Why AMD Is A Strong Buy Right Now I was correct in my conclusion in a Seeking Alpha article that cryptocurrency miners again boosted Advanced Micro Devices’ (AMD) Q1 2018 business performance. AMD beats earnings estimates by reporting EPS or $0.11 (beats by $0.2) and revenue of $1.65 billion (beats by $80 million). AMD estimated that 10% of its $1.65 billion quarterly revenue came from cryptocurrency miners. The Computing & Graphics segment enjoyed its fifth consecutive quarter of y/y growth. For the first quarter of this year, Computing & Graphics earned $1.115 billion, up 95% Y/Y and +23% Q/Q. This segment also has a new tailwind from MSI’s new “Combat Crate” package which bundles an MSI B350 Tomahawk motherboard, an 8GB Radeon 580 discrete GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) graphics accelerator card, and Ryzen 5 1600 processor. AMD can sell its first-generation Ryzen processors to bundle specialists like MSI. By offloading last year’s Ryzen processors to partners like MSI, AMD can concentrate on marketing its cheaper but faster 2nd-Gen Ryzen processors. Yes, market share can be taken away from Intel (INTC) by selling sub-$170 Ryzen Vega APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) products. However, there’s still a higher margin possible from selling $329 Ryzen 7 processors and $600++ discrete Radeon Vega graphics cards. In other words, AMD will make more money by marketing its standalone CPU and GPU products. The outstanding gaming and multi-threading compute benchmark scores of 2nd-Gen Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 processors can help AMD post another double-digit Q/Q and Y/Y growth in its Computing and Graphics segment. The 8-core Ryzen 7 2700X can outperform Intel’s flagship Coffee Lake Core i7-8700K on single-core and multi-core heavy duty tasks. It is ideal for gamers, content creators, game developers, and digital artists. Unless Intel can come up with 10nanometer processors this year, 2nd-generation 12-nanometer Ryzen processors will experience rapid growth in popularity. Since there is still no ASIC miner available yet which can mine Ethereum, I am highly confident that cryptocurrency miners will again boost AMD’s Q2 2018 numbers. I believe AMD is purposely understating cryptocurrency miners’ contribution. My own estimate is that crypto-centric GPU purchases contribute 15% to 20% to AMD’s topline. Since Q2 2017, the best Radeon GPU products are still sold far above their suggested retail prices. Read More.
Facebook's Growth Story Is Still Intact, Here's Why Ignore the current noise/outrage over Facebook’s (FB) ineptitude in protecting its users from devious personal data collectors like Cambridge Analytica. Most users knew that signing-up and sharing their lives/online habits on Facebook is open to third-party intrusion. It is also given that personal data gathered on the platform is in exchange for the free services/platforms that Facebook provides. In spite of the expected slowdown in advertising sales (due to Facebook’s new restrictions on third-party access to user data), I still rate FB as a hold. Facebook and its partner marketers/advertisers have already gathered enough personal data library. Going forward, Facebook’s advertising revenue stream will slow down but it can still post double-digit annual growth rate. Facebook has constructed a persistent database of its more than 2 billion global users. This gold mine of information can help Facebook maintain its $20 average advertising revenue per user.I don’t expect Facebook to achieve 40% Year-over-Year growth in advertising revenue this year. However, my fearless forecast is that Facebook can still rake in $45 billion in advertising sales in FY 2018. Sad but true, the non-existence of other social networks gives advertisers no choice but to place ads/marketing campaigns on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram.My projection is Facebook will earn $45 billion from ads this year, $51 billion by 2019, and $55 billion by 2020. That guesstimate already took into account that advertisers/marketers will be more prudent in their social-centric ad placements.Let us also never forget that Facebook’s substantial cash reserves can help it quickly diversify its business. Facebook has $41.7 billion in cash & short-term investments. Its free cash flow is also $17.48 billion – Facebook can easily borrow more money for expansion purposes. Facebook is already building its own chip design team. Facebook wants its custom in-house processors for cloud computing and Artificial Intelligence-enhanced consumer devices. Having proven itself capable of managing 2 billion people’s accounts on web/mobile platforms, Facebook knows how to do scalable cloud computing infrastructure. The global cloud computing infrastructure service is now a $52 billion/year expansion opportunity for Facebook.Read more.
