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| December 2017 |
| Archives |
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| Friday, December 29, 2017, 10:34 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Chart Watch: Okta |
Okta (OKTA, $25.37) shares over the past three weeks have traded sideways.
The stock continues to hold above short-term support just under the $25 level, but remains below the 50-day moving average of $28.01.
There’s short-term resistance at $26.54 and $27.16.
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| Thursday, December 28, 2017, 10:52 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Chart Watch: Atlassian |
Shares of Atlassian (TEAM, $45.73) remain below their 50-day moving average of $48.39 and are trying to hold above short-term support around the $45 level. The early-December low stands at $43.11.
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| Wednesday, December 27, 2017, 10:20 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Chart Watch: HubSpot |
Shares of HubSpot (HUBS, $90.60) are sitting just below the all-time high of $93.53 reached on December 18.
The stock remains above its 50-day moving average of $83.68.
There’s short-term support at $86.55.
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| Friday, December 22, 2017, 10:52 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Chart Watch: Facebook |
Facebook (FB, $176.78) shares have fallen below the 50-day moving average of $177.71. There is short-term support at $169 from early December. The uptrend line from the September low remains intact with the stock above $171. The 200-day moving average is trending upward from $162.06.
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| Thursday, December 21, 2017, 10:47 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| RBC Sees Alexa Upside for Amazon |
RBC Capital reiterates its Amazon (AMZN, $1,169) price target of $1,200 based in part on the potential long-term positive impact that voice-powered devices can have on the company.
The firm expects Alexa’s value proposition to increase in power as awareness and ownership rise. RBC believes Amazon by 2020 could generate $10 billion to $11 billion in Alexa-related revenue.
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| Thursday, December 21, 2017, 9:44 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Cowen More Cautious on EA |
Cowen trims its Electronic Arts (EA, $108.33) price target to $104 from $106 after reducing its 2018 estimates below guidance.
The firm thinks the performance of “Star Wars Battlefront 2” has been disappointing, more than offsetting strength seen elsewhere in the business.
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| Wednesday, December 20, 2017, 9:57 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Intel Shares on the Move |
After bouncing off of the rising 50-day moving average of $43.79 late last week, Intel (INTC, $46.93) shares this morning hit a new multi-year high at $47.60. The RSI is up to 68.4.
The 200-day moving average has started to turn upward from $37.47.
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| Wednesday, December 20, 2017, 9:50 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Chart Watch: Square |
After taking out the 50-day moving average of $37.65 to the downside, Square (SQ, $36.17) shares are trying to hold short-term support at $35.80.
There’s additional support at $34.75 from November.
The 200-day moving average is trending upward from $26.68.
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| Tuesday, December 19, 2017, 10:54 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Deutsche Bank Bullish on Mimecast |
Deutsche Bank starts Mimecast (MIME, $29.72) at ‘Buy’ with a price target of $35.
The firm believes Mimecast is well positioned against competitors within its core markets—namely email security, archiving and continuity services.
The firm calls out Mimecast as the only vendor that sells a full suite of cyber resiliency products with a focus on small and mid-market customers.
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| Tuesday, December 19, 2017, 9:47 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| JMP Hikes Amazon PT to $1,350 |
JMP Securities ups its Amazon (AMZN, $1,182) price target to $1,350 from $1,240 based on positive e-commerce survey work and price tracking. The firm is now incrementally more confident in Amazon’s continued wallet share gains this holiday season.
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| Tuesday, December 19, 2017, 9:41 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| An Apple Downgrade |
Nomura Instinet downgrades Apple (AAPL, $174.80) to ‘Neutral’ and lowers its price target to $175 from $185, saying the stock’s gains related to the iPhone X supercycle are in the late innings.
With iPhone unit growth now well anticipated by the market, Apple’s valuation is “historically full,” according to the firm.
Despite its cautiousness, Nomura Instinet does admit that powerful tailwinds still exist for Apple, including healthy growth in the services business.
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| Monday, December 18, 2017, 9:38 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Credit Suisse Upgrades Akamai |
Credit Suisse upgrades Akamai Technologies (AKAM, $66.75) to ‘Outperform’ with a price target of $75 (up from $55), saying its LBO analysis suggests a potential buyer could pay $80 a share and achieve a 20% IRR over five years. The sees Akamai as “a unique asset with tremendous strategic value.”
