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Leo Sun

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  • Inside Amazon's Brave New World of Fan Fiction

    By Leo Sun - May 23, 2013 | Tickers: AMZN, SCHL, TWX

    I never quite understood the appeal of writing fan fiction, in which passionate writers spent copious amounts of time writing derivative works of existing fiction, such as Star Trek. I used to simply consider it a geeky niche sub-genre, since fan fiction could never be published due to copyright issues, and could never reach much farther than a limited circle of friends, family members and Internet visitors. In short, I more »

  • Is HP On The Path to Recovery or Ruin?

    By Leo Sun - May 23, 2013 | Tickers: DELL, GOOG, HPQ, MSFT

    Shares of Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), the world’s largest PC maker, recently surged after the company reported second quarter earnings that exceeded analyst estimates. That rally came as a relief to shareholders of the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company, which has lost over half its market value over the past five years.

    During that time, HP lost its bread and butter PC business. Unexpected disruption from Apple and Google (NASDAQ: GOOGmore »)

  • Will This Retailer Outgrow its Competition?

    By Leo Sun - May 22, 2013 | Tickers: JCP, M, JWN, ROST, TJX

    After consumer confidence and retail sales rebounded in April, Wall Street has turned bullish on U.S. retail stocks. Despite weaker-than-expected earnings from Wal-Mart earlier this month, many investors still believe that upscale department stores, such as Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN), Dillard’s and Macy’s (NYSE: M) will continue growing as they bleed their lower-end peers J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) and Sears Holdings dry.

    Although Wall Street had high more »

  • Can This Packaged Foods Giant Keep Growing?

    By Leo Sun - May 22, 2013 | Tickers: CPB, GIS, MDLZ

    Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) recently reported its third quarter earnings, which came in above analyst estimates on both the top and bottom lines. The stock, which is often considered to be a slow-growth name in the packaged foods industry, has made a surprising comeback over the past year, rallying 37% over the past twelve months to hit all-time highs. What prompted this sudden interest in Campbell Soup, and should investors more »

  • This Tech Stock Could Rise Above It All

    By Leo Sun - May 22, 2013 | Tickers: FB, GOOG, OPEN, YELP

    Shares of online restaurant reservation service OpenTable (NASDAQ: OPEN) have been on fire since the beginning of May, after the San Francisco, Calif.-based company reported first quarter earnings that topped analyst expectations. Due to its categorization as a social media stock, OpenTable is often mentioned in the same breath as Yelp (NYSE: YELP) and Groupon. Yet I believe that OpenTable is a superior investment to either of these companies more »

  • Why This Gaming Console Is Destined to Fail

    By Leo Sun - May 22, 2013 | Tickers: GOOG, NTDOY.PK, NVDA, SNE

    There's no point in being nice about it - Nvidia’s (NASDAQ: NVDA) upcoming portable game console, Shield, will bomb. Nvidia, which I have been bullish on due to its dominance of the graphics cards field, is about to shoot itself in the foot with a bizarre portable game console that is designed as a hybrid Android and portable PC gaming platform.

    Why am I so convinced that the Nvidia more »

  • Should Gunmakers Invest in Smart Guns?

    By Leo Sun - May 22, 2013 | Tickers: GOOG, SWHC, RGR

    If there’s one issue Americans will never agree on, it’s guns. With approximately 40% personal ownership across the country and over 300 million guns in circulation, President Obama will never be able to fully disarm the American public. Efforts to ban assault weapons and extend background checks have failed. Meanwhile, gun ownership background checks have quadrupled since 1999, and gun demand is so high that gunmakers Smith & Wesson more »

  • Are Sunny Days Ahead for This Solar Play?

    By Leo Sun - May 21, 2013 | Tickers: FSLR, GS, SCTY, SPWR, TSLA

    The past five years have been exceptionally cruel to the solar industry. Once considered the next hot growth industry, solar companies have been devastated by crises affecting its core markets - the global financial crisis, the European sovereign debt crisis, the slowdown in China and spending cuts in America all dashed hopes of solar power becoming a viable alternative to traditional sources of energy. The Solyndra scandal also showed that green more »

  • Is it Time to Buy Wal-Mart?

    By Leo Sun - May 20, 2013 | Tickers: AMZN, KSS, TGT, WMT

    Is retail giant Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) truly a bellwether of the health of the U.S. economy? The world’s largest retailer recently blamed a cold spring season, the payroll tax hike, delayed tax refunds and moderate food inflation for its recent top and bottom line miss during its first quarter earnings.

    Yet the market recently contradicted Wal-Mart, as consumer confidence rose to its highest level in nearly six years more »

  • Will Yahoo! Become the Next Big Social Network?

    By Leo Sun - May 19, 2013 | Tickers: FB, GOOG, YHOO

    Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) has been on a major shopping spree this year. Since taking the helm at Yahoo!, CEO Marissa Mayer has been absorbing smaller mobile app producing businesses, such as Astrid, Jybe, Propeld, Stamped, OnTheAir, Snip.it and Summly. Astrid is a to-do list, Jybe, Propeld and Stamped are social recommendations apps, while Snip.it and Summly are focused on news sharing and summarization.

