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VZ | Will 5G Handsets Make Their Way Into The Market By 2020 | According to a recent report by research firm Strategy Analytics it is expected that 5G mobile handsets will be available for sale in the market by 2020 following a broader rollout of the technology Though the first trial handsets are expected in 2018 they are likely to suffer from problems such as a short battery life no 4G handover or unstable connectivity However these problems will be taken care of before its actual launch in 2020 The first commercial 5G handsets will likely be highly expensive Major U S telecom behemoths Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ Sprint Corp NYSE S T Mobile US NYSE T and AT T Inc NYSE T are all moving ahead with their 5G plans and aim to launch their 5G networks in the upcoming years They have either tested or are in the process of testing 5G technology However Verizon seems to have the lead as evident from its plans to initially deploy 5G wireless networks in 2017 What is 5G It is the next major phase of mobile telecommunications standards after the 4G IMT standards According to Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance 5G networks allow data rates of tens of megabits per second for millions of users 1 Gb per second simultaneously to people on the same office floor increased spectral efficiency compared to improved 4G coverage greater signaling efficiency and lower latency compared to LTE AvailabilityThe commercial 5G handsets for 2020 will be first made available in South Korea and Japan The next round of launch will be in the U S the UK Sweden and the UAE in 2021 with tens of millions of 5G handsets to be sold by 2022 By 2025 the sales figure is expected to exceed 300 million China s 2020 5G plans seems to be in line with the U S South Korea and Japan who are moving forward with their new plans to meet broadband access demands On the other hand European operators are more focused on Internet of Things IoT 5G Technology SpecificationsSeveral analysts opine that 5G connections will reach 690 million by 2025 in relation to user linked subscriptions and not industrial machine to machine connections Connections which possess an individual user end point either Business to Customer B2C or Business to Business B2B such as consumer electronics products will be preferred The figure takes into account connections for handsets modem embedded connections in personal computers notebooks laptops and tablets and connections in the consumer electronics category including consumer wearables connected cars e book readers portable games consoles and media players digital cameras and navigation devices Machine to Machine M2M or IoT connections related to vertical industrial applications which do not have an individual end user will be excluded Advantages of 5GA 5G network will provide download speed of 1 Gbps gigabit per second which is 200 times the throughput of the currently available standard 4G LTE network The latency period of data delivery will be in single milliseconds Additionally 5G technology is designed to be more power efficient than any other standard wireless networks available at the moment Therefore 5G enabled mobile devices are likely to last much longer than their 3G or 4G counterparts Additionally superfast 5G mobile networks will be necessary to manage the exponential growth of Internet connected devices popularly known as Internet of Things IoT According to a recent report by research firm International Data Corporation IDC worldwide spending on IoT is slated to grow at a 17 compound annual growth rate to nearly 1 3 trillion in 2019 from 698 6 billion in 2015 2016 s 5G Strategic PartnershipsVerizon recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding MoU with SK Telecom Co Ltd NYSE S to merge their 5G technical specifications on a global basis Nokia HE NOKIA Corporation NYSE NOK is also working on its 5G expansion plans and has signed a research collaboration agreement with BT Group plc NYSE T where both the companies aim to work toward developing 5G technologies creating 5G Proof of Concept PoC trials and developing technology standards and equipment Such collaborations will include a number of joint studies and researches which will further be utilized for the development of 5G The Bottom Line5G marks a revolution in the field of communications and is leading to a number of strategic alliances It is expected that such alliances will lead to higher adoption of the technology going forward |
VZ | Verizon VZ Launches Nationwide LTE Advanced Networks | The U S telecom behemoth Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ has recently completed a major upgrade of its 4G LTE networks to LTE Advanced technology covering 461 cities in the U S The LTE Advanced network will raise the data packet transmission speed by more than 50 Verizon claimed its two channel carrier aggregation generates peak download speeds of up to 225 Mbps while three channel carrier aggregation has clocked speeds of more than 300 Mbps Wireless network standards are continuously evolving globally to offer faster speed After significant growth of the next generation 4G LTE network LTE A Long Term Evolution Advanced wireless network standard is gradually finding solid foothold worldwide According to an estimate by the Global Mobile Suppliers Association 28 of LTE network operators worldwide have launched LTE Advanced networks LTE A is the more powerful version of the legacy LTE network offering increased speed and network capacity Carrier aggregation is the most important part of LTE A technology as it allows wireless operators to create large spectrum assets by combining different frequency bands Notably LTE A also incorporates several technological advancements like Coordinated Multi Point CoMP Self Optimizing Networks SON small cell enhancements Enhanced Inter Cell Interference Coordination eICIC and advanced Multi Input Multi Output MIMO antenna Verizon has used MIMO technology and is looking deploy its advanced version in future In Jun 2013 SK Telecom Co Ltd NYSE S of South Korea became the first wireless operator in the world to commercially launch LTE A network using carrier aggregation In Mar 2014 AT T Inc NYSE T became the first wireless operator in the U S to launch LTE A services in Chicago Earlier this year Sprint Corp NYSE S claimed that it achieved speeds of over 300 Mbps using three channel carrier aggregation using a Samsung KS 005930 Galaxy S7 smartphone Earlier research on 4G in the Americas had stated that the latest version of LTE A network which is popularly known as LTE Advanced Pro 3GPP Release 13 will be a major step toward the smooth transition from 4G to the upcoming fifth generation 5G network standard Notably Verizon is looking at mobile hotspot and fixed wireless for initial deployment of the next generation 5G wireless networks in the U S by late 2017 Importantly the industry wide standardization specification by the 3GPP is likely to be ready in Jun 2018 Thus Verizon seems to be way ahead of its peers in its plans to deploy next generation 5G wireless network VERIZON COMM Price
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VZ | Sprint s S 3 Channel Carrier Aggregation Coming Soon | Sprint Corp NYSE S the U S national wireless carrier and Nokia HE NOKIA Corp NYSE NOK a leading telecom infrastructure developer recently promoted its three channel carrier aggregation in the Kansas City s LTE Plus Network It was followed by a live telecast at Kauffman Stadium in Kansasa City and at Soldier Field in Chicago The three channel carrier aggregation was advertised using the latest network technology devices the Samsung KS 005930 Galaxy Note7 Galaxy S7 S7 edge HTC 10 and LG G5 each having Internet download speed of more than 230 Mbps Mega Bits Per Second Sprint has expanded the three channel carrier aggregation on more than 500 cell sites in Chicago The promotion was followed by a live telecast of high definition 4K video where attendants were also able to experience a low latency with high speed What is Carrier Aggregation Carrier aggregation is an LTE Advanced feature which connects multiple bands of spectrum in order to generate broader channels increase the bandwidth capability and hence function speedily on the respective devices In general it enables excess data transfer quickly via a much higher bandwidth Sprint s Advancements in Carrier Aggregation In 2015 Sprint started its journey to the roll out of two channel aggregation This two channel carrier aggregation now runs at a speed of more than 100 Mbps in 237 LTE and in markets all over the country using 40 MHz of 2 5 GHz spectrum on the company s LTE Plus cell sites For the three channel carrier aggregation Sprint intends to use 60 MHz of spectrum in the 2 5 GHz band in order to deliver download speeds exceeding 200 Mbps on compatible devices Sprint already has an existing presence of 160 MHz of 2 5 GHz spectrum in the top 100 U S markets Sprint also uses 800 MHz and 1 9 GHz spectrum to provide strong coverage and reliability across its LTE Plus network Moreover Sprint provides 23 such devices that run on its carrier aggregation LTE Plus Network Further Sprint claims that Kansas City being their hometown and one of the technologically upgraded cities is best suited to be their first promotional market for this advancement in technology It is expected that this three channel carrier aggregation should increase the end user throughput and stabilize Sprint s network load on three carriers for better use of the spectrum Additionally it offers a great experience at home office or at Kauffman Stadium Nokia s RoleThe three channel carrier aggregation promotion was done with the help of Nokia Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station for LTE TDD Time Division Duplex including TD LTE Advanced 8 pipe radio 8T8R which can distribute all three carriers from a single unit on 8T8R configuration for improved performance and coverage Similar LTE AdvancementsIn Aug 2016 U S telecom behemoth Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ completed a major upgradation of its 4G LTE networks to LTE Advanced technology covering 461 cities in the U S The two channel carrier aggregation will run at download speeds of up to 225 Mbps while three channel carrier aggregation will have speeds exceeding more than 300 Mbps In Mar 2014 AT T Inc NYSE T became the first wireless operator in the U S to launch LTE A services in Chicago In Jun 2013 SK Telecom Co Ltd NYSE S of South Korea became the first wireless operator in the world to commercially launch LTE A network using carrier aggregation Sprint currently has a Zacks Rank 3 Hold SPRINT CORP Price
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VZ | Telecom Stock Roundup Verizon Updates 5G Specifications AT T Wins Data Throttling Suit | Last week has been quite eventful for the telecom industry despite a mixed run on the bourse Several significant developments dominated the headlines with Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ at the forefront The U S telecom behemoth recently completed a major upgrade of its 4G LTE networks to LTE Advanced technology covering 461 cities in the U S The LTE Advanced network will raise the data packet transmission speed by more than 50 Verizon also unveiled the second round of specifications for the upcoming 5G wireless network Last month the company achieved a milestone by becoming the first company in the world to issue an initial radio specification for the 5G wireless network The second round of update was primarily on the mechanics of connecting to the network On Aug 29 U S telecom giant AT T Inc NYSE T won a major legal battle as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California dismissed a data throttling charge issued by the Federal Trade Commission FTC Data throttling is the blocking or slowing of data transmission once customers hit a certain usage limit in a month In Oct 2014 the FTC raised questions over AT T s data throttling practices accusing the telecom carrier of deceiving its unlimited plan customers United States Cellular Corp NYSE S the fifth largest regional wireless service provider recently launched new Shared Connect plans which offer more data larger allotments and new tools to track data usage The plan is being offered on its high quality network that keeps customers connected irrespective of the area the customer is in Moreover Comcast Corp NYSE S received regulatory clearance from the Federal Communications Commission FCC pertaining to the discrimination and carriage pricing charges leveled by Liberman Broadcasting Inc the owner of Estrella TV in Apr 2016 Meanwhile research firm SNL Kagan recently reported that the second quarter of 2016 witnessed the highest quarterly subscriber loss in the history of the U S pay TV industry Notably the U S pay TV market comprises three kinds of service providers namely cable MSOs multi service operators satellite TV operators and fiber based telecom operators SNL Kagan has estimated that in the last reported quarter the pay TV industry lost approximately 812 000 customers According to a recent report by research firm Strategy Analytics it is expected that 5G mobile handsets will be available for sale in the market by 2020 following a broader rollout of the technology Though the first trial handsets are expected in 2018 they are likely to face problems such as a short battery life no 4G handover or unstable connectivity However these problems will be taken care of before its actual launch in 2020 The first commercial 5G handsets are expected to be highly expensive Strategy Analytics forecast has revealed that the number of worldwide 5G connections will touch the 690 million mark by 2025 Major U S telecom behemoths Verizon AT T Sprint Corp NYSE S and T Mobile US Inc NYSE T are all forging ahead with their 5G plans and aim to launch 5G networks in the upcoming years Outside the U S leading Canadian telephone operator BCE Inc s TO BCE subsidiary Bell Canada recently launched Home Hub 3000 which is likely to be one of the most powerful home WiFi services in Canada This service is supposedly the world s first fully wireless IPTV Internet Protocol television service with Wireless 4K Whole Home PVR from Fibe TV In a separate development Mexican telecom regulator the Federal Telecommunications Institute IFT announced that the country s telecom sector has witnessed 8 4 year over year growth in revenues in the second quarter of 2016 This rate of growth is highest among all the other sectors of the economy Remarkably the telecom sector s growth rate is more than three times higher than the 2 5 overall growth rate of Mexico s GDP in the same time frame In second quarter 2016 the broader telecom sector of Mexico generated total revenue of around MXN 485 billion over 26 81 billion Read the last Recap of the Week s Most Important Stories1 Verizon claims that its 5G network will provide a download speed of 1 Gbps gigabit per second which is 200 times the throughput of the currently available standard 4G LTE network The latency period of data delivery will be in single milliseconds Although several industry researchers have predicted that a full fledged 5G network deployment will not commence until 2020 Verizon anticipates some level of commercial deployment in 2017 Read more 2 LTE Advanced networks incorporate several technological advancements like Coordinated Multi Point CoMP Self Optimizing Networks SON small cell enhancements Enhanced Inter Cell Interference Coordination eICIC and advanced Multi Input Multi Output MIMO antenna Verizon has used MIMO technology and is looking to deploy its advanced version in the future According to a projection by the Global Mobile Suppliers Association 28 of LTE network operators worldwide have launched LTE Advanced networks Read more 3 On Aug 29 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California reversed a lower court s denial of AT T s motion to dismiss the throttling lawsuit The appeals court identified AT T as a common carrier Due to this the service provider cannot be held liable for the violations of rules that the FTC brought in its case Notably the FCC slapped a fine of 100 million for similar reason in Jun 2015 Read more 4 Mexico has been witnessing massive investments in its telecom sector In Jun 2016 the country s Secretariat of Communications and Transport SCT declared that a total of more than 6 5 billion has been invested over the last three years In addition around 13 5 billion has been invested recently in the telecom sector Moreover the upcoming nationwide shared broadband network will attract around 7 billion worth of investments Read more 5 As per research firm Strategy Analytics the commercial 5G handsets for 2020 will be first available in South Korea and Japan The next round of launch will be in the U S the UK Sweden and the UAE in 2021 with tens of millions of 5G handsets to be sold by 2022 By 2025 the sales figure is expected to exceed 300 million The North American and European operators are focused on the Internet of Things IoT platform Read more Price Performance The following table shows the price movement of the major telecom players over the past week and the last six months Over the last five trading sessions share price movement of the major telecom stocks witnessed a mixed trend China Mobile 2 54 and Vodafone LON VOD 2 09 suffered most in the same time period On the other hand Sprint 2 32 gained considerably However over the last six months the price performance of most telecom stocks was predominantly positive Among the stocks that gained considerably were Sprint 78 10 T Mobile US 19 90 China Mobile 11 07 and Comcast 10 20 In contrast America Movil lost 14 86 in the same time frame What s Next in the Telecom Sector We do not foresee any significant changes in the telecom industry or overall global economic factors that can affect the industry in the coming week Therefore we expect stocks to trade in line with the broader market movement Where Do Zacks Investment Ideas Come From You are welcome to download the full up to the minute list of 220 Zacks Rank 1 Strong Buy stocks free of charge There is no better place to start your own stock search Plus you can access the full list of must avoid Zacks Rank 5 Strong Sells and other private research |
VZ | Will LTE Lead The Machine to Machine Market After 2021 | According to a recent research report published by research and advisory firm Ovum the cellular mobile machine to machine M2M connections are expected to spread across the globe By 2021 as many as 733 million of these connections are estimated globally which is almost 8 1 of all forecast cellular connections up 4 2 from the coverage in 2015 However this expansion does not include the Narrow band Internet of Things NB IoT technology
What is LTE Long Term Evolution LTE is the next major phase of mobile telecommunications standards after the 4G IMT standards based on the GSM EDGE network technologies The standard is generated by the 3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project specifications LTE is popularly known as 4G LTE in spite of the fact that it does not technically match 4G services It is the most sought after next generation 4G super fast wireless communications technology which is rapidly gaining popularity worldwide 4G wireless networks primarily aim to fulfill the substantial rise in demand for high speed wireless data services and mobile video
What is M2M Machine to machine M2M is a way of communicating between networked devices using both wired and wireless networks irrespective of human presence The worldwide expansion of IP networks facilitate faster M2M communications with less power Moreover such networks leverage new business opportunities for consumers and suppliers It also has multiple industrial uses with applications in varied sector like utilities automotive and healthcare The global M2M connections market operates purely in relation to technology and connections
Growth ProspectsSeveral analysts believe that the mobile M2M services would generate revenues worth 67 billion in 2021 This indicates a compound annual growth rate CAGR of 13 3 While revenues of 22 billion are expected from Asia Oceania North America is estimated to generate 16 billion Western Europe is anticipated to contribute 14 billion to total revenue Service revenues are presumed to increase in the Middle East and African markets at a CAGR of 16 7
Upcoming Market TrendReports about M2M expansion has been collected from the present major U S wireless carriers and National Regulatory Authorities NRAs As per research firm Ovum LTE will undoubtedly rule the market with 212 million connections in 2021 and even more in the future The 2G and 3G technologies might soon reach a stagnation point whereas LTE is expected to prove to be a long term player
2016 s LTE AdvancementsIn Aug 2016 U S telecom behemoths Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ and Sprint Corp NYSE S launched their promotional schemes for LTE network advancements Verizon completed a major upgrade of its 4G LTE networks to LTE Advanced technology covering 461 cities in the U S The two channel carrier aggregation will run at download speeds of up to 225 Mbps Mega Bits Per Second while three channel carrier aggregation will have speeds exceeding more than 300 Mbps On the other hand Sprint promoted its three channel carrier aggregation in the Kansas City s LTE Plus Network through a live telecast at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City and at Soldier Field in Chicago The three channel carrier aggregation was advertised using the latest network technology devices Samsung KS 005930 Galaxy Note7 Galaxy S7 S7 edge HTC 10 and LG G5 coupled each having Internet download speed of more than 230 Mbps In Mar 2016 wireless equipment company Ericsson NASDAQ ERIC inked a three year frame contract with True Move H a subsidiary of True Corporation Plc under the True Mobile Group The deal pertains to the deployment of LTE Advanced expansion of 4G 3G and also building of GSM networks in Thailand In Jan 2016 AT T Inc NYSE T expanded its 4G LTE wireless networks across 36 Mexican cities It is likely to cover 40 million people by the end of this year and will be available to 75 million subscribers by the end of 2016 By the end of 2018 the company aims to reach out to 100 million Mexican customers Computer and Technology Sector Price Index
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VZ | Sprint could be formidable after merger with cable company CEO says | By Malathi Nayak NEW YORK Reuters Sprint Corp N S could be stronger if merged with a cable company the U S wireless company s chief executive said on Thursday adding that he was not engaged in any such merger talks Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure made the comments to Reuters when asked about brisk acquisition activity in the cable and telecommunications sector and the recent entry of Europe s Altice NV AS ATCA founded by French Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi that has agreed to buy U S cable companies Cablevision Systems Corp N CVC and Suddenlink Communications Combining Sprint with a cable company would make us a stronger and more formidable competitor Claure said in an interview But there s absolutely no discussion Drahi speaking last week at a conference in New York said that he could buy a U S wireless carrier someday Altice executives have said they hope to offer U S subscribers a quadruple play of Internet television and fixed and mobile telecoms Claure said he had read about the comments It seems like everybody now wants to get into wireless which puts Sprint in a very good position So I think the next few months or years are going to be very active in this industry Claure said I think it s going to be exciting times ahead in terms of consolidation but we don t have any conversations with anybody Sprint burned 2 2 billion in cash in the second quarter ended June 30 It is locked in an aggressive price war with its rivals Verizon Communications Inc N VZ AT T Inc N T and T Mobile US Inc N TMUS which are going after each others subscribers with promotions that have weighed on growth In August Japan s SoftBank Group Corp T 9984 the majority owner of Sprint raised its stake in the wireless company to 82 percent from about 80 percent through a share purchase boosting the market value of the struggling U S wireless carrier It is also setting up two financing vehicles to help Sprint reverse its fortunes The company has been under pressure to cut costs because of investor concerns it was spending too much to acquire and retain customers and build out its wireless network
Shares in Sprint were little changed at 4 39 on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday afternoon |
VZ | Sprint says will sit out of 2016 airwaves auction | By Malathi Nayak NEW YORK Reuters Sprint Corp N S will not join the U S government s auction of airwaves set for early 2016 as it has adequate airwaves to currently build out its network and for its future needs the company said on Saturday The U S Federal Communications Commission is gearing up to auction off valuable 600 megahertz airwaves that can travel long distances and penetrate buildings to wireless carriers which are clamoring for faster speeds for data guzzling customers Sprint will not participate as its current holdings of airwaves are sufficient for its ongoing network upgrade effort and to serve customers in the future it said in a statement making it the first U S carrier to announce it will sit out of the auction Sprint s focus and overarching imperative must be on improving its network and market position in the immediate term so we can remain a powerful force in fostering competition Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said in the statement Sprint has the spectrum it needs to deploy its network architecture of the future Investors have been concerned about financial health of Sprint the no 4 U S wireless carrier based on subscribers which has struggled to report a profit in recent years Sprint burned 2 2 billion in cash in the second quarter ended June 30 It is locked in an aggressive price war with its rivals Verizon Communications Inc N VZ AT T Inc N T and T Mobile US Inc N TMUS which are going after each others subscribers with deep discounts and promotions that have weighed on growth Sprint also skipped the airwaves auction called the AWS 3 spectrum sale that concluded earlier this year
Sprint s larger rivals AT T Inc N T and Verizon Communications Inc N VZ have said they plan on participating in the 2016 auction |
VZ | Verizon up 1 3 after better than expected Q3 earnings revenue | Investing com Verizon Communications Inc N VZ the largest mobile network operator in the U S reported better than expected third quarter earnings ahead of Tuesday s opening bell sending its shares higher in pre market trade
Verizon said adjusted earnings per share came in at 1 04 in the three months ended September 30 above expectations for earnings of 1 02 per share and compared with 89 cents per share in the same period a year earlier
Third quarter earnings included a 5 cent per share non cash charge due to a re measurement triggered by a pension settlement accounting threshold
The mobile network operator s third quarter revenue totaled 33 2 billion beating forecasts for revenue of 32 9 billion but up 5 4 from 31 6 billion a year earlier
Verizon continues to grow earnings by delivering network reliability and superior value that continues to attract new customers said Chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam
Verizon Wireless posted another quarter of quality connections growth even better than in the second quarter while maintaining high customer loyalty and profitability McAdam added
We expect future revenue growth from mobile over the top video including digital advertising and the Internet of Things he continued
Immediately after the earnings announcement Verizon shares gained 57 cents or 1 27 in trading prior to the opening bell to hit 45 38 from a closing price of 44 70 on Monday
Meanwhile U S stock futures pointed to a lower open The Dow futures shed 32 points or 0 19 the S P 500 futures dipped 4 points or 0 2 while the Nasdaq 100 futures declined 8 points or 0 17 |
CSCO | Cisco Pops On Earnings Plenty More Upside | Summary
Cisco Systems NASDAQ CSCO rose by 6 on Thursday after the company posted earnings that beat Wall Street expectations
Having completed its intermediate market cycle we see plenty more upside in the coming months
The company reported earnings per share of 0 78 and total revenue of 12 96 billion compared to analyst estimates of 0 77 and 12 90 billion For next quarter management expects revenue growth of 4 5 6 5 above the average estimate of 3 5
CEO Chuck Robbins beamed Our strong performance was across the business reflecting our customers confidence in our strategy business model and market leading portfolio
Our analysis focuses on market cycles We believe CSCO has now completed its most recently cycle and is in the rising phase of a new cycle This has been a strong stock Its cycle patterns suggest new highs coming into the summer Our target is well over 60
For more from Slim or to learn about cycle analysis check out the askSlim Market Week show every Friday on our YouTube channel |
CSCO | U S stocks take pause from Trump s longest winning streak in decades | Investing com Wall Street took a breather on Thursday and traded lower despite a handful of upbeat economic reports after a recent rally that President Donald Trump dubbed the longest winning streak in decades may have caused markets to opt for consolidation before making their next move
At 12 13PM ET 17 15GMT the Dow Jones fell 28 points or 0 13 the S P 500 lost 6 points or 0 26 while the Nasdaq Composite traded down 18 points or 0 31
President Donald Trump hit headlines as he showed his enthusiasm for recent record highs in stocks in his first tweet of the day on Thursday
Stock market hits new high with longest winning streak in decades he tweeted adding that there was a great level of confidence and optimism even before tax plan rollout
Experts disagreed over the validity of his statement as it was unclear as to exactly what winning streak the President was referring to
Trump has been credited with being a major catalyst behind Wall Street s impressive rally since election day with some dubbing it the Trump Jump Trump rally or Trump trade as investors welcomed his promises of tax reform infrastructure spending and deregulation
The fact is that all three major indices closed at fresh highs Wednesday for a fifth straight day the best run in 25 years as traders continued to bet on a pro growth agenda under President Trump
Others provided arguments that the seven day rise in the S P was only the best since 2013 while the five days of gains for the Dow saw its match last September and Nasdaq up seven session saw that a similar upside streak ending just last January 11
But Business Insider pointed out other impressive statistics that began even before Trump s November win such as the fact that stocks haven t registered a 1 decrease since October 11 its longest run since at least 2006 or the fact that the current bull market run began on March 9 2009 was now the second longest in history following behind the streak from 1987 to 2000
The financial news publication also noted that the seven consecutive record high closes in the Nasdaq Composite was its longest streak since 1999
That date is not without its irony as Investing com noted Thursday in its weekly comic that recent gains have led to speculation of a near term reversal with some fund managers likening the current stock market euphoria to the dotcom bubble which reached a peak on the last day of 1999 and then burst dramatically
Whether or not Thursday s current pause is simply a healthy consolidation of gains or a response to the call of bears claiming that stocks have gone too far too fast remains to be seen
However it was clear that a handful of positive economic reports were insufficient to convince traders to continue to pour more money into equities on Thursday
Weekly jobless claims continued to show a solid labor market as they came in lower than expected Experts at Bespoke noted that the reading has been below 240 000 in five of the last seven weeks and highlighted that they didn t go below 240 000 once between December 1973 and December 2016
The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index showed that activity in the sector soared to 43 3 in February soaring past expectations at its highest level since 1984 on the back of the biggest one month gain in the reading since June 2009
Business activity expanded at a solid clip in New York State the report from the New York Fed noted Indexes for the six month outlook suggested that respondents remained highly optimistic about future conditions