NSTG Stock Bullish After Q1 Earnings Show Promising Results Over the past few weeks, NanoString technologies demonstrated superb stock performance, as seen by their nearly 31% stock growth in a mere 2 weeks. During this time, NSTG stock jumped from $7.29 to $9.86, outperforming the market by 5%. Upon examining the drivers behind this impressive growth that occurred within the past two weeks, the following highlights and updates that shed light on the stock event: (1) NanoString Technologies will release first quarter 2018 financial results after the close of trading on Tuesday, May 8, 2018. Investor expectations are set higher than last year. (2) The company announced the launch of the Breast Cancer 360™ (BC 360) research panel, which provides a unique 360 degree view of a tumor, microenvironment and immune response for breast cancer. (3) NanoString Showcases Groundbreaking Body of Research at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. NanoString Technologies, Inc., a provider of life science tools for translational research and molecular diagnostic products, today announced that the Company will release first quarter 2018 financial results after the close of trading on Tuesday, May 8, 2018. Company management will host a conference call beginning at 4:30pm ET to discuss those results and provide a business update. The latest earnings release for NanoString Technologies Inc’s was announced in December 2017, which showed that company earnings have become less negative compared to the previous year’s level — great news for investors. However, analysts’ outlook for the upcoming year seems pessimistic, with earnings becoming even more negative, generating -US$71.92M in 2019. However, earnings are expected to move into an upward direction, generating -US$61.01M in 2020, and -US$50.22M in 2021. Several important technical indicators of NanoString Technologies, Inc. are now starting to make their way into the trading conversation. Every investor and other stake holder of the firm are most concerned at this time with its profitability. So to answer these concerns, financial ratio analysis and profitability ratios are used as tools to determine the company’s bottom line and its return to its investors. Read more.
Tesla Stock Forecast: Houston, We Have A Problem! Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA.O) is not an ordinary company and as such one needs to analyze its performance from a different perspective. At the same time, the last events and rumors circulating around Tesla suggest that there are significant issues on the production lines and delivery rates of the “first mid-price electric car available to masses” – Model 3.This added to the recent fatal incidents involving Tesla vehicles negatively affects the company image, despite the fact that some financial issues were addressed, namely relatively low liquidity. As Tesla is a car manufacturer the core production issues affect the stock price performance significantly. The most recent issue is related to the very core aspect of the production – the weekly Model 3 production rate. Elon Musk’s plan targeted on achieving production of 2,500 cars per week by the end of 1Q, but reported only 2,020 in the past week. Such miss of the target could not be gone unseen by the investment banks, and Goldman Sachs analysts reflected it in a report issued on April 10 and took bearish positions. Indeed, the company stock price was falling over the following week and ended up with loss of 2.65%. At the core of Goldman Sachs opinion, the public found the analysis of the Musk’s promise to arrive to the figure of 5,000 Model 3 cars by the end of 3Q. This, combined with the plans to launch new product – Model Y, made the outlook of the company as more than overpromising. However, it seems that the market and the analysts’ community still see Elon Musk as a person who “make things happen” even against odds and based on Yahoo Finance information 8 of 23 analysts still take buy positions on Tesla’s stock. In addition to the issues that follow the production of Model 3, Tesla unveiled the plan to start the production of its small crossover car – Model Y – in November 2019. As far as it gives another 17 months for Tesla to resolve all the bottlenecks in the production processes which slow the production now, the approach for the factories’ set up may be significantly revised. As such Elon Musk admitted that the production robotization level and complexity is so high that it indeed contributes to those bottlenecks. Finally, many Tesla fans who already wait in line for the their cars from 12 to 18 months, expect appearance of the dual-motor version of Model 3 which is supposed to be introduced as soon as the production rate for single motor Model 3 hits the target of 5,000 cars per week. Read more.
Time Warner Cable Merger With AT&T Too Big To Exist? Over the past month, Time Warner stock outperformed the market by 2.5%, as news of the AT&T- Time Warner conglomerate have surfaced, and as progress is being made in regards to the merger. Media conglomerate Time Warner Inc has had a bumpy ride the past few months after the company’s share price plummeted after news spread that the anti-trust regulators were heavily engrossed in the merger deal between Time Warner and AT&T. AT&T, in fact, is set to purchase Time Warner in this monumental merger deal. However, as the trial has been unfolding over the past few weeks, it is looking more and more likely that the firms will merge as planned, an outcome that would send Time Warner stock 10% higher. The Department of Justice is worried that letting AT&T own TWX’s content would allow the firm to raise fees for distributors, a cost that the DOJ says would eventually be passed on to customers. However, AT&T has been adamant that the reason for the merger isn’t increasing content fees, but instead creating a better advertising model. From that vantage point, increasing fees for Time Warner content would be a poor choice by AT&T management, because it would cause the firm to lose out on advertising revenue — its main objective for the deal. TWX CEO Jeff Bewkes matched that sentiment when he took the stand on Wednesday, saying that without AT&T’s infrastructure and technology, Time Warner doesn’t stand a chance against subscription services like Netflix and Amazon. According to Bewkes, this is their chance to stand up to these influential content mammoths. It’s not beneficial to either company to withhold programming because it would result in major advertising revenue losses. On Thursday AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson also argued that by allowing the two to merge, regulators would actually be helping expand innovation in the streaming space as AT&T is planning to bring out its own, slimmed-down subscription service called “Watch” for just $15 per month. Stephenson said the merger will allow AT&T to build out its mobile video offerings by joining AT&T’s platform with TWX’s content. The deal, he said, would help foster competition in the streaming space rather than stifle it. Read More.
