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Nick Chiu

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  • Akamai is Riding Multiple Uptrends

    By Nick Chiu - May 24, 2013 | Tickers: ADBE, AKAM, BBY, VIA

    Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM) is the leading provider of content delivery and cloud infrastructure services for enterprises. The company offers Akamai Intelligent Platform, which help to manage complicated online business, including application, network security, performance, and reliability issues.

    Solid revenue growth for Q1

    Akamai began 2013 with a solid Q1, where its revenue grew 15% year-over-year to $368 million, with strong growth across all segments. Media delivery segment delivered a more »

  • Investing in 4G TD-LTE? China Mobile is Destined to Prevail

    By Nick Chiu - May 23, 2013 | Tickers: AAPL, CHL, SSNLF

    China Mobile (NYSE: CHL), the world’s largest mobile operator, is moving forward with its 4G TD-LTE roll-out. Beginning in June 1, China Mobile is planning to invite around 5,000 users to start testing the TD (Time-Division)-LTE service in Shanghai. China Mobile is expected to cover the whole city with TD-LTE network by the end of this year. China Mobile is also rumored to launch its 4G network more »

  • More Upside Still for Rite Aid?

    By Nick Chiu - May 22, 2013 | Tickers: CVS, RAD, WAG

    Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD) is one of the nation’s largest drugstore chains, operating drugstores in 31 states across the U.S. and in the District of Columbia. Rite Aid continues to rally despite the declining same store sales for April. Rite Aid’s share price had more than doubled since the beginning of the year, outperforming Walgreen (NYSE: WAG) and CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS). Walgreen had advanced 34.78 more »

  • Should Investors Be Happy About An Additional $4 Billion Share Buyback?

    By Nick Chiu - May 22, 2013 | Tickers: GD, LMT, NOC

    Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC), a leading global security company, is buying back an additional $4 billion of the company's common stock, totaling the authorized share repurchase amount to about $5 billion, which is near 27% of the current market cap of $18.58 billion as of May 16, 2013. Northrop plans to retire about 25% of its shares outstanding by the end of 2015. The company will use its more »

  • Are These Dow Companies Buying Back Wisely?

    By Nick Chiu - May 22, 2013 | Tickers: KO, XOM, INTC, IBM, PG

    Companies use share repurchase to reduce the number of shares on the market, thus increasing the value of the remaining shares or supporting the share price. Once the shares are repurchased, the company can either retire the shares or keep them as treasury stock. As a conservative investor, I like to see companies that repurchase shares when the price is undervalued or depressed and when free cash flow continues to more »

  • Will This Silver Miner Shine Again?

    By Nick Chiu - May 22, 2013 | Tickers: HL, PAAS, SSRI

    By producing more than 6.4 million ounces of silver in 2012, Hecla Mining (NYSE: HL) is the number-two U.S. silver miner by output. Currently, Hecla produces silver from Lucky Friday and Greens Creek, the latter of which is one of the largest and lowest-cost silver mines in the world. However, since November 2012, Hecla's share price has continued to slide due to lower silver prices and higher more »

  • Vodafone Wants Growth More than $100 Billion

    By Nick Chiu - May 22, 2013 | Tickers: T, VZ, VOD

    Vodafone Group (NASDAQ: VOD) is the second-largest wireless company in the world behind China Mobile and the largest carrier in terms of the number of countries served. With the recent earnings release, all eyes continue to be on Vodafone’s 45% stake in Verizon Wireless, which is 55% owned by Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ).

    Deal unlikely

    Earlier in late April, Verizon Communications was preparing a possible $100 billion bid for more »

  • Riding the Alternative Fuels Trend With this Solid Company

    By Nick Chiu - May 21, 2013 | Tickers: CLNE, FSYS, GM, WPRT

    Fuel Systems Solutions (NASDAQ: FSYS) designs, manufactures and supplies a proven, cost-effective alternative fuel components and systems for transportation and industrial applications. Fuel Systems offers products including gaseous fuel regulators and fuel shut-off valves to control the pressure and flow of gaseous alternative fuels, such as propane and natural gas, used in internal combustion engines. Fuel Systems continues to perform well in the automotive end and more growth is expected more »

  • Is Sky the Limit? Not for This Company

    By Nick Chiu - May 21, 2013 | Tickers: RFMD, SWKS, TQNT

    Skyworks Solutions (NASDAQ: SWKS) is the company that turns complexity into simplicity by offering analog and mixed signal semiconductors, enabling wireless capabilities. Skyworks continues to benefit from the proliferation of Long-Term Evolution (LTE) in Europe, Asia, and North America, as well as the strong growth in tablets. As the company continues to transform its product mix toward highly customized solutions, Skyworks continues to diversify and expand into multiple markets.

    Recent more »

  • This Little Known Stock Continues to Surprise

    By Nick Chiu - May 20, 2013 | Tickers: ALU, JIVE, YUM

    By improving employee productivity by 15% and helping customers improve revenue by 2%-4%, Jive Software (NASDAQ: JIVE) is more than a social business platform. It is a leader in social business, unleashing productivity and creativity by combining the power of cloud, mobile, big data, and proprietary collaboration technologies via its integrated platform, Social Business Software. The Jive platform gives customers comprehensive tools for communication, collaboration, content creation, and sharing more »

  • Should Investors Get Comfortable with This Struggling Driller?