The housing market also showed solid indicators as building permits hit a 14 month high in January Although housing starts actually fell after an upward revision to December s data the number of units still settled 22 000 above forecasts
Despite the better than expected data the dollar broke an 11 day winning streak on Thursday falling back against the euro yen and the basket of currencies that measures its broader strength after hitting its highest in a month a day earlier at 101 75
Comments by Federal Reserve Fed chair Janet Yellen in testimony to Congress this week showed that the central bank was on track to continue with gradual rate hikes and had supported the greenback
On Thursday Fed vice chairman Stanley Fischer noted that he expected the labor market to strengthen further and said in the interview on Bloomberg Television that inflation was moving towards the 2 target
Fischer further repeated the idea that rate hikes would be gradual though he refrained from specifying how many there would be
The Atlanta Fed president Dennis Lockhart told the same news agency in a later interview Thursday that he could probably go either way on a March rate hike
Lockhart also insisted that the Fed could hike in May or any of the meetings without a press conference
In any case it should be noted that Lockhart will retire in 12 days before the March meeting
In big moves on earnings Avon Products NYSE AVP tanked 18 as a 2 4 drop in revenue caused the cosmetic maker to miss consensus
Shares in TripAdvisor Inc NASDAQ TRIP also sank nearly 9 on Thursday as the online travel company disappointed on both the top and bottom line
Dean Foods NYSE DF slumped 7 as the largest U S dairy processor issued a first quarter profit guidance well below consensus
On the upside Cisco Systems NASDAQ CSCO jumped nearly 3 as revenue in the blue chip s security business which offers firewall protection and breach detection systems rose 14 to 528 million beating analyst forecasts for 519 1 million
Also in the headlines Snap Inc owner of the popular messaging app Snapchat was reported to be seeking a valuation of between 16 20 billion and 18 52 billion in its highly awaited initial public offering below speculation that had pointed to a range of 20 to 25 billion
Meanwhile oil prices moved lower in U S midday trade on Thursday turning around from initial gains on the back of OPEC sources cited by Reuters who said the reduction in crude production could be extended or deepened at the May meeting if oil stocks are still too high
Oil prices have been stuck in a narrow range around the lower to mid 50s over the past two months as investors weigh the impact of cuts in supply from the historic OPEC non OPEC agreement against record stockpiles of crude and increased drilling activity in the United States
U S crude futures lost 0 36 to 52 92 by 12 15PM ET 17 15GMT while Brent oil traded down 0 77 to 55 32 |
CSCO | HP Enterprise cuts FY profit forecast shares slide | By Rishika Sadam Reuters Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co the corporate hardware and enterprise software business of Hewlett Packard Co cut its full year profit forecast as the company faces intense competition in its cloud related business and struggles with a strong dollar The company s shares were down 6 7 percent at 23 in after market trading on Thursday They have gained nearly 88 percent in the past 12 months HPE also cited higher commodities costs and some near term execution issues for the cut in full year profit forecast Since its separation from Hewlett Packard Co in 2015 HPE has sold off most of its traditional software services while building its cloud related businesses which has pitted it against much bigger and established companies such as Cisco Systems Inc NASDAQ CSCO and the Dell EMC combine I think the cut is a combination of increased pressure from foreign exchange movements as well as a highly competitive environment Edward Jones analyst Bill Kreher said About 61 percent of HPE s revenue comes from outside the United States HPE said it expected full year adjusted profit of between 1 88 1 98 per share down from the 2 2 10 per share it forecast earlier Analysts on average were expecting a profit of 2 05 per share according to Thomson Reuters I B E S HPE also reported a revenue miss for the first quarter ended Jan 31 Revenue fell 10 4 percent to 11 41 billion well short of the analysts average estimate of 12 07 billion We saw significantly lower demand from one customer and major Tier 1 service provider facing a very competitive environment Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman said on a call with analysts Revenue from its enterprise group the company s biggest and which offers servers storage and networking services fell nearly 12 percent to 6 32 billion in the quarter Excluding items the company earned 45 cents per share edging past estimates by 1 cent The Palo Alto California based company also forecast current quarter adjusted profit in the range of 41 cents 45 cents per share Analysts were expecting a profit of 47 cents HP Inc which holds the hardware division of Hewlett Packard Co reported better than expected revenue on Wednesday largely helped by a stabilizing PC market |
CSCO | Snap vaults venture investor Lightspeed into the Silicon Valley elite | By Heather Somerville SAN FRANCISCO Reuters A decade ago Lightspeed Venture Partners was an obscure firm investing in highly technical startups that were mostly unknown outside of Silicon Valley The firm is now poised to cash in handily on the biggest technology IPO in three years Snap Inc N SNAP which is set to make its public market debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday at a valuation that could top 22 billion Lightspeed stands to reap one of its best returns from an investment that started as a 485 000 bet on a college student That investment in the owner of social media app Snapchat promises a big boost to Lightspeed s status in the fiercely competitive Silicon Valley venture capital community Firms that are perceived to pick the best companies a group that includes Benchmark Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz can often beat out other VCs for coveted deals and raise more funding from their limited partners Monster IPOs in particular can be quite significant said Beezer Clarkson a limited partner and managing director with Sapphire Ventures A fund s reputation is strengthened which can mean enhanced deal flow and greater confidence that lightning will strike again Lightspeed owns 87 million Snap shares according to public filings or 8 6 percent of the company At the top of the expected IPO price range of 14 to 16 per share that stake would be worth about 1 4 billion It was the sole investor in Snap s 485 000 seed round in 2012 an early stake that super charged Lightspeed s returns A particularly big winner on Thursday will be Jeremy Liew the Lightspeed partner who led the Snap investment If you re a venture investor and you can bag a dragon that s a spectacular outcome said Chris Albinson co founder and managing director of Founders Circle Capital That individual gets to do the victory lap and ride that for awhile And Lightspeed s breakout is not limited to Snap Cisco Systems Inc O CSCO bought software firm AppDynamics in January for 3 7 billion and Lightspeed s cut of the deal is expected to return more than the entire 480 million fund the firm raised in 2006 Nutanix a cloud computing company that went public last year at a 2 2 billion valuation was another big winner Lightspeed is also the largest shareholder in MuleSoft an enterprise software company that filed for an initial public offering in mid February MuleSoft AppDynamics and Nutanix are all part of Lightspeed s 2006 fund Lightspeed declined to comment citing U S Securities and Exchange Commission rules that require investors to remain quiet during an IPO process Graphic on Lightspeed s deal flow STRATEGY SHIFT Lightspeed was launched in 1999 by four partners who were experts in enterprise software and early internet companies making only the occasional investment into consumer technology companies But then came the rise of social media In 2006 Lightspeed hired Liew who had been at AOL in operations and management roles He did not have a highly technical background but did have a knack for marketing and a strong personality that Lightspeed thought would raise the firm s profile and help it break into the consumer sector Sources close to Liew 45 describe him as an investor who will travel halfway across the world and stay in a mediocre hotel to get a deal done He is a fanatical researcher who once read Cosmo Girl and Teen Vogue magazines for teenage girls on the premise that consumer technology that enters the popular culture is first adopted by young women who might lead him to the next hot company He is well known around Silicon Valley for his splashy wardrobe which includes a selection of festive pants He comes in and he wears his yellow pants and his crazy shirts and spews off some really smart things and people say I guess this guy really knows what he is talking about said Brian Lee co founder and chief executive of The Honest Company Liew was the first investor in The Honest Company and backed Lee s previous startup ShoeDazzle And he attended a bitcoin conference in 2013 when the cryptocurrency was still viewed as kind of a joke said Peter Smith CEO of digital currency startup Blockchain where Liew is a board member He is exploring markets that most people think are nuts Smith said PayPal co founder Max Levchin now CEO of lending startup Affirm met Liew when he tried to hire him around 2005 just before Liew went to Lightspeed Years later Liew reached out about Affirm and he basically followed me around for about a year before I was ready to take money Levchin said Liew was the first outside investor in Affirm alongside Khosla Ventures A shrewd dealmaker Liew is described by many as prickly and outright abrasive in his critique of entrepreneurs Smith said Liew once sat in on his interview with a prospective employee after which Smith got an earful on his interviewing style If he has bad news for you he doesn t put it between two slices of good news Smith said Liew and Lightspeed will now be under pressure to show they can repeat their success They have some irons in the fire with The Honest Company valued at about 1 7 billion by private investors though it will be tough to match the Snap windfall But the firm has plenty of money to play with Lightspeed s fund size has more than doubled since 2006 and it closed its 11th fund at 1 2 billion last year Everyone in the Valley knows them now and before that wasn t the case said Curtis Lee co founder and CEO of Luxe an on demand parking company backed by Liew When I used to tell people about them I used to get blank stares
This story has been refiled to remove repeated words the in paragraph 4 and fund in paragraph 28 |
VZ | AT T To Offer Direct Roaming Wireless Services In Cuba | U S telecom behemoth AT T Inc NYSE T recently entered into an agreement with Cuba s state run telecommunications company Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba ETECSA to offer direct roaming mobile interconnection services between the two countries With this agreement AT T customers will soon be able to connect through talk text and data while in Cuba The date of commencement and pricing of these services will be declared later on President Barack Obama s decision to normalize U S diplomatic and economic relations with Cuba which have been considerably tensed since 1961 is starting to show results Under his administration new Cuban policy regulations which have been approved by the Treasury and Commerce departments aided the U S telecommunications industry to gain initial exemptions from the existing embargo to invest in Cuba In Mar 2015 U S based IDT Corp had formed a joint venture with ETECSA to provide direct international long distance service In Sep 2015 Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ became the first U S telecom operator to offer roaming wireless services in Cuba This service was offered through the network of Vodafone Group LON VOD Plc NASDAQ VOD However in Mar 2016 Verizon entered into an agreement with ETECSA to offer direct roaming mobile interconnection services between the two countries In Nov 2015 Sprint Corp NYSE S signed the first direct roaming wireless service agreement with ETECSA Earlier in Apr 2015 Sprint s prepaid service division Boost Mobile had launched an unlimited voice call and text message service plan to improve connectivity between the U S and Cuba Starting at as low as 50 a month the plan allows Sprint s customers in the U S to make calls to Cuba without a long term subscription contract In May 2016 T Mobile US Inc NYSE T had signed an interconnection and roaming wireless service agreement with ETECSA Notably T Mobile US serves the maximum number of customers in the U S who are of Cuban descent Approximately 36 6 of Cuban born U S wireless customers are subscribers of the company Therefore it is a logical step for this company to establish roaming wireless service in Cuba We believe in the long term Cuba may be a boon for the U S telecom operators An opportunity to sell products to 11 million odd customers is a very lucrative and enticing one Further with the weakening of communism and the willingness to enter the economic as well as political mainstream Cuba is poised to become an attractive emerging market in the future Moreover Cuba s geographical proximity to the U S is a major positive for these telecom operators from the cost of operations standpoint AT T currently carries a Zacks Rank 3 Hold AT T INC Price
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VZ | Dycom Industries DY Q4 Earnings Revenues Beat Estimates | After an incredible beat last quarter Dycom Industries Inc NYSE DY followed up with another impressive beat in its fourth quarter fiscal 2016 results The specialty contracting services provider reported adjusted earnings per share of 1 64 in the quarter surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 1 56 by 5 1
The bottom line figure was even more remarkable on a year over year basis surging a whopping 69 compared with the year ago tally of 97 cents per share
Robust top line growth drove earnings while diligent operational initiatives undertaken by the company supported the bottom line
For fiscal 2016 the posted adjusted earnings of 148 4 million 4 48 per share up a massive 76 from the previous year figure of 84 3 million 2 41 per share
Inside the Headlines
Dycom s fiscal fourth quarter contract revenues continued their strong momentum and came in at 789 2 million up 36 4 year over year Also the top line beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 773 million Contract revenues grew 20 on an organic basis Acquisitions too added 44 8 million in revenues significantly supplementing the revenue stream
Extensive deployment of 1 Gigabyte wireline networks by major customers and increasing rollout of fiber by cable operators in small and medium businesses boosted top line growth Solid performance across the majority of business lines including engineering design and aerial and underground construction services and healthy inorganic growth also augmented revenues
For the full year Dycom reported contract revenues of 2 7 billion up over 32 year over year on the back of sturdy organic growth
The company reported non GAAP adjusted earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization EBITDA of 126 million for the quarter compared with 88 5 million recorded a year ago
The Goodman Networks Acquisition
During the reported quarter Dycom acquired certain telecom related assets of Goodman Networks Incorporated for about 107 5 million in cash It purchased certain assets and associated liabilities in Goodman s current wireline and wireless network deployment businesses
Initially Dycom projected the buyout to generate about 150 165 million in revenues over the next 12 months by providing services like wireless network construction in Texas Georgia Southern California and other markets This specialty contracting services provider also expected the EBITDA earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization of the acquired business as a percentage of revenue to be roughly in line with its own ratio in fiscal 2018
However concurrent with the earnings release Dycom announced that the recently acquired operations of Goodman Networks are now forecast to generate lower revenue in fiscal 2017 than initially projected However they are likely to produce higher EBITDA margins sooner than anticipated earlier
Liquidity
Dycom exited the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of 33 8 million compared with 21 3 million as of Jul 25 2015 The company s long term debt was 706 2 million as of Jul 30 2016 compared with 516 9 million as of Jul 25 2015
Guidance
Dycom issued guidance for first quarter fiscal 2017 wherein adjusted earnings per share are projected in the range of 1 55 1 70 on revenues within a range of 780 810 million
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first quarter fiscal 2017 earnings is currently pegged at 1 62 per share within the company s guided range DYCOM INDS Price and Consensus
Our Take
We believe Dycom s top line has benefited significantly from favorable industry trends over the past few quarters which are driving client spending Deployment of fiber to the home and fiber to the node technologies by major telecom operators to enable video offerings and 1 gigabit high speed connections are opening up considerable growth opportunities for the company
Going forward we believe that the significant investments in wireline networks cable capacity projects and the ongoing Connect America Fund II project will help Dycom maintain its growth momentum
Also the company s diligent capital expenditure strategy has supplemented organic revenue improvement over the past 12 months We also believe that investments made in assets will bolster operating efficiency accelerating the delivery of backlogs which in turn bodes well for long term growth
This apart Dycom has a highly concentrated client base among which the biggest ones i e AT T Inc NYSE T Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ and Centurylink contributed about 56 of revenues in fiscal 2015
However uncertainties in the macroeconomic environment especially fluctuations in oil prices and unfavorable weather conditions remain headwinds for the company As a matter of fact pronounced seasonal impact from businesses acquired by the company in 2015 has hampered earnings significantly in the past and could affect operations in the future as well
Dycom presently carries a Zacks Rank 3 Hold |
VZ | Verizon Awarded The Top Spot In RootMetrics Wireless Test | Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ has been instated as the nation s best wireless carrier again by RootMetrics a wireless industry research firm The company took the top spot in terms of reliability speed data calling and text messaging Verizon s immediate rival AT T Inc NYSE T was ranked second in all of the above except for one category Sprint Corp NYSE S outpaced AT T in terms of call quality T Mobile US Inc NYSE T on the other hand fell behind every other major U S carriers in the test
Verizon s Network Improvements Efforts
Verizon has been very active in expanding and improving its existing wireless networks Recently it acquired and installed dark fiber based network throughout its network in order to support the existing 4G LTE network and more importantly to transition into the upcoming 5G wireless network Dark fiber provides abundant bandwidth which is of utmost necessity for the smooth functioning of super fast wireless networks such as 4G and 5G
Additionally Verizon seems to be far ahead of others in its plans to deploy 5G wireless network The company achieved a milestone as it became the first company in the world to issue an initial radio specification for the upcoming 5G wireless network and is eyeing for a commercial deployment of the same by 2017
The Bottom Line
While the RootMetric test is just one of many similar tests done by wireless research firms across the country rankings of the wireless carriers vary significantly However the fact that Verizon still manages to be in the top tier of these rankings consistently is indicative of its wireless strength
A strong network enables the carrier to maintain its churn rate while improving average revenue per user ARPU going forward Notably Verizon had a blended churn rate of 1 19 flat year over year VERIZON COMM Price
Verizon presently carries a Zacks Rank 3 Hold |
VZ | U S Cellular USM Introduces New Shared Connect Plans | United States Cellular Corp NYSE S the fifth largest regional wireless service provider has been keeping up with the recent wireless trend of raising prices and adding data with the introduction of new Shared Connect plans U S Cellular has launched a new pack of Shared Connect plans which offer more data larger allotments and new tools to track data usage The plan is being offered on its high quality network that keeps customers connected irrespective of the area the customer is localized in What are Shared Connect Plans Shared Connect Plans are a pool of data divided among multiple wireless devices one person with many devices or many people each with one device So be it a family with multiple devices or a business professional there s variety of data plans to fulfill everyone s demand Prospects of the Shared Connect PlanThe new Shared Connect plan is accompanied with unlimited offerings in relation to calling and texting and customers are also given an option to change their plan as per convenience The new plans offer 2GB for 30 a month instead of 1GB for 25 4GB for 45 per month versus 3GB for 40 8GB for 60 a month against 6GB for 55 16GB for 80 per month instead of 12GB for 80 and 24GB for 100 per month versus 15GB for 90 Customers opting for 16GB plans and above will get unlimited calling and texting to friends family and businesses in Canada and Mexico and data usage controls which will limit the amount of data each account can use The same is available at 10 per month on plans of 8GB and below and for data usage control services the customer will be charged 4 99 per month However there s an associated access fee 20 per line per month for smartphones routers and hot spots and 10 for tablets Benefits of the Shared Connect PlanThese plans are designed to suit the needs of all types of customers Moreover each plan offers unlimited domestic calling and texting with the option to add multiple lines The company also guarantees that their customers can use limitless data on phones tablets and connected devices without the fear of exceeding data plans Also the devices will be connected to an advanced 4G LTE network all around the world Similar Unlimited Offers Last week T Mobile US NYSE T and Sprint Corp NYSE S came up with similar unlimited offerings T Mobile s T Mobile One plan for 70 a month replacing their prior 95 unlimited plan and Sprint s Unlimited Freedom plan at 60 instead of 75 per month Meanwhile U S wireless carriers like AT T Inc NYSE T have revised rates from 20 for 300 MB to 30 for 1 GB for the smallest data plan and Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ has increased rates by 5 to 10 per data plan U S Cellular currently has a Zacks Rank 3 Hold US CELLULAR Price
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VZ | All Eyes On The Wireless Industry Players Join 5G Bandwagon | Of late many research reports by a plethora of data analytics firms have been surfacing pointing out that 5G connections will be scaling new heights in the next 10 years Examples include that of Strategy Analytics whose forecast reveal that the number of worldwide 5G connections will touch the 690 million mark by 2025 Additionally mobile handset shipments are expected to be around 300 million globally in the same time frame Meanwhile a host of industry experts have jumped the bandwagon predicting promising numbers about the surge of 5G technology in the U S But are we being too optimistic What is 5G 5G or 5th generation mobile networks or 5th generation wireless systems is the next major phase of mobile telecommunications standards after the 4G IMT standards According to Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance 5G networks allow data rates of tens of megabits per second for millions of users 1 Gb per second simultaneously to people on the same office floor increased spectral efficiency compared to improved 4G coverage signaling efficiency enhanced latency reduced compared to LTE Industry TrendsTo date almost all of the top wireless companies have initiated 5G trials Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ has been quite active and is considered to have issued a radio specification of 5G to the industry carrier consortium 3GPP Other telecom operators such as AT T Inc NYSE T T Mobile US Inc NYSE T and Sprint Corporation NYSE S have either tested or are in the process of testing the technology Additionally communication equipment manufacturers like Cisco Systems Inc NASDAQ CSCO and Ericsson ST ERICAs LM NASDAQ ERIC have helped design the systems needed for 5G specifications Some telecom companies are even targeting commercial deployment by 2020 No 5G Standard YetThe news surrounding the 5G technology at the moment is more about speculation than facts As it is a futuristic technology still in its experimental stage nothing tangible can be ascertained until its full scale deployment by the telecom operators Moreover the lack of any particular standard may have led to different approaches in trials by the telecom companies which make it more complicated So the International Telecommunications Union plans to set a global 5G standard by 2020 and until there is any standard set 5G may just be some grand PR stunt by the telecom companies Fiber is Complementary Not a SubstituteOne of the myths surrounding the next gen wireless technology is that it will completely substitute fiber Verizon even termed 5G as wireless fiber adding more hype to the myth However the truth is far from this as to reach the promised speeds of 5G more fiber is needed a fact well known by the telecom industry The main reason behind this is for a high frequency 5G spectrum the user has to be close to a base station to access promised speeds Moreover the base stations themselves will have to be connected by fiber as fiber can theoretically have unlimited bandwidth Thus in order to expand 5G networks more wireless base stations have to be put in place first which in turn requires more fiber investment However given the sad state of last mile fiber infrastructure in the U S one has to question these optimistic statements about 5G The Bottom LineWhile investments in fiber and improvement in last mile connectivity is necessary to touch the estimated 5G speeds it is certainly not impossible The huge number of wireless base stations that have to be maintained for the technology to be successful poses a serious concern However the base stations will be small and easily deployable Additionally technologies will evolve and get better in the future making this expansion effective and efficient While the telecom carriers may sound too optimistic about 5G for the time being intensive competition amongst the industry players is sure to squeeze out innovation that can lay the path for 5G going forward |
VZ | U S appeals court asked to halt NSA phone spying program | By Joseph Ax NEW YORK Reuters A U S appeals court appeared reluctant on Wednesday to put an immediate halt to the federal government s collection of millions of Americans phone records with the controversial spy program set to expire in November The 2nd U S Circuit Court of Appeals in New York previously found the program illegal in May ruling that the Patriot Act did not authorize the National Security Agency to install such sweeping surveillance The decision came in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union At the time the court noted that the relevant sections of the Patriot Act were set to expire on June 1 and declined to stop the program saying Congress should have the opportunity to decide whether to permit it to continue Under the USA Freedom Act which Congress passed in June new privacy provisions take effect on Nov 29 that will end the bulk collection first disclosed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 The program collects metadata such as the number dialed and the duration of calls but does not include their content Arguments on Wednesday centered on whether the program may continue operating between now and November Henry Whitaker a lawyer for the Obama administration told the three judge panel that Congress clearly intended the collection to continue while the NSA transitions to the new system But Alex Abdo an ACLU lawyer said the statute explicitly extended the same Patriot Act provisions that the court concluded do not permit bulk collection The judges expressed concern that as Circuit Judge Robert Sack put it halting the program would short circuit a process already under way Saying the ACLU had won a historic achievement Sack asked Why don t you declare victory and withdraw Abdo said the ongoing collection harmed the ACLU s ability to confer with clients such as whistleblowers without worrying about whether the communications would be swept up by the NSA The Freedom Act requires companies like Verizon Communications Inc N VZ and AT T Inc N T to collect metadata Instead of feeding the data to intelligence agencies the companies must do so only if a government request is approved by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court The 2nd Circuit is the only appeals court to rule on the program s legality Last week an appeals court in Washington threw out a lower court s ruling that would have blocked the program saying the plaintiffs had not shown their specific data was collected
The 9th Circuit in San Francisco is considering a similar challenge |
VZ | Verizon first to offer cellphone roaming in Cuba | NEW YORK Reuters Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ announced on Thursday it would begin to offer roaming wireless service in Cuba next week becoming the first U S company to do so The announcement by the No 1 U S wireless carrier follows the restoration of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States in July after 54 years The United States has set connectivity as a priority in its new relationship with the communist run island The news came on the same day Cuba said its first ambassador to the United States since 1961 had presented his credentials at the White House Telecommunications equipment technology and services were among the first exemptions to a U S economic embargo of the island after Washington and Havana announced plans to restore diplomatic relations in December Verizon will charge 2 99 per minute for voice calls and 2 05 per megabyte for data making the option an expensive one Currently visiting Americans must purchase a pay as you go cell phone through state telephone company Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba SA ETECSA to have cellular service on the island or have a cellphone account in a third country ETECSA does not offer data Boost Mobile part of Sprint Corp in April launched a prepaid plan for U S consumers calling and texting Cuba In March U S based IDT Corp reached an agreement with ETECSA to provide direct international long distance service Previously phone communication between the two countries had to pass through third countries
Scarcely 2 million people out of Cuba s population of 11 million have cell phones Cuban officials cite the U S embargo as the reason for its weak development and say they hope to reach 60 percent mobile phone access by 2020 |
