After hitting a one-year low of $52.18 in April, the stock hit a one-year high of $125.68 in October. This morning, GRMN opened at $59.49. So far today the stock has hit a low of $57.70 and a high of $59.97. As of 12:15, GRMN is trading at $59.78, down $2.60 (-4.2%). The chart for GRMN looks bearish but deteriorating, while S&P gives the stock its highest 5 STARS (out of 5) strong buy rating.

For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a May bear-call credit spread above the $75 range. A bear-call credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of call options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make an 8.7% return in two months as long as GRMN is below $75 at May expiration. Garmin would have to rise by more than 24% before we would start to lose money.

Continue reading Garmin (GRMN) falls on SIRF forecast

Garmin (GRMN) falls on SIRF forecast originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Google teams with TomTom for navigation data sharing originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Japanese government is concerned about Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) dominance in the global search business. Senior officials in the country believe that they have lost their consumer electronics advantage to companies in Korea, Taiwan, and China. And now, the Asian country may end up with no edge in the fast-growing search software business.

The battle for market share has already been won by Google on the PC platform. The Japanese government is building a partnership of several major consumer electronics companies to create search software for handsets and other devices.

According to the FT: "Tokyo hopes to use Japan's strength in developing devices, such as mobile phones and car navigation systems, to create proprietary search and information retrieval functions"

The government has matched NTT Data with Toyota InfoTechnology Center and Toyota (NYSE: TM) Mapmaster to create an interactive, personalized car navigation system. Other partnerships involve NEC, Hitachi and Sony (NYSE: SNE) Computer Science Laboratories.

To start, Japan will put about €90 million into the ventures.

Of course, Google and GPS navigation companies are already moving their software to devices other than the PC, so the Japanese may be a Little late.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

Japan to battle Google (GOOG) with new search technologies originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 05 Sep 2007 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Boston Globe reporter Hiawatha Bray is backtracking on his earlier column that Apple, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone is perfect. While his employer fronted him the $600 to consider an iPhone purchase, Bray cites four reasons he'll return it:

• It doesn't sync with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT)'s Outlook. Bray likes Outlook and has "his life" on it and he was delighted to see that the iPhone is designed to let users copy their addresses, phone numbers, and appointments into it. That means users can find their Outlook phone numbers on the iPhone, then just tap a number to dial a call. Unfortunately, it took Bray about a dozen tries before the iPhone copied the Outlook data stored on his work PC; it's never worked on his home machine. Bray found at least a dozen online complaints from iPhone owners with similar problems. Either the iPhone won't sync with Outlook at all, or it does so intermittently or incompletely.
• The GPS navigation doesn't work. Bray admits this is a trick question but he finds it hard to believe that the $600 iPhone lacks GPS, a feature built into the Verizon Communications, Inc. (NYSE: VZ) Wireless phone he got for free when he renewed his contract in 2006. Bray finds the iPhone's Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) Maps implementation quite useless when he's lost. And he doesn't understand why GPS is now common in the cheapest phones, but absent from the iPhone.

Continue reading Boston Globe reporter votes no on iPhone

Boston Globe reporter votes no on iPhone originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.