Tulsa, Oklahoma-based diversified energy company, ONEOK Inc. (NYSE: OKE) today announced that its Board of Directors authorized the management to pursue a plan to separate the company’s natural gas distribution business into a standalone publicly traded company.
Continue reading Major Movers on July 25; OKE, CROX, FB, DHI, PHM, BIDU
Shares of the Coca Cola Company (NYSE: KO) fell about 2.90% in early trade as the soft drink giant disappointed with fiscal second quarter results. Coca Cola posted a net income of $2.68 billion or 59 cents a share compared to a profit of $2.79 billion or 61 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter.
Continue reading Major Movers on July 16; KO, CTAS, MPC, BIDU, BWLD
China’s leading search engine company, Baidu.com Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ: BIDU) announced on Tuesday that it has entered in a preliminary deal with NetDragon to acquire China’s major app store developer, 91 wireless in deal worth $1.9 billion.
Continue reading Baidu to Acquire China’s App store Developer 91 Wireline for $1.90 Billion (BIDU)
Shares of D.R. Horton Inc. (NYSE: DHI) rallied about 6.20% by early trade after the homebuilder reported better-than-expected fiscal second quarter results.
Continue reading Major Movers on April 26; DHI, AMZN, BIDU, EXPE, FSL, JCP, CSTR
Shares of Power Integrations Inc. (NASDAQ: POWI), a designer, developer, manufacturer and marketer of high-voltage, analog and mixed-signal integrated-circuit (IC) products and high-voltage silicon diodes, are soaring in trading today after the company reported its fourth-quarter financial results.
Continue reading Major Movers on February 5; POWI, BIDU, CSC
Chinese search engine giant, Baidu.com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ: BIDU) reported late on Monday that fiscal fourth-quarter profit jumped 36% thanks to double-digit revenue growth; nonetheless, shares slumped nearly 6% in aftermarket trading as the Wall Street analysts were unimpressed by rising company’s costs even as doubts linger on whether the Company would be able to take advantage of rising usage of mobile computing.
Baidu, whose nearly entire revenue is generated from search advertising, has posted steady revenue-growth in recent quarters even as it enjoys the number position in Chinese search engine market, leaving behind nearest rival Google in 2010 as it was forced to shift its regional search traffic to Hong Kong following disagreements with Chinese officials concerning online censorship.
Nonetheless, Baidu’s share in the search engine market as a percentage of revenue has witnessed has been languishing. It was down to 79% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012 from 76% in the same period of fiscal 2010. As advertisers trimmed their budget outlays in the wake of economic slowdown in China, Baidu was pressed to do more to attract advertisers.
Moreover, competition is also rising. An antivirus company, Qihoo 360 Technology Co., launched its search engine, last August, and it remains to be seen whether this will impact Baidu’s market-share.
Now in order to retain its number -one search engine status, the Company has been investing on mobile services as more and more users in China, just like the U.S. prefer smartphones for computing. Lately, Baidu has also launched its own mobile browsers and working closely with handsets manufacturers.
Still, the Company will need to do a lot for gaining traction in mobile internet business, said Company’s Chief Executive, Robin Li to analysts and investors in a conference call. “there’s a lot of work we need to do to make [internet mobile business] a better channel for our advertisers,” adding that it can take two more years before Baidu can properly reap benefits from mobile internet business.
For the fiscal fourth quarter, Baidu reported a profit of 2.8 billion Chinese yuan ($448.7 million), or 7.99 yuan an American depositary share ($1.28), compared with 2.05 billion yuan, or 5.87 yuan an ADS, in the year-earlier quarter.
After excluding onetime items such as stock based compensation, earnings stood at 8.18 yuan an ADS or $1.31, slightly ahead of analysts’ forecast for $1.29, according to a data compiled by Thomson Reuters.
Revenue during the quarter climbed 42% to 6.335 billion yuan.
While selling, general and administrative expenses leaped 52% from the same period of last fiscal to $127.2 million, research and development expenses jumped 70% from the year earlier quarter to $112.6 million.
Shares of EnergySolutions Inc. (NYSE: ES) surged 8.28% to $3.72 after the company announced that it agreed to be acquired by a subsidiary of Energy Capital Partners II, LLC in a deal estimated at $1.1 billion. According to the deal, each shareholder of EnergySolutions will get $3.75 in cash for each share of common stock. The deal represents a premium of 20 percent over the average closing price of Energysolution’s stock in previous 30 days ended January 4 2013.
Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) shares plunged 7.66 percent after Roche Holding Chairman Franz Humer confirmed in an interview that the Company does not hold any plans to acquire the gene-sequencing-specialist.
Shares of movie steaming company Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) climbed nearly 1.5 percent after the company announced a licensing agreement with Warner Bros. Television Group.
CombiMatrix Corporation (NASDAQ: CBMX) rallied on Monday. The stock gained almost 15 percent after the developer of cancer diagnostics and testing services for developmental disorders said that it anticipates higher-than-expected year-over-year growth in volume in prenatal testing for the fiscal fourth quarter and full year.
Shares of VIVUS Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) climbed 10.50 percent on Monday after the company reported that prescription of anti-obesity drug Qsymia, its key product, jumped almost 68 percent for a four week period ended December 21, compared to preceding four week period. The number of prescriptions in the latest period comfortably beat analysts’ expectations. The drug manufacturer said that it shipped 12,978 prescription of Qsymia in December up from 7,749 prescriptions in the four week period, ended November 23.
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) shares gained around 3.30 percent after Morgan Stanley upwardly revised its rating on the stock to “overweight” from “neutral”.
Newcastle Investment Corp. (NYSE: NCT) shares leaped almost 5.50 percent on Monday. Newcastle Investment said that it intends to make a public offering of 40 million shares of common stock. The company also said that it plans to offer underwriters the option for 30 days to buy up to an additional 6 million shares of common stock.
Baidu.com Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) shares fell almost 3 percent after analyst at Barclays slashed its rating on the stock t to” Equalweight”, citing concerns over earnings , lack of footprint in mobile computing, and Qihoo’s (QIHU) search success. Barclays which started its coverage on Baidu from October 2011 with “outperform” rating, cuts its price target last August.
Shares of Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. (NYSE: NSM) jumped 11.50 percent after it entered in a deal to buy $215 billion worth residential mortgage servicing rights from Bank of America (NYSE: BAC).
Shares of social gaming company Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) gained on Monday after the company confirmed that it has shuttered 11 of the 13 worst performing titles. Earlier in October 2012, the Company had said that it will pull-out underperforming13 titles by the end of January 2013 as it looked to slash costs and enhance efficiency as well as profitability by diverting resources in developing new titles. The Company has lost significant number of gamers for its once popular titles published in the Facebook platform due to growing competition from other gaming companies as well as lack of visibility in mobile.
Addressing staff through a company-wide email, Charles Chao, Chief Executive of China’s internet-media giant, Sina Corp. (NASDAQ: SINA) charted out company’s strategy for 2013. Chao said that the company’s strategy will revolve around restructuring its business which would allow it to focus on mobile-computing business or “mobile-first” as described by the CEO.
Continue reading Sina’s CEO Unveils 2013 Strategy Through a Company-Wide Email (SINA)
Shares of China Finance Online Co. (ADR) (NASDAQ: JRJC), a provider of vertically integrated financial services through web portals, software systems and mobile handsets, are surging in trading today after the company announced that it entered into an exclusive partnership with Baidu.com (ADR) (NASDAQ: BIDU) on mobile web application.
Continue reading Micro-Cap on the Move; China Finance Online Co. (JRJC)