CSCO | Cisco AppDynamics deal seeks to boost ratio of software revenue | This January 25 story was refiled to correct misspelling in headline By Stephen Nellis Reuters Cisco Systems NASDAQ CSCO Inc s decision to acquire software startup AppDynamics for 3 7 billion nearly double the private market valuation reflects Cisco s struggles in building its software business according to company financial reports and internal documents The push by Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins to boost the share of revenues from software stalled in the most recent quarter Executives on its earnings call said 29 percent of Cisco s 12 4 billion in fiscal first quarter revenues came from recurring software and services That was barely up from 28 percent in the previous quarter which was only a slight increase from 25 percent a year earlier One of Cisco s key product lines is dramatically underperforming that software revenue ratio according to an internal document reviewed by Reuters Cisco s N9000 switch uses a mix of hardware and software to route information to data centers Cisco paid 863 million in 2013 for the technology from a startup named Insieme hoping to boost software revenue in its networking division But the document showed that as of the end of fiscal 2016 year last summer Cisco had 888 million in contracts for N9000 switches which does include a software component but only 89 million in connected contracts for the so called Application Centric Infrastructure software product designed to be sold alongside it Those numbers suggest a software to hardware revenue ratio of about 10 percent below Cisco s overall average A company spokesman would not comment on unreleased financial figures or say what percentage of switch revenue comes from software While the N9000 switch will be a small part of Cisco s revenue the lagging software component could help explain why Cisco was eager to pay a premium for AppDynamics Cisco spokesman Jim Brady noted that in its most recent quarter the amount of deferred revenue attributable to recurring software sales grew 48 percent an indicator that software revenue will grow As we continue to evolve our business toward a more software centric recurring revenue model we are very pleased with our incremental growth in this area Brady said We feel the acquisition of AppDynamics will also accelerate our transition toward software based solutions that deliver predictable and recurring revenue
AppDynamics whose software helps monitor how fast apps run on servers had been valued at 1 9 billion in its most recent round of private financing Cisco swooped in with an all cash offer for nearly double its valuation just as it was about to go public as AppDynamics Inc |
VZ | AT T T Faces Threat Of Strike From Internet Workforce | Employees of AT T Inc s NYSE T internet service represented by the Communications Workers of America CWA has approved a strike if a new contract is not reached soon The last contract expired in Jul 2016 and has been extended till today However the employees are now negotiating for a better contract including a reasonable increase in wages and benefits The strike covers 2000 internet workers employed across all of the company s centers who provide customer as well as technical support related to IP based services such as IPTV and DSL Ongoing NegotiationsAT T has been tied up with negotiations over new contracts covering over 16 000 employees in three of its operating states The union has been condemning the telecom giant of taking a hard line stance related to key bargaining issues However to its credit AT T has been able to resolve the issue of unfair labor practice recently Further the company is confident that it can strike a fair deal with the workers union soon The Bottom LineStrike threat from workers is pretty common and usually do not materialize as negotiations are reached effectively before the occurrence of such an event However we must take note of the recent strike faced by Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ from its wireline workforce which materially dent its operations In a competitive market if labor issues halt any operation telecom operators are likely face issues that can severely hamper their reputation Other telecom players such as T Mobile US Inc NYSE T and Sprint Corporation NYSE S are also facing or have faced worker issues in the past AT T INC Price |
VZ | Is It Time To Buy Verizon | Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ has been on a shopping spree It was recently announced the company is going to acquire Yahoo s core assets for 4 8 billion
The telecom giant also spent 2 4 billion on Fleetmatics Grup NYSE FLTX this months and 1 8 billion more on XO Communications in February this year
Judging from the pace with which Verizon is expanding its empire one might think the company has a bright future ahead This is probably true but does it mean now is the right time to buy Verizon stock Wait a while says the
According to the theory the direction of the trend could be identified by recognizing a five wave As Verizon s weekly price chart shows there is a clear impulsive rally from 21 56 in October 2008 to 56 95 in July 2016
This means the trend is pointing up and Verizon s future could turn out to be very bright indeed However this is not the time to buy the stock because the Wave principle also postulates that every impulse is followed by a three wave correction in the opposite direction
In Verizon s case the above shown I II III IV V sequence is likely to give way to a significant A B C decline
Prices could be expected to decline to the termination area of wave IV which means a pullback to around 40 00 could be in the cards In addition the RSI indicator is showing the typical bearish divergence between waves III and V which also suggests the bulls are exhausted
In our opinion Verizon stock is going to deserve a place in investors portfolios but not yet At least a couple of years might have to pass before it is worth buying again There is a difference between a good company and a good stock It is not always the same thing |
VZ | Charter Into Top 3 Ethernet Providers Surpasses Verizon | As per data provided by the Vertical System Group s Mid Year 2016 U S Carrier Ethernet Leaderboard Charter Communications Inc NYSE T has surpassed Verizon as the third largest Ethernet carrier in the U S The ranking is based upon the retail port share of each provider
Notably Charter is believed to have gained considerable synergy from its recent horizontally integrated merger with previously Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks AT T Inc NYSE T and Level 3 Communications Inc NYSE T still occupy the top two positions per the report
A Significant Jump
At the end of 2015 Charter lacked the necessary retail port share i e greater than 4 to be listed in the leaderboard However Time Warner Cable was ranked fifth at that point of time But after the recent mergers Charter has gained access to a large base of fiber and hybrid fiber coax footprint This has been instrumental in providing Ethernet service to many small and medium scale businesses SMB
Additionally Charter can leverage Time Warner Cable s Ethernet footprint to provide services to large business enterprises as well Charter saw an uptick in SMB related businesses in the second quarter of 2016
Verizon Falls Behind
In recent times Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ has witnessed declining Ethernet Cable orders with its customers opting for a switch to cable multi service operators MSO for the purpose Additionally Verizon sold its wireline assets in California Florida and Texas to Frontier Communications NASDAQ FTR Inc This is likely to have impacted the figures considered for the ranking However Verizon is slated to introduce its Titan Ethernet program through which it intends to price its Ethernet cable offering aggressively to entice wholesale as well as retail customers and control churn
At present Verizon s fiber presence is restricted to certain locations However with the completion of the acquisition of XO Communications fiber network next year Verizon will look to intensify its Ethernet penetration in the future thereby leveraging its Ethernet service offerings This can take Verizon back to the lost position and even challenge the incumbent leaders going forward
The Bottom Line
The spotlight is now on the Ethernet market with both telecom operators and cable MSOs vying for a reasonable share As the industry gains further accretion expanding its scope and makes way for higher Internet speeds increasing competition is likely to induce price compression in the future However one thing is for sure SMB s are going to be the ultimate beneficiaries of such a competition CHARTER COMM A Price
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VZ | U S FCC rejects T Mobile request to limit spectrum for Verizon ATT | By Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON Reuters The U S Federal Communications Commission on Thursday denied T Mobile US Inc s request that more airwaves be set aside for smaller wireless companies like itself to bid on during a government auction next year The unanimous vote by the five member commission came after months of T Mobile s lobbying for stricter limits for AT T NYSE T Inc s and Verizon Communications NYSE VZ Inc s participation in the auction of prized low frequency airwaves Reuters previously reported that agency staff had found existing restrictions were sufficient to ensure that smaller carriers get a chance to outbid Verizon and AT T which dominate those low frequencies The auction tentatively slated to start in March will be a landmark one for the U S wireless industry as it will give participants their first chance since 2008 to buy low frequency airwaves which are valued for their ability to carry heavy data over long distances and through obstacles such as buildings The FCC voted last year to curb participation of carriers that held dominant slices of low frequency airwaves in each market by reserving a piece of spectrum for bidding only by non dominant carriers but not to the extent T Mobile sought The vote was something of a compromise among the FCC s Democrats who wanted to give smaller carriers a leg up while ensuring that restrictions on the big carriers would not cut the proceeds of the auction expected to be the agency s largest T Mobile Chief Executive Officer John Legere on Twitter NYSE TWTR played down the policy loss touting the existence of the reserved spectrum in the first place Good news the reserve includes great quality spectrum looks like the FCC will be monitoring closely so duopoly can t game the system Legere tweeted referring to the top two U S carriers Verizon and AT T He said T Mobile was committed to showing up playing hard and being successful at the auction
T Mobile shares were down 1 2 percent at 40 24 in afternoon trading while Verizon dipped 0 6 percent and AT T fell 1 6 percent |
VZ | AT T helped U S NSA in spying on Internet traffic N Y Times | WASHINGTON Reuters Telecommunications powerhouse AT T Inc N T has provided extensive assistance to the U S National Security Agency as the spy agency conducts surveillance on huge volumes of Internet traffic passing through the United States the New York Times reported on Saturday citing newly disclosed NSA documents The newspaper reported that the company gave technical assistance to the NSA in carrying out a secret court order allowing wiretapping of all Internet communications at the headquarters of the United Nations an AT T customer The documents date from 2003 to 2013 and were provided by fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden the Times reported The company helped the spy agency in a broad range of classified activities the newspaper reported The documents describe how the NSA s working relationship with AT T has been particularly important enabling the agency to conduct surveillance under various legal rules of international and foreign to foreign Internet communications that passed through network hubs in the United States AT T installed surveillance equipment in at least 17 of its U S Internet hubs far more than competitor Verizon Communications Inc N VZ the Times reported AT T engineers also were the first to use new surveillance technologies invented by the NSA the Times reported This is a partnership not a contractual relationship according to one NSA document describing the link between the agency and the company AT T s corporate relationships provide unique accesses to other telecoms and I S P s or Internet service providers according to another NSA document AT T started in 2011 to provide the NSA more than 1 1 billion domestic cellphone calling records daily after a push to get this flow operational prior to the 10th anniversary of 9 11 referring to the Sept 11 2001 attacks on the United States the Times reported AT T s providing of foreign to foreign Internet traffic has been especially important to the NSA because large amounts of the world s Internet communications pass across U S cables the Times reported The company gave access to contents of transiting email traffic years before Verizon started in March 2013 the Times reported Asked to comment on the Times report AT T spokesman Brad Burns told Reuters by email We do not voluntarily provide information to any investigating authorities other than if a person s life is in danger and time is of the essence For example in a kidnapping situation we could provide help tracking down called numbers to assist law enforcement Burns said AT T would have nothing further to say on the report |
VZ | UK s BT accuses U S telecom rivals of hurting competition FT | Reuters A BT Group Plc L BT executive has called for the United States to require its telecommunications companies to allow access to their networks at regulated prices similar to rules in place in the United Kingdom the Financial Times reported on Sunday Bas Burger president of the British company s Americas unit told the newspaper that a lack of regulation has hampered competition in the United States where AT T Inc N T and Verizon Communications Inc N VZ control about 80 percent of the telephone and broadband lines used by homes and businesses Burger said BT Group must charge customers more because it has to pay large fees to the U S rivals to carry data over these wires Contracts BT and others have with the U S telecoms should be regulated to guarantee a minimum quality of service he said For example the U S companies have no specific time frame for fixing an outage that takes down one of BT s networks the report said Verizon AT T and BT were not immediately available for comment
British telecom regulator Ofcom is considering a breakup of BT the country s dominant provider after its rivals accused it of abusing its market position and failing to invest in the broadband networks that the rivals rely on |
VZ | U S court hands win to NSA over metadata collection | By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON Reuters A U S appeals court on Friday threw out a judge s ruling that would have blocked the National Security Agency from collecting phone metadata under a controversial program that has raised privacy concerns The U S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said there were not sufficient grounds for the preliminary injunction imposed by the lower court The ruling was a setback for privacy advocates but did not reach the bigger question of whether the NSA s actions were lawful It means the massive program to collect and store phone records disclosed in 2013 by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden can continue unaffected until it expires at the end of November Under the USA Freedom Act which Congress passed in June the program was allowed to continue for 180 days until new provisions aimed at addressing the privacy issues go into effect White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the ruling was consistent with what this administration has said for some time which is that we did believe that these capabilities were constitutional Larry Klayman the conservative lawyer who challenged the program said he would appeal to the Supreme Court We are confident of prevailing he added The three judge panel concluded that the case was not moot despite the change in the law and sent the case back to U S District Court Judge Richard Leon for further proceedings Although one could reasonably infer from the evidence presented the government collected plaintiffs own metadata one could also conclude the opposite wrote Judge Janice Rogers Brown As such the plaintiffs fall short of meeting the higher burden of proof required for a preliminary injunction she added Spokespeople for both NSA and the Office of Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the ruling Under new provisions that begin in November the program requires companies such as Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ and AT T Inc NYSE T to collect telephone records the same way that they do now for billing purposes But instead of routinely feeding U S intelligence agencies such data in bulk the companies would be required to turn it over only in response to a government request approved by the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Documents provided by Snowden in 2013 showed the surveillance court secretly approved the collection of millions of raw daily phone records in America The program was challenged by Klayman and Charles Strange the father of a U S cryptologist technician killed in Afghanistan in 2011 They won the case in U S District Court in Washington in December 2013 The government said in court papers that the program was authorized under Section 215 of the Patriot Act which addresses the FBI s ability to gather business records The only other appeals court to rule on the issue is the 2nd U S Court of Appeals in New York which held in May that the program was unlawful The court is due to hear new arguments next week over whether an injunction should be imposed
The case is NSA v Klayman U S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit No 14 5004 |
CSCO | Cisco Systems Options Bulls Buzzing Before Earnings | Cisco Systems Inc NASDAQ CSCO earnings are due after the market closes on May 15 The Dow stock s been relatively quiet on the charts in recent weeks per its 60 day historical volatility of 16 3 which ranks in the 11th annual percentile However the options market is anticipating a big move for Thursday s trading
Most recently Trade Alert places the implied earnings deviation at 7 1 for CSCO stock much wider than the 4 4 next day move the shares have averaged over the last two years Five of these eight earnings reactions have been positive including the past three in a row but just one post earnings move was large enough to match or exceed what the options market is pricing in this time around a 7 2 plunge in May 2017
Options traders appear to be positioning for an upside move from Cisco Systems At the International Securities Exchange ISE Chicago Board Options Exchange CBOE and NASDAQ OMX PHLX PHLX speculative players have bought to open 2 86 calls for each put over the past month
This call skewed trading is continuing today with 12 500 calls on the tape so far 1 4 times what s typically seen at this point and more than double the number of puts traded The May 53 call is seeing notable attention and it looks like new positions are being purchased here for a volume weighted average price of 0 82 If this is the case breakeven for the call buyers at the close this Friday May 17 is 53 82 strike plus premium paid
Looking closer at the charts CSCO shares haven t closed a week above this level since May 3 The stock has been trending lower since its April 16 18 year peak at 57 53 and is fresh off a third straight weekly loss And while the equity closed below its 80 day moving average for the first time since late January during Monday s broad market bloodbath Cisco Systems is back above this trendline today up 1 9 to trade at 52 25 |
CSCO | Cisco Systems CSCO Beats Q3 Earnings And Revenue Estimates | Cisco Systems NASDAQ CSCO came out with quarterly earnings of 0 78 per share beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 0 77 per share This compares to earnings of 0 66 per share a year ago These figures are adjusted for non recurring items
This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of 1 30 A quarter ago it was expected that this seller of routers switches software and services would post earnings of 0 72 per share when it actually produced earnings of 0 73 delivering a surprise of 1 39
Over the last four quarters the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates four times
Cisco which belongs to the Zacks Computer Networking industry posted revenues of 12 96 billion for the quarter ended April 2019 surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0 64 This compares to year ago revenues of 12 46 billion The company has topped consensus revenue estimates four times over the last four quarters
The sustainability of the stock s immediate price movement based on the recently released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management s commentary on the earnings call
Cisco shares have added about 20 1 since the beginning of the year versus the S P 500 s gain of 13 1
What s Next for Cisco
While Cisco has outperformed the market so far this year the question that comes to investors minds is what s next for the stock
There are no easy answers to this key question but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company s earnings outlook Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter s but also how these expectations have changed lately
Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried and tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions
Ahead of this earnings release the estimate revisions trend for Cisco was favorable While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company s just released earnings report the current status translates into a Zacks Rank 2 Buy for the stock So the shares are expected to outperform the market in the near future You can see the complete list of today s Zacks 1 Rank Strong Buy stocks here
It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and current fiscal year change in the days ahead The current consensus EPS estimate is 0 80 on 13 27 billion in revenues for the coming quarter and 3 06 on 51 65 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year
Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank Computer Networking is currently in the bottom 12 of the 250 plus Zacks industries Our research shows that the top 50 of the Zacks ranked industries outperform the bottom 50 by a factor of more than 2 to 1 |
CSCO | Cisco CSCO Beats In Q3 Raises Guidance | IT giant Cisco Systems NASDAQ CSCO the Silicon Valley based 250 billion market cap giant outperformed expectations on both top and bottom lines in its fiscal Q3 after the close on Wednesday Earnings of 78 cents per share topped estimates by a penny up 18 from year ago earnings on revenues of 13 billion that surpassed the Zacks consensus 12 88 billion Beating on the bottom line is nothing new for Cisco the company has not come up short on earnings estimates since Zacks recalibrated stock based compensation Q2 2015 But guidance was also hiked for Q4 revenues to a range of 4 5 6 5 as well as earnings 80 82 cents per share the Zacks estimate had been 80 cents Gross margin guidance also bumped up from previous expectations Shares are trading up 3 following the positive earnings results Jack in the Box NASDAQ JACK also surpassed expectations on its bottom line in its fiscal Q2 to 96 cents per share from the expected 93 cents Revenues however came up shy of the Zacks consensus 215 7 million versus the 217 4 million we had been expecting JACK has now beaten bottom line estimates in 3 of the last 5 quarters Guidance for full year 2019 calls for same store sales to be flat to 1 Shares are trading modestly higher in late trading but are still down year to date
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CSCO | ETFs Set To Gain On Cisco s Robust Results | After the closing bell on Wednesday May 15 tech prime Cisco Systems NASDAQ CSCO delivered robust third quarter fiscal 2019 results The networking giant beat on both earnings and revenues and also provided an upbeat outlook Results in DetailEarnings of 78 cents per share outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny and improved 18 from the year ago earnings Revenues rose 4 year over year to 12 96 billion and edged past the consensus mark of 12 87 billion This upside marks the sixth straight quarter of revenue growth The company s strong results were driven by a minimal sales exposure in China and changes to its supply chains that helped shrugging off the impact of the U S China trade dispute This networking leader s transition from its traditional business of high end switches and routers to high growth areas such as security the IoT and cloud computing is clearly paying off As a result Cisco now expects revenue growth of 4 5 6 5 and earnings per share in the range of 80 82 cents in fourth quarter fiscal 2019 The mid point of both the ranges is above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 3 3 for revenue growth and the earnings per share of 80 cents see Buoyed by solid results and an encouraging guidance shares of Cisco gained as much as 3 in after hours trading on heavy volumes The stock currently has a Zacks Rank 2 Buy and a VGM Score of B However it belongs to a bottom ranked industry ETFs to WatchGiven this scenario the ETF world is also expected to see smooth trading following the impressive Cisco results Below we highlight five ETFs flaunting the largest allocation to this network giant iShares U S Telecommunications ETF This fund follows the Dow Jones U S Select Telecommunications Index and offers exposure to 42 American companies that provide telephone and Internet products services and technologies Cisco occupies the second position with 23 1 of the assets The ETF has AUM of 453 2 million and trades in average daily volumes of 587 000 shares It charges 43 bps in annual fees and has a Zacks ETF Rank 2 with a Medium risk outlook read iShares North American Tech Multimedia Networking ETF AX IGN This ETF provides concentrated exposure to domestic multimedia networking securities by tracking the S P North American Technology Multimedia Networking Index Holding 20 securities in its basket Cisco takes the second spot with 9 2 allocation The product has accumulated 144 9 million in its asset base while seeing a lower volume of around 41 000 shares a day Expense ratio comes in at 0 47 The fund sports a Zacks ETF Rank 1 Strong Buy with a High risk outlook First Trust NASDAQ Technology Dividend Index Fund This fund provides exposure to dividend payers in the technology sector by tracking the Nasdaq Technology Dividend Index The product has amassed about 939 4 million in its asset base and trades in moderate volume of about 118 000 shares per day The ETF charges 50 bps in annual fees and holds about 93 securities in its basket Of these firms CSCO occupies the fourth position making up roughly 8 of the assets read First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF This ETF follows the Nasdaq CTA Cybersecurity Index which measures the performance of companies engaged in the cyber security segment of the technology and industrials sectors It has accumulated 851 million in its asset base The fund charges 60 bps in annual fees and trades in average daily volume of about 182 000 shares In total the product holds 45 stocks in its basket with Cisco taking the top spot at 6 4 Invesco Dynamic Networking ETF This fund follows the Dynamic Networking Intellidex Index holding 29 securities in its basket Of these Cisco is the third firm accounting for 5 3 share The fund is relatively unpopular and illiquid in the broad technology space with AUM of 93 2 million and average daily volume of about 13 000 shares It charges 63 bps in annual fees and has a Zacks ETF Rank 3 Hold with a High risk outlook Want key ETF info delivered straight to your inbox Zacks free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis as well as top performing ETFs each week |
CSCO | Ericsson Cisco to target corporate public sector clients in 2017 | By Olof Swahnberg STOCKHOLM Reuters Global telecoms equipment gear maker Ericsson ST ERICb plans to expand its partnership with Cisco Systems Inc O CSCO by serving new corporate clients and the public sector in 2017 its North American chief told Reuters in an interview Rima Qureshi says Ericsson and Cisco remain on track to achieve an extra 1 billion each in revenues by 2018 through a partnership which was announced late in 2015 Qureshi says Ericsson s Cisco partnership which generated over 60 deals in the first year has been mainly focused on telecom operators Next year the firms plan to target enterprises and public sector as well The two of us together definitely are looking much closer into how we can work on the enterprise segment said Qureshi We are investigating what we can do together within Industry Society IoT Internet of Things smart cities and we re going to target specific public sector segments specifically for example transportation utilities And then of course we re looking at other segments such as security she added
Qureshi says Ericsson s forecast to generate up to 25 percent of revenue from business outside of telecom operators by 2020 |
CSCO | Anaplan hires CEO ahead of U S software firm s 2017 IPO | By Heather Somerville SAN FRANCISCO Reuters U S software company Anaplan which has raised more than 240 million has tied up a critical loose end as it steams toward an initial public offering expected this year hiring a chief executive officer Anaplan said on Tuesday it snagged longtime Silicon Valley finance executive Frank A Calderoni to fill the top job at the company which had been vacant since former CEO Frederic Laluyaux abruptly resigned early last year Among Calderoni s key tasks will be readying the company for an IPO which is widely expected to take place this year San Francisco based Anaplan makes software that helps businesses with planning and forecasting The company has been working toward being ready for an IPO Calderoni told Reuters on Friday The market has opened up My goal is to make sure we re ready Calderoni 59 has spent the last 17 years as chief financial officer at technology companies such as Cisco Systems Inc O CSCO and SanDisk LLC often in tandem with a role in operations Most recently he has served as chief financial officer and executive vice president of operations at Red Hat Inc N RHT an enterprise software company where he will depart this month after less than two years He will join Anaplan on Jan 23 as president CEO and member of the board It will be Calderoni s first stint at a privately held startup He said he is encouraged by the successes of the few tech companies that went public in the past few months such as Nutanix Inc O NTNX and Twilio Inc N TWLO whose stocks continue to trade above their IPO price Anaplan which is not profitable said last year it was on track to surpass 100 million in annual revenue The company operates in 21 countries and has more than 600 customers and about the same number of employees Calderoni plans to have a profitability timeline perhaps a couple years down the road to share with IPO investors We need to be able to demonstrate that we re going to be around he said Anaplan s investors include Shasta Ventures Salesforce Ventures and DFJ venture capital Most of the 90 million from the company s most recent financing a year ago which came with a 1 1 billion valuation is still in the bank the company said |
CSCO | Exclusive Keysight Technologies explores acquisition of Ixia sources | By Liana B Baker and Greg Roumeliotis Reuters Keysight Technologies Inc N KEYS a provider of software and equipment to the electronics and wireless communications industries is in talks to acquire U S data technology company Ixia O XXIA according to people familiar with the matter A deal would come as the increasing volume of data traffic flowing through social media smartphones and cloud computing tests the resilience and integrity of networks making Ixia s equipment and applications more popular with its clients and coveted by its peers Keysight is not the only bidder participating in an auction for Ixia and there is no certainty that its bid will prevail the people said this week The negotiations are expected to continue for several more days the people added The sources asked not be identified because the negotiations are confidential Ixia which has a market capitalization of 1 4 billion declined to comment Keysight did not immediately respond to a request for comment Based in Calabasas California Ixia makes equipment that monitors and tests networks so enterprise customers can have their data travel smoothly without bottlenecks Its customers include the world s largest networking gear maker Cisco Systems Inc NASDAQ CSCO Ixia also makes hardware that helps secure networks Its chief executive officer said on its latest earnings conference call that 35 percent of its total business was tied to security products Ixia was founded by Errol Ginsberg in 1997 and went public in 2000 as internet traffic started to increase Ixia s former chief executive Vic Alston resigned in 2013 for misstating academic credentials and other details such as his age and job history the company said at the time The company recruited a senior networking executive from Hewlett Packard Bethany Meyer to be its chief executive in 2014 Ixia generated revenue of 123 9 million in the third quarter down from 125 9 million in the same quarter a year earlier Based in Santa Rosa California Keysight helps companies test products that have electronic components It has a market capitalization of 6 3 billion Reuters first reported last month that Ixia was exploring a sale |
VZ | Why Is Yahoo YHOO Stock Up Today | Shares of Yahoo Inc NASDAQ YHOO stock were up 3 8 in mid morning trading Thursday largely thanks to the company s 15 stake in Alibaba NYSE BABA which had a strong Q2 earnings performance
