Bidness ETC - Microsoft Failed To Surpass Amazon Web Services

Despite showing a 60 percent growth in the cloud infrastructure market, the company still trails Amazon to become the leader in this business.

Microsoft is one of the powerhouses in the information technology sector. The company has dominated for ages and has not given up on its lead in some segments yet. However, it has been going through a rough patch and has been facing serious competition from competitors in the smart phone market, cloud market, and the PC market as well. Recently, the company boasted about its cloud computing business. But the thing that the company needs to keep in mind that its business might be big, but it is not as big as Amazon’s. The cloud business of the Amazon Web Services is huge.

After nine years, Amazon revealed perfect earnings of its AWS business which shook the industry. The earnings speak for the company’s position in the sector and how ahead it is compared to the competition against Microsoft, IBM, and Salesforce.com. This shows that Microsoft has a lot more to catch up in order to keep up with the pace of Amazon. Despite the announcement that Redmond made regarding a growth by 60 percent in its cloud infrastructure, it is believed that Microsoft is on second only to Amazon as being the largest in the cloud market.

Not only Microsoft but Google has also shown significant growth in the cloud market in the first quarter of new fiscal year, yet the companies are trailing Amazon Web Services and it remains the dominant force after reporting $1.6 billion in revenues.

Amazon has grown mature with its cloud computing business platform and it has grown a lot in a short span of time. The cloud platform of the company is now known as a $5 billion dollar business in the market. All the big name companies such as Netflix and Expedia, as well as popular startups, are the customers of Amazon Web Services and not Microsoft Azure. The company has more than 1 million customers worldwide. However, the only company that seems to be catching up is IBM.

A Chief Analyst at Synergy Research Group stated “Across the full and varied spectrum of cloud activities there are now six companies that can lay a valid claim to having annual cloud revenue run rates in excess of $5 billion – AWS, IBM, Microsoft, HP, Cisco and salesforce – and all are able to claim leadership in different parts of the cloud market.” He further made it clear that no one comes close to Amazon. He said that if you compare the cloud businesses in the market, Amazon is well ahead of all peers and competitors.

Bidness ETC - GoPro reported First Quarter Earnings Report for FY15

GoPro reported its Q1FY15 earnings on Tuesday and posted 24 cents in earnings per share while its revenue boosted due to increasing in overseas sales.

GoPro announced its first quarter fiscal year 2015 earnings report on Tuesday April 28. The company improved its revenue by over 50% due to massive international sales that account for almost 50% of the total sales by the company.

The Camera manufacturer reported $363.1 million in revenue up by 54% YoY. GoPro surpassed analyst’s estimation of $341 million of total sales, as per FactSet. The company reported earnings of $0.24 per share more than Wall Street forecast of $0.18 per share, as per the analysts polled by Reuters.

This is the fourth time in a row that the company was able to beat Wall Street expectations since its initial public offering in June last year.

Company’s profit increased by 52% and reached $16.8 million equals to $0.13 per share. That is still less from $122 million profit company reported in the last quarter on sales of $634 million. But that was due to the holiday season that sets record revenue and profits for the company.

GoPro said that over 50% of its total revenue came from overseas, with almost 66% of sales from Europe and Asia markets in the quarter.

The international growth is nothing new for the company while the sales in Asia and Europe market accounted for 70% in the previous quarter of FY14. Last year, GoPro worked on establishing its global infrastructure by introducing a facility of product assembly in Brazil and also formed European marketing and sales headquarters in Munich. GoPro also forged associations with Chinese e-commerce retailers like JD.com and Tmall in 2014.

In another announcement different from earnings report, the company said, it has decided to acquire Kolor, a company that focuses in 360-degree video and virtual reality. The financial numbers of the deal were not revealed.

Chief Executive Officer of GoPro, Nick Woodman said, “GoPro’s capture devices and Kolor’s software will combine to deliver exciting and highly accessible solutions for capturing, creating and sharing spherical content,” during earnings release, Mr. Woodman had already advertised GoPro investment “investments in talent, technology, software, and innovative new products” in a statement related to sustaining company’s growth.

During after hour trading session, GoPro’s stock price jumped around 7% after going up by 4% during the regular trading hour.

Bidness ETC - Following Nepal Earthquake, Facebook Introduces Safety Check Feature In Full Force

Pundits applaud Facebook’s most useful and significant feature, months after several testings made it come out as a winner.

Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) has announced the deployment of its “Safety Check” application, in the wake of the Nepal earthquake that has left thousands dead (and still counting) and leaving many injured, destroying historical buildings and infrastructure in the process, making it difficult for aid workers to access the affected area.

Urgent attention is the need of many loved ones still trapped, especially foreigners who use Nepal as a passageway to reach the highest summit of Mount Everest. Facebook’s safety feature allows a user to convey the message in their Facebook newsfeed to inform their loved ones that they are safe from any natural disaster that has occurred within their surroundings. The CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, rightly points out, “It is moments like this that being able to connect really matters.”

Many pundits have heaped praise on the social media giant’s initiative as the most useful and significant to date. The mechanism of the feature works in a unique manner. Based on the security feature, users within the vicinity or around the neighborhood of the disaster will receive a notification whether they are safe or not. Facebook will then pinpoint their location and verify the information based on the user’s residential address, recent visits, and recent use of the Internet. Then two options will be introduced; one “I’m safe” or “I’m not in the affected area”. When one of the answers is selected, that answer will show on the News Feed.

