Tag: results

Vodafone is back in the money

Posted on May 19, 2015 by - News

vodafoneBritain’s Vodafone posted a rise in its quarterly sales for the first time in nearly three years.

This was thanks to improving trends in its key European markets and demand for its 4G mobile services.

The world’s second largest mobile operator said the rise in fourth quarter revenue of 0.1 percent, which followed 10 quarters of declines, meant that its overall earnings could also stabilise in 2016.

Vodafone has been hit hard by the constraints on consumer spending in its big European markets and by regulator-imposed price cuts, forecast a range for 2015-16 earnings of £11.5 billion pounds to “£12 billion.

Compared to the £11.9 billion pounds it reported for the 2014-15 period the company could be heralding a return to growth following seven straight years of earnings decline.

Analysts say Vodafone has a tendency to set a cautious outlook so the figures might even be better than that.

Chief Executive Vittorio Colao said the company had seen increasing signs of stabilisation in many of its European markets, supported by improvements in its commercial execution and very strong demand for data.

Vodafone has 446,000 mobile customers in countries ranging from Albania to Spain, Qatar, India, South Africa and New Zealand. However, in the EU, customers cut back on using their phones at a time when Vodafone needed to invest in new networks.

With growth also slowing in its emerging markets, Vodafone embarked on a programme to either build or buy superfast fixed-line broadband networks to compete with rivals offering mobile contracts alongside television, broadband or fixed-line deals.

 

Red Hat does better than expected

Posted on March 26, 2015 by - News

red-hatRed Hat has surprised the cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street by being able to stick to its profit forcast, despite the US dollar shooting through the roof.

Red Hat predicted it would make a profit for the first quarter that matched analysts’ estimates despite warning on a strong dollar hurting its revenue.

Red Hat shares were up five percent in after-market trading after the company’s profit beat the average analyst estimate for the eighth straight quarter.

The company also said a $500 million share buyback program will replace an existing $300 million programme.

Red Hat gets nearly half its revenue from international operations and expected to suffer from the US dollar’s strong gains. HP, Microsoft and IBM had estimated a significant impact from the dollar’s gains.

The company, whose customers include Adobe and Verizon, forecast an adjusted profit of $469 million-$474 million for the first quarter.

Red Hat also forecast a revenue of $1.99-$2.02 billion for the full year. Analysts were expecting  revenues of $2.02 billion.

The company’s billings revenue was $688 million in the fourth quarter. Analysts had expected $646.2 million.

 

Sony makes more money

Posted on March 17, 2015 by - News

sony_logo_720Sony seems to be starting to recover from its period of falling profits and woe.

The Japanese consumer electronics maker said its official third-quarter operating profit was $1.5 billion, up 2.2 percent from what it thought it would get last month.

Apparently there was a boost to the bottom line by strong sales of sensors and videogames it also has been cutting back and looking down the back of the sofa for the odd penny or two.

Sony said that its earlier estimate wasn’t final, as Sony had not yet compiled accurate data for its Hollywood movie studio after a massive hack into its computer systems. On February.4 Sony said third-quarter operating profit was nearly double year-earlier and a sign that its nadgers were out of the fire and had an ice pack placed on them.

Sony said that including official results for the movie studio, quarterly revenue rose 6.5 percent from a year earlier.

Forecasts for the full-year ending March 31 were unchanged.

Sony shares have risen more than 30 percent so far this year on hopes of a turnaround, following a program of massive cuts in unprofitable segments and targeted expansion in lucrative areas such as sensors for smartphone cameras.

 

Future not bright for Orange

Posted on March 17, 2015 by - News

OrangeFrench telco Orange is not doing that well and has surrendered on the idea of getting a recovery before 2018.

Orange has announced it would take at least until then for sales and core operating profit to exceed 2014 levels as pressure would continue in its domestic market.

Chief Executive Stephane Richard said he thought the low point for group sales would come next year, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) would bottom this year.

“Our revenues have been falling for five years. We’ve been through a major re-set in France and the impact is still being felt, although most of our customers have passed over to the lower prices,” he said on a conference call.

His cunning plan calls for Orange to invest more in its networks in the coming years, putting more than $15.87 billion in to mobile and fixed networks upgrades to boost broadband speeds as it seeks to differentiate from competitors with better quality of service.

Cost cutting efforts will also continue with a further three billion euros in gross savings targeted through 2018 on par with an earlier cost cutting plan that was lauded by investors.

 

Cisco did better than expected

Posted on February 12, 2015 by - News

cfd548a13a777938dc3e31e616d31a70Network equipment maker Cisco reported stronger than expected quarterly revenue and profits as demand for switching equipment and routers picked up.