Akamai shares this morning are surging 15% on news of the Elliott stake.
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| Monday, December 18, 2017, 9:26 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Elliott: Akamai Undervalued |
Paul Singer’s Elliott Associates on Friday evening disclosed a 6.5% activist stake in Akamai Technologies (AKAM, $57.76).
The firm argues that the value of Akamai’s “unmatched network platform” is not reflected in the current stock price.
The platform provides “a significant competitive advantage in its ability to deliver, accelerate, optimize and secure global traffic and business applications over the Internet.”
Elliott believes there are “numerous operational and strategic opportunities” to maximize shareholder value.
Akamai is a holding in the Tech-Stock Prospector Vulture Portfolio. For more on Akamai, see the December 2017 issue (TSP #190).
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| Friday, December 15, 2017, 11:37 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| BMO Capital Trims Oracle Target |
BMO Capital trims its Oracle (ORCL, $47.84) price target to $55 from $57, saying the long-term growth of cloud revenue (particularly the SaaS business) is becoming a concern for investors.
The firm reduces its FY’19 cloud revenue growth forecast to 22% from 28%, with an accompanying 9% decline expected for software license sales.
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| Friday, December 15, 2017, 10:49 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| RBC Capital Downgrades Oracle |
RBC Capital downgrades Oracle (ORCL, $47.80) to ‘Sector Perform’ and reduces its price target to $51 from $53 based on expectations for expanded license revenue declines in FQ4 and beyond based on difficult comps and a maturing of the product cycle.
In FQ2 (Nov.), Oracle’s total cloud revenue rose 44% to $1.52 billion, made up of SaaS revenue gaining 55% to $1.12 billion and cloud software (Iaas/PaaS) up 21% to $396 million.
Oracle shares this morning are down nearly 5%.
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| Thursday, December 14, 2017, 11:01 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Chart Watch: Salesforce |
Salesforce (CRM, $105.02) shares continue to rebound off of the December 5 low of $98.68, and are now approaching short-term resistance at $105.35. The 50-day moving average continues to rise from $102.03. There’s additional resistance at $107.60.
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| Thursday, December 14, 2017, 9:47 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| KeyBanc Raises Arista Target to $240 |
KeyBanc raises its Arista Networks (ANET, $228.70) price target to $240 from $213 based on increased confidence in the company’s ability to execute in the Global 2000 account base. Those customers are key growth drivers, as they’re looking to diversify and add next-generation architecture to their datacenters, says the firm.
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| Wednesday, December 13, 2017, 10:43 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Chart Watch: Facebook |
Facebook (FB, $178.67) shares are sitting just above the 50-day moving average of $176.72 after recovering from the recent dip to $169. There’s short-term resistance at $182.25.
The 200-day moving average is trending upward from $160.62.
Facebook hit an all-time high of $184.25 on November 28.
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| Wednesday, December 13, 2017, 9:45 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| BMO Capital Raises PayPal PT to $85 |
BMO Capital raises its PayPal (PYPL, $74.85) price target to $85 from $80 as a result of modeling lower dilution and more cash from the sale of the company’s U.S. consumer credit receivables portfolio (announced last month).
The firm believes the savings on operating expenses are also central to limiting the negative bottom-line impact from the deal.
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| Tuesday, December 12, 2017, 10:43 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Chart Watch: NVIDIA |
NVIDIA (NVDA, $191.37) shares remain below the 50-day moving average of $200.05. There’s short-term resistance around the $195 level. The December 5 low of $180.58 (17% below the all-time high of $218.67) marks short-term support.
The 200-day moving average is trending upward from $155.08.
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| Tuesday, December 12, 2017, 10:30 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Morgan Stanley Upgrades Zayo |
Morgan Stanley upgrades Zayo Group (ZAYO, $36.54) to ‘Overweight’ and lifts its price target to $40 from $33 based on expectations for positive revenue trends over the coming quarters as well as the potential for a REIT conversion announcement (possibly by mid-year 2018). The firm notes that most of Zayo’s communications infrastructure peers have reorganized as REITs.
