BloggingStocks

Some big names setting new highs: INTC, STX, SGP

Michael Fowlkes — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Major Movement, Earnings Reports, Good news, Apple Inc (AAPL), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Intel (INTC), Market Matters, Walt Disney (DIS), Target Corp. (TGT), S and P 500, DJIA, NASDAQ

The markets had a relatively flat day to start the week, but there were some big name stocks that traded up to new 52 week highs in today's session. The DOW was up 0.2%, NASDAQ was down 0.01%, while the S&P saw the most change, closing up 0.4%.

Here are a couple of the bigger names that traded up to new 52 week highs in today's trading.

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC): Chipmaker Intel Corp. traded up to a new 52 week high today of $20.65. It set its 52 week low of $12.05 back on 2/23/09. The stock is trading higher today ahead of the company's third quarter earnings numbers, which are due out tomorrow following the market close. Analysts are expecting the company to show earnings of 27 cents per share. The company reported a loss of 7 cents per share for its second quarter. The stock closed the day up 1.1% at $20.40, up $0.23 on the day.

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Some big names setting new highs: INTC, STX, SGP originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Newspaper wrap-up: If the U.S. has to save Fannie and Freddie, triple-A rating could suffer

Laurie Pasternack — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:15:00 EST

Filed under: Newspapers, Magazines, Cisco Systems (CSCO), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), International Business Machines (IBM), Citigroup Inc. (C), Oracle Corp (ORCL), Blackstone Group L.P (BX)

MAJOR PAPERS:

A newly published report by Standard & Poor's said that the performance of organizations such as Federal National Mortgage Association (NYSE: FNM), or Fannie Mae, and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (NYSE: FRE), or Freddie Mac, could directly affect the U.S. economy and the country's credit rating, especially if they have to be rescued by the government, according to the Wall Street Journal's "Credit Markets" column.
Seagate Technology LLC (NYSE: STX), a hard drive maker, filed a patent infringement suit in San Francisco against STEC Inc (NASDAQ: STEC) over four patents related to technology used to store data on computer chips, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The Financial Times reported that Citigroup Incorporated (NYSE: C) is allowing private equity groups such as Apollo, The Blackstone Group LP (NYSE: BX) and TPG that are bidding for up to $12B of its leveraged loans to 'cherry-pick' from a wide range of assets with different credit ratings and prices.

WEB SITES:

According to analysts, Reuters reported that technology industry leaders that include International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM), Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL), Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) are among the companies with large cash reserves that could be used to fund acquisitions.

Newspaper wrap-up: If the U.S. has to save Fannie and Freddie, triple-A rating could suffer originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seagate (STX) commits to making flash-based hard drives

Brian White — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:13:00 EST

Filed under: Products and Services, Industry

Seagate Technology (NYSE: STX), the world leader in the manufacture of hard disk drives, has announced a significant step in its product line that signifies the changing economic realities of the computer storage market. The company, which has been the fiercest proponent of pushing its magnetic platter-based hard drives for over two decades, will begin making hard drives based on flash memory instead of magnetic disks spinning at 7,200 RPM or higher. Seagate is a little-seen brand, but its products probably power that web server you're connected to right now, that iPod you listen to, the TiVo you watch, and the Xbox you play.

This was just waiting to happen, and Seagate picked the right time in the intensely competitive storage market to make this commitment. Right now, computer storage for that laptop, TiVo box or Xbox 360 is way, way cheaper to accomplish using disk-based storage. But, as the cost has dropped and the capacity has risen for solid-state storage, magnetic hard drives have all but been pushed from items with lower storage needs, like MP3 players and many iPod models (although the larger iPod models still use traditional hard drives).

Will Seagate abandon its bread-n-butter magnetic hard drive business? Don't count on it -- it's likely that magnetic-type storage will still enjoy an immense cost advantage in the near future even in the face of rapidly falling prices for flash-based chips. But, instead of fighting the battle any longer, Seagate is making the right decision to compete in the developing flash hard drive market -- even if that market will be rather small in the near future. Seagate at least wants to cover all the technologies in all the storage markets, which is strategically commendable.

Seagate (STX) commits to making flash-based hard drives originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Impact of Microsoft's Vista is about to be seen

Eric Buscemi — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 12:34:00 EST

Filed under: Products and Services, Microsoft (MSFT), Intel (INTC), Advanced Micro Dev (AMD), Marvell Technology Group (MRVL)

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) might finally be on the verge of seeing the adoption of Vista, wrote Arnie Berman, chief technology strategist, at Cowen & Company late last week.

Berman surveyed 283 corporate IT buyers and found 47% of small- and medium-sized businesses will begin deploying Vista by December 31, this is up from 43% in a similar survey completed in February. 31% of larger enterprises plan to start rolling out Vista by December 31, up from 25% in the previous survey.

How to invest in the long-awaited Vista uptake? Play the Microsoft food chain stocks, particularly since most investors have given up on Vista's adoption, indicating this is where investors could get the most bang for the buck. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC), Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Micron Technology Inc (NYSE: MU), Berman believes will be beneficiaries of Vista's adoption. Other investment plays include memory chip maker Qimonda AG (NYSE: QI), the drive makers Seagate Technology (NYSE: STX) and Western Digital Corporation (NYSE: WDC), and Marvell Technology Group Ltd (NASDAQ: MRVL), a supplier to the drive business.

In our past Intel blogs, the Fly has suggested Intel has capacity in place to start ramping 64 megabyte processors big time, on a scale Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NYSE: AMD) does not possess. Berman points out that Intel's enterprise value/sales ratio relative to AMD is close to an all-time low, meaning Intel is cheap relative to AMD despite AMD's recent poor stock performance.

Nvidia at 19x consensus calendar 2007 results has shown the ability to deliver favorable financial surprises and could provide the solution to the greatest potential bottleneck for Vista adoption, the graphic processors.

Micron is selling close to its $10.91 book value which historically has supported the stock and memory demand will increase with the new operating system.

Impact of Microsoft's Vista is about to be seen originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 11 Jun 2007 12:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seagate CEO gets raw on why hard drives get no respect

Brian White — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 14:10:00 EST

Filed under: Products and Services, Management, Consumer Experience, Competitive Strategy

After reading this article, I had to giggle a bit. Seagate Technology LLC (NYSE: STX) -- the world's largest maker of hard disk drives for everything from PCs to TiVos to iPods -- has a stand-up comedian for its CEO, apparently. When former CEO and financier Steve Luczo left current CEO Bill Watkins in charge of the $15 billion storage behemoth, perhaps he didn't know about Watkins' penchant for funny candidness.

At a recent CEO dinner this week, Watkins was spotted saying "Let's face it, we're not changing the world. We're building a product that helps people buy more crap -- and watch porn." Those are not the carefully scripted words of a PR-trained CEO -- but they are closer to the truth than almost anyone dares to say.

Watkins is someone I've heard in person a few times giving speeches -- he's a hard-driving and hard-working CEO -- and he's a cut above the ivy-leaguers who run most Fortune-500 companies, if you ask me. Seagate continues to operate -- as it has for years and years -- in an extreme commodity business, but continues to crank out the products that make the Internet work (as in web server storage) along with iPods, TiVos and other storage-hungry devices that have infiltrated so many daily lives.

Watkins -- ever the operational guru (like Hewlett-Packard's Mark Hurd) -- could have a stand-up career if he wasn't busy making Seagate the best company at what it does. Oops, time to backup the laptop on an external hard drive now.

[Disclosure: I own STX shares as of 11-30-06]

Seagate CEO gets raw on why hard drives get no respect originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 30 Nov 2006 14:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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