Cisco has been trying to move towards a new cycle of high-end switches and routers.

Its switching business, which makes products that handle traffic at large internet data centres, netted  39 percent of Cisco’s total hardware revenue in 2014, while the router business accounted for about 21.2 percent.

This means that the outfit is seeing robust switching sales, which is good news for other outfits in the sector such as Infoblox, Gigamon and F5 Networks which should also be doing well.

Rvenue from Cisco’s hardware business rose 7.8 percent to $9.08 billion in the company’s second quarter ended Jan. 24.

Revenue from services, which includes the company’s software and cloud offerings, rose 4.6 percent to $2.86 billion.

So analysts think that Cisco has put the worst behind it and should start returning to the days when it was a blue chip investment.

Chief Executive John Chambers said that the quarter showed the best balance of growth across all of the company’s geographies, products and segments,.

Cisco said its net profit rose to $2.4 billion in the quarter from $1.43 billion, a year earlier. Total revenue rose seven percent to $11.94 billion.

Analysts on average had expected a revenue of $11.8 billion.

Kramer added that while Cisco has made progress in the second quarter, the company will continue to be affected by headwinds from emerging markets and telecom service providers.

The company also forecast revenue growth of 3-5 percent.

 

ARM does better than expected

Posted on February 11, 2015 by - News

ARM-Cortex-A15-chipIt seems that the British chip designer ARM has done a lot better than the cocaine nose-jobs of Wall Street have predicted.

ARM posted a 25 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit, ahead of expectations, helped by a strong year end in companies licensing its technology and growing royalty revenues.

The Tame Apple press  claims that the ARM success has all been down to Apple’s iPhone 6, although ARM powers most of the world’s smartphones.

ARM reported pre-tax profit of 118.9 million pounds on revenue of 225.9 million pounds, up 19 percent.

Licensing revenue was up 27 per cent on the year mainly based on 53 licences signed for processors.

“We anticipate that total group dollar revenues for Q1 will be up about 10 percent year on year, based on strengthening royalty revenue growth, and our expectation of the profile of license revenue through the year,” the company said.

Analysts were predicting pre-tax profit of £113 million, according to a consensus compiled by Thomson Reuters.

 

Sony stumbling away from doom

Posted on February 4, 2015 by - News

doom_sprite_wallpaper_by_bobspfhorever78-d6lij4oElectronics giant Sony appears to be pulling out of its  death spiral.

The consumer electronics firm said on Wednesday preliminary results showed that operating profit had doubled to $1.52 billion in the October-December quarter, while sales rose 6 percent.

This was well ahead of what the cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street expected and they rushed from their expensive loos screaming “buy, buy, buy.”

To be fair, the company is not home and hosed yet.  In fact it could not even be said to be at the front gate contemplating a nice hot bath and a rigorous toweling down.

Sony also forecast a preliminary full-year net loss of $1,44,841,1900 but since this was better than the  than its forecast last October estimating a net loss of $ 1,959,616,100 for the year no one appears to be quibbling.

The company had said it would delay announcing the official results for the third quarter as its Hollywood studio struggled to recover from a massive hacking of its computer systems. The company, in the midst of a restructuring, said on Wednesday its Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai would announce a “new business strategy” on February 18.

The company will cut 2,100 jobs in the unit by the end of the next fiscal year through March 2016, including around 1,000 cuts already announced.

Sony’s image sensors have emerged as one of its best performing product lines in recent quarters.

Lenovo cleans up

Posted on February 3, 2015 by - News

clean_up_after_yourselfDespite a miserable year for the smartphone industry, Lenovo managed to do rather well and saw its third quarter revenue rise 31 percent to $14.1 billion.

This beat what the cocaine nose-jobs of Wall Street expected as its mobile division sales more than doubled following its acquisition of Motorola.

Lenovo wrote a cheque for  $2.91 billion for Motorola, the US handset brand with a long sales history in the United States and Europe, as part of an effort to diversify away from the shrinking PC market.

These results took into account two months of Motorola’s performance and Lenovo said Motorola sold more than 10 million handsets during the quarter for the first time.

This is good news as Lenovo has been having trouble in its home market of China. Xiaomi swept aside Lenovo in China but has largely avoided Western markets due to fears of intellectual property challenges.

The company is expected to make a comeback against Xiaomi in China by adopting its rival’s Internet distribution model. Lenovo in May signed a deal with e-commerce site JD.com and announced a subsidiary last month to sell smartphones and wearables exclusively online.