    By Nick Chiu - May 20, 2013 | Tickers: HAL, NOV, WFT

    Weatherford International (NYSE: WFT), the world’s No. 4 oilfield services provider, offering equipment and services used in the drilling, evaluation, completion, production and intervention of oil and natural gas wells. The firm had been chasing growth, which resulted margin compression and lowered returns as compared to its competitors. However, the management provided an improving outlook in the latest earnings report.

    Recent development

    Earlier in May, Weatherford reported Q1 earnings more »

  • This Newspaper Company Is Still Solid

    By Nick Chiu - May 20, 2013 | Tickers: GCI, NYT, WPO

    Gannett Co. (NYSE: GCI) is an international media company operating on multiple platforms, ranging from Internet and newspaper to TV stations. Gannett publishes 82 daily U.S. newspapers, including USA TODAY, which is the nation's largest-selling daily newspaper.

    Recent development

    For Q1, Gannett reported EPS of $0.44 per diluted share on a GAAP basis as compared to $0.28 for Q1, 2012. Operating income increased $15 million as more »

  • 3D Printing, Which is A Better Bet?

    By Nick Chiu - May 16, 2013 | Tickers: DDD, SSYS, XONE

    The positive momentum for 3D printing companies continues on. Both Stratasys (NASDAQ: SSYS) and ExOne (NASDAQ: XONE) reported strong revenue growth in Q1. Fueled by the recent acquisitions, Stratasys’ revenue increased 118% to $98 million, making the 11th straight quarter of double-digit growth. ExOne also reported solid revenue growth, where its revenue jumped to $7.9 million (up from $2.7 million in Q1, 2012). Earlier in late April more »

  • Where to Invest When the Consumer Spending Improves

    By Nick Chiu - May 15, 2013 | Tickers: AXP, DFS, MA, V

    Has economy improved for real? The answer is yes for consumers. With the latest Q2 earnings report, Visa (NYSE: V) had shown a strong revenue growth, where its net operating revenue had increased 15% year-over-year to $3 billion. MasterCard (NYSE: MA), Visa’s strongest rival in the open-loop card networks, also had 8% increase for its revenue, reaching $1.9 billion in the latest quarter. On the other hand, American more »

  • Buying on Weakness for This Offshore Drilling Provider

    By Nick Chiu - May 15, 2013 | Tickers: NE, SDRL, RIG

    Transocean (NYSE: RIG) owns the world's largest deepwater and ultra-deepwater drilling fleets and provides offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells internationally. Smart investors are patient and focus on the big trend for the long term. Despite the disappointing numbers, Transocean presents a good opportunity to buy on weakness to ride the uprising trend for offshore drilling while the company continues to maintain a strong backlog and more »

  • Time is Running Out for This Storage Solutions Provider

    By Nick Chiu - May 15, 2013 | Tickers: STX, STEC, WDC

    sTec (NASDAQ: STEC) is a leading global provider of enterprise-class solid-state storage solutions, and the company recently delivered a not-so-surprising Q1 report. The revenue was $22 million, which was in-line with analysts’ expectations. Non-GAAP diluted loss per share was $0.41, which was slightly better than analysts’ estimate of $0.42 per share. However, sTec closed with over a 7.5% drop upon its earnings release. Clearly investors are worried more »

  • comScore Scores Big With Q1 Earnings

    By Nick Chiu - May 14, 2013 | Tickers: AXP, SCOR, PG

    comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR), with a market cap of $678.1 million, provides a digital marketing intelligence platform and on-demand digital analytics solutions that help customers make more informed, data-driven business decisions.

    As companies face slower growth globally, they need to spend more wisely and effectively with their available marketing and advertising budgets. This is where comScore fits in; the company provides an intelligence platform that allows customers to analyze and more »

  • Clean Harbors is a Safe Harbor for Long-Term Investment

    By Nick Chiu - May 13, 2013 | Tickers: CLH, RSG, WM

    Clean Harbors (NYSE: CLH), with a market cap of $3.36 billion, is a provider of environmental, energy and industrial services throughout North America. After combining with Safety-Kleen, Clean Harbors now operates 5 segments, including Technical Services, Oil Re-refining and Recycling, Safety-Kleen Environmental Services, Industrial and Field Services and Oil and Gas Field Services.

    Integration of Safety-Kleen

    On May 1, 2013, Clean Harbors reported mixed earnings results for Q1, 2013 more »

  • New Ecosystem With Synergy? How About Alibaba and Sina's Weibo

    By Nick Chiu - May 13, 2013 | Tickers: EBAY, NTES, SINA, SOHU

    Alibaba, known as China's eBay, is buying 18% stake in SINA's (NASDAQ: SINA) Weibo, known as China's Twitter, for $586 million. Alibaba, founded by Jack Ma, has acquired preferred and ordinary shares and has the option to increase its stake to 30%. The new contract will value SINA Weibo at around $3.3 billion, whereas Alibaba is currently valued at around $55 billion as estimated by analysts more »

  • Whole Foods Disputes Growth Concerns with Solid Numbers

    By Nick Chiu - May 13, 2013 | Tickers: SWY, KR, WFM

    Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ: WFM), the largest player in the organic and natural food retail industry, owns and operates a chain of natural and organic foods supermarkets. Whole Foods provides investors an opportunity to invest in the secular growth trend in the organic and all-natural food industry.

    Solid second quarter

    On May 7, Whole Foods reported solid second quarter numbers. Same-store sales increased 6.9%, and sales jumped 9.4 more »

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