Likewise, if someone wants to be sure of their friend’s safety, then they can check the status on a designated Safety Check Page, by pointing out the number of friends in the affected area.

The question remains that what actually prompted, if not inspired, the company to come up with this feature, since there is an element of social dimension to this. The social media giant came up with this unique and novel feature after the Japanese Tsunami in 2011. The idea among many strategists is that people used to keep in touch with their loved ones through social media and technology, giving latest news and status about the well-being of affected families or those indirectly affected by it.

In March this year, the company put its Safety Check to test once again after Cyclone Pam stormed the Southern Pacific, and the results were astounding. It reported that over a quarter of a million people used the service to search about the safety of their loved ones. Thus, it is hoped that this feature will provide a peace of mind to many victims and people who are affected by the disaster, one way or the other, to let them be known if they are safe or not.

Facebook’s stock price ended the day at $81.86, a gain of 0.01%.

Bidness ETC - GoPro Inc. Earnings Preview for First Quarter FY15

GoPro Inc is all set to report its 1QFY15 earnings results on April 28. Specialty stores may have helped boost GoPro's sales in the March quarter because they may not have received adequate supply during the holidays.

GoPro Inc is ready to announce its first quarter fiscal year 2015 earnings report on Tuesday April 28 after market close. According to reports, the demand for cameras was more than company’s expectation during the quarter.

On April 22, in a report James Faucette, Yuuji Anderson and Meta Marshal analysts at Morgan Stanley retained their Equal-weight rating along with the stock price target of $57 on the company. Their estimation of 1.3 million units proposes a quarter-over-quarter decline of 50% in sell-through rates as the first quarter is always normally slow. However, according to their checks the sell-through rates might have only declined in the range of 30 to 40% in the 1QFY15.

The analysts also expect the company to perform better in the second quarter due to “the widening breadth of activity” at numerous retailers such as photography, skating and music stores. They stated that specialty retailers were not able to get enough stock in the holiday session and, therefore, are now witnessing high sell through rates.

In addition, the team of Morgan Stanley stated that it does not seem like as if the average selling price of GoPro Inc witnessed much of an issue. They also believe that the company will be able to surpass revenue guidance of $330 million to $340 million by the management of the company.

MS analysts retained their rating on company’s stock mainly because GoPro Inc needs to enhance its software platform. They also said that the company must come forward and take the charge of systematizing video editing and sharing via its own software platform.

Analysts at Stifel team expects the camera maker to post adjusted earnings of $0.17 per share as compared to the $0.18 a share consensus estimate on $343 million of revenue against $341 million of consensus. They also forecast minimum 1.4 million cameras shipment and nearly 10% decline in the normal selling price.

They also indicated that the company has been making heavy investments in new items. GoPro Inc. guided for general, selling & administrative expenditure of around $112.5 to $117.5 million for the quarter.

Consequently, the company will able to get more attention of the investors to its upcoming products, mainly the Hero5 cameras, which is expected to be launch later this year.

Bidness ETC - Toyota Motor Plans To Double The Size Of Its Headquarter in Plano

Toyota Motor has finally decided to double the size of their headquarters situated in Plano.

Toyota Motors Co. is on the roll where it not only promised to launch two hybrid vehicles in China by the end of this year but has now also reported of making its products and services better. Thus for the same reason, the company has decided to double the area of their headquarters situated in Plano.

The company has been working on this venture since a fairly long time where engineers had been speculating about the project since months. However, the company has now finally decided to double the size of their Plano headquarter than what was initially proposed.

The Plano zoning and planning commission has unveiled a new modified plan which denotes that the headquarters of the company in West Plano has been estimated to increase by above 2.1 million square feet area.

This is a massive breakthrough for the company since after this Toyota’s headquarter will be the largest commercial project in New Texas as well as one of the biggest ventures within the state.

According to the initial engineering documents that have been obtained, the project shows almost half dozen offices along with other commercial buildings. Apart from this separate parking areas area will be reserved on the site that is approximately 99.8 acre. The new headquarter will be built on Legacy Drive which is just south of the State Highway.

Moreover, the aforementioned parking area will be able to park 7,000 cars which indicate that earlier the number of parked vehicles in the vicinity was extremely low.

Previously, Toyota claimed that less than 4,000 individuals will be employed at the company’s office campus when it comes into operation in the fiscal year of 2017. Later they stated that another 1,000 individuals hired on contractual basis would also be located in the vicinity. Through this, the company will put an end to their southern California based office.

“While we are still in the planning stage and no final decisions have been made, our new campus will likely be larger than originally reported to accommodate not only our team members but also some portion of our corporate partners, consultants and contingency staff,” mentioned Toyota spokesperson.

The architect based in Dallas namely Corgan is designing the office for Toyota in Plano. Initially, it was estimated that the project would cost the company almost $350 million. The company started construction on this site earlier in 2015.

Hence, Toyota Motors is now all set to make the grandest entry through their new office which will be situated in Plano.

Bidness ETC - China Mobile Storms Ahead With Strong Customer Subscription in Its Latest Quarterly Earnings Report

Chinese telecom company records 143 million 4G subscribers by the end of March compared to 53 million during the first quarter.

China Mobile Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:CHL) has announced, in its latest quarterly report, a strong growth in earnings helped by the strong growth in customer subscription of its 4G services, a trend which shows no sign of slowing down anytime in the near future. Currently, the subscribers for 3G and 4G services constitute 46% of China Mobile Ltd.