We profiled Zayo in the February 2017 issue (TSP #180), calling out the company as a beneficiary of 5G wireless budgets. At the time, Zayo shares were trading around $31.60. Today, the stock hit a new all-time high at $36.98.
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| Monday, December 11, 2017, 12:15 PM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Elliott: NXP Semi Undervalued |
Elliott Associates in a new shareholder presentation argues NXP Semiconductors (NXPI, $116.29) is worth $135 a share on a standalone basis (not including any control premium that would be customary in a takeover situation), above the Qualcomm (QCOM) buyout offer of $110.
The activist hedge fund owns roughly 6% of NXP. Elliott claims the Qualcomm bid is acting as a ceiling on NXP’s valuation.
Since rumors of Qualcomm’s interest in NXP arose in late September 2016, the stock prices of NXP’s peers have increased by approximately 65% compared to NXP’s increase of only 40%, according to Elliott. The firm says one would expect the stock price of a company in the midst of a takeover should have outperformed companies trading purely based on their standalone value.
Elliott sees a bright future for NXP standalone, saying about half of the company’s revenue is exposed to “exciting growth engines of the semiconductor market—automotive and industrial.”
Qualcomm responds by saying Elliott’s value assertion for NXP is “unsupportable” and is “clearly nothing more than an attempt to advance its own self-serving agenda.”
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| Monday, December 11, 2017, 11:33 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Chart Watch: Proofpoint |
Shares of Proofpoint (PFPT, $87.15) have retaken the 200-day moving average of $85.98, recovering a bit from the recent pullback.
From the all-time high of $97.92 reached in October, Proofpoint last week dipped to a low of $82.60, representing a 15% correction.
The stock remains below the 50-day moving average of $90.83. There’s short-term resistance around the $88 level.
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| Friday, December 8, 2017, 11:03 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Chart Watch: Shopify |
Shares of Shopify (SHOP, $100.67) are trying to make it back above the 50-day moving average, which is now trending downward from $102.26. Today’s early high was $102.96.
The stock recently found buyers at the 200-day moving average of $91.91. There’s short-term congestion in the $105 to $106 range.
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| Friday, December 8, 2017, 10:07 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Evercore ISI Hikes Microsoft PT to $106 |
Evercore ISI takes its Microsoft (MSFT, $84.10) price target up to $106 based on cloud momentum.
The firm believes Microsoft is on a multi-year path to a market cap of $1 trillion (about $128 a share) by 2020, if not before then. Evercore ISI sees the company over the next three years generating $115 billion of cumulative free cash flow.
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| Thursday, December 7, 2017, 10:19 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Cowen Names Amazon a 2018 Best Idea |
Cowen names Amazon (AMZN, $1,157) a Best Idea for 2018 and raises its price target to $1,500 from $1,225. The firm calls out the following fundamental drivers: B2C e-commerce share gains, emerging e-commerce verticals (including B2B), significant international opportunities and advertising potential.
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| Thursday, December 7, 2017, 9:42 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Chart Watch: Splunk |
Splunk (SPLK, $81.06) shares retreated from the recent high of $84.88 to test the 20-day moving average at $77.39, hitting a low of $76.89 on Monday.
A continued bounce off of that moving average would put short-term resistance at $84.52 in play. The 50-day moving average is trending upward from $70.44.
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| Wednesday, December 6, 2017, 10:50 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Piper Jaffray Bullish on Netflix |
Piper Jaffray reiterates its Netflix (NFLX, $183.46) price target of $240 after its analysis of search trends suggests Q4 upside potential for both international and U.S. subscribers. The firm says its model shows a high likelihood of Q4 subscriber outperformance, particularly on the international front.
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| Wednesday, December 6, 2017, 10:17 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Veeva Off 6% on FY'19 In-Line Guide |
Shares of Veeva Systems (VEEV, $53.93) this morning are down more than 6% after the provider of cloud-based software for the life sciences industry last night offered only in-line revenue guidance for FY’19 (Jan.): $805 million, vs. the consensus estimate of $804.2 million. That translates into growth of 18.3% based on the FY’18 revenue guidance midpoint.
