PayPal beats on earnings and revenue, but falls after hours on profit taking
PayPal Holdings (PYPL) reported fourth quarter earnings of 55 cents a share, 3 cents a share above Wall Street estimates, and revenue of $3.71 billion (on a foreign-exchange neutral basis) vs projections for $3.63 billion. Revenue climbed 24% year over year for the...
Two big deals for Tencent Holdings support valuation
First, on January 15, China’s Tencent Holdings (TCEHY) announced that it would partner with privately-owned Lego to develop a Lego streaming video zone for children on Tencent’s video platform and create Lego-branded games for Tencent’s gaming...
Starbucks disappoints in quarter but recovery in 2018 is on track
Blame it on Christmas Tree Frappuccino. On Thursday, January 25, after the market close Starbucks (SBUX) reported December (fiscal 2018 first quarter) earnings of 58 cents a share (excluding one-time tax benefits.) The results were ugly on the revenue side where  the...
GDP disappoints, durable goods orders solid
The first read on growth in the U.S. economy during the fourth quarter was a tad disappointing. GDP increased by 2.6% year over year in the fourth quarter. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com were looking for growth of 2.9%. In the third quarter of 2017 GDP grew at a...
Caterpillar beats on earnings and guidance but stock falls 1.4% today
Investors and traders were determined to sell Caterpillar (CAT) shares after the stock gained 70% in 2017. That determination overshadowed yesterday’s good news on fourth quarter earnings and positive guidance for 2018. The shares, which I added to my Jubak...
Helmerich & Payne completes its recovery from 2017 drilling slump; keeping the stock in my Dividend Portfolio
Helmerich & Payne (HP) reported December quarter (first quarter of the 2018 fiscal year) earnings of $4.57 a share. Â As they say on Wall Street–that $4.57 a share may not be comparable to the Wall Street analyst consensus estimate of a loss of 13 cents for...
Adding Boeing to Jubak Picks on weak dollar, strong global economy, tax cuts
Shares of Boeing (BA) have tumbled from $351.01 on January 17 to close at $334.69 today. I’m using the pull back to add shares to my Jubak Picks portfolio tomorrow, January 25. The Boeing story right now is one of multiple tailwinds pushing the stock higher. A...
Adding Caterpillar to my Jubak Picks and Volatility Portfolios ahead of earnings tomorrow
Caterpillar (CAT) looks to be a major beneficiary of the lower tax rates in the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act and for a lower U.S. dollar. (See today’s encouragement of a weaker dollar from Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin at Davos today.) Not that Caterpillar sales...
My eighth stock pick of Christmas is Bank of America–and eight maids a-milking
I’m adding shares of Bank of America (BAC) to my Dividend Portfolio today. The stock yields only 1.2% on trailing 12-month dividend payments so why am I adding it to a portfolio dedicated to beating the yield on the 10-year Treasury bond? Because Bank of America...
My seventh stock pick of Christmas is McDonald’s–and seven swans a-swimming
I’ve become convinced that the best way to think about McDonald’s (MCD) and other established fast-food stocks is as cyclicals. Oh, not in the usual way where the fortunes of a company rise and fall with the cycles in the economy. No, I think the...
Turmoil isn’t done in lithium sector with volatility at SQM and ALB
The announcement of a deal between Sociedad QuÃmica y Minera de Chile (SQM) and Chile’s development agency CORFO that resolves a long-standing dispute on royalty rates and that would allow SQM to expand lithium production from the brines at government-owned...
For shares of Bank of America and Goldman Sachs it’s all about the future
Certainly no one cheered when Bank of America (BAC) and Goldman Sachs (GS) announced big one-time hits from the recently passed tax bill, but as with JP Morgan Chase (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC) last week, the big deal for investors was what these huge financial...
Consumer Electronics Show caps great month for Synaptics
Shares of Synaptics (SYNA) closed up 13.35% today at $49.76 thanks to an upgrade to sector overweight from sector weight from KeyBanc Capital Markets and a very impressive showing for the company’s fingerprint technology for smartphones at the just concluded...
I’m adding copper exposure to my Jubak’s Picks Portfolio by moving Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold from my 50 Stocks Portfolio
By this time I think you get the message: I like the trend in copper prices and copper stocks over the next five years. I’ve added copper producers South Copper (SCCO) to my long-term 50 Stocks Portfolio and First Quantum Minerals (FQVLF) to my volatility...