In its quarterly financial report, China Mobile Ltd. has recorded more than 143 million new subscriptions of 4G services, compared to the 53 million being recorded during the first quarter. If this exponential trend continues, it is forecasted that the number of 4G users will climb up to more than 300 million users. The mobile data traffic saw growth clocked in at more than 160% from last year, whereas traffic per subscriber has also seen an increase of more than 150% since 2014. Meanwhile, mobile revenue per user for the company was seen a rise of 3.2% from the last quarterly report, which represents a significant advancement over the 6.7% decline recorded in 2014.

The startling figures of 4G growth mentioned above suggests a very bullish future where the Chinese people are expected to be connected to high-tech wireless technologies more than ever, enabling them to gain access to just about every portion of lives, from shopping to making reservations and ensuring banking and financial access to improve financial inclusion.

China Mobile is preparing itself for the upcoming, if not an ongoing, revolution of wireless cars, on top of self-driving and electric powered charged cars, which will define the next ten years of an unprecedented technological revolution that will changing the face of the transportation sector and the ways in which people can afford to have their cars drive powered by 4G network from their mobile phones. However, it may require a much stronger frequency given the size of the wireless cars that will be rolled out within a decade approximately. These are interesting times for the Chinese telecom operator and manufacturer and all signs are leading it into a bullish stance to take on the future.

China Mobile Ltd’s stock price ended on $74.29, a decline of 0.16%. The stock quote price has fluctuated between $74 and $75 for the last few days, when it jumped from $71 on April 21st. Perhaps the stock may jump up to between $77-78 once investors react to this news of stellar 4G growth.

Bidness ETC - Franchisees of McDonald's Not Happy With the Company's Management

The fast food chain's management has yet again left a question mark for the analysts to think about as the franchise owners come up with issues of their own.

McDonald’s news is yet again circulating in the market regarding the fact that now the franchise owners of the fast food company are beginning to have issues with the management, which means that the customers are not the only ones now. The company owns only 10% of the franchises itself while the other 90% are owned by others. The fast food chain has been under a lot of speculation by the employees who carried out a protest rally against the wage plan that was followed by it, as they demanded an increase. This protest was joined in by employees of all the franchises of the firm all around the country.

However, in a recent research done by Janney Capital Markets, it was seen becoming evident that the owners of the franchises located all around the United States seemed to have many issues with the management of McDonald’s Corporation. The survey showed that the people felt that the company is reaching its lowest points in the market that it never touched ever before in the 11 years of foundation. The company received a 1.81 rating from the average people who filled the survey which was taken by the analysts in a very negative way as it showed that the business made by the food chain’s franchisees was more on the poor side than on the average side.

McDonald’s, on the other hand, dismissed these results saying that the sample size used by the survey takers was not enough to actually analyze the business activities of the company. The fast food service firm also explained that around 3,100 franchises are owned by the company and to conduct the survey, only 1% of that was taken into consideration which makes the results quite useless to be considered. The management even said that they have a good relationship with their franchisees and the rumors that declared the opposite were not true.

However, the fact that McDonald’s stock reported low quarterly earnings for the 8th time in January showed that the company is indeed in a difficult financial state, something that cannot be ignored. Even though the firm has been taking massive steps to overcome this struggling time with the retirement of the old CEO and appointment of a new one and with making prominent changes in the menu, no eminent difference has yet been seen in the sales.

The competition that McDonald’s has been facing by Chipotle and Taco Bell has ended up being a tough call for the food chain that was once the most loved fast food restaurant of the customers.

Bidness ETC - Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) Outshines first quarter FY15

Facebook reported its quarterly earnings on April 22 and reported $3.42 billion in revenue and 42 cents of earnings per share.

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) announced its first quarter fiscal year 2015 earnings on Wednesday April 22. The social media giant reported $3.54 billion of revenues slightly less than analyst’s expectation of $3.56. The company earned $0.42 per share on non-GAAP basis barely surpassing projections.

Like other multinational companies, strengthening dollar hurt Facebook first quarter earnings as well. Facebook Inc said, last quarter increase in sales by 42% in contrast with prior year quarter would have been 49% without the foreign exchange volatility. The major chunk of Facebook revenue comes from advertising, which increased by 46% and reach $3.32 billion during the quarter.

Last year, mobile ads generate around 59% of revenue for Facebook Inc, however in first quarter it increased to 73%.other fees and payments of Facebook accounted for $226 million decreased by 5% compared with prior year quarter.

On the other hand, social media giant’s expenses continued to increase. In the previous quarter, its overhead expenses increased by 87%, while in 1QFY15 it soared by 83% and reached $2.61 billion.

As in fourth quarter 2014, Chief Financial Officer of Facebook Inc, Dave Wehner said that the shareholders should expect more spending n the coming quarter. However, an increase in expenses did impact operating income and margin but was down compared to a prior year quarter.

Although, Facebook Inc is the biggest social media company in the world, it is still mounting its user base at an extraordinary rate. The company added almost 50 million MAUs in fourth quarter, which has now reached 1.44 billion across the world. Twitter which is around one fifth of Facebook size only managed to add 4 million MAUs in the last quarter.

Facebook Inc is not only growing itself, but its properties such as Facebook Inc is also growing and added approximately 100 million users alone this year and now reached more than 800 million, while Instagram and Facebook messenger now have 300 million and 500 million monthly active users.