    Yet with $3.0 billion more »

  • Is it Time to Invest in Chinese Travel Stocks?

    By Leo Sun - May 18, 2013 | Tickers: CTRP, LONG, HMIN

    Back in 2007, Chinese travel stocks were expected to be the next great growth industry. At the time, investors had many reasons to be optimistic. The 2008 Olympics were supposed to open the floodgates to tourists, and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo and Guangzhou Asian Games would generate huge amounts of revenue for Chinese travel and lodging companies. Unfortunately, that grand long-term view didn’t account for the devastating 2008-2009 more »

  • The Fruitless Quest for the Elusive Omni-Computer

    By Leo Sun - May 18, 2013 | Tickers: AAPL, BBRY, GOOG, MMI, SSNLF | Editor's Choice

    Last month, BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY) CEO Thorsten Heins claimed that the popularity of tablet computers, dominated by Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iOS and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android devices, would wane over the next five years. Heins predicted that computer users would become increasingly dependent on a single computing device, such as a smartphone docked into a workstation, for all their daily tasks. Heins also vaguely hinted that BlackBerry would eventually release more »

  • A Fable of Three Networking Insects

    By Leo Sun - May 17, 2013 | Tickers: CSCO, FFIV, JNPR

    For a while, the networking gear industry looked like it was on shaky ground. Last month, a series of poor earnings reports from network gear manufacturers F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV), Radware, and Netgear spooked investors, since all three companies blamed budget cuts in both the public and private sectors for their quarterly woes.

    In two previous articles, however, I noted that F5 Networks and Radware’s weakness came from their more »

  • It's Time to Get Carbonated and Caffeinated!

    By Leo Sun - May 17, 2013 | Tickers: GMCR, SODA, SBUX | Editor's Choice

    Two niche products have become surprisingly mainstream over the past five years - SodaStream International’s (NASDAQ: SODA) home beverage carbonation systems and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters’ (NASDAQ: GMCR) Keurig K-Cup single-serving coffee brewers. SodaStream’s stock has risen more than 100% over the past two and a half years since its public debut, while Green Mountain has racked up an 850% gain over the past five. Why have these two more »

  • 3 Small Cap Plays on Rising Retail Sales

    By Leo Sun - May 15, 2013 | Tickers: FRAN, RUE, VRA

    A recent report from the U.S. Department of Commerce showed an unexpected jump in retail sales for April, which rose 0.5% year-on-year after an anemic 0.1% gain in March. Excluding gas and auto sales, retail sales rose 0.6%. Economists had originally projected a 0.3% decline in April.

    Strong sales of building materials, clothing, sporting goods and electronics boosted retail sales, which account for 30% of more »

  • Let the Mobile Chat Wars Begin!

    By Leo Sun - May 15, 2013 | Tickers: AAPL, FB, GOOG, MSFT, TCEHY.PK | Editor's Choice

    A new battle has erupted in the mobile world of smartphones and tablets - the battle of the instant messaging apps.

    Research firm Informa recently estimated that across the world, 19.1 billion mobile instant messages were sent daily in 2012, compared to 17.6 billion traditional SMS messages. This indicates that old SMS functions are losing their technological relevance as users with Internet data plans opt to send free messages more »

  • What Time Warner Should Learn from Disney

    By Leo Sun - May 14, 2013 | Tickers: TWX, DIS | Editor's Choice

    Note: The original version of this post contained incorrect information about The Avengers' all-time ranking. It has been corrected.

    Looking at the recent popularity and profitability of Disney’s (NYSE: DIS) Marvel movie franchises, I’ve frequently wondered why Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), the parent company of DC Comics, has failed to replicate that success with its characters. Whereas Disney was able to brilliantly weave all of its Marvel movies more »

  • Two Fad Footwear Stocks to Avoid and One to Buy

    By Leo Sun - May 14, 2013 | Tickers: CROX, DECK, SKX

    Short-term traders love fad stocks. The public’s temporary infatuation with a hot product often causes investors to turn a blind eye to basic stock fundamentals, which often causes big rallies that can translate into big profits for traders. However, long-term investors should be wary of top-heavy fad stocks, which could unexpectedly fall off a cliff once the public tires of a product, or if it becomes commoditized through imitation more »

  • Why Facebook is Crazy About Waze

    By Leo Sun - May 12, 2013 | Tickers: AAPL, FB, GOOG | Editor's Choice

    Is Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) looking to add its own digital mapping service to the largest social network in the world? Recent reports that the company could pay up to $1 billion for crowdsourced Israeli mapping company Waze appear to confirm that Facebook plans to roll out its own maps service to rival Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), and to reduce its dependence on maps from Microsoft Bing.

    If the deal goes through more »

  • Should You Invest in These Fast Food Giants?

    By Leo Sun - May 11, 2013 | Tickers: BKW, MCD, WEN

    Over the past decade, the fast food industry has rapidly evolved. Fast food companies revamped their domestic menus to cater to a more health-conscious population, while expanding overseas in search of higher growth.

    Increased competition from a disruptive group of bistro eateries such as Panera Bread and Chipotle also forced lower-end restaurants to offer higher quality food. Meanwhile, a struggling global economy highlighted the importance of value menus. Unpredictable food more »

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