Alibaba posted earnings before market open in which it beat Zacks Consensus Estimates The company posted 0 52 in earnings per share Excluding 0 08 in non recurring items and revenue of 4 838 million These beat our estimates of 0 38 and 4 610 million respectively
Yahoo first paid 1 billion for a 40 percent stake in Alibaba back in 2005 and sold half of that back to the company for 7 6 billion in September of 2012 In late July Yahoo agreed to sell its core internet business to Verizon Communications NYSE VZ for 4 8 billion This leaves the company with its stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan
Today s stock movement put Yahoo near 52 week highs although the company has had little other good news recently However it did with Hulu to launch Yahoo View a TV watching website that will feature free content from Hulu
At the moment Yahoo is operating as little more than a trading vehicle for Alibaba The company had planned to spin off its stake in Alibaba but is not due to uncertainty from the IRS as to whether or not it could be carried out on a tax free basis
It s difficult to create expectations for Yahoo s future as there is still doubt about how it can use its stakes and partnerships to derive revenue The company s deal with Verizon is expected to close in early 2017
Yahoo has seen upward earnings estimate revisions for this quarter up one cent to 0 07
Yahoo Inc currently sits at a Zacks Rank 3 Hold |
VZ | Windstream WIN Boosts Ties With Cologix Builds New PoPs | Leading local exchange carrier in the U S Windstream Holdings Inc NASDAQ WIN is strengthening its existing association with Cologix a network neutral interconnection and data center company headquartered in Denver Colorado Windstream is planning to strengthen the tie up through the construction of a new colocation point of presence PoP in Dallas Texas and Columbus OH in Oct 2016 Notably both these PoPs are to be operated by Cologix What is PoP PoPis an artificial point of separation between two or more networks or communication entities that help other devices to connect with the Internet PoP is generally present at an Internet service provider ISP or telecommunication service provider It is typically located in a data centre and consists of routers switches servers and other data communication devices ISPs typically have multiple PoPs Deal ExpansionThe construction of PoPs is an add on to Windstream s business set up in Cologix s Minneapolis and Jacksonville data centers It also aligns with Windstream s continued aggressive Data Center Interconnect DCI efforts and increases the carrier neutral data centers to its network and facilitates its customers with more options to access cloud resources Notably the extension of these sites makes Windstream s robust fiber network the sixth largest network in the nation available to Cologix customers Such an access delivers multiple routing options to Windstream to protect their business critical services supported from the Meet Me Rooms of Cologix s impressive network data centers The partnership also allows Cologix customers in all four locations Dallas Jacksonville Columbus and Minneapolis to tap into Windstream s expansive fiber network Recent DevelopmentsWindstream has sought permission from the U S telecom regulator Federal Communications Commission FCC to discontinue its operator assisted legacy voice services across its ILEC incumbent local exchange carrier and CLEC competitive local exchange carrier territories Telecom service providers are moving toward IP based network as an increasing number of enterprise customers are opting for IP enabled cloud services Apart from Windstream national telecom carriers like AT T Inc NYSE T and Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ are on the same path Windstream also aims to deliver broadband speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second Gbps with the help of the merged Calix Inc s NYSE CALX E3 16F G fast sealed DPU nodes and GigaFamily products WINDSTREAM HLDG Price Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research Today you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days |
VZ | Verizon cuts revenue outlook as price war continues | By Malathi Nayak and Devika Krishna Kumar Reuters Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ on Tuesday lowered its full year revenue target as it fends promotions from its competitors Investors shrugged off higher than expected second quarter earnings which resulted mostly from a jump in tablet subscribers and sent shares of the largest U S wireless service provider down as much as 3 percent Smaller rivals such as T Mobile US Inc have stirred up an industry price war and wireless carriers have been offering heavy promotions and discounts on tablet and phone plans to keep or increase subscribers The companies have replaced traditional two year contracts of subsidized phones and tablets with monthly installment plans that have lower service fees Customers shifted to the installment plans at a higher rate than Verizon had anticipated earlier in the year resulting in a decline in service revenue Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said in an interview Verizon said it expected full year revenue growth of at least 3 percent below its previous forecast of 4 percent Average revenue per user fell 3 8 percent to 153 73 in the quarter from a year earlier and missed the analysts average forecast of 154 99 MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said in a note Despite pressure on revenue per user Verizon s wireless margins remain the envy of the industry Moffett said Net income attributable to Verizon rose to 4 23 billion or 1 04 per share from 4 21 billion or 1 02 per share Analysts on average were expecting 1 01 per share according to Thomson Reuters I B E S Revenue increased to 32 22 billion from 31 48 billion below analysts estimates of 32 87 billion Verizon added a net 1 1 million wireless retail postpaid subscribers who pay each billing cycle based on usage That met estimates from analysts polled by market research firm FactSet StreetAccount Net tablet additions came to 852 000 Customer defections at Verizon s wireless postpaid business fell to a three year low of 0 90 percent while FactSet had expected 0 99 percent Revenue from Verizon s FiOS high speed Internet TV and phone service rose 10 percent to 3 4 billion After its 4 4 billion purchase of AOL Inc in June Verizon is gearing up to introduce its online video service to generate new revenue from mobile video and targeted advertising
Verizon shares were down 1 9 percent at 47 20 on the New York Stock Exchange after trading as low as 46 57 |
VZ | Verizon wireline workers authorize strike amid contract negotiations | By Malathi Nayak NEW YORK Reuters Verizon Communication Inc s N VZ wireline unit workers on the U S East Coast have voted to go on strike if needed amid contract negotiations the unions representing them said on Saturday At a rally in New York the unions announced that 86 percent of Verizon s 39 000 wireline employees have voted to authorize a strike This comes a week before their current contracts expire on Aug 1 The vote to strike does not mean work in the wireline business which includes FiOS Internet telephone and TV services will come to a halt as the board of the unions Communications Workers of America CWA and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers that represent the employees have yet to approve it Our members are clear and they are determined they reject management s harsh concessionary demands including the elimination of job security sharp increases in workers health care costs and slashing retirement security Vice President for CWA District One Dennis Trainor said in a statement The company s union represented employees in the East work under 27 collective bargaining agreements in nine eastern states in the United States and Washington D C Verizon s plans to cut costs by controlling healthcare and pension related benefits over a three year period are at the center of union negotiations Union rallies and strike authorization votes are useless distractions that achieve nothing Verizon spokesman Rich Young said We believe their time would be far more beneficial focusing on the important contractual issues that need to be resolved Verizon said in late June it offered salary hikes to 39 000 employees in its East wireline business after its first negotiating session with representatives of the two unions
The wage increases were subject to an agreement between the company and the unions In 2011 the last round of talks had ended in a strike |
VZ | Failed FT bid shows Axel Springer caught between tradition and ambition | By Harro Ten Wolde and Klaus Lauer
FRANKFURT BERLIN Reuters Axel Springer s DE SPRGn failure to clinch a deal to buy the Financial Times lengthens a line of setbacks in a decade old quest by Germany s biggest news publisher to expand abroad
Once again cautious bidding practices cost it the prize revealing a complex dynamic within the family controlled company which is best known for its Bild tabloid but which calls itself a digital powerhouse with international potential
The last minute loss to Japan s Nikkei of a newspaper Axel Springer had coveted for years was clearly a blow to its management but for some investors it was a relief and not just in hindsight
Worse than not expanding internationally would be Springer overpaying for an asset one top 10 investor told Reuters In that respect shareholders gave a clear signal last week
Axel Springer shares dropped two percent on reports it was bidding for the FT but recovered that loss and ended the day higher after the company said it would not buy it last Thursday
Japan s Nikkei bought the premier business newspaper for 1 3 billion 1 18 billion euros from Pearson L PSON just 100 million euros more than Springer was prepared to spend according to a person familiar with the talks The company declined to comment
Springer CEO Mathias Doepfner a former journalist at Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and editor in chief at Die Welt had long expressed the wish to buy a big English language title
Two people familiar with the talks said ultimately the price was too high for a company with a market capitalization of 5 billion euros a conservative bidding strategy and aversion to debt
Financial prudence has been key ever since Doepfner was appointed in 2002 by Friede Springer widow of founder Axel who built the company in West Berlin soon after World War Two
Doepfner doesn t do anything he has not first calculated so he was reluctant to counter the higher bid one person familiar with the talks said
FAMILY TIES
The 72 year old Friede is a hands on shareholder and vice chair of the supervisory board who sees it as her task to protect the legacy of her late husband according to German media and is very close to Doepfner Their relationship is described by some Axel Springer insiders as like mother and son
In 2012 she gave Springer shares worth almost 74 million euros 82 million to Doepfner at the time 2 percent of all outstanding shares Doepfner now owns 3 1 percent of the firm
Friede s involvement dates back to the 1980s when she inherited about a quarter of Axel Springer shares The Springer family s former nanny who had become the publisher s fifth wife had to fight her corner with other German media elite shareholders including mogul Leo Kirch and the Burda family
After buying out other shareholders and taking control of the publisher Friede vowed she would never put herself in such a position again a former Axel Springer worker said
When Doepfner took over he had three key strategies first bring the company back on track after years of internal unrest and operational setbacks then make the transition from print to digital and after that expand internationally
But flirtations with global media brands have so far remained just that
Last year Springer walked away from buying U S publisher Forbes which was sold to an Asian investor consortium in a deal that valued the prestigious company at 475 million
A decade ago it looked at British titles the Daily Telegraph or the Daily Express but soon backed out
Earlier this month Springer was reported to be discussing
a possible tie up with German broadcaster ProSiebenSat 1 DE PSMGn which is about twice the size of Axel Springer
But a day later Springer issued a statement saying Friede would not give up control and on Wednesday ProSiebenSat 1 and Axel Springer announced a project for digital start ups but said they had no further tie up plans
Springer shares rose 1 5 percent and those of ProSiebenSat 1 were up 1 9 percent outperforming a 0 2 percent weaker German midcap index MDAXI and very close to the high they hit when news of the tie up broke
STILL ATTACHED TO NEWS
Instead of buying a trophy title Axel Springer has taken stakes in financial blog Business Insider and U S youth news site Mic com and is a co owner of the European edition of Politico
In the first quarter such digital products especially classified ads accounted for more than 60 percent of company sales and almost three quarters of core profit
Investors have rewarded the digital push with a 75 percent rise in the share price over the past five years making Friede one of the richest people in Germany
In May news website Re code reported Axel Springer was in advanced discussions with AOL to spin off its flagship Huffington Post content unit citing numerous sources
AOL s new owner Verizon N VZ has since said it will not sell
Axel Springer declined specific comment on its acquisition strategy but the statement on Friede s plans to retain control referred to a plan to transform into a so called KGaA or partnership limited by shares which would allow Springer to raise more capital and grow while protecting Friede s position
To proceed it would need approval at next April s AGM
An Axel Springer manager who declined to be identified said the price for the FT was too high but added such an asset only comes to market once in a few decades For Nikkei it represented a chance to move beyond a flagging domestic market
The 1 3 billion FT price tag represented roughly a 35 times multiple for its core earnings That is three times more than the value of Axel Springer shares which trade at 11 times earnings broadly in line with publishing peers
Why on earth was Axel Springer management preparing to buy a trophy asset for a silly price when it touts itself as investing in fast growing digital assets brokerage Berenberg asked after Nikkei s winning bid was announced
A person familiar with Springer management s thinking said Doepfner would continue to focus on journalism and not make material change to its strategy
If it was up to the financial markets Springer would have to sell off anything that is journalism and focus on classified ads the person said But the soul of the company is journalism and without journalism there won t be Axel Springer |
VZ | T Mobile raises 2015 subscriber forecast results top estimates | By Lehar Maan and Malathi Nayak Reuters T Mobile US Inc on Thursday posted better than expected second quarter profit and revenue and raised its 2015 subscriber forecast for the second time this year boosting shares about 5 percent The No 4 U S wireless by revenue now expects to add 3 4 million to 3 9 million postpaid users or customers who pay on a monthly basis based on usage in 2015 up from 3 0 million to 3 5 million Quarterly revenue jumped 14 percent to 8 18 billion as aggressive promotions helped win customers in the second quarter This beat analysts estimate of 7 94 billion Once faced with subscriber losses the company has revamped pricing plans eliminated service contracts and launched marketing campaigns to turn around its business and lure customers from bigger rivals Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ and AT T Inc NYSE T It posted net income of 361 million or 42 cents per share surpassing analysts forecast of 18 cents per share according to Thomson Reuters I B E S T Mobile has progressively addressed one after another the question marks around the sustainability of its growth MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said in a note T Mobile which expects to report a profit in the third and fourth quarters looks poised to pull ahead of Sprint Corp as the No 3 U S wireless provider based on subscriber numbers Moffett said The company which reported key user metrics earlier this month added a net 2 1 million customers in the second quarter up from 1 5 million a year earlier We re several quarters in a row with more postpaid customers than a combination of AT T Verizon and Sprint s postpaid customer gains Chief Operating Officer Mike Sievert said in an interview T Mobile which calls itself the Un carrier said the rate at which users switch to other networks also known as postpaid churn fell to 1 3 percent from 1 5 percent a year earlier As the U S wireless market becomes saturated companies are looking for new revenue streams Verizon is gearing up to launch a streaming video service for mobile devices and AT T which closed its 48 5 billion acquisition of DirecTV is working on mobile video products About venturing into video Sievert said the question is whether viewers want wireless providers to curate content for them We re watching with interest what some of the others are doing Sievert said If our customers want us in this game and if we can add value to it better believe we ll be in it
Shares rose 1 88 to 38 92 in late trading |
VZ | Verizon s workers say no strike for now union talks continue | By Malathi Nayak NEW YORK Reuters Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ and the unions representing its wireline unit employees on the U S East Coast said work will go on and talks continue after their current contract expired Since June the unions have been in talks with Verizon over the company s plans to cut costs by controlling healthcare and pension related benefits over a three year period Last week the Communications Workers of America CWA and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers that represent over 37 000 wireline employees said they had voted to go on strike if needed after their contract expired on Aug 1 at midnight During the last round of contract negotiations in 2011 talks ended in a strike The unions want extra benefits in addition to job security provisions The CWA said on Saturday that Verizon has not budged from its original proposal which they have said would increase workers healthcare costs by thousands of dollars eliminate job security and remove any restrictions on the company s right to contract out or offshore union jobs Despite our best efforts Verizon refuses to engage in serious bargaining towards a fair contract Dennis Trainor Vice President for CWA District One which represents Verizon workers in New Jersey New York and Massachusetts said We re not going to take it and we re going to keep the fight going while we re on the job Verizon presented the unions with a revised proposal on Saturday night that is on the table the company said in a statement We are disappointed that after six weeks of good faith bargaining and a very strong effort by the company we have been unable to reach new agreements with the unions Marc Reed Verizon s chief administrative officer said in the statement Verizon s wireline business includes FiOS Internet telephone and TV services
The company said on Friday there had been little progress in the talks and that it is ready in the event of a work stoppage |
VZ | SoftBank to help provide financing to rein in Sprint s cash burn | By Malathi Nayak NEW YORK Reuters SoftBank Group Corp the majority owner of Sprint Corp said on Tuesday it will set up two financing vehicles to help the struggling U S wireless carrier reverse its fortunes but a long road to recovery lies ahead In a surprise appearance on Sprint s earnings call SoftBank Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son allayed investors fears by saying that the Japanese telecom which owns 80 percent of the U S company was not looking to sell its stake Sprint s stock surged 4 5 percent to close at 3 49 on Tuesday Sprint burned 2 2 billion in cash in the second quarter It is locked in a price war with its rivals Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ AT T Inc NYSE T and T Mobile US Inc which are going after each others subscribers with promotions that have weighed on growth In addition a growing number of Sprint s customers are shifting from two year contracts to monthly leasing plans That has delayed money coming into Sprint for phone payments and led to a cash burn as the company owes upfront device payments to vendors SoftBank with other partners will set up two separate funding vehicles to help Sprint finance its leasing payments and network upgrades CEO Marcelo Claure said on the call with analysts Details on the partners and the structure of the company will follow in coming months he said SoftBank will be the minority partner Son said on the call And we will provide together with our partner as much as Sprint needs for the handset Similarly we are preparing a network equipment lease facility Investors feared that Sprint would need to have an equity or debt offering or a sale of its wireless airwaves to raise funds Claure told Reuters in an interview All we re doing is a way to neutralize the cash position so this is not about raising additional debt While SoftBank s support is encouraging Sprint s financial health would take a while to improve analysts said Off balance sheet debt through new funding vehicles is still well debt MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said in a note Sprint s debt is up to 34 1 billion from 32 5 billion since January New financing does not change the fact that these are incremental obligations that are going to pile additional liabilities on top the company BTIG analyst Walt Piecyk said Marcelo has made the numbers look less bad S P Capital IQ analyst Angelo Zino said This is going to be a long and slow transition
The story adds dropped word in in paragraph four |
VZ | SoftBank plans near 1 billion buyback as confidence in Sprint renewed | By Ritsuko Ando
TOKYO Reuters SoftBank Corp T 9984 announced a near 1 billion share buyback and a higher quarterly profit as loss making Sprint Corp N S fared better than expected with the Japanese telecoms group forecasting light at the end of the tunnel for its U S unit
The share buyback worth up to 120 billion yen 961 69 million would be SoftBank s biggest ever if carried out in full CEO Masayoshi Son attributed the surprise move to its lackluster share price and renewed confidence in Sprint which SoftBank bought for more than 20 billion in 2013 but has struggled to turn around
Repurchasing shares is an effective way of returning profit to shareholders But it s also a message from management to markets regarding the share price he told reporters on Thursday We ve now become fully confident
SoftBank s April June operating profit rose to 343 6 billion yen from 319 4 billion a year ago helped by the boost from Sprint and growth in smartphone customers at its domestic telecoms business That was better than the 320 billion yen average of three analysts estimates surveyed by Thomson Reuters
Sprint on Tuesday reported a smaller than expected quarterly loss and lower churn or defections a rare sign of improvement for a carrier that has struggled to compete against larger rivals AT T N T and Verizon Communications N VZ
Son had made a rare appearance on Sprint s conference call to say SoftBank had no plans to sell its stake in the wireless carrier a commitment he reiterated on Thursday
There was a time when I lost confidence in managing Sprint he said Now I have no intention of selling
SoftBank has used cash from its telecoms business to fund investments in global mobile and Internet businesses and the Sprint buy was aimed at growth outside Japan s sluggish economy
Son said the latest buyback did not signal a change to its acquisitive strategy SoftBank is also the largest investor in Chinese e commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding N BABA
Jefferies estimates its 23 largest investments have delivered returns of 30 times with an average investment period of over 9 years Excluding highly lucrative Alibaba returns have been around 6 times
SoftBank did not give a full year outlook but the market s average forecast prior to Thursday s announcement was for an annual operating profit of 1 04 trillion yen
Based on such views SoftBank shares have lately been trading below 8 times forward earnings estimates lagging multiples of over 10 for Japanese telecoms rivals KDDI Corp T 9433 and NTT DoCoMo T 9437 Analysts have said the comparatively low valuations were due to concerns about Sprint
1 124 7800 yen |
CSCO | Is Cisco Systems CSCO Stock Outpacing Its Computer And Technology Peers This Year | Investors focused on the Computer and Technology space have likely heard of Cisco Systems NASDAQ CSCO but is the stock performing well in comparison to the rest of its sector peers A quick glance at the company s year to date performance in comparison to the rest of the Computer and Technology sector should help us answer this question
Cisco Systems is one of 641 individual stocks in the Computer and Technology sector Collectively these companies sit at 6 in the Zacks Sector Rank The Zacks Sector Rank includes 16 different groups and is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors
The Zacks Rank is a successful stock picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months CSCO is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of 2 Buy
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CSCO s full year earnings has moved 1 82 higher within the past quarter This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend
According to our latest data CSCO has moved about 23 15 on a year to date basis Meanwhile the Computer and Technology sector has returned an average of 19 48 on a year to date basis This means that Cisco Systems is outperforming the sector as a whole this year
Looking more specifically CSCO belongs to the Computer Networking industry which includes 8 individual stocks and currently sits at 219 in the Zacks Industry Rank On average stocks in this group have gained 24 08 this year meaning that CSCO is slightly underperforming its industry in terms of year to date returns
Investors with an interest in Computer and Technology stocks should continue to track CSCO The stock will be looking to continue its solid performance |
CSCO | Cisco call Investing in security data centers committed to dividend | Cisco Systems NASDAQ CSCO is now off 4 3 in postmarket trading after a quarter where it beat analyst expectations but issued downbeat guidance as it modeled little near term improvement in its service provider business In product revenues gains were led by Security up 11 and NGN Routing up 6 Switching fell 7 Collaboration fell 3 Data Center declined 3 Wireless fell 2 and Service Provider Video dropped 2 Geographically the Americas were down 1 EMEA flat and APJC up 6 On the company s earnings call CEO Chuck Robbins said the guidance was conservative predominantly because of the service provider weakness and the capex challenges we ve seen in SP We ve done account by account by account analysis to see what s going on there Not to mention political and regulatory environments that are somewhat uncertain in the U S and around the world Post election I think most CEOs I talk to are pragmatic about the result and now we are all focused on the policy issues that matter to each of our companies Robbins said I think president elect Trump appears to be very business oriented and focused on driving the U S economy As far as areas of investment in a new government environment There s a lot of room to run in security says CFO Kelly Kramer Data Centers are a focus for us and then even in the core we re investing With U S policy discussions incorporating the prospect of a cash repatriation holiday a longtime Cisco wish cash brought home would be used to address debt and then a blend of actions Kramer says with the dividend a buyback and strategic activities on the table What about interest rates seemingly poised to begin a long rising cycle Interest rates go up they go down we re committed to growing the dividend |
CSCO | After Cisco dims outlook analysts adjust and stay bullish | After falling 4 8 yesterday in the wake of downbeat guidance from its fiscal Q1 results Cisco Systems NASDAQ CSCO is moderating somewhat so far today 0 6 Analyst lowered estimates accordingly but overall look bullish with several holding their Buy ratings Credit Suisse SIX CSGN is the standout reiterating at Underperform with the company running out of levers The 7 decline in the company s switching gear is indicative of losing share in the data center area it says Conversely Deutsche Bank DE DBKGn held a Buy rating and 37 price target implying more than 22 upside Drexel Hamilton trimmed its price target to 36 from 37 Jefferies is staying bullish as well noting the disruption in near term sales associated with Cisco s move toward SaaS recurring revenue and their propensity to sandbag guidance from time to time It s got a Buy rating and 35 target while cutting fiscal 2017 revenue estimates to 48 17B from 50 21B BMO Capital Markets cut estimates as well but held an Outperform rating and 33 price target The stock has typically performed well after revenue resets and we expect the same dynamic this time around |
CSCO | U S Customs sides with Arista amid Cisco patent allegations | By Dan Levine
Reuters U S customs officials ruled that Arista Networks Inc N ANET can import redesigned ethernet switches that had been banned by the International Trade Commission reducing pressure on Arista as it battles allegations of intellectual property infringement made by rival Cisco Systems Inc O CSCO
The U S International Trade Commission had ruled earlier this year that Arista infringed three Cisco patents relating to managing and securing communications networks An import ban on the Arista switches was subsequently upheld by the U S Trade Representative
However in a securities filing on Monday Arista said it received a letter last week from U S Customs and Border Protection saying Arista s current redesigned products are not within the scope of the ITC import ban
Marc Taxay Arista s general counsel said in a statement that the company looked forward to resuming the importation of its redesigned products
In a statement Cisco said it believes Arista s redesign is a thin veil to cover Arista s ongoing infringement
Cisco and Arista are expected to begin trial next week in a California federal court over claims of copyright and patent infringement brought by Cisco |
CSCO | Exclusive U S networking company Ixia explores sale sources | By Liana B Baker Reuters Ixia a U S provider of equipment and applications that help maintain computer networks is exploring a potential sale people familiar with the matter said on Friday The company s move comes as the ever increasing volume of data traffic flowing through social media smartphones and cloud computing tests the resilience and integrity of networks making offerings such as those of Ixia more popular Ixia is working with an investment bank on a sale process that is already under way and has attracted the interest of other companies and private equity firms the people said asking not be identified because the negotiations are confidential A sale of Ixia should one occur is still several weeks away they added Ixia based in Calabasas California did not respond to requests for comment Ixia shares ended trading on Friday up 14 8 percent at 15 55 on the news giving the company a market capitalization of close to 1 3 billion Ixia was founded by Errol Ginsberg in 1997 and went public in 2000 as internet traffic started to increase Ixia s former chief executive Vic Alston resigned in 2013 for misstating academic credentials and other details such as his age and job history the company said at the time The company recruited a senior networking executive from Hewlett Packard Bethany Meyer to be its chief executive in 2014 Ixia makes equipment that monitors and tests networks so its enterprise customers can have their data travel smoothly without bottlenecks Its customers include the world s largest networking gear maker Cisco Systems Inc NASDAQ CSCO Ixia also makes hardware that helps secure networks Its CEO said on its latest earnings conference call that 35 percent of its total business was tied to security products The company generated revenue of 123 9 million in the third quarter down from 125 9 million in the same quarter a year earlier We continue to believe Ixia occupies a unique position within the network test and measurement landscape with proprietary technology that should drive high single digit top line growth and midteens earnings growth over the next several years Jefferies analysts wrote in a research note last month |