Facebook Inc stock is up by 1.21% and reached $84.63 at market close on Wednesday April 22. The company has $234.05 billion of market capitalization and 79.24 price to earnings ratio. The social media site has 52 week low and high of $54.66 and $86.07, respectively.

Bidness ETC - Halliburton Company surpassed 1QFY15 earnings estimate

Halliburton reported first quarter results for fiscal year 2015 and posted earnings of 49 cents per share and $823 million in revenues.

Halliburton Company is disturbed by the declining prices of crude oil, as the oil company reported $643 million loss, or $0.76 earnings per share, for the quarter covering from January to March of fiscal year 2015. During the similar quarter last year, the company reported $622 million in profits equals to $0.73 EPS.

Exclusive of particular items like write down amount of $823 million and job reductions and the exchange rate charge of Venezuelan currency, Halliburton posted earnings of $0.49 per share and surpassed the consensus forecast of $0.36 earnings per share.

The company announced in February that it is most likely to reduce its international workforce by almost 8% or 6,400 of its staff.

Halliburton revenue decreased by 4% on Y-o-Y basis to $7.05 billion, surpassing the $6.96 billion consensus estimate

Last year, Halliburton declared acquiring its rival Baker Hughes in a deal worth of $34.6 billion. The merger raised questions as the regulators believes that the acquisition would mean that the joined company will become large and might exploit the market. The Houston-based oil company has specified to sell its 3 business units in order to get approval by regulatory bodies. The merger with Baker Hughes is most likely to bring $2 billion of cost saving.

Furthermore, with crude oil prices declining by more than 50% in the last nine months, Halliburton mentioned that its drilling service demand has declined considerably. According to a report by WSJ, Dave Lesar CEO of the company related to issue said, “Industry prospects will continue to be challenged in the coming quarters, and visibility to the ultimate depth and length of this cycle remains uncertain.”

Bloomberg reported, Cowen Group forecast that if oil prices stood at $60 per barrel, also then the production and exploration customers of the company would reduce expenditure by 35%.

Almost 36 analysts covered Halliburton stock, out of which 26 assigned a rating of Buy and 8 suggested a rating of hold to the stock of the company. The twelve-month consensus price target estimate is $49.21. Jefferies analyst Brad Handler gave buy rating to the stock with 12-month price target projected at $54.

Halliburton stock was up by 2.05% to $47.85 at market close on Monday and increased further during after hour trading session by 0.31% to $48.

Bidness ETC - Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) Is Planning To Bring Back The 'Away' Message Feature

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has started the testing of its new sidebar status feature in Australia and Taiwan.

Facebook Inc., the social media giant is one of those firms that know how to cater to the needs of its users. The company has constantly upgraded itself to make the experience worthwhile. The one thing that is extremely catchy and at times annoying about Facebook Inc is that it has left nothing private. From feelings to movies, everything needs to be prompted on the digital platform. So now to add more to this charisma on its platform, Facebook Inc is bringing back the away feature which will give a deeper insight into what is going on in your life.

The company has initiated the testing process in two diverse regions including Australia and Taiwan where a small sidebar status is running along the feed which tells about what the user is doing, where he is, allow them to upload a picture or tag a location. Now this is scary for all those who were already whining about not having so much interest in the life of others. As this new features will open new horizons of spamming. After what is on your mind? Facebook is now working on what is in your life ... Which honestly nobody is concerned with

Previously, the company separated Facebook Inc Messenger and made it a standalone app and named it Facebook Messenger app. Hence before that, the sideway feature was one of the most liked features of that time. Sidebar status could only appear for 12 hours or until the user wishes to clear or update it. The statuses that were set up by users could be only seen by the people added to their friends’ list and were not public nor could they be seen on users’ profiles.

The company has already started the testing of this new away feature in Taiwan and Australia and the feature, so far, is named as “sidebar status”. It would allow users to add a status, whatever they wish for, which would appear on the right panel of the app. Hence, a freedom of speech would be given to the users. For instance, the status would start like, “Dave is….”. Anything can be added to it then. Dave can watch TV, sleep, or even one-word direct statuses would be good too. Furthermore, they would add their locations as well to fully express what they are up to and where.

Lately, Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc are looking to revamp some of the features in their platforms to keep on going with the success.

Bidness ETC - Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) soaring in smartphone market

Apple crossed Samsung smartphone sales; Lenovo, Xiaomi, Huawei attracted market by offering inexpensive sets.

Smartphone sales escalated one billion mark in 2014, Gartner published its report regarding smartphone sales in Q4, 2014 on Tuesday. According to the report Apple Inc. succeeded in controlling the industry whereas SAMSUNG ELECT LTD lost the market hold it reigned over for past 3 years.

According to the report 367.5 million devices made their way to global consumers. Of which Apple sold 75 million smartphones whereas Samsung was able to sell 73 million handsets. The margin does not pose a massive difference in terms of handsets sold however ensures a leap of 0.5 percentage points which turns out to be a game changer for two dominant forces in the smartphone industry.

Apple iPhone 6 has completely changed the game for Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL). The company’s strategy to launch a bigger smartphone proved to be fruitful since the sales of the latest version have been overwhelming.

According to Anshul Gupta, primary research analyst at Gartner, “Samsung continues to struggle to control its falling smartphone share, which was at its highest in the third quarter of 2013. This downward trend shows that Samsung’s share of profitable premium smartphone users has come under significant pressure.”

Apple has not only sold the maximum number of handsets but also banged the steady flow of revenues throughout Q4. According to a report by Strategy Analytics: Apple has governed almost 90% of profits in the smartphone domain in Q4.

