"Playboy Enterprises (NYSE: PLA) is a speculative stock, with plenty of potential but also downside risk," suggests Alex Green. In The Oxford Club, he looks at the firm's turnaround potential.

"Yes, Playboy's publishing empire is a big money loser. But it still has one of the most recognized brands in the world. The rabbit head logo generates more than $1 billion in licensing fees annually.

"When you consider that Playboy Enterprises has a market capitalization of a little over $100 million, you begin to see how undervalued this stock is.

Continue reading Playboy (PLA): Speculative bet on the bunny

Playboy (PLA): Speculative bet on the bunny originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

"Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) has increasingly developed a series of technologies more closely tied to end-users -- with a focus on the home entertainment hub," notes Toby Smith.

The editor of ChangeWave Investing explains, "The company understands that the market for consumer electronics products is too big and too important to ignore."

"It is well known that Cisco is the dominant supplier of the switches and routers that enable networks and computers to be linked together.

"Recently, Cisco made its most consumer-oriented acquisition by picking up privately held Pure Digital Technologies, the maker of the popular and simple-to-use Flip video camcorder.

Continue reading Cisco (CSCO) targets consumer entertainment

Cisco (CSCO) targets consumer entertainment originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's hard to make sense of what market analysts do sometimes. The stock prices of companies can swoon and sway based on analysts who can be 1) mostly incorrect about the prospects for covered companies, 2) dismal in their track records of earnings predictions and 3) falling into a pattern of some other weird alternative like market influence. I'm not saying all are that way, but some sure seem like it. When Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has a fantastic quarter but misses over-inflated earnings projections just a tiny amount, the stock price plummets (only to recover shortly thereafter). What is the point? To some, analysts run the market.

The same thing happened to AOL, a division of Time Warner, Inc. (NYSE: TWX). The company that owns this blog performed a fast and well-timed turnaround last year from a subscription-based model to an advertising-based model and the bet paid off from many perspectives. Of course, some analysts thought an immediate gratification of revenue from ad sources would befall AOL the first day this switch started happening. Unless things can be changed 'on a dime,' that generally never happens. Nevertheless, I consider AOL's strategy to morph into an ad-based revenue model to have worked pretty darn well in such a short period of time.

Alas, the double-digit ad revenue growth predictions by AOL execs, which turned into a few quarters of 40% ad revenue growth, set the stage for later disappointment. Although AOL's advertising revenue was less than expected for the second quarter that was reported on August 1st, it still went up a healthy 16%.

Continue reading Why so much fear over AOL's (TWX) lowered expectations?

Why so much fear over AOL's (TWX) lowered expectations? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 23 Aug 2007 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) needs hits and needs them now.

The company today reported lackluster first quarter results. Profit from continuing operations was $213.5 million on revenue of $3.66 million. Excluding one-time items, profit was 33 cents, beating the 32-cent average profit forecast and $3.61 million revenue forecast of analysts polled by Thomson Financial.

Operating income excluding some costs at the company's television business, its largest, fell 6% to $399 million, while revenue rose a mere 2% to $2.57 billion. As Bloomberg News points out ratings at the company's flagship network excluding sports are down 12% in the 18 to 49 year old demographic. Though CBS' "CSI" shows remain popular, the company is losing ground to ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and Fox's "American Idol."

Continue reading CBS is in for a tough slog

CBS is in for a tough slog originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 03 May 2007 11:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Cramer: Daktronics is new media with room to run originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 11 Dec 2006 19:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.