CSCO | U S trade judge rules Arista infringes more Cisco network patents | By Andrew Chung
NEW YORK Reuters Arista Networks Inc used rival Cisco Systems NASDAQ CSCO network device technology in its ethernet switches without permission a U S trade judge ruled on Friday handing Cisco yet another win in a sprawling legal battle over patents between the two companies
The judge MaryJoan McNamara of the U S International Trade Commission in Washington said that Arista had infringed two patents owned by Cisco The commission in June in a separate case ordered an import ban on Arista s products that infringed several other Cisco patents |
CSCO | U S jury sides with Arista over Cisco in copyright battle | By Dan Levine SAN FRANCISCO Reuters A U S jury on Wednesday handed Arista Networks Inc a major win in a wide ranging legal battle against Cisco Systems Inc NASDAQ CSCO ruling that Arista owed no damages over Cisco s claims of copyright infringement The jurors in federal court in San Jose California also found that Arista did not infringe a Cisco patent The verdict is the latest in sprawling litigation between San Jose based Cisco a major networking equipment company and Santa Clara California based Arista a fast growing rival The companies compete fiercely to sell ethernet switches to connect computers servers and other devices forming networks Cisco had been seeking roughly 335 million in damages over Arista copyright infringement of its user interfaces In a statement Cisco said it respectfully disagreed with the verdict and was determining its options for post trial motions and appeal Arista said the outcome represents an important victory not only for Arista but for the entire industry Arista shares closed up about 3 percent while Cisco shares declined 0 4 percent Cisco is fighting to preserve its position as a dominant market player and to brush off a rival founded by former top Cisco executives Arista s annual revenue has jumped 43 percent since 2014 the year it went public to 837 million at the end of 2015 During a two week trial in a San Jose courtroom Cisco argued that Arista slavishly copied its command line interfaces CLI one or two word commands for operating its network switches and that Arista s switches and routers infringe one of its patents for user interface technology Arista denied infringing Cisco s intellectual property The jury found that Arista infringed some of Cisco s copyrights However jurors also said Arista proved that external factors other than Cisco s creativity dictated the design of Cisco s content That legal defense known as scenes a faire meant Arista owed no damages to Cisco The lawsuit is one of two Cisco filed in 2014 in San Jose that together accused Arista of infringing on 14 of its networking patents and related copyrights Cisco had also filed twin complaints at the U S International Trade Commission which handed the networking giant a victory in June in one of the cases The commission said Arista s ethernet switches which carry data traffic infringed three of Cisco s patents
Last week an ITC judge again sided with Cisco by ruling Arista had infringed two other Cisco patents That decision must be reviewed by the full commission over the next few months |
VZ | U S court rules NSA can temporarily resume bulk phone data collection | By Warren Strobel WASHINGTON Reuters A U S court has ruled that the eavesdropping National Security Agency can temporarily resume its bulk collection of Americans telephone records according to documents made public on Tuesday The controversial program exposed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden was rocked in May by an appeals court ruling that the USA Patriot Act had never authorized the NSA to collect Americans phone records in bulk A new law called the Freedom Act which substantially reformed and narrowed the bulk phone data program was signed by U S President Barack Obama a day after the existing program lapsed on June 1 The Freedom Act also allowed the existing surveillance program to continue for a six month transition period but it remained in legal limbo pending Monday s ruling by a judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court In passing the USA Freedom Act Congress clearly intended to end bulk data collection But what it took away with one hand it gave back for a limited time with another wrote Michael Mosman a judge on the surveillance court In his ruling first reported by the New York Times Mosman rejected the May ruling by the 2nd U S Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan that the Patriot Act had never authorized the NSA to collect Americans phone records in bulk Second Circuit rulings are not binding on the F I S C and this court respectfully disagrees with that court s analysis especially in view of the intervening enactment of the U S A Freedom Act he wrote The U S Justice Department welcomed the decision We agree with the Court s conclusion that the program is lawful and that in passing the USA Freedom Act Congress provided for a 180 day transition period for the government to continue the existing collection program until the new mechanism of obtaining call detail records is implemented said Justice Department spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle The NSA program collects and analyzes data about Americans phone calls such as the number dialed and the time and length of the call but not the calls actual content The Freedom Act requires companies such as Verizon Communications Inc N VZ and AT T Inc N T to collect and store telephone records the same way that they do now for billing purposes
But instead of routinely feeding U S intelligence agencies such data the companies will be required to turn it over only in response to a government request approved by the FISC |
VZ | U S judge signs off on Sprint s 50 million cramming settlement | By Joseph Ax NEW YORK Reuters A U S judge signed off on Tuesday on a 50 million settlement between the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Sprint Corp over claims the mobile carrier added unauthorized charges to customer phone bills In May U S District Judge William Pauley in New York had demanded additional evidence of the deal s fairness before he would approve the agreement citing a dearth of details in the initial papers filed jointly by the two sides The settlement is part of a broader deal in which Sprint and Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ agreed to pay 68 million and 90 million respectively to end various government probes into the practice of cramming in which mobile carriers charge customers for services such as horoscopes that they never ordered Last year AT T Inc NYSE T paid 105 million and T Mobile US 90 million to settle similar probes Pauley and several other federal judges in recent years have complained that parties seeking court approval for settlements have sometimes viewed their role as little more than applying a rubber stamp In signing off on the deal Pauley did not address how his concerns had been met A spokeswoman for the CFPB declined to comment A Sprint spokeswoman was not immediately available to comment
The case is Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v Sprint Corporation U S District Court for the Southern District of New York No 14 cv 09931 |
VZ | Sprint rolls out all included rate plan | By Malathi Nayak NEW YORK Reuters Sprint Corp said on Tuesday it will offer an 80 a month cellular phone plan including both service and smartphone device fees hoping to draw users who dislike complex price plans and hidden costs The All in plan will offer unlimited talk text and data at 60 plus 20 to lease phones such as the iPhone 6 and Samsung s Galaxy S6 chief marketing officer Kevin Crull said in an interview Sprint the No 3 U S cellular operator is in the middle of a turnaround plan aimed at narrowing the gap with its larger rivals It has focused on offers such as cutting subscribers bills in half to get them to switch from other carriers doubling its data capacity and hand delivery of new phones Analysts have raised concerns over Sprint s heavy spending to acquire customers and whether it can balance costs with investments in network upgrades In recent years the industry has moved away from traditional two year contracts of subsidized phones to offering monthly leasing plans alongside service fees The shift sparked a price war among Sprint and its rivals T Mobile US Inc AT T Inc NYSE T and Verizon Communications NYSE VZ and the proliferation of varied promotions and rate plans The natural evolution of the industry is to advertise both combined cost of the device and the rate plan put them together and tell the customer what s the rate all in Crull said
The plan which includes a one time 36 activation fee will roll out on Tuesday with a video campaign featuring soccer star David Beckham Sprint said |
VZ | Verizon to offer Vice Media content on its upcoming video service | By Malathi Nayak NEW YORK Reuters Verizon Communications NYSE VZ said on Tuesday it will add content from Vice Media known for its current affairs coverage for young people to the lineup of the online video service the biggest U S wireless provider will launch later this year Through a multi year deal Vice Media will provide exclusive content for Verizon s video service as well as original Vice branded content across categories such as culture food technology and travel the companies said in a statement Content from New York based Vice Media which counts Rupert Murdoch s 21st Century Fox as one of its investors will include Autobiographies a series of interviews of well known personalities Financial details were not disclosed Verizon has said its upcoming digital video service will offer content from the National Football League and DreamWorks Animation s AwesomenessTV unit In June Verizon acquired AOL Inc making a 4 4 billion bet that a push into mobile video and targeted advertising can help it find new growth avenues Most Americans own a mobile phone and Verizon is looking at digital video delivery to increase data consumption on mobile devices and increase revenue The digital video service which it expects to release in mid 2015 is aimed at families and younger viewers who increasingly consume content on mobile devices
Vice Media whose edgy reportage has become popular with young people won an Emmy award last year for outstanding informational series or special for its HBO series VICE It also secured a 500 million investment from Silicon Valley s Technology Crossover Ventures and A E Networks |
VZ | Verizon down 1 3 ahead of the open after revenue miss | Investing com Verizon the largest mobile network operator in the U S reported better than expected first quarter earnings ahead of Tuesday s opening bell despite missing on revenue figures
Verizon said adjusted earnings per share came in at 1 04 above expectations for earnings of 1 01 per share and compared with 0 91 per share in the same period a year earlier
The mobile network operator s second quarter revenue totaled 32 22 billion missing forecasts for revenue of 32 45 billion but up from 31 5 billion a year earlier
Verizon has delivered another quarter of strong financial and operational results based on consistent network reliability and superior value that continues to attract new customers said Chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam
In the second quarter we again balanced quality Verizon Wireless connections growth with low churn and profitability and we announced and completed our acquisition of AOL McAdam added
We re now poised to offer customers exciting new over the top OTT mobile video services and we look forward to a very positive second half of 2015 the statement continued
The company is expecting full year revenue growth of at least 3
Immediately after the earnings announcement Verizon Communications NYSE VZ shares lost 1 29 in trading prior to the opening bell to hit 47 50 from a closing price of 48 12 on Monday
Meanwhile the outlook for U S equity markets was mixed The Dow futures pointed to a decline of 0 15 at the open the S P 500 futures indicated a drop of 0 1 while the Nasdaq 100 futures signaled an increase of 0 15 |
CSCO | Ericsson 3 9 after more modest industry outlook | Ericsson NASDAQ ERIC has gained 3 9 in U S trading after the company put out new expectations an outlook that wasn t as bearish as analysts had feared We have a tough market situation out there said acting CEO Jan Frykhammar to investors though he pointed to gaining momentum in the company s partnership with Cisco Systems CSCO 0 7 Ericsson s been dogged by weaker industry demand for mobile broadband equipment and shares have fallen 46 6 year to date on Nasdaq The company expects average annual growth in its products and services market areas of 1 3 from 2016 to 2018 down from last year s forecast of 2 4 market growth from 2014 2018 Negative trends from the first half are expected to prevail for at least two or three more quarters The Cisco team up started slow but is gaining traction Ericsson says with more than 60 joint customers and several areas of collaboration ahead We understand that we need to perform better but you also as investors need to give us some time Frykhammar said Previously Ericsson s new CEO builds stake Oct 28 2016 Previously New Ericsson chief Reinvestment will drive top line Oct 26 2016 |
CSCO | Drexel sees solid quarter coming for Cisco based on execution | Cisco Systems NASDAQ CSCO is set to report on its first quarter Wednesday and Drexel Hamilton is looking for a beat based on continuing solid execution The stock has a depressed valuation figures analyst Brian White who has a Buy rating and target price of 37 implying near 18 upside from today s close Trends across the tech supply chain as it relates to networking telecom programs and demand within our networking coverage this earnings season were a bit healthier compared to a year ago he writes As such we feel comfortable with the overall demand backdrop for Cisco but we also don t expect meaningful revenue upside He sees EPS of 0 59 and revenue of 12 28B for Cisco s fiscal Q1 vs consensus expectations for 0 59 EPS and revenue of 12 329B Drexel expects fiscal Q2 EPS of 0 59 and revenue of 12 16B in line with other analysts |
CSCO | Cisco Reliance set Internet of Things JV for India | India s Reliance Group and Cisco Jasper NASDAQ CSCO are teaming up on a joint venture they call Unlimit to provide Internet of Things service for enterprise customers in the country Customers will use the Unlimit Control Center built off Cisco s IoT management platform and Reliance s mobile network The collaboration is also set to provide full support for smart city initiatives throughout India a government program aims to build 100 smart cities Cisco is set to report earnings just after the market close today |
CSCO | Cisco 3 9 despite beat as it guides low for coming quarter | Cisco Systems NASDAQ CSCO is off 3 9 after hours following fiscal Q1 earnings where it beat expectations but gave dim guidance for the out quarter For its coming fiscal second quarter Cisco is guiding for revenues to decline 2 4 Y Y normalized to exclude the November 2015 divestiture of the SP Video CPE Business and for non GAAP EPS of 0 55 0 57 below consensus for 0 59 It sees GAAP EPS at 0 42 0 47 vs consensus for 0 48 In its Q1 net income swelled about 3 to 3 1B on a non GAAP basis it declined 4 on a GAAP basis before excluding the divested business Gross margin was 63 8 in total and product gross margin was 63 4 up from 60 9 due to productivity gains and the divestiture Revenue breakout Products 9 3B down 5 5 Service 3 05B up 7 5 Also in guidance Cisco expects a gross margin rate non GAAP of 63 64 and operating margin rate of 29 30 and a tax provision rate of 22 Conference call to come at 4 30 p m ET Press Release |
VZ | Comcast CMCSA Tops Q2 Earnings Revenue Estimates | Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA reported strong financial results in the second quarter of 2016 wherein both the top and the bottom line surpassed the respective Zacks Consensus Estimate Importantly the company witnessed impressive subscriber gains for high speed data and voice services whereas its video subscriber loss was curtailed significantly Comcast currently carries a Zacks Rank 3 Hold
GAAP net income in the second quarter of 2016 came in at 2 028 million or 83 cents per share compared with 2 137 million or 84 cents in the prior year quarter However quarterly earnings per share of 83 cents were a penny ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate Quarterly total revenue was 19 269 million up 2 8 year over year and ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 19 043 million
Operating costs and expenses totaled 12 814 million up 2 7 year over year Operating income came in at 4 066 million down 1 year over year Operating margin was 21 1 compared with 21 9 in the year ago quarter During the second quarter Comcast repurchased 18 4 million common shares for 1 100 million and paid dividends of 670 million
In the second quarter of 2016 Comcast generated 6 455 million of cash from operations compared with 6 266 million in the year ago quarter Free cash flow was 1 420 million compared with 1 501 million in the prior year quarter
Cash and marketable securities at second quarter 2016 end were 4 665 million up from 2 401 million at the end of 2015 Total debt at second quarter 2016 end was 55 563 million compared with 52 621 million at the end of 2015 The debt to capitalization ratio at second quarter end was 0 49 compared with 0 48 at 2015 end COMCAST CORP A Price Consensus and EPS Surprise
Cable Communications Segment
Quarterly total revenue of 12 444 million reflected a 6 year over year rise Operating cash flow was 5 048 million up 5 7 year over year Within this segment Video revenues were 5 581 million up 2 8 from the prior year quarter High Speed Internet revenues totaled 3 369 million up 8 6 year over year Voice revenues were 893 million down 1 1 year over year Advertising revenues totaled 597 million up 3 5 from the year ago quarter Business Services revenues were 1 360 million up 17 year over year Other revenues were 644 million up 13 7 from the prior year quarter
As of Jun 30 2016 Comcast had 23 987 million up 6 4 year over year high speed Internet customers 11 641 million up 2 8 year over year voice customers and 22 396 million up 0 4 year over year video customers The company added a net of 220 000 high speed Internet customers and 64 000 voice customers but lost 4 000 video subscribers in the reported quarter Comcast gained 56 000 triple play subscribers 53 000 double play subscribers and 6 000 single play subscribers in the reported quarter
NBC Universal Segment
Quarterly total revenue of 7 103 million reflected a 1 8 year over year decrease Operating cash flow was 1 689 million indicating a drop of 0 2 year over year Within this segment Cable Networks revenues were 2 566 million up 4 7 year over year Broadcast TV revenues came in at 2 128 million down 17 3 year over year Filmed Entertainment revenues were 1 351 million down a substantial 40 4 from the year ago quarter Theme Parks revenues were 1 136 million up a whopping 47 year over year
Latest Developments
Comcast is taking part in the ongoing 600 MHz low band wireless spectrum auction which is popularly known as Incentive Auction by the FCC Notably the company has already entered into an MVNO mobile virtual network operator agreement with Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ Verizon is also a participant in the Incentive Auction besides AT T Inc NYSE T and T Mobile US Inc NYSE T |
VZ | T Mobile US TMUS Tops Q2 Earnings Revenues View Up | T Mobile US Inc NYSE T reported strong financial results in the second quarter of 2016 Both the top and the bottom line surpassed the respective Zacks Consensus Estimate
T Mobile US continues to gain postpaid wireless customers which has encouraged management to raise the subscriber gain outlook for 2016 Notably this Zacks Rank 3 Hold company competes with the likes of Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ AT T Inc NYSE T and Sprint Corp NYSE S in the highly price sensitive U S wireless market
GAAP net income in the reported quarter was 225 million or 25 cents per share as against a net income of 361 million or earnings of 42 cents per share in the year ago quarter Quarterly earnings per share of 25 cents came in above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 22 cents
Total revenue increased 12 7 year over year to 9 222 million in the second quarter surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 9 041 million Segment wise Service revenues were up 12 1 year over year to 6 888 million Sales from Equipment totaled 2 188 million up 14 2 year over year while Other revenues were 146 million up 21 7 year over year
Quarterly operating income was 768 million compared with 597 million in the year ago quarter Operating margin in the reported quarter was 8 3 against a mere 7 3 in the prior year quarter Adjusted EBITDA was 2 464 million up by 35 6 year over year Adjusted EBITDA margin was 36 compared with 30 in the year ago quarter
Cash Flow
In the second quarter of 2016 T Mobile US generated 1768 million of cash from operations compared with 1 161 million in the prior year quarter Adjusted free cash flow in the reported quarter was 419 million compared with the negative 30 million in the year ago quarter
Liquidity
At the end of the second quarter of 2016 T Mobile had 5 538 million of cash and cash equivalents and short term securities and 29 808 million of debt outstanding compared with 7 574 million and 28 719 million respectively at the end of 2015 The debt to equity ratio at second quarter end was 1 71 with the end of 2015 ratio of 1 73
Subscriber Statistics and Other Metrics
As of June 30 2016 the total customer base of T Mobile was 67 384 million up 14 4 year over year Branded postpaid phone customers totaled 30 878 million up 11 9 Branded postpaid mobile broadband customer count was 2 748 million up a massive 59 5 Branded prepaid customer count was 18 914 million up 14 2 Wholesale customers tallied 14 844 million up 14
In the reported quarter T Mobile added net 0 646 branded postpaid phone customers 0 244 branded postpaid mobile broadband customers 0 476 branded prepaid customers and 0 515 wholesale customers Total net customer addition was 1 881 million signifying the 13th successive quarter of over one million net customer additions Out of this net prepaid customer addition was 0 646 million signifying the 10th straight quarter of industry leading net prepaid customer addition
Quarterly branded postpaid churn was 1 27 against 1 32 in the year ago quarter Branded prepaid churn was 3 91 against 4 93 in the prior year quarter
Quarterly branded postpaid phone average revenue per user ARPU was 47 11 compared with 48 19 in the prior year quarter Branded prepaid ARPU was 37 86 compared with 37 83 in the prior year quarter Branded postpaid average billing per user ABPU was 62 59 compared with 63 29 in the year ago quarter
Guidance
For 2016 the company narrowed its adjusted EBITDA guidance to the range of 9 8 billion to 10 1 billion from the previous range of 9 7 billion to 10 2 billion Branded postpaid net customer addition in 2016 has been revised up to 3 4 million to 3 8 million from the previously guided range of 3 2 million and 3 6 million However capital expenditures for 2016 are projected to remain in the 4 5 billion to 4 8 billion band APPLE INC Price Consensus and EPS Surprise
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VZ | Verizon offers hikes to 38 000 employees after starting union negotiations | Reuters Verizon Communications Inc N VZ said it offered salary hikes to 38 000 employee in its East wireline business after its first negotiating session with representatives of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers The proposal for a three year period included wage increases cost controls for healtcare plans and pension related benefits the company said on Monday The wage increases were subject to an agreement between the company and the unions The current contracts expire on Aug 1
The company s union represented employees in the East worked under 27 collective bargaining agreements in nine eastern states in the United States and Washington D C |
VZ | U S FCC chair wants no further restrictions for AT T Verizon in 2016 auction | WASHINGTON Reuters U S Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler wants the agency to reject a T Mobile US Inc request that more airwaves be set aside for smaller wireless companies like itself to bid on during a government auction next year Reuters last month reported the regulators were leaning toward such a decision amid vigorous lobbying by T Mobile the No 4 cellular operator which wants further restrictions on how much spectrum dominant carriers Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ and AT T Inc NYSE T can buy in the auction While some parties have petitioned the commission to increase the size of the reserve the draft order on reconsideration I am circulating today would maintain the reserve size at the current level Wheeler said in a blog post
The draft order concludes that the current reserve size of 30 megahertz balances the desire to make low band spectrum available to parties with limited holdings while facilitating competitive bidding for all auction participants |
CSCO | 3 Thrivent Mutual Funds To Add Strength To Your Portfolio | Thrivent Mutual Funds is part of Thrivent Financial and had more than 134 billion worth of assets under management as of December 2018 It serves at least 2 million customers and has more than 100 investment professionals
Moreover it has invested in 24 actively managed mutual funds across a wide range of categories including equity income plus asset allocation and fixed income funds Thrivent Mutual Funds aims to offer simple and smart investing and has a strong record of competitive performance
Below we share with you three top ranked Thrivent mutual funds Each has earned a Strong Buy and is expected to outperform its peers in the future Investors can
Thrivent Income Fund Class A aims for high current income while also opting for capital preservation The fund invests the majority of its assets in debt securities or preferred stocks that are rated investment grade by utilizing the middle rating of S P Fitch or Moody s Thrivent Income Fund may also invest in high yield high risk bonds notes debentures and other debt obligations or preferred stocks LUBIX has a three year annualized return of 3 7
LUBIX has an expense ratio of 0 77 compared with the category average of 0 84
Thrivent Large Cap Value Fund Class S seeks long term capital appreciation The fund invests most of its assets in equity securities of large companies The fund s advisor mostly focuses on equity securities of large companies that are based in the United States or outside with have market capitalization similar to those included on the S P 500 Index the MSCI USA Large Cap Indexor the large company market capitalization classifications published by Lipper Inc TLVIX has a three year annualized return of 11 4
As of January 2019 TLVIX held 69 issues with 5 44 of its assets invested in Cisco Systems Inc NASDAQ CSCO
Thrivent High Yield Fund Class S aims for high current income The fund invests most of its assets in high yield high risk bonds notes debentures and other debt obligations or preferred stocks These securities are known as junk bonds LBHIX has a three year annualized return of 7
Paul J Ocenasek is the fund manager of LBHIX since 1997
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CSCO | U S factory activity contracts in August layoffs remain low | By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON Reuters U S factory activity contracted in August for the first time in six months as new orders and production tumbled but a low level of layoffs continued to point to a pickup in economic growth in the third quarter While manufacturing remains constrained by the lingering effects of a strong dollar and lower oil prices sustained labor market strength could push the Federal Reserve closer to raising interest rates later this year Today s disappointing manufacturing number further weakens the case for a rate hike later this month but we currently see no reason to change our Fed call and continue to anticipate a rate hike at the December meeting said Harm Bandholz chief U S economist at UniCredit in New York The Institute for Supply Management ISM said its index of national factory activity fell 3 2 percentage points to a reading of 49 4 last month That was the first contraction since February The index remains above the 43 2 threshold that is associated with a recession A reading below 50 indicates a contraction in manufacturing which accounts for about 12 percent of the U S economy The dollar s surge between June 2014 and December 2015 as well as weak global demand have crimped export growth A collapse in oil drilling activity following a plunge in oil prices has also squeezed manufacturing by undermining business spending leading to weak demand for heavy machinery In addition a U S inventory correction has resulted in factories receiving fewer orders While sentiment surveys including the ISM and several regional reports have pointed to manufacturing weakness so called hard data on oil drilling rigs durable goods orders and industrial production have offered tentative signs of stability in the sector Manufacturing is lagging data on consumer spending and housing that have suggested the economy has regained speed after growing only 1 0 percent in first half of the year Last month the ISM s new orders subindex plunged 7 8 points to a reading of 49 1 Production also slipped into contractionary territory and factory employment shrunk further But the manufacturing employment downturn has yet to spread to other sectors of the economy In a separate report the Labor Department said initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 2 000 to a seasonally adjusted 263 000 for the week ended Aug 27 It was the 78th consecutive week that claims remained below the 300 000 threshold which is associated with a robust labor market That is the longest stretch since 1970 when the labor market was much smaller The four week moving average of claims considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week to week volatility fell 1 000 to 263 000 last week Despite some seeming trouble in the manufacturing sector the overall outlook for employment is positive said Michael Gapen chief economist at Barclays LON BARC in New York The downbeat factory data pushed the dollar DXY lower against a basket of currencies U S stocks were generally weaker while prices for U S Treasuries rose AUGUST PAYROLLS The data came ahead of the release on Friday of the government s closely watched employment report for August which economists say could determine whether the Fed raises interest rates again later this month or in December According to a Reuters survey of economists nonfarm payrolls likely increased by 180 000 jobs in August after rising by 255 000 in July The unemployment rate is seen falling one tenth of a percentage point to 4 8 percent August s anticipated step down in job gains would follow two straight months of payroll increases above 250 000 The U S central bank increased its benchmark overnight interest rate last December for the first time in nearly a decade In a third report on Thursday global outplacement consultancy Challenger Gray Christmas said employers in the United States announced plans to shed 32 188 workers from their payrolls in August down from 45 346 in July The computer sector dominated the job cuts last month with Cisco Systems O CSCO announcing plans to reduce its workforce by 5 500 jobs There were also layoffs in the energy industrial goods and entertainment and leisure sectors In a fourth report the Labor Department said unit labor costs the price of labor per single unit of output increased at a sharper 4 3 percent rate in the second quarter as opposed to the 2 0 percent pace reported last month
The spike was due to a change in how the data is calculated and probably will not be sustained Unit labor costs rose 2 6 percent from a year ago |