Several smartphones makers emerged in 2014 who disrupted the market at a fairly steady pace. Lenovo, Xiaomi and Huawei are one of the few stakeholders who succeeded in attracting the market by offering inexpensive smartphones. These companies also tripled the number of handsets sold in Q4 2013 to Q4 2014. Irrespective of the growth, the three smartphone manufacturers have not been able to sabotage Apple or Samsung’s share accumulatively.

According to Roberta Cozza, the research director at Gartner, “With Apple dominating the premium phone market and the Chinese vendors increasingly offering quality hardware at lower prices, it is through a solid ecosystem of apps, content and services unique to Samsung devices that Samsung can secure more loyalty and longer-term differentiation at the high end of the market.”

However, Samsung has been working on several differentiated projects in order to breathe life into its staggering smartphone market, but this might not prove to be fruitful since Android has a strong hold over the entire smartphone fraternity. Dragging away to a differentiated operating system will further rupture the company, as it will not be able to cater to the needs of smartphone users at such a fast pace.

The smartphone industry has observed a steady growth on a global canvas. Gratner reports, “All regions recorded growth in 2014, except Japan and Western Europe, which recorded decline of 2.8% and 9.1% respectively.”

Bidness Etc - Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) cannot escape taxes

Apple does not want to reveal its financial structure to Australian tax officials.

Tax is extremely important to boost any economy. It is the thing that allows governments to carry out an efficient system with ease. The industry giants who are generating a substantial amount of revenues are an asset for any nation contributing positively to the economy. Australia is also one of those countries that wishes to avail this opportunity and will not let these companies escape law so easily.

According to the Australian Tax Office that notified recently that the top industry giants that include the three companies are being scrutinized at this point of time for their tax payment mechanism reports Reuters.

The company organized public inquiries for which Apple Inc.’s executive Tony King who deals with operations overseas that includes Australia and New Zealand was brought in front of the court of law.

All these three companies however refused that they are manipulating their profits or in any way avoiding escaping taxes. However, if they consider themselves to be so pure and free from flaws then three companies which include Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Apple Inc. have actually refused to present their financial structures to the officials.

“Double Irish” is considered to be one of the most prominent loopholes in terms of taxes. This actually allows firms that are operational in Ireland to streamline revenues to alternate Irish subsidiaries. This results in tax residency in regions which do not take any taxes like Cayman Islands.

For instance in Ireland, only those firms that are owned and controlled by Irish authorities are barred from taxes and termed as tax residents. However, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) Operations International is not owned and managed in Ireland but is not incorporated there.

However, the finance minister of Ireland has decided to raise the bar now where new firms will not be granting Double Irish policy. So now big companies like Apple and Google need to come up with a counter strategy according to which they have to find another region which is easy on taxes.

The government of such regions is taking a fairly wise step to stop granting favors to these companies since the trio has a portfolio that boasts of skyrocketing revenues. It is their role as a company to help sustain the economy.
It is natural for the Australian government to take precautionary measures since these companies do not really have a good image when it comes to paying taxes.

AAPL and GOOG should realize the potential they have and reveal their financial structures in order to avoid unnecessary allegations.

Bidness Etc - GoPro Inc Launches HeroCast

The action camera makers have launched a new transmitter for creating the best quality videos and pictures ever produced.

According to a recent press release on GoPro news, it was made evident that the camera making company has launched a new device which is the tiniest HD transmitter of its kind. It is not only much cheaper than it should be, but it is also the lightest transmitters ever launched in the market. This product will be used for transmission purposes and will help broadcasting channels to deliver and display excellent quality content with footage of POV quality.

On the other hand, many new offers have been made along with this transmitter which promises to improve the picture and video quality and take it to new levels of success. Analysts believe that all these offerings made by the Hero camera makers are not surprising as the company has previously maintained its standard for producing innovative products with engaging ideas bound to attract the attention of the users.

This special HEROCast transmitter will be used in the company’s cameras only and will help produce live streaming GoPro videos with exceptional elucidation available in HD. Tony Bates, who is the president of the action camera making company declared that the company was solely designed to capture the special moments of the people in the most mesmerizing way possible and in order to do that, the company is constantly coming up with new and better ideas to satisfy its customers to the highest level possible. This was one of the reasons that propelled the company owners to think of something that will help them to create a better and easier way for the users to record their video in a much better HD quality.

Bates also said in a press release that through the HEROCast, the users of the GoPro cameras will be able to create magnificent quality videos and that will help them to capture their special moments in a specialized manner.

According to coverage made by channels like ESPN and NHL, it was shown that the launch of the HEROCast is a promising stance taken by GoPro that will sure change the way people record their videos. This will not only raise expectations of how a video or a picture should be but it will also allow the general audience to avail such an experience by not spending as much as they were previously spending on high definition pictures.

According to the Vice President of ESPN, it was stated that the technology of the HEROCast had given a chance to the make the X Games Aspen a progressive factor for the success of the channel and it is something that promises a bright future to not only the GoPro stock but to the field of photography as well.

Bidness Etc - Facebook Is Planning To Make Changes In Its Trending Section

After Twitter, Facebook will be making changes in its trends section as well.

Currently, Facebook Inc. dominates the social media networking platform industry. The company has been the leading and the most used social media network medium for a long time now. Despite the fact that Twitter is becoming a more favored social network platform of the media world, it still trails Facebook in the market regardless of anything. Facebook has more users, more revenues, and more ads based revenues than any other company. Hence, other social media network companies are renewing strategies to match Facebook in the foreseeable future.