Veeva’s FQ3 (Oct.) revenue rose 23% to $176.1 million, above the consensus of $172.1 million. Subscription revenue of $141.9 million was up 25%.
For FQ4, the company expects revenue of $179 million to $180 million, vs. the consensus of $177.3 million.
Veeva shares have taken out the September low of $54.16, trading down to $52.70 earlier in the session. The next major support stands at $50 from April.
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| Tuesday, December 5, 2017, 10:21 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| BofA/Merrill Lifts Netflix Target |
BofA/Merrill boosts its Netflix (NFLX, $187.10) price target to $225 from $199 based on strong subscriber growth and pricing power. The firm continues to see international expansion as the key driver. For Q4, BofA/Merrill expects international subscriber growth to top 5 million.
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| Tuesday, December 5, 2017, 10:05 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Barclays Turns Bullish on Snap |
Barclays upgrades Snap (SNAP, $14.51) to ‘Overweight’ and lifts its price target to $18 from $11, saying the investor narrative for 2018 could involve coexistence with Facebook (FB).
The firm believes Snap may begin to achieve or exceed consensus revenue estimates thanks to the pricing transition now in the later stages.
With the shares already beaten down and a high short interest relative to peers, Barclays thinks now is a good time to accumulate Snap.
Snap stock this morning is up 6.9%.
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| Monday, December 4, 2017, 9:58 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Monness Crespi Sets Netflix PT at $250 |
Monness Crespi & Hardt starts Netflix (NFLX, $186.29) at ‘Buy’ with a price target of $250, saying the company is well positioned for the next stage of growth. The firm believes competitive concerns are overdone and sees the level of content spend as a discretionary risk.
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| Monday, December 4, 2017, 9:49 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| William Blair Upgrades Palo Alto Networks |
William Blair upgrades Palo Alto Networks (PANW, $145.38) to ‘Outperform’ based on new product offerings that are widening the competitive gap relative to peers.
The company’s new Application Framework is expected to provide better overall security outcomes by doing away with fragmented workflows and redundant infrastructure, while improving data correlation across different systems.
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| Friday, December 1, 2017, 12:15 PM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Ambarella Pops 17% on CV1 Prospects |
Shares of Ambarella (AMBA, $63.75) today are jumping more than 17% following last night’s positive management commentary about the company’s upcoming CV1 computer vision chip.
In the latest quarter, Ambarella demonstrated and assembled the CV1 to key IP security and automotive customers, according to CEO Feng-Ming Wang.
The CEO said the chip has met the company’s “aggressive” targets for features, performance and power consumption. Ambarella will demonstrate the CV1 at CES in January.
We profiled Ambarella, focusing on the CV1 chip, in the October 2017 issue of Tech-Stock Prospector (TSP#188). At the time, Ambarella shares were trading around $49.75.
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| Friday, December 1, 2017, 10:22 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Nutanix Surges 11% on FQ1 Report |
Traders liked last night’s FQ1 (Oct.) results out of Nutanix (NTNX, $36.72), sending the stock up nearly 12% this morning. Earlier, the shares hit a new 52-week high at $38.28.
Revenue rose 46% to $275.6 million, above the consensus estimate of $266.9 million. Deferred revenue rose 48% to $408.8 million, with billings up 32% to $315.3 million.
The company in FQ1 added more than 760 new accounts, bringing the customer base to 7,813, an increase of 75% y/y.
For FQ2, Nutanix sees revenue of $280 million to $285 million, vs. the consensus of $282 million.
In the July 2017 issue of Tech-Stock Prospector (TSP #185), we pointed out Nutanix’s modest valuation, when the stock was trading at $19.12.
For more on Nutanix, see the October 2017 issue of Tech-Stock Prospector (TSP #188).
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| Friday, December 1, 2017, 9:53 AM — by Rob DeFrancesco, TechStock Radar |
| Chart Watch: Talend |
Shares of Talend (TLND, $39.60) have fallen below the 50-day moving average of $41.37, pulling back from the all-time high of $46.32 reached on November 20.
The stock last month found buyers in the $38.70 to $38.80 range.
The 200-day moving average is trending upward from $35.75.
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