Tech Earnings Roundup: AAPL, FB, GOOG

By Callum Turcan Several large tech companies reported earnings this week including three of the top holdings in our Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolios. Apple On October 30, Apple Inc (AAPL) reported fourth quarter earnings for fiscal 2019 (three month period ended September 28) that saw GAAP revenues shift higher by 2% versus the same period last year, hitting $64.0 billion. Its services revenues jumped up by 18% year-over-year while its products revenues declined by a bit over 1% year-over-year, highlighting Apple’s focus on higher margin services sales opportunities. Even so, Apple’s GAAP gross margin fell by over 30 basis points year-over-year due in part to the negative impact of the US-China trade war on top of … Read more

The Valuentum Buying Index Doesn’t Disappoint: Highest-Rated Baidu Reports

Article updated to reflect pricing open. We’re still navigating through a rough patch in growing the outperformance of the Best Ideas portfolio, but we were very pleased to see continued validation of the efficacy of the Valuentum Buying Index, our stock-selection methodology, with Best Ideas portfolio holding Baidu (BIDU) reporting excellent fourth-quarter results after the market close Wednesday. Chinese Internet search giant Baidu is one of the top-rated firms registering a pristine 10 on the Valuentum Buying Index and one of the latest inclusions to the Best Ideas portfolio, added August 1, 2013 (view email transaction alert archive here). Shares were trading at $133.60 at the time of the alert, representing more than a 30% move in just the past … Read more

Get To Know Yahoo!’s Management; We Value Alibaba at $75 Billion

The only question that comes to mind after looking at the below slide is: What turnaround? Image Source: Yahoo GAAP revenue down 5%. Revenue ex-TAC down 1%. Adjusted EBITDA down 19%. Income from operations down 39%. Non-GAAP operating income down 27%. Net earnings down 91%. EPS attributable to Yahoo down 89%. Non-GAAP EPS down 13%. Free cash flow down 73%. Cash and marketable securities down 66%. It’s flat-out puzzling that CEO Marissa Mayer included the following statement in the third-quarter press release: “I’m very pleased with our execution, especially as we’ve continued to invest in and strengthen our core business.” We understand the importance of staying positive, but her statement is quite a stretch considering actual financial performance at the core Yahoo business.  The only line item in … Read more