wrote in a blog post that there are a lot of ideas on how to bring a chance in company’s miserable state of affairs. He added that the company does not lack in vision. He also supported Mr. Dorsey for the position of CEO, reiterating his optimism in the ability to carry out and operate both Square and Twitter simultaneously.

However Jack Dorsey appears to be a capable candidate, keeping in mind his past experience plus previous spell as CEO to lead a change at the company, shareholder sentiment will eventually be attached to enhancement in user growth and his execution.

Twitter stock analysis reveals that the stock was up 1.56% to 28.05 at market close on Tuesday.

McDonald's Experiences A Fall In Shares

The stock of the food company has been performing quite well lately and the recent lows that it has faced are less towards the negative side as they were before the company started a turnaround plan to increase sales

McDonald’s Corporation has recently shown that it has fallen on the index by 0.37 percent in the past six days and for the previous four weeks the dip has been recorded at 0.08 percent. As for the S&P 500, the downgrade was just reported to be around 0.25 percent in the previous week whereas the rise was comparatively more for the four weeks that have gone by, coming around at a massive 1.27 percent. This upgrade is something to be reckoned with, as the fast food giant had been underperforming in the stock market for quite some time and even though appropriate measures were taken by the giant, the improvement was very difficult to see.

However, the turnaround plan that McDonald’s restaurants have decided to carry out seems to be doing its magic, as the company has managed to bring itself up from the previously faced losses and has now turned out to be 1.9 percent up on the index compared to the stock price it has been trading with for the previous three months. As for the year to date change that has taken place within the McDonald’s stock, the rise has been noted down at 6.31 percent which is something the company’s rivals should start taking into consideration.

As for the fluctuation rate that has been experienced by the fast food giant in the previous four weeks, the value was reported to be around 3.32 percent which shows that the volatility observed during all the trading sessions did not turn out to be much. The fast food chain has so far experienced the highest share price at a value of $101.88 whereas the lowest point that was seen for the shares to reach during the whole financial year was at $87.5.

The moving of the stock for a period of 50 days came around to be at $97.51 and for the 200 days, the fluctuation rate has been recorded to have an average price of $97.11. As for the latest session of trade that took place on Friday, the McDonald’s stock news shows that it went down on the index by the end of the day by 0.79 points which resulted in the share price reaching $97.05. At the time the market opened, the shares were at $96.82 but during the ups and downs faced in the session, the highest that the shares reached was at $97.7 but the closing point was seen with s fall of 0.81 percent.

Petrobras Plans To Divest Natural Gas Unit To Mitsui

The article  examines the reasons that have driven Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras to offload 49% stake in natural gas unit

Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras is all set to close a deal with Mitsui & Co Ltd. to sell almost 495 ownership stakes in its natural gas distribution company. According to Bloomberg reports that an approval from Petrobras board of directors and Brazilian regulators are required before the completion of the deal.

Prices of crude oil are down drastically which has result in substantial difficulties for the oil company. Therefore, Petrobras has adopted a complex program of asset divestiture and has reduced its capital spending in order to cope up with the decline.  Future outlook for crude oil is still grim for Brazilian oil majors as oil demand from China is most likely to remain weak. Furthermore, oil production from Iran is most likely to hit the market soon which would affect the demand supply gap. During trading session yesterday, West Texas Intermediate was down 1.69% to $45.89 per barrel. In the meantime, Brent crude oil was down 1.43% to $48.22 per barrel.

The Brazilian oil company is still involved in a huge corruption scandal. Several of the senior management of the company is alleged of corruption in contract dealings. The outcome of the interrogation against Petrobras has already taken down several senior officials of government in the country. Majority of construction and engineering firms have also been the part of the investigation and several infrastructure projects are stopped. The Brazilian currency has gone down substantially and experts fear that the oil company might lead the economy of Brazil into recession.

Last month, the company declared that it will cut its corporate cost by roughly $12 billion by 2019. Petrobras decided to cut come of its outsourced jobs by reducing on chauffeured cars, training programs, parties and some of the other perks.

In early trade today, Petrobras stock is down by 6.68% at $4.05. Since last year, the stock is down by more than 70%. Petrobras is the most indebted energy company in the world. A weaker exchange rate means that the company has to incur higher costs to service its debt. Hence, it has to streamline operations and become more efficient to survive in harsh market conditions.

The Street analysts are not around bullish on Petrobras stock. Almost 16 analysts covered the stock; put of whom, 12 gave it a Hold while only 2 analysts suggested a Buy rating and 2 of them recommended a Sell. The twelve month average target price stands at 7.86.

Petrobras stock quote was down 5.64% to $4.10 at Tuesday market close.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. $105 Billion Lockup Finishes, Emphasizing On Yahoo Stake

Alibaba Group's $105 Billion Lockup Concludes, Putting Influence on Yahoo Ownership

Alibaba Group Holding sets a new record with the massive size of its IPO. Now 5 times that amount of stock became available, with all eyes on Yahoo.