CSCO | Exclusive Probe of leaked U S NSA hacking tools examines operative s mistake | By Joseph Menn and John Walcott SAN FRANCISCO WASHINGTON Reuters A U S investigation into a leak of hacking tools used by the National Security Agency is focusing on a theory that one of its operatives carelessly left them available on a remote computer and Russian hackers found them four people with direct knowledge of the probe told Reuters The tools which enable hackers to exploit software flaws in computer and communications systems from vendors such as Cisco Systems NASDAQ CSCO and Fortinet Inc were dumped onto public websites last month by a group calling itself Shadow Brokers The public release of the tools coincided with U S officials saying they had concluded that Russia or its proxies were responsible for hacking political party organizations in the run up to the Nov 8 presidential election On Thursday lawmakers accused Russia of being responsible Various explanations have been floated by officials in Washington as to how the tools were stolen Some feared it was the work of a leaker similar to former agency contractor Edward Snowden while others suspected the Russians might have hacked into NSA headquarters in Fort Meade Maryland But officials heading the FBI led investigation now discount both of those scenarios the people said in separate interviews NSA officials have told investigators that an employee or contractor made the mistake about three years ago during an operation that used the tools the people said That person acknowledged the error shortly afterward they said But the NSA did not inform the companies of the danger when it first discovered the exposure of the tools the sources said Since the public release of the tools the companies involved have issued patches in the systems to protect them Investigators have not ruled out the possibility that the former NSA person who has since departed the agency for other reasons left the tools exposed deliberately Another possibility two of the sources said is that more than one person at the headquarters or a remote location made similar mistakes or compounded each other s missteps Representatives of the NSA the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the office of the Director of National Intelligence all declined to comment After the discovery the NSA tuned its sensors to detect use of any of the tools by other parties especially foreign adversaries with strong cyber espionage operations such as China and Russia That could have helped identify rival powers hacking targets potentially leading them to be defended better It might also have allowed U S officials to see deeper into rival hacking operations while enabling the NSA itself to continue using the tools for its own operations Because the sensors did not detect foreign spies or criminals using the tools on U S or allied targets the NSA did not feel obligated to immediately warn the U S manufacturers an official and one other person familiar with the matter said In this case as in more commonplace discoveries of security flaws U S officials weigh what intelligence they could gather by keeping the flaws secret against the risk to U S companies and individuals if adversaries find the same flaws Critics of the Obama administration s policies for making those decisions have cited the Shadow Brokers dump as evidence that the balance has tipped too far toward intelligence gathering The investigators have not determined conclusively that the Shadow Brokers group is affiliated with the Russian government but that is the presumption said one of the people familiar with the probe and a fifth person One reason for suspecting government instead of criminal involvement officials said is that the hackers revealed the NSA tools rather than immediately selling them The publication of the code on the heels of leaks of emails by Democratic Party officials and preceding leaks of emails by former U S Secretary of State Colin Powell could be part of a pattern of spreading harmful and occasionally false information to further the Russian agenda said Jim Lewis a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies The dumping is a tactic they ve been developing for the last five years or so Lewis said They try it and if we don t respond they go a little further next time |
VZ | Sprint S Q1 Loss Narrower Than Expected Revenues Beat | Sprint Corp reported mixed financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2016 Though loss widened year over year it was still narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate Revenues came in ahead of the consensus mark despite a slight year on year decline
This Zacks Rank 3 Hold stock faces fierce competition in the U S wireless market from the likes of Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ AT T Inc NYSE T and T Mobile US Inc In order to remain competitive Sprint launched several low priced data and voice plans
Quarterly net loss was 302 million or 8 cents per share much wider than a net loss of 20 million or 1 cent per share in the year ago quarter However first quarter adjusted net loss per share of 6 cents was narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 8 cents
Quarterly total revenue came in at 8 012 million down 0 2 year over year but ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 7 976 million Service revenues were 6 516 million down 7 4 while Equipment revenues totalled 1 496 million up a substantial 51 1
Operating expenses were 7 651 million up 1 7 year over year Operating income was 361 million compared with 501 million in the year ago quarter Adjusted EBITDA improved 18 year over year to 2 457 million Adjusted EBITDA margin was 37 7 compared with 29 6 in the year ago quarter
Cash Flow
In the first quarter of fiscal 2016 Sprint generated 542 million of cash from operations compared with 128 million in the prior year quarter Quarterly free cash flow was a negative 349 million compared with a negative 2 246 million in the prior year quarter
Liquidity
At the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2016 Sprint had 5 084 million of cash and marketable securities compared with 2 641 million at the end of fiscal 2015 Total debt outstanding at the end of the reported quarter was 36 465 million compared with 33 958 million at the end of fiscal 2015 At first quarter end the debt to capitalization ratio was 0 65 versus 0 60 at the end of fiscal 2015
SPRINT CORP Price Consensus and EPS Surprise
Wireless Segment
Total segment revenue was 7 597 million up 0 8 year over year Postpaid revenues totalled 4 778 million down 3 7 Prepaid revenues were 1 165 million down 10 4 Wholesale revenues were 158 million down 12 7 Equipment revenues were 1 496 million up 51 1 year over year
Wireline Segment
Total segment revenue was 545 million down 13 5 year over year Voice revenues totalled 181 million down 22 3 Data revenues were 43 million down 12 2 Internet revenues were 302 million down 7 9 Other revenues were 19 million down 5 year over year
Subscribers Statistics
In the reported quarter Sprint gained 180 000 postpaid subscribers and 528 000 wholesale customers but lost 331 000 prepaid customers As of Jun 30 2016 Sprint had 59 453 million wireless customers up 4 6 year over year This includes 30 945 million postpaid 13 974 million prepaid and 14 534 million wholesale customers
Quarterly total retail postpaid churn rate was 1 56 flat year over year Total retail prepaid churn rate was 5 55 up from 5 08 in the prior year quarter Total retail postpaid ARPU average revenue per user was 51 54 down 7 1 year over year Total retail pretpaid ARPU was 27 34 down 1 7 year over year
Outlook
Sprint expects fiscal 2016 adjusted EBITDA of 9 5 billion to 10 billion and operating income of 1 billion to 1 5 billion Capital expenditures will be approximately 3 billion Adjusted free cash flow will be around break even |
VZ | Verizon Sprint to pay 158 million over unauthorized phone charges | By Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON Reuters Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ will pay 90 million and Sprint Corp will pay 68 million to settle U S government probes into unauthorized charges tacked onto their customers phone bills federal agencies said on Tuesday The settlements are the latest in the government s push against the practice known as cramming in which mobile carriers bill customers for services they never requested such as daily horoscopes or trivia The Federal Communications Commission the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and attorneys general from across the country investigated the charges and negotiated settlements with Verizon and Sprint the No 1 and No 3 wireless providers Well before any government action Verizon Wireless stopped allowing companies to place charges for premium text message services on customers bills Verizon spokesman Ed McFadden said in a statement Sprint spokesman Jeff Silva said the company had already refunded customers tens of millions of dollars before the government s investigation The companies joined national carriers AT T Inc NYSE T and T Mobile US in agreeing to pay fines and refund consumers for such practices Last year AT T paid 105 million and T Mobile paid 90 million to settle a similar probe by the FCC the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general The regulators said on Tuesday that the companies had charged consumers for subscriptions to third party products such as daily humor or celebrity gossip services typically charging consumers 9 99 a month and taking a cut of up to 40 percent
Consumers who called to complain were often refused a refund the FCC said even though government investigators could not find proof the services had been requested |
VZ | Deutsche Telekom to consider partner for T Mobile US CEO | COLOGNE Germany Reuters Deutsche Telekom DE DTEGn will consider any partner that can improve profitability at its U S operations its chief executive told the company s annual shareholders meeting Chief Executive Tim Hoettges said on Thursday T Mobile US N TMUS of which Deutsche Telekom owns 66 percent was in much better shape than two years ago But it is our duty to go on improving the return on T Mobile US he added If we find a partner who will help us to do so we will obviously consider it T Mobile US the fourth largest wireless carrier in the United States has turned around years of subscriber losses with cut price deals savvy marketing and well publicized wireless plans in recent quarters The turn around comes as the U S telecoms market consolidates with mobile operators expanding their services into fixed line connections broadband and television On Wednesday European telecoms group Altice AS ATCE agreed to buy U S regional cable company Suddenlink Communications for 9 1 billion And last week Verizon N VZ agreed to buy AOL for 4 4 billion while AT T N T is still waiting for regulatory approval for its 48 5 billion purchase of DirectTV O DTV the No 1 U S satellite TV provide Deutsche Telekom last year tried to sell T Mobile US to Sprint N S but the No 3 U S carrier dropped its bid after regulatory resistance Hoettges told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting that Deutsche Telekom was under no pressure to sell T Mobile something he has said before
Customer are literally flocking to us he said T Mobile added more than 8 million new customers in 2014 the strongest growth in the company s history he said |
VZ | U S lawmakers warn proposed changes could doom spy bill | By Mark Hosenball and Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON Reuters High ranking members of the U S House of Representatives warned the Senate on Monday that proposed changes to the USA Freedom Act a bill reforming domestic surveillance were unlikely to pass the House and might doom the contentious spy program The renewed tension between the two houses came a day after the Senate failed to pass legislation extending the legal authority for U S spy agencies collection of American s phone records in time to keep the program from expiring While a lapse of only a few days is seen as having little effect on intelligence agencies capabilities a legislative struggle is now looming over the Senate s proposed amendments to the Freedom Act aimed at extending surveillance powers The amendments include a proposal to keep spy agencies bulk collection of Americans telephone data in place for 12 months double the six months included in the version of the Freedom Act the House passed overwhelmingly on May 13 Bob Goodlatte the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and John Conyers the panel s top Democrat issued their statement while members of the Senate debated amendments to the bill proposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Richard Burr the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee The House is not likely to accept the changes proposed by Senator McConnell the House lawmakers said in a statement The protracted debate over reforming the surveillance system disclosed in 2013 by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden has tested the balance that Americans give to protecting their freedoms versus protecting their security Whatever one thinks of the proposed new system there needs to be a basic assurance that it will function as its proponents say it will McConnell said on Monday explaining why he sees the amendments as necessary If the Senate amends the Freedom Act and the House does not pass it the senior House Republicans said the telephone data collection put in place after the Sept 11 attacks and which lapsed at midnight on Sunday could end for good GRANDFATHER CLAUSE The Freedom Act would end spy agencies bulk collection of domestic telephone metadata and replace it with a more targeted system The records would be held by telecommunications companies not the government and the NSA would have to get court approval to gain access to specific data Many civil liberties groups feel the Freedom Act does not go far enough in protecting privacy but Republican security hawks say it will hamper law enforcement s ability to track terrorism suspects There s no question that this will lengthen the amount of time it takes us to connect the dots said Burr Despite the lapse in their powers though government agencies will retain legal authorization to collect telephone metadata for counterterrorism investigations opened before Sunday a so called grandfather clause Among the proposed amendments to the Freedom Act is a requirement that telecoms firms notify the government if they intend to stop holding onto call records for less than 18 months which experts said is current telecom industry standard practice Companies such as Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ and AT T Inc NYSE T would store the phone metadata which includes dialed numbers and call lengths but not the content of conversations which is now gathered by the National Security Agency They would turn it over to the government only if served with a court order targeting specific phone numbers or other narrow search terms Telecommunications companies have made it clear to government officials that until a new law is passed they are unwilling to discuss details about they could store and transmit the telephone metadata The companies now are guided by a Federal Communications Commission rule requiring them to retain records on toll or long distance calls for at least 18 months The rule technically applies to landline calls only but companies have generally developed some record keeping practices for wireless calls too The Freedom Act does contain a provision to compensate companies for costs they incur holding and turning over such data which is something the carriers made clear they wanted in return for agreeing to store the data
In the Senate McConnell set a procedural vote to limit debate on the bill for Tuesday If the amendments are approved the amended bill must still pass the House before it can be sent to the White House for Democratic President Barack Obama s signature |
CSCO | U S Trade Rep approves import ban on Arista devices says rival Cisco | By Andrew Chung NEW YORK Reuters The U S Trade Representative has upheld an import ban on Arista Networks Inc s ethernet switches following a federal commission s finding in June that the company s products infringed patents owned by rival Cisco Systems Inc NASDAQ CSCO Cisco said The decision by the U S International Trade Commission ITC which investigates purported violations of U S intellectual property stemmed from a complaint Cisco filed in December 2014 about the switches which are used in computer data centers and servers In a blog post on the company s website on Monday Cisco general counsel Mark Chandler said the import ban was to start on Tuesday Representatives for the USTR could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday The ITC said Arista infringed three Cisco patents relating to managing and securing communications networks The ruling excludes the import of Arista s network devices including its 7000 series of switches which generates most of that company s product revenue according to regulatory filings It also prevents the sale of domestic supplies of the imported products In a statement on Tuesday Arista s general counsel Marc Taxay said the company has redesigned the software in its switches and believes it is in full compliance with the ITC s orders Our primary focus remains the continued supply of non infringing products to our customers he said Arista also said it would appeal to the U S Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Cisco s Chandler in his blog post said that it appears Cisco s proprietary technology is still being used He said Arista has not received approval from the ITC for the redesigned products
The case is In the Matter of Certain Network Devices 337 944 at the U S International Trade Commission |
CSCO | Mind the air gap Singapore s web cut off balances security inconvenience | By Jeremy Wagstaff and Aradhana Aravindan SINGAPORE Reuters Singapore is working on how to implement a policy to cut off web access for public servants as a defense against potential cyber attack a move closely watched by critics who say it marks a retreat for a technologically advanced city state that has trademarked the term smart nation Some security experts say the policy due to be in place by May risks damaging productivity among civil servants and those working at more than four dozen statutory boards and cutting them off from the people they serve It may only raise slightly the defensive walls against cyber attack they say Ben Desjardins director of security solutions at network security firm Radware called it one of the more extreme measures I can recall by a large public organization to combat cyber security risks Stephen Dane a Hong Kong based managing director at networking company Cisco Systems NASDAQ CSCO said it was a most unusual situation and Ramki Thurimella chair of the computer science department at the University of Denver called it both unprecedented and a little excessive But not everyone takes that view Other cyber security experts agree with Singapore authorities that with the kind of threats governments face today it has little choice but to restrict internet access FireEye a cyber security company found that organizations in Southeast Asia were 80 percent more likely than the global average to be hit by an advanced cyber attack with those close to tensions over the South China Sea where China and others have overlapping claims were particularly targeted Bryce Boland FireEye s chief technology officer for Asia Pacific said Singapore s approach needed to be seen in this light My view is not that they re blocking internet access for government employees it s that they are blocking government computer access from Internet based cyber crime and espionage AIR GAPPING Singapore officials say no particular attack triggered the decision but noted a breach of one ministry last year David Koh chief executive of the newly formed Cyber Security Agency said officials realized there was too much data to secure and the threat is too real Singapore needed to restrict its perimeter but said Koh there is no way to secure this because the attack surface is like a building with a zillion windows doors fire escapes Koh said he was simply widening a practice of ministries and agencies in sensitive fields where computers are already disconnected or air gapped from the Internet Public servants will still be able to surf the web but only on separate personal or agency issued devices Air gapping is common in security related fields both in government and business but not for normal government functions Also it doesn t guarantee success Anthony James chief marketing officer at cyber security company TrapX Security recalled one case where an attacker was able to steal data from a law enforcement client after an employee connected his laptop to two supposedly separated networks Human decisions and related policy gaps are the No 1 cause of failure for this strategy he said STOPPING THE INEVITABLE Indeed just making it work is the first headache The Infocomm Development Authority IDA said in an email to Reuters that it has worked with agencies on managing the changes to ensure a smooth transition and was exploring innovative work solutions to ensure work processes remain efficient Johnny Wong group director at the Housing Development Board s research arm called the move inconvenient but said it s something we just have to adapt to as part of our work At the Land Transport Authority a group director Lew Yii Der said Lots of committees are being formed across the public sector and within agencies like mine to look at how we can work around the segregation and ensure front facing services remain the same Then there s convincing the rank and file public servant that it s worth doing and not circumventing One 23 year old manager who gave only her family name Ng said blocking web access would only harm productivity and may not stop attacks Information may leak through other means so blocking the Internet may not stop the inevitable from happening she said It s not just the critics who are watching closely Local media cited one Singapore minister as saying other governments which he did not name had expressed interest in its approach Whether they will adopt the practice permanently is less clear says William Saito a special cyber security adviser to the Japanese government There s a trend in private business and some government agencies in Asia to go along similar lines he said noting some Japanese companies cut internet access in the past year usually after a breach They cut themselves off because they thought it was a good idea he told Reuters but then they realized they were pretty dependent on this Internet thing Indeed some cyber security experts said Singapore may end up regretting its decision I m fairly certain they would regret it and wind up far behind other nations in development said Arian Evans vice president of product strategy at RiskIQ a cyber security start up based in San Francisco
The decision is surprising for a country like Singapore that has always been a leader in innovation technology and business he said |
VZ | Level 3 Communications LVLT Q2 Earnings What s Up | Level 3 Communications Inc NYSE T the leading U S fiber optic network service provider is slated to report second quarter 2016 financial numbers before the opening bell on Jul 27 Last quarter Level 3 Communications posted a negative earnings surprise of 24 44 Moreover the company s earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the previous four quarters with an average miss of 3 77 Let s see how things are shaping up for this announcement LEVEL 3 COMM Price and EPS Surprise Factors at PlayLevel 3 Communications operates in a highly competitive enterprise communications market Inspite of its vast presence in the fiber market of Latin America Europe Middle East and Asia it has to compete with telecom behemoths like Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ and AT T Inc NYSE T in North America and with Telefonica MC TEF Orange BT Group LON BT America Movil in Europe and Latin America Moreover fluctuations in the global macro economy could have an adverse effect on the company s business results of operations and financial condition Notably the company faces the risk of adverse foreign currency movements that may impact its top line Also the company s high customer concentrationis a major concern Nevertheless the company has a strong presence in several fields of enterprise networking like data networks content distribution managed services securities voice cloud and cloud connection The company stands to benefit from the ongoing trend of large enterprise customers shifting to IP and fiber based network architecture Additionally the company is on the lookout for strategic merger and acquisitions or stock buyouts to maximize shareholders value Earnings Whispers Our proven model does not conclusively show that Level 3 Communications is likely to beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate this quarter This is because a stock needs to have both a positive and a Zacks Rank 1 Strong Buy 2 Buy or 3 Hold for this to happen Unfortunately that is not the case here as elaborated below Zacks ESP Level 3 Communications has an earnings ESP of 6 38 This is because the Most Accurate estimate stands at 44 cents while the Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged higher at 47cents Zacks Rank Level 3 Communications has a Zacks Rank 3 which increases the predictive power of ESP However the company s negative ESP makes surprise prediction difficult Meanwhile we caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank 4 or 5 Sell rated stocks going into the earnings announcement especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions momentum Stock to ConsiderHere s a company that you may want to consider as our model shows that it has the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter Charter Communications Inc NYSE T with an earnings ESP of 404 76 and a Zacks Rank 2 Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research Today you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days Click to get this free report |
VZ | Verizon says CBS Sports Network will be available on Custom TV | NEW YORK Reuters Verizon Communications NYSE VZ said on Monday that content from CBS Corp NYSE CBS s Sports Network will be available on its new pay TV offering starting May 1 CBS Sports Network has joined Verizon FiOS s new Custom TV lineup under its sports package a Verizon spokesman told Reuters This announcement comes as another sports content provider ESPN a division of Walt Disney Co filed a suit against Verizon seeking damages for violating its agreement Since Verizon unveiled its cheaper slimmer pay TV plan on Sunday Disney Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA s NBCUniversal and 21st Century Fox have pushed back and said Verizon s FiOS TV was violating existing agreements Verizon s new pay TV plan lets customers sign up for a slimmed down cheaper bundle of 36 fixed channels through its FiOS TV and then add on genre specific packages such as kids sports or news It hopes the flexibility will lure them away from cable rivals and upstart online TV companies Last week Verizon said that Fox and ESPN did not run ads promoting its FiOS Custom TV service on its channels in the New York market Verizon executives have maintained that their product does not invalidate agreements with content partners |
VZ | Alcatel Lucent defends Nokia deal as weathers U S slowdown | By Leila Abboud and Gw na lle Barzic PARIS Reuters Telecom equipment maker Alcatel Lucent PA ALUA which is set to be bought by larger rival Nokia HE NOK1V improved profit margins in the first quarter despite a marked sales slowdown in its biggest market the United States Although it reported a net loss higher software sales a weak euro and strong demand for its Internet routing products which help telecom operators handle heavy broadband traffic from online video helped the French firm post a better quarter than Nokia and mobile market leader Ericsson ST ERICb Both those competitors saw steep drops in their shares after missing profit targets and Nokia s misstep prompted some Alcatel shareholders to say the takeover deal terms should be renegotiated Alcatel Lucent Chief Executive Michel Combes dismissed the idea on Thursday saying there was no need to change the deal since both companies were sticking to their annual targets The strategic rationale of the deal does not depend on the performance of an isolated quarter he said There is no reason for any change Alexander Peterc analyst at Exane BNP Paribas PARIS BNPP said the results showed a significant divergence versus weak peers Nokia and Ericsson Alcatel shares were up 2 8 percent at 3 30 euro at 07 41 GMT the biggest gainers on the on the French blue chip CAC 40 index FCHI They had previously fallen nearly 30 percent since the acquisition by Nokia was announced in mid April hit by investor scepticism about the merits of the deal Nokia s acquisition of Alcatel Lucent aims to position the company to better compete with Sweden s Ericsson as well as low cost Chinese powerhouse Huawei HWT UL by forging a strong number two in mobile with a more complete product line Alcatel Lucent shareholders will get 0 55 shares in Nokia for every Alcatel Lucent share ending up with 33 5 percent of the enlarged group once the deal closes in mid 2016 OUTPERFORMANCE Alcatel Lucent s first quarter revenue rose 9 percent on a comparable basis to 3 24 billion euros 3 68 billion ahead of a company provided consensus of 3 02 billion while adjusted operating profit nearly doubled to 82 million euros compared with a consensus of 79 million The company posted a net loss of 72 million euros almost flat to the 73 million loss a year before but some measures of profitability improved because of cost cuts as well as the sale more higher margin products and software The gross margin improved to 34 6 percent in the quarter from 32 3 percent a year ago and the operating margin was 2 5 percent versus 1 1 percent The topline and gross margin beat are impressive especially in the context of weak North America spending and after the very disappointing results of Nokia and Ericsson on that front said Bernstein Research analyst Pierre Ferragu Alcatel Lucent earns almost half its revenue in North America where it supplies mobile and broadband gear to Verizon N VZ and AT T N T The group confirmed its aim to generate positive free cash flow by the end of the year the central aim of Combes turnaround But it consumed 332 million euro more cash than it generated in the quarter an improvement of 66 million |
VZ | German bund yields gain lift euro stocks edge down | By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK Reuters German bond yields climbed on Tuesday on optimism that inflation may have bottomed in the euro zone generating demand for European currencies while volatility in global bond markets weighed on stock indexes U S 10 year Treasury yields eased from six month highs as some buyers came back to the market ahead of the government s sale of 24 billion in new three year notes U S stocks were flat with bond market volatility adding to investor anxiety over the perilous state of Greece s finances German bond yields have surged in recent weeks boosted by optimism that inflation may have bottomed in the euro region according to some analysts The move has been exacerbated by investors unwilling to enter the market until the sell off shows signs of stabilizing The U S dollar slumped against the euro and Swiss franc Benchmark 10 year Treasuries US10YT RR were last up 9 32 in price to yield 2 24 percent after earlier hitting 2 37 percent We saw some real money buying off the lows this morning said Sean Murphy a Treasuries trader at Societe Generale PARIS SOGN in New York The Treasury is due to sell 24 billion in three year notes on Tuesday 24 billion in 10 year notes on Wednesday and 16 billion in 30 year bonds on Thursday Corporate and other supply is also coming to market Elevated U S yields mean higher corporate borrowing costs which could hit shares across the world German 10 year yields were last up at 0 69 percent Less than a month ago German 10 year yields hit a record low of 0 05 percent driven down by a 1 trillion euro European Central Bank bond purchase scheme intended to boost inflation MSCI s all country world index MIWD00000PUS of stock performance in 46 countries was down 0 2 percent The Dow Jones industrial average DJI was down 10 28 points or 0 06 percent at 18 094 89 The Standard Poor s 500 Index SPX was down 3 27 points or 0 16 percent at 2 102 06 The Nasdaq Composite Index IXIC was down 4 98 points or 0 10 percent at 4 988 60 In deal news AOL N AOL shares jumped after Verizon Communications N VZ said it would buy the company in a 4 4 billion deal GREEK CONCERNS In the forex market the euro was last up 0 7 percent against the dollar at 1 12310 and was set for its first session of gains in four against the greenback Investors have been concerned that debt burdened Greece could run out of cash Euro zone finance ministers who met on Monday acknowledged progress in talks between Greece and its creditors but said more work was needed to close a cash for reforms deal Athens stocks ATG however rose 0 2 percent Oil prices up more than 50 percent from their January lows rose further as dollar weakness trumped concerns about oversupply Brent crude was up 1 80 at 66 71 a barrel U S crude was up 1 34 at 60 59
