Shares of Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) slid 6% on Friday, in line with the rest of the market. Over the weekend, investors have been attempting to analyze the spike downwards. On a broader market level, they are also assessing whether the sharp fall in the overall market is an indication of softness in the macro environment (which would obviously be a material negative). Putting this into perspective, market volatility was likely due to portfolio allocation at the start of calendar Q2. Premium valuation for technology companies such as Twitter (TWTR) and Netflix (NFLX) may have also lead to profit taking. All…
Author: Stefan Levy
According to Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is set to announce a modest increase for its share repurchase program, as well as its quarterly dividend, in its next earnings report on April 23. Munster acknowledges that the buy-side likely agrees with this, and as a result, is already priced into shares of AAPL. However, he remains bullish on shares of Apple ahead of the product refresh slated for the second half of 2014. Analysts have a consensus price target of $592 on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) which indicates a 11% upside. The company last reported earnings on January 27th…
Swedish specialty pharmaceutical company Meda said it has rejected an indicative proposal made by Mylan (NASDAQ:MYL) to combine the two businesses. “All continued discussions between Meda and Mylan have been terminated without further actions,” Meda said in a statement. MYL was higher 6.3% in recent pre-market trade, coming off sharper gains earlier. It is trading in the upper half of the 52-week range between $27.66 and $57.52. In Other News: YOU On Demand Holdings (NASDAQ:YOD) shares jumped in Friday’s pre-market session, after the multi-platform entertainment and video-on-demand company in China said it expanded its relationship with Miramax to offer feature films…
Align Technology (NASDAQ:ALGN) shares rose in Friday’s pre-market session, after the manufacturer of the Invisalign system of clear aligner orthodontics late Thursday said the International Trade Commission ruled in its favor, affirming an administrative law judge’s initial determination that ClearCorrect entities (ClearCorrect Operating in Texas and ClearCorrect Pakistan in Pakistan) infringed on five Align patents. ALGN was up 6.4% at $57.00 in recent pre-market trading, in a 52-week range of $29.53 to $65.10. The Commission issued cease-and-desist orders directed to the ClearCorrect entities, and terminated the investigation, ALGN said. The company noted the finding is that the ClearCorrect entities infringe…
Before the markets opened Monday, Biogen Idec announced the FDA has extended its regulatory review for Plegridy by three months. A regulatory action date during the second half of 2014 is now anticipated. The same type of regulatory delay occurred with Tecfidera in early 2013 and with Gilenya in mid- 2010, and the drugs were still approved. Biogen Idec said the FDA has not asked the company to conduct any new trials, and no specific areas of concern have emerged during the regulatory review. Lastly, the manufacturing of Plegridy for the Phase III trial is the same as the manufacturing…
W.W. Grainger’s February average daily sales (ADS) were up 3%, versus our 4% forecast. Although weather was disruptive during the month, the impact was partly offset by increased sales of seasonal products. Still, the comparison was 100 basis points easier than January, and we were hopeful Grainger would match our forecast. U.S. volume growth improved slightly to 3%, but Canadian volumes remain lackluster, due to the soft economy. Adding back 100 basis points for net-weather U.S. volume was up a solid 4% in what still appears to be an overall sluggish demand backdrop. Pricing was neutral in February, which was a…
We attended the annual Optical Fiber Communications (OFC) technical conference held in San Francisco this week and over the course of two days visited with 15 optical components and systems companies. In this note, we preview five trends encompassing the optical industry, based on our discussions with leading voices of the industry, and offer a deeper view into each of them: unabated demand for fiber connectivity and bandwidth; photonic integration, including silicon photonics; line-side 100G coherent pluggable optics; packet-optical convergence, including software-defined networking (SDN) and network virtualization (NFV); and the road map for 400G and beyond. In our coverage, we…
Analysts are lowering the fiscal second-quarter EPS estimate for Sonic by $0.02, to $0.03, below the consensus of $0.06 and versus $0.05 in the year-ago period, to reflect the likely impact of harsh winter weather throughout the February quarter. We are lowering our system-wide same-store sales estimate to about -1%, down from our prior estimate of 1% to 2% (which was in line with the consensus). We anticipate a company-owned comp decline of roughly 2% in the quarter against a 1.9% comparison, inclusive of an approximate 3% to 4% decline in traffic partly offset by an estimated 2% increase in…
Before the markets opened on Monday, Alexion announced the outcome of the reimbursement negotiations with the French government and consequently increased 2014 financial guidance. Alexion announced that previous Soliris orders in France in the amount of $88 million net product sales will be recorded in the first quarter of 2014. Management also said the arrangement’s conclusion and decision will affect future net product sales of Soliris. Based on the incremental positive impact to sales, we have updated our estimates to come more in line with operating trends and guidance. Alexion expects the arrangement with the French government to affect revenues…
Last week we hosted investor meetings with Textura’s chairman and chief executive officer, Patrick J. Allin, and chief financial officer, Jillian Sheehan, and came away more confident that the company can deliver more than 60% revenue growth and material cash-flow upside in fiscal 2015. While we understand that some investors remain wary given the short report published in December, the company has delivered on top-line expectations and accelerated the growth in construction value that is being run through its systems. Further, we remind investors that given the high visibility of the model, it is rather unlikely that the company will…
Bright Horizons continues to positively surprise us with the predictability of the business and the machine-like consistency of execution even in a year that saw the company go public and make two major acquisitions in a continuing effort to consolidate the attractive, yet still-fragmented employer-sponsored child care industry. Our positive view of the near- and long-term opportunity for the employer-sponsored, child care operator was reinforced by Bright Horizons’ strong fourth-quarter results, continued progress toward peak capacity utilization, and consistent commentary from the company’s seasoned management team. We remain bullish on Bright Horizons’ opportunity to expand domestic and international market share…
Demandware reported solid fourth-quarter results, with subscription revenue of $33.5 million increasing 47% and coming in nearly $2 million above the Street and above our preview of a $1.5 million beat. Upside was driven by another solid performance from Demandware’s existing customers, which had a strong holiday season and again grew GMV in excess of 30% in the quarter. The company’s contracted backlog (minimum committed subscription fees plus deferred revenue) exited the year at $348.6 million, up 67% year-over-year ($140 million increase) and representing meaningful acceleration from 2012’s 47% backlog growth. Although backlog is affected by the timing of renewals,…