The lockup on 635 of baba shares ended on Saturday, releasing the largest shareholders to sell shares starting today. With Yahoo Inc. still thinking what to do with its 15% ownership, shareholders assaulted by the e-commerce giant’s $128.5 billion market fall are invigorating for the worth, like the probability of additional shares, reaching the market and forcing the prices go down further, reports Alibaba Stock News.

Jack Ma and Joseph Tsai have pledged to maintain their stock, while experts believe SoftBank Group Corp. to hold on its stock as the Japanese firm parlays its e-commerce giant windfall into international expansion. However, Softbank refused to comment.

Yahoo Inc. is the largest investor that has not promised to keep its investment, with CEO Marissa Mayer considering a spinoff worth of $25 billion ownership. While, Ms. Mayer was seeking to move 384 million shares of Yahoo shares in Alibaba to an independent company without paying any taxes, there is an ambiguity now on whether Yahoo can exit without paying a multibillion-dollar in taxes after the IRS did not give it an initial approval.

Axiom Capital management analyst, Victor Anthony said, “You can’t ignore the fact that there is a potential seller in the market -- and that has to create some sort of uncertainty around Alibaba shares. I do think that Yahoo ultimately proceeds with the spinoff.”

Yahoo plan’s delay might potentially support strengthen baba share price because shareholders might have to wait to gain access to the spin-off shares, efficiently making it a comprehensive lockup, said Anthony. The main problem is Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s key business performance, he added.

Anthony added, “It’s a non-event for both stocks, ultimately -- as long as Alibaba continues to perform. If it does, then I think the lockup’s expirations almost become a moot point.”

Yahoo spokeswoman, Rebecca Neufeld, refused to comment.

Lockup contracts are set up to maintain the company’s share price after a market inauguration, preventing pre-IPO shareholders and employees from abandoning the Alibaba stock. Today will be the first trading day since the expiration of lockup.

The lockup period end can be optimistic for a stock by finishing the projection from an initial public offering month to even previous years.

Alibaba’s IPO last year raised $25 billion, with around 320 million shares sold. The end to the trading limit will see around 1.6 billion shares release, with the shares having market value of around $105 billion.

Pacific Crest Reduced Estimates On Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s Stock

Pacific Crest reduced its target price from $94 to $80 on Alibaba stock in light of the ongoing uncertainty in China

On Tuesday, Pacific Crest reduced its target price to $80 from $94 while reiterate an Overweight rating on stock of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The sell side firm provided the reason that the continuous economic slump in China has adversely affected its confidence in the company’s growth in the short term.

Analysts at Pacific Crest said that the company is affected by decreasing customer spending in the country, according to Alibaba stock analysis. They pointed out that the management has highlighted that it will witness a mid-single digit influence to gross merchandise volume from declining spending power in the country. However, the e-commerce giant believes that the macroeconomic ambiguity is caused by the negative spending gush instead of lower spending.

Keeping in mind the slowdown in the economy, the Chinese company slashed its 2016 and 2017 gross merchandise volume forecasts and doesn’t see a recovery in its estimates at least for now. Moreover, it also highlighted that currency deflation in majority of countries has caused in foreign exchange headwinds for the company’s online marketplace, AliExpress. Alibaba expects a less double digit year over year growth for the online platform in the upcoming quarter, as reported according to Alibaba stock news.

The sell side firm has also slashed its forecasts on AliExpress because of the continuing volatility in International markets and impending for more emerging currency market changes. Pacific Crest also said that though the company lowers revenues in the coming period, it upheld its fiscal year 16 gross margin guidance. The firm thinks that this step reflects some resistance around level of spending, in spite of revenue failings in Alibaba’s main e-commerce industry.

Despite of upcoming macroeconomic headwinds and volatility, Pacific Crest is still positive on e-commerce giant in the long-term. The firm’s bull case on the company stands at $102 price target while in case of bear the price target $50.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. stock has declined 38.8% so far this year because of increasing concerns like sell of fake and counterfeit products that took place on its online Taobao and Tmall platform. Other than that, smaller competitors like JD.Com Inc. have been ramping up their game in the industry. JD. Com revenue went up by 61% in its second quarter fiscal year 2015 earnings compared to that of Alibaba’s 29% in the previous quarter. Vipshop Holdings Ltd. reported 75% of revenue growth in its second quarter financial results. It looks like soaring competition might also impact Alibaba’s gross merchandise volume in the upcoming term.

As per the analysts covering Baba stock, 45 gave it a Buy, 5 suggest a Hold and 2 recommend a Sell. The twelve month mean price target is $95.5.

Alibaba stock was up 5.19% to $64.07 at market close on Wednesday September 10.