Recently, it was reported that Twitter is all set to eliminate its Discover tab which played not such a good role since 2011. The company introduced the Discover tab in order to keep users updated with the latest happening all around the world. However, it failed to live up to expectations hence Twitter will be revamping its trends feed. Same is the plan of Facebook. The social media giant is reportedly working on a new Trending section which has about five new categories in it. According to reports, the company has already put the new trending section to test along with its five new categories which include Business, Entertainment, Politics, Science and Technology, and Sports.

Moreover, the spokeswoman for the company also confirmed that the company is up to something and is officially testing the new section however no further details were disclosed. Facebook’s aim is to allow users to discover and get to know more about the trending topics. Moreover, this new section will help it to compete with the likes of Google News and Twitter when it comes to real-time breaking the news.

Facebook has no intentions to remove or replace the previous 10 categories it added. The existing ten trending topics will remain as it is. When Twitter planned to mess up with its trends feed, it wanted to make it easier for new users hence making Twitter interface user-friendly for them. Twitter reports “We know that trends aren’t always self-explanatory, so now you’ll see a description below each trend. Since trends tend to be abbreviations without context, like #NYFW, a description will make it clear that this trend is about New York Fashion Week. The new trends experience may also include how many Tweets have been sent and whether a topic is trending up or down”

This will not only tailor the content for users in which they are interested but will help to understand the social media networking platform better. It would be interesting to see how Facebook’s new trending section turns out to be for the users.

Bidness Etc - Tesla Stock Bears A Loss At 26%

Tesla Motors is expected to trade downwards in the upcoming financial weeks by analysts.

Tesla Motors has been experiencing a fluctuating pace on the stock market for quite some time now with the share price not trading anywhere around $200 which has been deemed as the target price for the company’s stock by the equity analysts. Analysts who have been covering the stock of the auto making company have high expectations from it as the firm has been producing cars of extraordinary quality since the time it was founded. The electric car makers have been trading towards a downfall which has left the investors and shareholders in anticipation of the upcoming stock activities of the auto giant.

The price target of $200 that has been set by the average analysts on Tesla Motor’s stock has been coming off as a pressure on the company in the stock market as it has been not performing well for the past two financial weeks. Among the equity firms that have been covering the stock of the company, FBR & Co is one of them which has granted the electric auto car giants a ‘market perform’ rating after analyzing the fact that currently the company is facing difficult time which might get elongated in the few upcoming weeks. The analysts expect that this time could even turn out to be one of the roughest times that the Model S Car producers face.

On the other hand, the FBR analysts have decided to present a target price of $150 to the shares of Tesla after taking a close look on the stock value. This target that has been set by the analysts shows that they have expectations for the company to trade in a downward manner in the upcoming weeks which is why the expected target is 26% less that the current trading value of the shares. Some analysts also believe that this price target is quite a neutral stance taken by the analysts who are analyzing the stock, as the hybrid car makers have a tendency to trade in quite an unexpected way. This means that it has been concluded that the company might trade either way and to give it such a target on the stock makes complete sense.

As for the sales in China that Tesla is expecting to improve at, the analysts have been noticing some positive changes which give out a signal to the auto makers that the company might as well succeed in making a mark in the Asian country. The failures faced by the company in the country have been taken a look at by the CEO of the firm as well.

Bidness Etc - How Is Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) Performing In The Market And How It Can Improve

Despite being one of the biggest pharma stocks, Johnson & Johnson has to play smartly to do business well.

Johnson & Johnson is doing quite well in the market. It is believed that the investors and the Wall Street love the pharmaceutical sector. The pharmaceutical giants that include Johnson & Johnson have extensive product portfolios which allow them to produce millions and billions in operating cash flow each year. Apart from being a giant in one of the biggest sector, the pharmaceutical sector also has its disadvantage. One of the biggest disadvantages is that the product portfolio of companies like Johnson & Johnson and Novartis etc. are well established most of the times, but they struggle to do business in the market.

The pharmaceutical stocks underperform when the industry, overall, is on a major bull run. “Big Pharma portfolios are susceptible to patent loss expirations, which can expose their most important drugs to generic competition,” as reliable sources reports. However, apart from anything, Johnson & Johnson is one company that I balanced when it comes to stability as well as growth potential. From one perspective, the company is not a traditional pharma company rather than being one giant healthcare company for that matter which specializes in providing healthcare products, medical devices, and pharmaceutical segment.

The pharmaceutical segment of the company is the part where it derives its double-digit gross margins from the bulk. Moreover, the consumer healthcare segment does good business in the market as well by delivering an expected operating cash flow. However, stocks like Johnson & Johnson have to do business smartly in order to stay in the competition. There are things which the company should consider in order to increase its share price growth for the future. The company has to make acquisitions and purchases of other companies in the same sector to sustain its growth.

There is no doubt about the fact that Johnson & Johnson has brought in a number of new therapies, organic or inorganic, in the market in recent times. However, the part where it lacks is making acquisitions and purchases. These acquisitions and purchases will help the company to keep it ahead of the patent loss curve. Hence, it would have to consider either acquiring or purchasing smaller pharmaceutical or biopharmaceutical companies that have diversified product portfolios or blockbuster drugs.

Recently, the company announced that it wishes to expand in Asia. The company’s plans are to continue expansion in the Asian region where it seeks to increase its profits and revenues as well as earnings potential for the years to come.