Gold rose as much as 1 percent as the dollar declined Spot gold touched a session high of 1 196 60 an ounce |
CSCO | Cisco Systems CSCO Stock Moves 0 55 What You Should Know | Cisco Systems NASDAQ CSCO closed at 55 29 in the latest trading session marking a 0 55 move from the prior day The stock outpaced the S P 500 s daily of 0 Elsewhere the Dow lost 0 3 while the tech heavy Nasdaq added 0 25
Coming into today shares of the seller of routers switches software and services had gained 7 47 in the past month In that same time the Computer and Technology sector gained 3 92 while the S P 500 gained 2 36
CSCO will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release On that day CSCO is projected to report earnings of 0 77 per share which would represent year over year growth of 16 67 Meanwhile the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of 12 89 billion up 3 4 from the year ago period
Looking at the full year our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of 3 06 per share and revenue of 51 67 billion These totals would mark changes of 17 69 and 4 73 respectively from last year
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for CSCO should also be noted by investors Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near term business trends As such positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company s business and profitability
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near term share price momentum We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear actionable rating model
Ranging from 1 Strong Buy to 5 Strong Sell the Zacks Rank system has a proven outside audited track record of outperformance with 1 stocks returning an average of 25 annually since 1988 Over the past month the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0 09 higher CSCO currently has a Zacks Rank of 2 Buy
Valuation is also important so investors should note that CSCO has a Forward P E ratio of 17 99 right now Its industry sports an average Forward P E of 17 23 so we one might conclude that CSCO is trading at a premium comparatively
Investors should also note that CSCO has a PEG ratio of 2 57 right now This metric is used similarly to the famous P E ratio but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock s expected earnings growth rate The Computer Networking was holding an average PEG ratio of 1 98 at yesterday s closing price
The Computer Networking industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 79 putting it in the top 31 of all 250 industries
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups Our research shows that the top 50 rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1
Be sure to follow all of these stock moving metrics and many more on Zacks com |
CSCO | Are You Looking For A Top Momentum Pick Why Cisco Systems CSCO Is A Great Choice | Momentum investing is all about the idea of following a stock s recent trend which can be in either direction In the long context investors will essentially be buying high but hoping to sell even higher And for investors following this methodology taking advantage of trends in a stock s price is key once a stock establishes a course it is more than likely to continue moving in that direction The goal is that once a stock heads down a fixed path it will lead to timely and profitable trades
While many investors like to look for momentum in stocks this can be very tough to define There is a lot of debate surrounding which metrics are the best to focus on and which are poor quality indicators of future performance The Zacks Momentum Style Score part of the Zacks Style Scores helps address this issue for us
Below we take a look at Cisco Systems NASDAQ CSCO which currently has a Momentum Style Score of B We also discuss some of the main drivers of the Momentum Style Score like price change and earnings estimate revisions
It s also important to note that Style Scores work as a complement to the Zacks Rank our stock rating system that has an impressive track record of outperformance Cisco Systems currently has a Zacks Rank of 2 Buy Our research shows that stocks rated Zacks Rank 1 Strong Buy and 2 Buy and Style Scores of A or B outperform the market over the following one month period
You can see the current list of Zacks 1 Rank Stocks here
Set to Beat the Market
In order to see if CSCO is a promising momentum pick let s examine some Momentum Style elements to see if this seller of routers switches software and services holds up
Looking at a stock s short term price activity is a great way to gauge if it has momentum since this can reflect both the current interest in a stock and if buyers or sellers have the upper hand at the moment It s also helpful to compare a security to its industry this can show investors the best companies in a particular area
For CSCO shares are up 2 37 over the past week while the Zacks Computer Networking industry is up 1 37 over the same time period Shares are looking quite well from a longer time frame too as the monthly price change of 7 64 compares favorably with the industry s 1 74 performance as well
Considering longer term price metrics like performance over the last three months or year can be advantageous as well Shares of Cisco Systems have increased 27 68 over the past quarter and have gained 32 02 in the last year In comparison the S P 500 has only moved 14 77 and 10 75 respectively
Investors should also pay attention to CSCO s average 20 day trading volume Volume is a useful item in many ways and the 20 day average establishes a good price to volume baseline a rising stock with above average volume is generally a bullish sign whereas a declining stock on above average volume is typically bearish CSCO is currently averaging 20 397 636 shares for the last 20 days
Earnings Outlook
The Zacks Momentum Style Score encompasses many things including estimate revisions and a stock s price movement Investors should note that earnings estimates are also significant to the Zacks Rank and a nice path here can be promising We have recently been noticing this with CSCO
Over the past two months 13 earnings estimates moved higher compared to 1 lower for the full year These revisions helped boost CSCO s consensus estimate increasing from 3 02 to 3 06 in the past 60 days Looking at the next fiscal year 13 estimates have moved upwards while there have been 1 downward revision in the same time period
Bottom Line
Taking into account all of these elements it should come as no surprise that CSCO is a 2 Buy stock with a Momentum Score of B If you ve been searching for a fresh pick that s set to rise in the near term make sure to keep Cisco Systems on your short list |
CSCO | Top 5 things to watch today | Investing com Fed meeting minutes on tap as odds for rate hike rise Oil pulls back from 5 week high on speculation for bearish inventory data Global stocks mixed as investors recheck Fed expectations Cisco NASDAQ CSCO reportedly plans to axe 20 of its workforce U K employment data shrugs off Brexit worries |
CSCO | U S stock index futures flat as Fed rate hike talk re emerges | Investing com U S stock index futures were flat Wednesday as Fed rate talk re emerged Investors looking to release of Fed meeting minutes for guidance The Dow futures was down 0 06 at 06 30 ET while the S P 500 futures shed 0 02 The tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures lost 0 01 Oil slips ahead of bearish expectations for U S stockpile figures Cisco NASDAQ CSCO reports fiscal 2006 earnings amid reports to axe 14 000 jobs |
CSCO | Cisco shares fall over 1 after announcing 5 500 job cuts | Investing com Cisco shares were lower Thursday after announcing 5 500 job cuts
Cisco Systems NASDAQ CSCO shares were down 1 27 at 30 33 in pre market trade
The jobs cuts represent 7 of the networking gear supplier s global workforce
Cisco was reported to be planning to shed some 14 000 jobs
Cisco s Q4 EPS came in at 0 63 beating estimates of 0 60
Revenues fell 1 6 to 12 64 bn vs estimate of 12 58 bn |
VZ | June Jobs Report | DOW 250 18 146SPX 32 2129NAS 79 495610 Y 02 1 37 OIL 05 45 19GOLD 4 80 1365 60
S P just shy of intraday and closing record highs going back to May 2015
The Jobs Report for June showed the economy added 287 000 new jobs and the unemployment rate rose to 4 9 in June from 4 7 as more people entered the labor force in search of work The results topped consensus estimates around 175 000
June payrolls were boosted by the return of 35 000 striking workers at Verizon NYSE VZ The May report was revised from 38 000 down to 11 000 April s gain was revised higher to 144 000 from 123 000 April and May revisions resulted in a net loss of 6 000 jobs compared to initial estimates
Goldman analysts blamed the month to month discrepancy on weather saying that during April and May industries most affected by weather barely hired Construction leisure and hospitality and retail added just 4 000 jobs compared to 113 000 in October through March Construction hiring was again low in June
Another consideration is seasonal adjustments based on the school year In May we saw a decline in the unemployment rate and a drop in labor force participation The change suggested that unemployment was falling for bad reasons as discouraged workers gave up looking for work Reinforcing that notion the share of unemployed workers leaving the labor force spiked on a seasonally adjusted basis
The unadjusted data painted a different picture When schools finish up in May more students start looking for work which adds people to the labor force So normally in data that aren t adjusted for seasonal fluctuations fewer people drop out of the workforce from jobless rolls during the month
That big slowdown in dropouts we usually see in May didn t happen this year So when the normal seasonal adjustment was applied it magnified the flows out of the labor force That in turn helped push the unemployment rate down to 4 7 percent even though the report only showed 11 000 new jobs created
In June however the slowdown in labor force dropouts played out more fully The unemployment rate jumped back 0 2 percentage point while the participation rate rose 0 1 percentage point and the economy added 287 000 new jobs
The numbers in May and June were probably flukes or outliers So we can look at broader trends The US added an average of 147 000 jobs in the past three months Over the past six months the economy has averaged 172 000 net new jobs per month Clearly the trend is down from an average of 230 000 per month in 2015 but that is to be expected at this point in the economic cycle
Taking account of the growing numbers of retiring baby boomers and the population growth a monthly gain of 75 000 to 100 000 jobs is sufficient to keep the unemployment rate steady while a 125 000 monthly gain is what is required to nudge it down further
The Labor Force Participation Rate increased in June to 62 7 up from May s 62 6 percent close to its lowest level since the 1970s The U 6 unemployment rate declined to 9 6 The U 6 rate includes the unemployed the underemployed and the discouraged people who have given up looking and are no longer counted in the headline number
While the U 6 rate has made substantial gains in the past years it remains stubbornly at pre recession levels There are 1 97 million long term unemployed that s more than 26 weeks and that number is up from 1 88 million May The number of part time workers who prefer full time jobs fell by nearly 600 000
And the ranks of temporary workers increased by 15 000 after falling by 19 000 in May and posting meager gains in recent months Employers often add such contingent workers before hiring permanent staffers And even though more than 400 000 candidates jumped back into the labor market the low labor force participation rate indicates there is still plenty of slack
Leisure and hospitality added 59 000 jobs in June following little employment change in the prior month Job gains in leisure and hospitality have averaged 27 000 per month thus far this year down from an average of 37 000 in 2015
Health care and social assistance added 58 000 jobs in June Employment in financial activities rose by 16 000 in June Employment in information increased by 44 000 in June Employment rose in telecommunications 28 000 largely reflecting the return of workers from the Verizon strike
Employment in professional and business services continued to trend up in June 38 000 The industry has added an average of 30 000 jobs per month compared with an average monthly gain of 52 000 in 2015
Employment in retail trade edged up by 30 000 in June after changing little over the prior 2 months a positive sign for consumer spending Retail trade has added 313 000 jobs over the year
Employment in mining continued to trend down in June 6 000 Since reaching a peak in September 2014 mining has lost 211 000 jobs Employment in other major industries including construction manufacturing wholesale trade transportation and warehousing and government showed little or no change in June
Average hourly wages rose 2 cents to 25 61 in June In June the average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was 34 4 hours for the fifth consecutive month Hourly pay increased 2 6 in the 12 months to June 2016 matching the highest level of the recovery that s good enough to outpace inflation so wage gains mean more money in workers pockets still the gains are not enough to raise concerns about wage push inflation
More than a dozen cities and states raised wages this year and those higher pay floors should cause a ripple of extra earnings for people making as much as 20 percent more than the minimum For states like New York and California which will increase wages to 15 an hour over the next few years those benefits will extend to people making 18 an hour Wage increases above the minimum wage are believed to be a response to what economists call wage compression which occurs when more senior employees are no longer better compensated than less senior employees
Say you worked at a fast food restaurant in Washington D C at the old local minimum of 10 50 On July 1 your hourly wage increased to 11 50 That s great news for you but the shift manager getting paid 12 an hour may not be overjoyed about your sudden good fortune There is a hierarchy in wages but anything above the minimum is discretionary and that ripple effect only extends to about 20 of the wage scale give or take
Overall only about 3 percent of workers are paid minimum wage according to an analysis by the Brookings Institute But nearly 30 percent of workers make less than 1 5 times the minimum wage By that rough calculation about 35 million workers could see raises if the minimum increased The minimum wage does more than simply shift the wage distribution toward higher pay it effectively compresses the lowest wages
The end result is a reduction in wage inequality below the median wage a little under 30 000 for individuals Beyond that the impact of increases in minimum wage don t seem to affect middle income and upper income workers
Of course the bigger debate about minimum wage is whether it will mean fewer jobs the basic idea is that raising the price of anything reduces demand But there are other factors that must be considered When workers earn more there is less turnover and productivity increases
Also lower wage workers tend to spend almost everything they make meaning the wages are circulated increasing the velocity of the money and stimulating the economy The net effect is mildly positive with a lag time
One of the recurring complaints from employers is that they have a hard time finding skilled workers Wages of high school dropouts are lower than they were at the turn of the century in real terms The same goes for workers with a high school diploma and also for workers who went to college but stopped short of a bachelor s degree Although some of the hardest to fill jobs in the country don t require college degrees chefs butchers bakers mechanics and electricians These jobs certainly require skills
The most obvious solution would be to train workers for skills that are in demand The problem is that we don t see much job training in the US According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development the United States government spends only 0 03 percent of its gross domestic product on worker training well below budgets for other developed nations Penny wise pound foolish
The Federal Reserve is back in the game That s the simple message from the strong June jobs report That said don t expect a rate hike this month The May jobs report appeared to spook the central bank and convinced investors the Fed would keep rates on hold all year Though most Fed officials have continued to signal a desire to raise rates at least once in 2016 minutes from the Fed s June 14 15 meeting released on Wednesday showed the Federal Open Market Committee generally agreed they needed to see more data before contemplating another hike
The Fed won t overreact to one strong report any more than it would to a single weak one The Fed will almost certainly remain on hold at their next meeting on July 26 27 Prior to the report this morning markets had priced in one rate hike through the end of 2018 now the CME Fedwatch calculates a 23 chance of a rate hike by December |
VZ | Wireless Carriers Boosting Capacity For Election Conventions | With U S Presidential conventions right around the corner all of the four leading wireless carriers of U S viz Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ AT T Inc NYSE T T Mobile US Inc NYSE T and Sprint Corp NYSE S have geared up anticipating the heavy traffic
The Republican National Convention will take place in Cleveland from Jul 18 21 and the Democratic National Convention DNC in Philadelphia in Jul 25 28 Attendance of around 50 000 people is expected in both of these events
Increasing Capacity
The planning for upgrading the capacity began months ago for these carriers and they have already boosted their network in the two cities mentioned above For instance Verizon increased its capacity by 550 in the Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Center which is the main venue for the DNC It is during these types of high profile events that the wireless operators prepare for the utmost and use every type of resource to ensure a smooth functioning of its networks
Most of the wireless operators use small cell technology to boost coverage near the venue Some even use Wi Fi technology to ensure coverage inside the arenas where the event takes place
Spill Over Benefits
While the carriers are busy managing their networks for the main event their drive to improve capacity and max out the overall radio frequency is certainly going to help the areas which were previously shunned Additionally smaller venues like hotels hospitals and universities are also going to get a major lift in terms of network coverage by virtue of this network capacity expansion drive
The Bottom Line
As U S prepares for the Presidential Race conventions the wireless carriers will look for increased revenues from the data usage Moreover this is a major opportunity for the carriers to exhibit their capacity to handle network traffic efficiently which can act as a catalyst to attract more subscribers and business customers going forward
Thus it comes as no surprise as to why these carriers are leaving no stone unturned to enhance their capacity However will these increased investments help these telecom players in the long run We leave it to time to answer that |
VZ | T Mobile US Announces Free Data For Pokemon Go Players | In a bid to capitalize on the rapidly growing global mobile gaming app Pokemon Go T Mobile US Inc NYSE T announced free data for customers who have become addicted to the augmented reality game The offer will be made available through its T Mobile Tuesdays app It came as part of T Mobile US strategy of attracting customers Note that this followed T Mobile US Get Thanked program under which it offered lucrative giveaways like Wendy s ice creams movie rentals and a host of other freebies The company even proposed to give a stock to its postpaid customers as a reward under this program DetailsThis limited period offer will extend from Jul 19 to Aug 9 2016 Customers availing the offer will be able to play Pokemon Go for no extra data charges till Aug 2017 The offer will also give away PokeCoins worth 100 to 250 customers Additionally five lucky winners will win a trip for two to anywhere in the U S Notably Pokemon Go the popular creature collecting game has overtaken Facebook Inc NASDAQ FB and Twitter Inc s NYSE T apps in terms of daily users Net Neutrality IssueZero rated plans under which wireless carriers offer free data to customers for using certain apps have been accused of violating net neutrality T Mobile US was even accused of suppressing video streaming using third party video streaming services in the past while giving preference to streaming videos in its Binge On app The practice was criticized because waiving off data for certain apps invariably dented the competitive edge of its peers However Pokemon Go uses very little data with peak usage of 10 Megabytes per hour This makes us quite confident that net neutrality proponents won t be too bothered by the move The Bottom LineCompetition in the U S telecom space has been intense of late Relatively smaller carriers like T Mobile US have been luring customers through attractive offers while industry behemoths such as Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ and AT T Inc NYSE T continue to face challenging conditions To counter these competitive threats AT T recently launched a customer awards program Although T Mobile US has been gaining momentum of late backed by a growing customer base we are yet to know for sure if its slew of generous offers will allow the company to capture market share from the top players T Mobile US carries a Zacks Rank 2 Buy T MOBILE US INC Price |
VZ | AT T trade groups mount court challenge to FCC Internet rules | By Malathi Nayak NEW YORK Reuters AT T Inc N T and three cable and wireless trade groups filed separate lawsuits on Tuesday challenging the U S Federal Communications Commission over its new web traffic regulations AT T is the first large telecom player to individually appeal against the FCC s so called net neutrality rules The suit comes even as the No 2 U S wireless company s proposed 48 5 billion acquisition of satellite TV operator DirecTV is under FCC review The National Cable and Telecommunications Association CTIA The Wireless Association and American Cable Association also filed lawsuits in the U S Court of Appeals for the D C Circuit USTelecom trade group filed a similar lawsuit on Monday AT T s challenge follows one by smaller Internet provider Alamo Broadband Inc in the 5th U S Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans last month The rules take effect 60 days after their publication in the Federal Register on Monday a step that set off a series of lawsuits Approved in February and posted online on March 12 the FCC s new rules treat Internet service providers as more heavily regulated telecommunications services more like traditional telephone companies AT T and the groups in their filings said the rules were arbitrary capricious and against various laws and procedures The new rules prevent broadband providers from blocking or slowing any Internet traffic and from striking deals with content companies for smoother delivery to consumers Instead of promoting greater industry investment the FCC opted to resuscitate a command and control regulatory regime including a process where innovators must first seek permission from the FCC before rolling out new services CTIA President Meredith Attwell Baker said in a statement In a similar vein NCTA s President Michael Powell said the FCC s utility style regulation was a cause of concern AT T and other Internet service providers such as Verizon N VZ and Comcast O CMCSA have decried the FCC s new rules stating that they would thwart investment and innovation Telecom and broadband companies would continue to invest in improving and upgrading their services despite the new rules FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said at an industry event in Austin Texas on Tuesday
The cases are AT T Inc v FCC and United States of America No 15 1092 CTIA The Wireless Assoc v FCC and United States of America No 15 1091 and National Cable Telecom Assoc v FCC and United States of America No 15 1090 in the U S Court of Appeals for the D C Circuit |
VZ | Verizon Q1 adjusted EPS 1 02 beating expectations for 0 95 | Investing com Verizon Communications NYSE VZ the largest mobile network operator in the U S reported better than expected first quarter earnings ahead of Tuesday s opening bell despite missing on revenue figures
Verizon said adjusted earnings per share came in at 1 02 above expectations for earnings of 0 95 per share and compared with 1 15 per share in the same period a year earlier
The mobile network operator s first quarter revenue totaled 31 98 billion missing forecasts for revenue of 32 27 billion
Verizon Wireless had 565 000 retail postpaid net additions in first quarter 2015 a 4 8 increase compared with first quarter 2014
Verizon is off to a strong start in 2015 with another quarter of profitable growth said Verizon Chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam
We expanded our base of customers seeking a premium experience and we grew revenues earnings and cash flow during a quarter in which we also took significant steps to sharpen our strategic focus We are confident in our ability to maintain momentum and continue to add value for customers and shareholders
Immediately after the earnings announcement Verizon shares tacked on 0 65 in trading prior to the opening bell to hit 49 70 from a closing price of 49 38 on Monday
Meanwhile the outlook for U S equity markets was upbeat The Dow futures pointed to a gain of 0 3 at the open the S P 500 futures indicated a rise of 0 35 while the Nasdaq 100 futures signaled an increase of 0 4 |
VZ | Verizon profit beats estimates as more users sign up | Reuters Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ s quarterly profit beat analysts expectations helped by higher net addition of postpaid subscribers as users added more devices to data plans
Shares of Verizon rose 0 6 percent to 49 65 in premarket trading
The largest U S wireless company added a net 565 000 retail postpaid subscribers in the first quarter ended March 31 Customer defections known as churn in postpaid accounts fell to 1 03 percent from 1 07 percent a year earlier
Total revenue in the company s wireless business rose 6 9 percent to 22 33 billion Revenue in its FiOS Internet and video product business rose 10 2 percent to 3 35 billion
Verizon s retail postpaid average revenue per account fell to 156 14 from 159 67
Net income attributable to Verizon was 4 22 billion or 1 02 per share in the first quarter compared with 3 95 billion or 1 15 per share a year earlier
Revenue rose to 31 98 billion from 30 82 billion
Analysts on average had expected earnings of 95 cents per share on revenue of 32 27 billion according to Thomson Reuters I B E S |
CSCO | Is Cisco Systems CSCO Outperforming Other Computer And Technology Stocks This Year | Investors focused on the Computer and Technology space have likely heard of Cisco Systems NASDAQ CSCO but is the stock performing well in comparison to the rest of its sector peers One simple way to answer this question is to take a look at the year to date performance of CSCO and the rest of the Computer and Technology group s stocks
Cisco Systems is a member of the Computer and Technology sector This group includes 642 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of 10 The Zacks Sector Rank gauges the strength of our 16 individual sector groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups
The Zacks Rank emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find stocks with improving earnings outlooks This system has a long record of success and these stocks tend to be on track to beat the market over the next one to three months CSCO is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of 2 Buy
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CSCO s full year earnings has moved 1 51 higher within the past quarter This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock s earnings outlook is more positive
Based on the most recent data CSCO has returned 21 72 so far this year In comparison Computer and Technology companies have returned an average of 17 18 As we can see Cisco Systems is performing better than its sector in the calendar year
Looking more specifically CSCO belongs to the Computer Networking industry which includes 8 individual stocks and currently sits at 99 in the Zacks Industry Rank Stocks in this group have gained about 22 17 so far this year so CSCO is slightly underperforming its industry this group in terms of year to date returns
Going forward investors interested in Computer and Technology stocks should continue to pay close attention to CSCO as it looks to continue its solid performance |
CSCO | Cisco Systems CSCO Stock Moves 0 19 What You Should Know | In the latest trading session Cisco Systems NASDAQ CSCO closed at 53 13 marking a 0 19 move from the previous day This change was narrower than the S P 500 s 0 46 loss on the day At the same time the Dow lost 0 13 and the tech heavy Nasdaq lost 0 63
Prior to today s trading shares of the seller of routers switches software and services had gained 4 01 over the past month This has outpaced the Computer and Technology sector s gain of 2 74 and the S P 500 s gain of 1 08 in that time
Investors will be hoping for strength from CSCO as it approaches its next earnings release The company is expected to report EPS of 0 77 up 16 67 from the prior year quarter Meanwhile the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of 12 89 billion up 3 4 from the year ago period
Looking at the full year our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of 3 06 per share and revenue of 51 67 billion These totals would mark changes of 17 69 and 4 73 respectively from last year
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for CSCO These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short term business trends As a result we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company s business outlook
Based on our research we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near team stock moves To benefit from this we have developed the Zacks Rank a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system
The Zacks Rank system which ranges from 1 Strong Buy to 5 Strong Sell has an impressive outside audited track record of outperformance with 1 stocks generating an average annual return of 25 since 1988 The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0 09 higher within the past month CSCO is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of 2 Buy
Valuation is also important so investors should note that CSCO has a Forward P E ratio of 17 41 right now This represents a no noticeable deviation compared to its industry s average Forward P E of 17 41
Meanwhile CSCO s PEG ratio is currently 2 49 This metric is used similarly to the famous P E ratio but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock s expected earnings growth rate The Computer Networking was holding an average PEG ratio of 2 13 at yesterday s closing price
The Computer Networking industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 108 putting it in the top 43 of all 250 industries
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups Our research shows that the top 50 rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1
To follow CSCO in the coming trading sessions be sure to utilize Zacks com |
CSCO | IIoT Boosts Manufacturing Processes 4 Stocks Set To Benefit | The global manufacturing industry is poised to gain heavily from digital transformation led by the industrial Internet of Things IIoT The requirement for improved efficiency and productivity can be achieved by implementing IIoT which harnesses the power of real time analytics and smart machines
Global Growth Projections for IIoT
According to the IIoT market is set to witness compound annual growth rate of 33 4 during the period of 2018 2023 up from 3 27 billion in 2018 to 13 82 billion by 2023
North America is anticipated to emerge as the global leader in the IIoT market by virtue of its technological advancement with the United States and Canada being major contributors Asia Pacific region is estimated to witness the highest CAGR during 2018 2023
IIoT Holds the Ultimate Solution for Manufacturing Industry
Rising demand for efficient manufacturing systems location tracking centralized monitoring and prediction of faults for maintenance are some of the major factors boosting the IIoT market