We have exciting news to share with you that grounds the last few weeks in tangible real world impact and is a huge part of our desire to be able to provide massive value to the investment community moving forward into an unexplored industry space which has been reinvented by AI and machine learning technologies. For a while now we have been teasing details about the upcoming WealthTECH book, which we are a part of as co-authors and today we are proud to announce that the book will be published by Wiley on May 11th on Amazon. As of today, the WealthTECH book has reached the 7th place on Amazon's Bestseller Ranking, and the book is also considered a "Hot New Release". We have co-authored the fourth chapter of this book, titled "Digital Platforms, Products & Ecosystems", and we are very excited about the opportunity this provides to work alongside some other fantastic industry leaders in putting together material that can have a very tangible change on how you manage your wealth in the 21st century. In our chapter we look at some of the ongoing trends and changes in the financial services industry and how asset managers can, or should, be transforming themselves to stay relevant and 'ahead of the curve'. We're also very positive about the cooperation which made this chapter of the book possible and is indicative of the effort and content we have put in, as we have partnered with top fintech experts from global powerhouses and leading companies, and we work with top-tier experts from comapnies such as Dufour Capital AG and Bloomberg. We are also excited to announce that we will be speaking at the IDC Herzliya's Fintech Conference, which brings together many professionals in an initiative brought to students and visitors by IDC Accounting Majors and the IDC Student Union, in order to discuss the rapidly changing world of financial technology. Keep an eye out for further word soon of more good news and we hope we are able to continue having the positive impact we have.
Warmest Regards, Yaron Golgher, Co-Founder and CEO
COMMODITIES - GOLD - CURRENCIES
Commodities Prediction: Returns Up To 3.92% In 7 Days April 26 |Read More
Commodities Prediction: Returns Up To 6.23% In 14 Days April 26 |Read More
Currencies Prediction: Returns Up To 68.52% Hit Ratio In 14 Days April 26 |Read More
Currency Prediction: Returns Up To 60.38% Hit Ratio In 7 Days April 26 |Read More
Commodities Prediction: Returns Up To 5.34% In 7 Days April 25 |Read More
Currency Prediction: Returns Up To 72.22% Hit Ratio In 3 Days April 25 |Read More
Geopolitical tensions were high last week following the military strikes on facilities associated with Syria’s chemical weapons program in response to received news of an alleged gas attack by government forces on the town of Douma. In response, gold prices spiked as a potential safe haven investment. However, the prices dipped after the series of attacks, waiting for further political movement. Many analysts believe that this further movement will consist of a response on Russia’s part, and the counter-reaction from Russia could possibly push gold prices higher if it indicates that global tension and danger levels are rising. Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets, believes that the price of gold could rally to $1400 if fears of war and further crisis loom larger in the horizon. However, other analysts believe that gold currently has a cap on its possible price spike due to the overall market betting on the conflict in Syria not expanding into further problems.
On the whole, gold has tested the key price support level of $1350 for the 13th time in 5 years, pushing upwards but failing to settle at above the price point. Jonathan Butler at Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi stated, “We certainly have not heard the last about US-China trade wars […] but for now the markets could remain focused on the threats of actual wars”. There is possibly a case here for a higher spike in the gold prices in the next few weeks, and although analysts are keeping a keen eye on US economic data, the core of the market is focused on the possible global movements–whether this is the US-China trade war which seems to be fading from focus or the counter-response on Russia’s part. Importantly, this is the last week for Federal Reserve officials to make comments on monetary policy before the May 2 FOMC policy decision. The market does not expect that interest rates will be increased again in May, but there is potential to shape the debate heading into the meeting. Many analysts expect that further economic developments are likely to put limited downward pressure on gold.
APPLE STOCK NEWS
Apple News: Creating A Healthier Planet Through Innovation April 29 |Read More
Apple News: Why Project Marzipan Is Important to Apple's Future April 15 |Read More
Apple News: The Killer Gaming/Enterprise Tablet March 28 |Read More
Apple News: Bullish Rally After Expansion To Austria March 14 |Read More
Apple News: Bullish Long Drive Goes On In Q1 2018 Results February 21 |Read More
Apple News: Despite Fall In iPhone Sales Apple Profits Up In Q4 February 04 |Read More