Bidness Etc - Exxon Mobil Trims Capital Expenditure By $4.64 Billion For FY15

Exxon's stocks were trading 1% down during trading hours today.

Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) reported Wednesday that it will trim its capital expenditure by $4.64 billion for the fiscal year 2015 (FY15), joining other oil giants which are also considering slashing their spending for the current year.

However, the company intends to stick with its initial product target, which was made when crude was worth more than $100 per barrel, believing that the demand for crude will continue to rise throughout the year.

The oil giant said it will cut its capital spending 12% to $34 billion for FY15, compared to earlier estimates of $38.5 billion.

Exxon's stocks were trading 1% down during trading hours today.

WSJ reported that more than two dozens of independent oil producers have decided to slash its capital expenditure for the current fiscal year by almost $24 million, down from last year’s spending. BP Plc trimmed its spending for FY15 by 13% YoY in February.

Although, Exxon CEO Rex Tiller said that the company will not change its long-term approach to capital allocation, average capital expenditures are likely to be less than $34 billion for FY16 and FY17.

Following years of high spending on massive projects worldwide, Exxon has decided to reduce its capital spending. When crude was trading more than $100 per barrel, oil companies were striving to drill more rigs and enhance their profitability, which resulted in huge development expenses.

In past few months, oil has rallied mostly due to slashing of capital expenditure by oil producing companies, which could aid to bring the oil prices back to its initial level. In mid-February, Brent surpassed $60 for the first time in 2015

The Texas-based oil company said that commodity prices had driven its business strategy, as it plans to raise production level by 2% YoY for FY15. It will further upgrade its new project in Indonesia, Canada, and Angola in FY15. For FY 16 and FY17, it had planned to upsurge development of projects in United Arab Emirates, Russia, and Australia.

Recently in April, the company has been down on its ratings though as the company has lodged a case at the Stockholm arbitrage court against Russia due to the reason of tax dispute because of the excess of its ongoing project in Russia. as notified by the spokeswoman for Russia’s Energy Ministry. The details of this project however weren't disclosed to the media thought through press release. The company itself believes that they have overpaid profit taxes on its oil and gas project Sakhalin-1,. In this the company itself owns a stake of 30% and is seeking reimbursement of their part in this project.

Bidness Etc - Tekmira Experiences A Decrease In Share Value

The biotech company goes through a difficult financial time as its share price drops.

Tekmira Pharmaceutical Corp has been in the recent news as the medicine making company has been seen a very negative dip since the last trading session that it went through. The company has experienced a drop of 0.97% in the share price in the most recent trade that it carried out on the stock index. In the first week of April, the drop in share price has been recorded up to 1% whereas the decrease recorded for the previous four weeks has come around to a massive 7.25%. The analysts covering the stock of the biotech company have recorded that a spark of negative trading has been recorded on the S&P 500 in the most recent trading week that the company has faced which shows a loss of 1.25%.

As for the stock index, the bio company has been observed to be working under bearish energy as it has been reported that Tekmira Pharmaceutical has been going downwards for quite some time on the S&P 500 and the loss has come around to 7.06% if the previous month is also taken into consideration. Analysts that are covering the stock of the company have given guidance to the investors and shareholders by giving them a signal of caution as to how they should be carrying out a further trade with the company.

In the most recent Tekmira Pharmaceutical news, it was seen that after quite a hyped up session in which the share price observed a fluctuating pace, by the end of the trade a massive decrease was witnessed by the bio firm. The loss by which the shares dropped came about at 0.85%. After the points on the stock index saw a dip by 0.15 points, the price of the shares managed to reach a feeble $17.4 after which the company wrapped up the trade.

The shares of Tekmira Pharmaceutical opened at a price of $17.5 at the start of the trading day in which the highest point that the company reached came around at $17.65 and the lowest that the firm reached throughout the day came about at $17.02. Before that, the previous session of the medicine making firm closed at a price of $17.55. The shares that were traded during the fast paced and amusing trade on the stock index were recorded to have a volume of 559,840. The 52 week high price that the company currently holds on the stock index has come around at $29.93.

Bidness Etc - GoPro Experiences A Rise In Stock Value

The action camera makers have witnessed a rise in share price after going through a difficult financial time on the stock index.

In the most recent GoPro news, it was seen that the company traded right up after the action camera makers received a ‘buy’ rating from the analysts of Dougherty & Co. Previously, the same equity firm has given a ‘neutral’ rating to the stock of the company. The analysts have also presented the company with a price target of $55. This has been a surprising factor for the analysts as the share value of the camera making company has faced a serious downfall since the sales in the holiday season. The downfall has been recorded by the financial firms to have come around at 34%.

As for GoPro’s stock news, analysts at Wall Street have high expectations from GoPro as well as they have made predictions for the current year’s quarter earnings and they are expecting the earnings per share to come around at $1.38. The camera making company has been trading on a lower share price than expected and analysts believe that if the company continues to trade in this manner then a price target of $55 will be deemed as a fair target.

The diluted earnings of GoPro have increased over the period of time and it has been predicted that the revenue generated by the company might also increase. Previously, the diluted earnings of the company saw a rise by a massive 164% whereas the sales revenue increased by 41%. So far, Hero camera producers have been going through a difficult fiscal time which is why analysts have made predictions in which a rise of only 4.5% is expected in the growth of the earnings.

