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Tech stocks - Friday, February 2, 2007

This Week In Tech Stocks

The Lede
+ There were two big stories in tech equities this week. One was the dismisal of Dell's CEO and the return of Michael - the franchise - Dell.

+ The other major story was Google's earnings reporting. Google continues to grow like mad but those expecatations were of course built into the stock so when it did not run past The Street's consensus, it lost a few points.

+ There was also some hoopla with GOOG about Viacom whacking it with a demand that YouTube yank of copy-writed videos. We think that these concerns are not material to the stock price. Legal fights are fully baked into Google's stock price.

Winners
+Elecrtronic Arts beat the street consensus on its quarterly report by a full 5 cents. Analysts still can't agree on EA's prospects so we will have to take it one quarter at a time.

+ Needham's analyst projects that Apple will enjoy a $20 per share boost from sales of iPhone.

+ We hate writing about JDSU. We bought it at the top, sold at it the bottom and are now watching it have another nice quarterly report. The stock did not appreciate because JDSU's forecast was not as bullish as The Street hoped.

+ CNET seems to be awaking from its doldrums with a nice report post stock option scandal. You see CNET resumes all of the place. Some analysts continue to think that CNET is buy-out bait which buoys the stock.

+ Other big winners this week post earnings reports were: SiRF (SIRF), CheckFree (CKFR), edEnvelope (REDE), and Cymer (CYMI).

Losers
+ Disappointing earnings again. Revenues are fine but margins continue to slide. Analysts agree on Amazon that competition is getting stronger from niche eCommerce plays, that free shipping hurts and that Google Check-outs success is not good for Amazon.

+ Symantec to pay $830M for Altiris - and stock falls on news. Analysts supported the long term strategic move as a balance against the threat from Microsoft but felt that short-term Symantec is not strong.