On the fifth day of Christmas my stock pick is Applied Materials–and five golden rings
All the work by Nvidia, Intel, Applied Micro Devices, and Alphabet that I described in my fourth day of Christmas stock pick post means lots of orders for the companies that make the machines that make the chips for new markets in artificial intelligence, data mining,...
Time to clear away the brush in my long-term 50 Stocks portfolio–selling four stocks out of this portfolio ahead of January rebalancing
In the first week of January I’m going to rebalance, per the strategy I pursue with this portfolio, my long-term 50 Stocks Portfolio. That means I’ll be taking profits in the big winners of 2017 and adding to positions in the laggards for the year ahead....
On the fourth day of Christmas my stock pick is Nvidia–and four colly birds
And what’s a colly bird and isn’t it “calling birds”? “Colly” derives from the Old English word for coal. So the song’s lyrics here call for four blackbirds. All the evidence I’ve seen argues that the use of “colly...
Apple gets a two-pronged roasting and the stock stumbles
Apple (AAPL) is getting hit from two directions in the closing days of 2017. On the negative news Apple fell 2.5% yesterday, December 26. The shares rebounded very slightly–0.02%–today. The first bad news came yesterday as analysts cut their estimates for...
Lithium producer SQM soars after Chilean election
Quite a good two days for Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile or SQM for short. The Chilean producer of lithium climbed almost 8% yesterday and tacked on another 2.8% today. The shares (SQM) are now up 11.47% since I added them to my long-term 50 Stocks Portfolio back...
On the third day of Christmas my stock pick for 2018 is Southern Copper–and three french hens
Way back on August 17 I finished off a bullish story on the copper sector with the promise of some stock picks. My apologies: I left that string dangling. But today I’m using the third of my 12 Stock Picks of Christmas to add Southern Copper (SCCO) to my...
On the second day of Christmas my stock pick for 2018 is Nektar Therapeutics–and two-turtle doves
No point in hoping that Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) will match this year’s gain of 364% as of the close on December 18. But I think the stock could easily climb another 30% or more in 2018 as the company de-risks its very promising drug candidates in the opioid...
On the first day of Christmas my first stock pick for 2018 is Amazon–and a partridge in a pear tree
I think 2018 will be the year that Amazon (AMZN) finally starts motoring on all cylinders. Not that the stock has done all that badly in 2017–up 56.5% year-to-date as of December 15–on its dominance of the e-commerce economy and it’s leading position...
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Macao–and for MGM Resorts
The first ten days of December have been strong for gaming revenue in Macao. That has led investment company Sanford Bernstein to project that gaming revenue in Macao will climb 21% to 23% for the month. That would be stronger than expected–and bodes well for...
Synaptics announces top 5 phone OEM will use its in-display fingerprint sensor
This is the kind of news that the very patient investors in Synaptics (SYNA) have been waiting for. The specialist in touch-screen display technologies have announced that a top OEM will put its in-display fingerprint sensors into mass production. The phone maker will...
One less competitor for Corning in optical fiber
Corning (GLW) will buy the Communication Markets Division of 3M (MMM) for $900 million. The 3M division has approximately $400 million in annual sales of high bandwidth and optical fiber products. Corning expects the acquisition to add 7 cents to 9 cents to its fiscal...
Autoliv to spin off its auto electronics safety business
No surprise really, which is why shares of Autoliv (ALV) climbed only 0.75% on the news today. Â But it’s still good to have a formal decision: After completing its review of the business, the company’s board has decided to spin off Autoliv’s auto...
Apple to buy Shazam: Now that’s one great move
Today Apple (AAPL) announced that it would buy Shazam for a price that Recode estimates is around $400 million. How do I like this deal? Let me count the ways. (Apple is a member of my long-term 50 Stocks portfolio.) First, in acquiring Shazam, Apple will get a huge...
China’s Tencent Holdings buys a stake in Spotify before that company’s IPO
China’s leading Internet gaming and entertainment company Tencent Holdings (TCEHY) has swapped stakes with music streaming company Spotify. Tencent Music Entertainment (TME), the unit of Tencent Holdings that manages its music streaming and karaoke services,...
A reminder of why Jubak Pick Incyte has been so weak lately
On December 4 MacroGenics (MGNX) announced that it had closed on its previously announced (October 25) license agreement with Incyte (INCY). For an upfront payment of $150 million and up to $420 million in milestone payments Incyte gained the exclusive global rights...Jim’s Daily Email Alerts:
Every post from Jubak Picks straight to your mailbox. And they're free!