Analysts believe that GoPro is a company which is difficult to analyze as it does not have any company that works in its competition. Other cameras producing companies are Nikon and Canon who make cameras quite opposite to what the action camera makers are working on. These cameras are very different from the other kinds of the camera being produced in the industry as they are fast action cameras. According to analysts, at IDC, it is to be believed that the company currently owns around 57% of the action camera used all over the globe.

In the near future, it has been guided by analysts of Futuresource Consulting that GoPro will be witnessing a rise in demand in action cameras as the shipments are expected to rise massively before 2018.

It is to be noted that both Nikon and Canon were seen to step into the action camera making department but failed miserably to make a mark in the industry, bringing no change whatsoever in GoPro’s camera standing in the market.

Bidness Etc - Bed Bath & Beyond Rating and stock price update by Zacks’ and other research firms

Zacks reiterate its hold rating to the stock of Bed Bath and beyond

Bed Bath and Beyond stock once again received Hold rating from Zacks on Monday. Analyst at Zacks’ research firm wrote, “Bed Bath & Beyond posted solid third-quarter fiscal 2014 results, following which the company raised its earnings forecast for fiscal 2014. We are impressed with the company’s focus on strategic initiatives, including store expansion, enhancement of e-commerce capabilities and improvisation of customer services”.

Moreover, the debt free financial statements of the company are continuously creating space to provide more visibility to support future development. Though, the merchandise retail stores’ profit margin that has been adversely affected by an increase in interest expense and rise in net direct to customer shipping cost is still a distress for the company. Together with that it endures to witness macroeconomic headwinds.

Various analysts from different equity research firms have also written about the stock. Oppenheimer escalated its rating to Outperform from market perform and elevated the price objective to $85 from $69 on Monday. Canaccord Genuity research firm re-stated its Buy rating and assigned $88 price target to the stock of BBBY on Sunday. Standard and poor research demoted BBBY stock to Hold with $88 target price on Friday. In the end, Goldman Sachs set $73 price target with a rating of Sell in a research note on Friday. Sell rating by four analysts has been given to the stock along with ten hold and six buy ratings plus an overall price target of $72.62.

The Stock of Bed Bath and Beyond stood at $76.43 at market close on Monday. The retailer has a 52 week high and low of $79.64 and $54.96 respectively. It also had 200 day and 50 day moving average of $71 and $65 with $13.91 billion of market cap and 15.46 P/E ratios.

The company announced its last quarter results on 8th January Thursday. The retailer posted earnings of $1.23 per share for the previous quarter thrashing the consensus projections of $1.19 per share by 4 cents. Talking about revenue, it was able to pocket revenue of $2.94 billion in the parallel quarter. In the comparable quarter last year, BBBY dispatched earnings of $1.12 per share. Its revenue went up by 2.7% when linked with revenue performance of the same quarter prior year. Overall, according to the estimation by analysts Bed Bath and Beyond will report an EPS of 45.05 per share for the ongoing year of 2015.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. and holdings is a retailer which functions under the names BBBY, Christmas Tree Shop.

Bidness Etc - Best Buy To Enhance Shareholders' Rewards Amid Surge In Earnings

Company will reward shareholders by providing healthy dividends and initiating first buyback program since 2012

The largest electronic retailer in the world, Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), plans to enhance rewards for its shareholders after the earnings surged in the fourth quarter of financial year 2015. The company also plans to introduce cost-cutting measures, as it expects sales to decline this fiscal year.

Best Buy will reward its shareholders by providing healthy dividends and initiating its first buyback program since 2012. It will provide a special dividend per share of $0.51 ($180 million) and increase quarter DPS by 21% to $0.23. The company paid $0.19 DPS on 31st December 2014 for 4QFY15. Now it will give additional $0.04 DPS. The consumer electronics chain will also buy back shares worth $1 billion in next three years.

Shares of Best Buy were 3% up in pre-market trading on Tuesday.

“The announcement (of shareholder rewards) demonstrates our commitment to returning excess capital to our shareholders, while preserving our strong balance sheet and our ability to continue to invest in the growth of our business,” said President and CEO of Best Buy, Hubert Joly, in a statement today.

Last month, Best Buy said that its sales will either be flat or decline slightly in the first half of 2015 due to feeble computers’ demand and deflation, which resulted in a 14% decline in shares. To counter the effects of expected issues, Best Buy has decided to initiate its second phase of the cost-cutting scheme in FY16 and intends to save operational cost by $400 million.

Mr. Joly, who took a chief executive seat in 2012, has been striving to make operations more efficient. Although, he wasn’t fully successful in raising the revenues level, he has managed to increase same-store sales growth in two consecutive quarters. However, the company foresees a decline in same-stores' sale in the first half of FY16.

Selling, general and administrative costs plunged 1.77% to $2.22 in 4QFY15. In 4QFY15, the earnings of the company climbed due to strong holiday seasons' sale of mobile phones and home-theatre systems in the US. Revenue from domestic market mounted 2.8% year-on-year, mostly due to its online operations. Since Best Buy believes that consumers only visit retail stores for product testing and buy products online, it has been investing in online operations.

The electronics retailer reported that its earnings jumped 77.13% to $519 million ($1.46 per share) in 4QFY15, compared to $293 million ($0.83 per share) in 4QFY14. Adjusted earnings per share were $1.48. Revenues climbed 1.3% to $14.2 billion in the same period.

Best Buy thrashed $1.35 EPS estimates but missed revenues predictions of $13.35 billion, as the analysts included revenues of its closed operations in China during the quarter.