However predictive maintenance is of utmost importance among these Why This is because defects in machinery and industrial breakdowns cost time and money to businesses which directly affects production This can be avoided if organizations can analyze real time data provided by IIoT systems If machinery downtime can be predicted in advance it can be taken care of without production being hampered and ensuring better safety standards for human operators
Second the manufacturing industry is incurring talent shortages in recent years IIoT implementation is helping the industry overcome just that Physical assets are monitored by sensors to gather data that can be analyzed simultaneously thus transforming traditional linear manufacturing units into a singular interconnected system that is dynamic
Third IIoT aids location tracking which means that the time spent in looking for equipment finished goods and tools is diminished significantly This improves efficiency and inventory management
Our Choices
We have chosen four stocks that are operating in the area of IIoT and thus are well positioned to benefit from the trend
Zebra Technologies Corporation NASDAQ ZBRA manufactures a wide range of automatic identification and data capture products
The company describes IIoT as a technology that allows organizations to keep track of their vital assets and operations Zebra Technologies works with various businesses globally to offer solutions that provide real time insight into their operations and assets
Zebra Technologies has a Zacks Rank 1 Strong Buy and its expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 13 4 compared with the Zacks industry s projected rise of 8 2 Its Zacks Consensus Estimate for current year earnings has risen 6 8 in the past 60 days You can see
Cisco Systems Inc NASDAQ CSCO designs and manufactures Internet Protocol based networking and other products related to the communications and information technology industry
Cisco is using its platform Kinetic System to take charge of the application of IoT activities in manufacturing This system allows any type of data input normalizes data flow and puts it in a common management platform thus making data secure and manageable throughout the manufacturing process The company is integrating its Kinetic System with IBM s Watson IoT system for better data processing and network edge intelligence
Cisco Systems has a Zacks Rank 2 Buy and its expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 17 7 against the Zacks industry s projected decline of 0 4 Its Zacks Consensus Estimate for current year earnings has risen 1 3 in the past 60 days
Schneider Electric PA SCHN S E OTC SBGSY offers industrial automation solutions and energy management systems
The company s EcoStruxure architecture and IIoT technologies are guiding the digital transformation of industrial automation Schneider is introducing smart manufacturing through IIoT that can improve productivity and profitability significantly WonderWare the company s IIoT network can be used to centrally monitor and manage all electrical machinery Schneider Electric has a Zacks Rank 2 and its expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 7 3
SAP SE DE SAPG NYSE SAP is a business intelligence company that offers enterprise application software and analytics etc
The company s manufacturing software that uses IIoT helps digitize manufacturing operations and improve efficiency and productivity This gives rise to integrated industrial operations that can be monitored from a control center SAP has a Zacks Rank 2 and its expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 5 5
Today s Best Stocks from Zacks
Would you like to see the updated picks from our best market beating strategies From 2017 through 2018 while the S P 500 gained 15 8 five of our screens returned 38 0 61 3 61 6 68 1 and 98 3
This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon From 2000 2018 while the S P averaged 4 8 per year our top strategies averaged up to 56 2 per year |
CSCO | Q A Cisco s Morgridge family follows life lessons in giving away fortune | By Beth Pinsker NEW YORK Reuters Pledging to give away millions of dollars is easier said than done John P Morgridge made his fortune estimated at 1 billion by Forbes as chief executive of Cisco Systems Inc NASDAQ CSCO The 83 year old and his wife Tashia signed the Giving Pledge in 2010 to donate at least half of it The task of dispersing the funds has become a full time job for the next generation Morgridge s son John D 53 and his wife Carrie 49 head the Morgridge Family Foundation a Denver based philanthropy that supports causes like the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and Mile High United Way Carrie Morgridge did not grow up in a wealthy family and the Morgridges were not yet billionaires when she and her husband married in 1991 so managing the resources of a charitable institution has been an education for her She wrote about her experiences in the 2015 book Every Gift Matters How Your Passion Can Change the World Reuters spoke with Carrie Morgridge about the life lessons she has learned trying to make the most of the donations her family is able to give Q What money lessons did you learn from your own parents A When I grew up we were paycheck to paycheck If one thing would have happened we d have been out on the streets That gives me empathy Right now we re working on work force development and second generation poverty elimination I understand I get it Sometimes 50 or 100 can improve a person s life My parents taught me if I worked hard I could be anything I wanted to be I have a really strong work ethic I think it comes out in philanthropy I work about 80 hours a week Q What did John s parents pass along to him A John had a paper route then he worked at McDonald s He always had a job from a young age all the way through It s so important because that gives ourselves value If everything is given you have less value for yourself Q When you were first married and not thinking about the family fortune what was your initial plan A John and I had jobs we still have full time jobs it s just for free We used to flip houses and were licensed contractors and I have a degree in interior design We worked together and we loved it I stopped flipping houses but we still own high end rental properties Q What made you decide to shift to philanthropy A Some families think it s a burden but the way John and Tashia approached it with us it s a gift We don t feel the burden at all It all comes back to how they allowed us this autonomy After going to some Giving Pledge meetings the difference between us and other families is that we are encouraged to be creative Q How do you keep that spirit going in a family A There are six grandchildren all third generation They are highly educated and have jobs Some are going back for their masters Our son and daughter are 24 and 23 and they live on their own There is no support They wash their own cars and do their own laundry They are adults Q What do you expect the family foundation to look like down the road Will you eventually give it all away A John s parents gave John and me the opportunity to spend down the assets or grow them We decided on grow We re handing it to our kids with the same exact rule but we won t let them decide until they are older We ll get them involved around 30 and they can make that choice Q When there is a fourth generation what values do you want to pass along to them A To be a good person To give from the heart To work hard and be nice Never take anything for granted and live every day like it s your only day Q One of the hallmarks of your foundation is that you do not accept unsolicited applications for grants you find the causes you want to help What has that taught you A It s OK to say no Nobody had ever told me that before We had to learn it You only have so much money and you really have to learn to thoughtfully say no I still get 10 to 20 unsolicited requests a week Our way is to point them in another direction
For more Life Lessons click on this link |
CSCO | Top 5 Things to Know In the Market on Wednesday | Here are the top five things you need to know in financial markets on Wednesday August 17
1 Fed meeting minutes on tap as odds for rate hike rise
On a sparse day for economic data investors will focus Wednesday on the minutes of the Federal Reserve s Fed most recent policy meeting due at 18 00GMT or 14 00ET for further clarity on the timing of the next U S rate hike
Odds for a rate hike this year increased after hawkish comments from two Fed officials on Tuesday
New York Fed chief William Dudley said that the U S is edging closer toward the point in time where it will be appropriate to raise interest rates further
In addition Atlanta Fed president Dennis Lockhart said that two rate hikes in 2016 were a possibility
Fed fund futures currently price in a 52 5 chance of policy tightening in December
2 Oil pulls back from 5 week high on speculation for bearish inventory data
Oil fell back from a five week high on bets that government crude inventory data out on Wednesday will be bearish for black gold
The U S Energy Information Administration will release its weekly report on oil supplies at 14 30GMT or 10 30AM ET amid expectations for an increase of 522 000 barrels
After markets closed Tuesday the American Petroleum Institute said that U S oil inventories fell by 1 0 million barrels in the week ended August 12 It also showed an increase of 2 2 million barrels in gasoline stocks a worrying demand signal well ahead of the end of the summer driving season
U S crude oil futures fell 0 64 to 46 28 at 9 50AM GMT or 5 50AM ET while Brent oil traded down 0 71 to 48 88
3 Global stocks mixed as investors recheck Fed expectations
Asian stocks were mixed with Japan s Nikkei 225 leading gains as hawkish Fed comments strengthened the dollar against the yen Chinese stocks recovered from initial losses to close flat on the back of government approval of a plan to connect the giant stock markets of Shenzhen and Hong Kong
European stocks were mostly lower on Wednesday as investors eyed the minutes of the Federal Reserve s most recent policy meeting for hints on the timing of the next rate hike
Meanwhile U S futures traded flat while looking the Fed minutes At 9 52AM GMT or 5 52AM ET the blue chip Dow futures slipped 5 points or 0 02 S P 500 futures edged forward 1 point or 0 03 while the Nasdaq 100 futures inched up 3 points or 0 07
4 Cisco reportedly plans to axe 20 of its workforce
Cisco Systems NASDAQ CSCO will lay off around 14 000 employees equivalent to nearly 20 of its workforce according to a report citing sources close to the company from tech news site CRN
The blue chip network equipment maker was expected to announce the cuts in the next few weeks in the latest wave of layoffs among tech giants as firms face the industry decline
Additionally Cisco will report fiscal fourth quarter earnings on Wednesday after the market close
5 U K employment data shrugs off Brexit worries
Despite dire warnings were made by economists following the U K s June 23 decision to leave the European Union known as a Brexit the July claimant count gave an upbeat reading of the British labor market The first available data for the period following the vote showed an unexpected decline of 8 600 people compared to the forecast for a 9 500 increase
The jobless rate for June also remained at an 11 year low of 4 9 while U K employment in the second quarter hit a record high of 74 5 |
CSCO | Cisco reports Q4 earnings amid reports to cut workforce by 20 | Investing com Cisco NASDAQ CSCO to issue Q4 fiscal 2016 report Wednesday amid reports to slash workforce Tech news site CRN reported Cisco to cut 14 000 jobs 20 of global workforce Cuts part of transition from hardware supplier to software centric Cisco seen reporting fiscal Q4 EPS of 0 6 after market close Wednesday vs 0 59 year earlier Revenues forecast to drop to 12 6 bn from 12 8 bn a year earlier |
VZ | Verizon VZ Hikes Monthly Data Plan Increases Data Limit | Leading U S telecom carrier Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ has increased its monthly data plan by up to 10 month depending upon the size of the plan The increase in rates is however accompanied by higher data caps for each and every plan Interestingly the rate hike will actually lower the cost per GB for consumers Notably the company s rivals including Sprint Corp NYSE S AT T Inc NYSE T and T Mobile US Inc NYSE T have all been lowering prices on data to entice customers in an already saturated wireless market Details of the PlansVerizon was previously offering a starter pack comprising 1 GB of data for 30 per month along with unlimited calls and text After the rate hike this plan will provide a 2 GB data limit for 35 per month Similar updates were offered for Verizon s other plans too Additionally the carrier will now allow carry over of data to the next month This is anticipated to be extremely popular in today s data driven world The company is also introducing some plans that will allow Verizon customers to make unlimited calls and send unlimited texts to Mexico and Canada Our TakeWith the increasing infallibility of Internet in our lives telecom providers have shifted their focus to data revenues in addition to the usual charges for voice calls and text messages In our opinion although Verizon has increased the rates of its monthly plans customers will be able to benefit from the updated ones as they will now pay less for more data Notably Verizon has a robust 4G LTE footprint and has the largest wireless subscriber base in the U S We believe such plans will prove to be immensely beneficial for Verizon as they would not only boost the company s revenues but also keep the churn rate in check Verizon currently carries a Zacks Rank 4 Sell |
VZ | Telecom Stock Roundup FCC Completes First Part Of Incentive Auction AT T Introduces New Reward Plan | The U S telecom industry remained rather subdued last week despite the fact that almost all key stocks traded in the green Nevertheless a few developments were worth noting
The 600 MHz low band wireless spectrum auction popularly known as Incentive Auction kicked off by the U S telecom regulator Federal Communications Commission FCC on Mar 29 2016 recently completed its first part
In the first part which is essentially a reverse auction the airwaves are being freed by TV broadcasters who no longer have any productive use of the same The TV broadcasters have agreed to free a substantial amount of 126 MHz of spectrums for a massive 86 4 billion In the second part of the auction process the FCC will resale these airwaves to wireless operators cable MSOs multi service operators or tech firms through competitive bidding The second part is known as forward auction
U S telecom behemoth AT T Inc NYSE T has announced its plan AT T THANKS to reward customers The move came on the heels of its rival T Mobile US Inc s NYSE T similar but far more generous Get Thanked offering As part of AT T s plan the company will be giving out movie tickets as freebies every week Additionally the company has tied up with Live Nation Entertainment Inc NYSE LYV to gain access to tickets for select concerts before they are made available to the public
Regional wireline operator CenturyLink Inc NYSE T has acquired certain core networking assets from a company formerly known as Active Broadband Networks Inc CenturyLink has been focusing on shifting its network and shift network functions to the cloud for its business customers by providing software defined networking SDN and network functions virtualization NFV services The acquisition is in sync with this strategy and is expected to enable the company to accelerate its top line
Meanwhile thriving WiFi networks throughout the U S have become a major concern for large wireless operators Currently cable MSOs have deployed more than 500 000 public WiFi hotspots This exceeds millions if WiFi homespots are also taken into account Research based website Heavy Reading stated that growing transmission of high speed data voice and video packets through wireless networks are prompting cable TV operators to explore the wireless business
Outside the U S French telecom behemoth Orange NYSE ORAN recently received a major contract to supply and maintain a public fiber network from the Vendee department in Western France The 12 year project will receive an initial investment of 90 million over 100 million from the European Union s regional development fund All ISPs Internet Service Providers will be able to access this network
Read the last
Recap of the Week s Most Important Stories
1 The FCC was initially hopeful that the whole Incentive Auction process can be completed by the end of the third quarter of 2016 However industry watchers are now expecting the process to be much more prolonged and may continue till early 2017 Notably the freed spectrums of TV broadcasters cannot be utilized commercially by wireless operators before 2020 Given the significant number of applications this time the FCC expects its ongoing low band airwave auction to be a runaway hit read more
2 Competition in the U S telecom space intensifying getting increasingly intense With relatively small sized carriers like T Mobile US and Sprint Corp NYSE S luring customers through attractive offers like freebies behemoths of the industry like Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ and AT T have been facing challenging conditions In order to tackle competitive threats it was imperative for AT T to adopt similar measures Nevertheless we are concerned about the impact of the same on the company s margins read more
3 In Oct 2015 CenturyLink committed to building a robust networking platform using SDN and NFV capabilities through which it aimed to serve its enterprise customers better The latest purchase will help it to integrate the SDN and NFV capabilities in its network thereby enhancing end user experience and inducing growth in the business services segment In Jun 2016 CenturyLink bought app management specialist ElasticBox in a move to enable its customers to manage applications across 12 different cloud providers read more
4 Orange aims to provide 16 000 connections in 2017 which will rise to 64 000 by 2020 in western France Finally this network will connect 70 000 households businesses and public services departments The company will install the FTTC network in 264 towns in the Vendee region These networks will be eventually upgraded to the FTTH standard Over 2015 2018 Orange has decided to invest a whopping 15 billion around 15 88 billion on its existing networks in a bid to increase fixed and mobile data transmission speed by at least threefold read more
5 In Apr 2014 large cable MSOs together with several major IT firms and telecom organizations had formed an alliance to free up spectrums in order to expand the WiFi support network Large business enterprises generally have point of presence throughout the world A strong and robust wireless network is mandatory for these companies to remain connected with remote sites Cloud managed WiFi network has become the most efficient technology for these large business houses read more
Price Performance
The following table shows the price movement of the major telecom players over the past week and the last six months Over the last five trading sessions share price movement of almost all the major telecom stocks was positive AT T 3 73 Verizon 3 67 and Comcast NASDAQ CMCSA 3 66 were the major gainers Similarly over the last six months the price performance of most of the key telecom stocks was positive Among the stocks that gained significantly were AT T 29 55 Verizon 26 17 Sprint 23 96 and Comcast 17 94
What s Next in the Telecom Sector
We do not foresee any significant change in the telecom industry or in overall global economic factors that can have a bearing on the industry in the coming week Consequently we expect stocks to trade in line with the broader market movement |
VZ | Can Nonfarm Payrolls Save USD JPY | By Kathy Lien Managing Director of FX Strategy for BK Asset Management
In less than 24 hours the June nonfarm payrolls report will be released Most economists and investors expect a strong recovery in job growth after last month s hauntingly weak print With such a view we would normally expect the dollar to be trading higher against the yen But instead of rising USD JPY fell for the fifth trading day in a row The latest U S economic reports were actually better than expected with ADP beating expectations and jobless claims rising less than anticipated Treasury yields also rebounded which should have sparked a rally in USD JPY But the theme of the day was risk aversion and the currency pair fell victim to liquidation of all low yielding currencies Everyone is now left wondering whether Friday s nonfarm payrolls will be strong enough to take USD JPY back to 102
To answer that question we start by taking a look at how the leading indicators for nonfarm payrolls stack up
Arguments In Favor Of Stronger Payrolls
End of Verizon NYSE VZ Strike adds 35K jobs
ADP Reports 172K Rise in Payrolls vs 168K Previous Months
Sharp Rise in Employment Component of ISM Non Manufacturing
Jobless Claims at Lowest Level Since April
Continuing Claims Drop
Employment Component of ISM Manufacturing Returns to Expansion
Consumer Confidence Index Hits 8 month Highs
Arguments in Favor of Weaker Payrolls
Challenger Reports Smaller Decline in Layoffs
University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index Declines
As you can see the arguments for a rebound in job growth far exceed the arguments for deterioration Of course if payrolls grew by less than 38K in June the U S economy and the U S dollar would be in big trouble and the 180K forecast fully accounts for the improvements suggested by the above reports So for USD JPY to have a positive response to NFP we would need to see payrolls rise by 200K or more AND see average hourly earnings growth hold steady or exceed 0 2 Given the magnitude of last month s disappointment that s a lot to ask However in order for any recovery to be sustained we need to see payrolls rise by 250K or more Otherwise the reversal post data will be quick and aggressive
Looking beyond nonfarm payrolls we expect USD JPY to find a bottom above 100 The strong yen is a big problem for Japan especially in light of Chinese devaluation The Bank of Japan meets at the end of the month and is under significant pressure to ease Unlike U S stocks which are still trading near their highs the Nikkei is down 20 year to date Knowing that easing alone will have a limited effect on the economy we would not be surprised by a combination of monetary and fiscal stimulus Desperate times call for desperate measures and that is exactly what Japan needs at this time
Meanwhile the market remains laser focused on the British pound which traded as high as 1 3047 before dropping below 1 2900 Better than expected U K economic data helped to send the currency higher but as the U K political landscape continued to dissolve sterling gave up all of its gains It did not matter that house prices increased sharply in June or that industrial production dropped 0 5 instead of 1 because none of these reports reflect the state of the economy post Brexit It will be another month or two and possibly even three before we see how much damage was done to the economy In the meantime there is no support until the June 1985 low of 1 2565 U K trade numbers are scheduled for release Friday but we are far more interested in the Gfk s post referendum consumer confidence report
The euro spent most of Thursday below 1 1100 as evidence of trouble in Italy s banking sector grows On Wednesday we pointed out that Italian bank stocks have fallen 30 in the last 2 weeks and according to a recent report from the WSJ 17 of bank loans in Italy are bad debt which is 3 times more than what the U S had during the financial crisis It s a ticking time bomb ready to go off In order to avoid this scenario or shore up the economy when it happens the Italian government will either have to inject money into the financial system or the ECB will need to ease monetary conditions German industrial production was also significantly weaker than expected adding pressure on the currency
Aside from the U S Canada will also release its employment report on Friday Economists are looking for softer numbers but the sharp rise in the employment component of Thursday s IVEY PMI report suggests that the risk is to the upside Manufacturing activity returned to expansion in June but investors ignored the report choosing instead to take their cue from oil which dropped close to 5 on the back of a smaller decline in inventories Technically USD CAD appears poised for further gains but the path of the currency will be dictated exclusively by Friday s U S and Canadian employment reports
The New Zealand dollar was Thursday s best performing currency thanks to comments from RBNZ official Grant Spencer who warned that further cuts in New Zealand s OCR would lead to financial instability This signaled a lower chance of rate cuts come August In efforts to cool the heated housing market officials are considering an increase in Loan to Value Ratios to curb investor demand and bolster bank balance sheets in case of a downturn in the housing market In contrast the Australian dollar was hit hard by S P s decision to downgrade the country s sovereign debt rating The greatest losses were seen against NZD whereas AUD USD held up well thanks to yield and carry |
VZ | T Mobile US Sued By Huawei Technologies Over 4G Patents | Chinese telecommunication equipment company Huawei Technologies Co has filed a lawsuit against T Mobile US Inc NYSE T over the latter s use of Huawei s intellectual property covering 4G technology without license The lawsuit was filed with the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas We remind investors that in 2014 T Mobile US had sued Huawei over the latter s use of phone testing robot technology Huawei said that it had offered T Mobile to license its patents in 2014 but the two parties had a disagreement over the fair valuation of the same Note that Huawei has recently been focused on aggressive international expansion by accumulating patents and the company was the largest filer of patents last year under the Patent Cooperation Treaty Interestingly the company is not looking for a monetary settlement Instead the company simply wants the court to declare that it has met the fair reasonable and non discriminatory FRAND terms so that it can force T Mobile into resuming licensing negotiations Our TakeT MobileUShas been investing a lot of money in upgrading and expanding its 4G network According to PCMag s 2016 Fastest Mobile Networks test it has become one of the fastest telecom service provider in the majority of the U S cities covered by the survey The company is now looking to challenge bigger rivals like Verizon Communications Inc NYSE VZ and AT T Inc NYSE T In its endeavors the company has already surpassed Sprint Corp NYSE S to become the third largest wireless company in terms of subscriber count While T Mobile US s previous lawsuit against Huawei is still in process Huawei may have gained a bargaining advantage through its counter lawsuit which could result in an early settlement of the disputes T Mobile currently carries a Zacks Rank 3 Hold |
VZ | NFP Expected To Bounce Back | UK leadership contest narrows
The 1 30 level s proven to be a tough nut to crack in GBP USD with so much negative newsflow still circulating for the pound Despite the narrowing of the Conservative party leadership contest we ll still be without a dedicated leader until at least early September so expect another protracted period of political campaigns soundbites and vox pops where much attention is paid to the battle of Andrea Leadsom and Theresa May and little attention is paid to what is actually going on in Westminster
Markets will closely watch the debate between the two prospective leaders particularly as they outline what their approaches would be at the negotiating table with the European Union and how the UK will or will not access the Single Market Second only to monetary policy this is one of the most important factors for UK markets right now
UK trade balance data close to irrelevant
Today s UK trade figures are expected to show the UK remained in a sharp trade deficit with both the European Union and those states outside the EU This data will become increasingly relevant as the months go by but this won t start today as the figures encapsulate May s pre referendum trade numbers
While sterling remains weak UK goods and services being sold overseas will become some of the most competitive in the global marketplace and trade balance data will be one of the first pieces of evidence that could show this effect
Nonfarm Payrolls expected to bounce back
After creating a mere 38 000 jobs in May the lowest level of jobs growth since September 2010 where the US actually lost 52 000 jobs the US is expected to bounce back this month by adding 180 000 jobs as one off effects including a strike at telecoms giant Verizon Communications NYSE VZ roll off and push the headline figure higher
If these one off factors are ruled out it still shows the US jobs market ticking higher at a far slower rate than the past five years where jobs growth averaged over 200 000 per month These figures should prove troubling for the Federal Reserve who continue to appear keen to wean the US economy off record low interest rates despite the economy actually decelerating |
VZ | USD JPY TO 100 00 Despite Better NFPS | Market Drivers July 08 2016
Markets wait for NFP
Asakawa warns on spec moves in yen
Nikkei 1 11 Dax 0 53
Oil 45 bbl
Gold 1357 oz
Europe and Asia EUR GE CA 17 5B vs 24 6BEUR FR IP 0 5 vs 0 8 GBP UK Trade 9 8B vs 10 7B
North America USD NFP 8 30CAD Labor Data 8 30
It s been a typically quiet pre NFP night with most of the majors tracing out very narrow ranges as markets await the marquee release of the week
On the eco front the calendar in both Asia and Europe has been relatively light with only UK Trade data and German Current Account reports on the docket UK Trade was slightly better coming in at 9 8B versus 10 7B eyed The data did not reflect the recent GBP depreciation and may in fact improve in Q3 as exports will likely get a boost and imports will no doubt decline
Cable however showed no reaction the news and remains near the 1 2900 figure after yesterday s short covering rally to 1 3000 failed to hold once again Cable is likely to remain in its 1 2800 1 3000 range until the market gets some clarity on UK political situation and most the economic data will be roundly ignored for the time being
Meanwhile USD JPY continues to drift lower and is now only 60 points away from the psychologically important 100 00 level The pair has been sliding despite generally upbeat US economic data and it is not at all clear if today s NFP report will change the dynamic
The market anticipates that NFPs will print at 180K versus only 38K the month prior Given the improvement in employment component of ISM Services and the ADP report chances are good that NFPs should rebound The end of the Verizon NYSE VZ strike alone will be responsible for a net 70K swing in the positive direction But with sentiment toward USD JPY so skewed to the downside the pair may very well pop on any upside surprise only to give up its gains as the day proceeds especially if stocks turn negative The only unambiguously dollar bullish sign would be a strong rise in average weekly earnings which could prompt the Fed to reconsider its inflation expectations
However a report within the forecast range may not reverse the current FX flows and USD JPY could test the 100 00 level despite the rebound in jobs as shorts press their advantage |
VZ | Verizon pays 3 4 mil to FCC to settle 911 emergency call failures | Investing com Verizon Communications NYSE VZ agreed on Wednesday to pay the Federal Communications Commission a fine of 3 4 million to settle a lengthy investigation regarding its failure to meet its emergency call obligations during a multistate 911 outage last spring
The April 2014 outage affected more than 11 million people and more than 75 emergency call centers in seven states Customers in nine counties in California in particular were unable to access the call centers for a period of six hours The outage in Northern California impacted approximately 750 000 Verizon customers
Americans must have confidence that they will be able to reach 911 in an emergency FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said in a statement We take seriously our obligation to ensure the nation s 911 systems function reliably We will continue to work with providers to ensure that advances in 911 technologies lead to improved communications between citizens and first responders
Verizon the nation s largest wireless communications service dropped 0 20 or 0 41 to 48 75 in U S afternoon trading
As part of a consent decree reached with the FCC Verizon agreed to monitor its 911 subcontractors more closely |
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