Under Lenovo, Motorola will re-enter the Chinese market and be distributed primarily online, Yang said.

Total sales from the mobile division leapt 109 percent to $3.39 billion, or a quarter of the company’s sales.

Lenovo said net profit was $253 million, down from $265 million a year prior due to ballooning expenses associated with closing two major acquisitions. The Beijing-based company also acquired IBM’s low-end server unit for $2.1 billion.

The results beat expectations of $13.71 billion in revenue and $200 million in net profit.

Lenovo continued to consolidate its hold on the PC market, reaching a record 20 percent share during the quarter with sales of $9.15 billion. Shipments rose five  percent compared with a three percent decline in the broader industry, with growth particularly strong in Eastern Europe.

Google sunk by the US dollar and Facebook

Posted on January 30, 2015 by - News

eric-schmidt-testimonyThe cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street clutched the spaces where their hearts should be after the search engine Google announced that its revenue growth had been stalled by the strong US dollar.

Google’s revenue grew 15 percent in the fourth quarter but fell short of Wall Street’s target thanks to declining online ad prices and unfavorable foreign exchange rates.

The outfit appears to be losing ground to Facebook on the advertising front. Facebook reported on Wednesday that mobile ads on its network doubled year-over-year during the fourth quarter.

Google said the “cost per click,” decreased 3 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter, while the number of consumer clicks on its ads increased 14 percent.

Analysts had expected  gains in cost-per-click and they are now saying that Google’s business is slowing and it is going to look worse as the dollar strengthens.

Consolidated revenue in the three months ended Dec. 31 totalled $18.10 billion, compared to $15.71 billion in the year-ago period. Wall Street expected revenue of $18.46 billon.

Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette said in a statement that revenue grew “despite strong currency headwinds”.

Net income rose to $4.76 billion from $3.38 billion a year earlier.

Apple has record breaking results

Posted on January 28, 2015 by - News

apple-disney-dreams-snow-white-Favim.com-142405The Tame Apple Press is beside itself with joy as it reported that its favourite company had some rather good results.

Phrases like “smashed Wall Street expectations.” “record sales” and “largest profit in corporate history” were liberally used.

The company sold 74.5 million iPhones in its fiscal first quarter ended December  27, while many analysts had expected fewer than 70 million. Revenues rose to $74.6 billion from $57.6 billion a year earlier.

S&P analyst Howard Silverblatt claimed that Apple’s $18 billion profit was the biggest ever reported by a public company, worldwide and Apple’s cash pile is now $178 billion, enough to buy IBM.

The Tame Apple Press were even more excited when Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said the Cupertino, California-based company would release the Apple Watch, in April, nearly two years behind the market.

The press rushed to find analysts who said that Apple was jolly brilliant while Microsoft and IBM had disappointing results.

However, as you might expect there was an element of selective reporting. For example, analysts expected Apple to sell more iPhones in China than the US – it did not. Although sales in China were “up 70 percent on last year” sales behind the bamboo curtain were not that great last year. The Tame Apple Press praised the company’s partnership with China Mobile for being responsible for the increase in sales, ignoring the fact they predicted earlier that China sales would be blistering.

Unable to blame Apple, Reuters blamed the Chinese economic slow down for the poor Chinese outing and instead claimed that Apple was well positioned to do better next year.

Apple reported net profit of $18.02 billion compared with $13.07 billion a year earlier. Analysts had expected revenue of $67.69 billion.

Cooler heads pointed out that Apple would face problems next year because of the stronger dollar and predicted that things would not be as good. Apple predicted revenue of $52 billion to $55 billion in its fiscal second quarter, compared with Wall Street’s average target of $53.79 billion.

Meanwhile Cook was touting new shiny things to encourage more positive talk about the outfit.  Not only did he promise to release the iWatch which is now so out of date the specs were originally designed on the great pyramid, he talked about Apple’s new mobile payment service, Apple Pay which is, so far, to make much headway.

The largest profit in corporate history was Fannie Mae which made $84 billion in 2013.

Microsoft’s profit falls thanks to strong dollar

Posted on January 27, 2015 by - News

dollarSoftware giant Microsoft reported a fall in its quarterly profit as sluggish PC sales dampened demand for Windows software and the company struggled with the impact of the strong US dollar.

Shares of the world’s largest software company, which have surged to 14-year highs in the past few months, fell three percent.

The fall did not seem to faze the cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street who seemed to be expecting it. Not much can really stand up to a high dollar pressure and most thought the numbers were good enough.

Microsoft’s flagship Windows business has been under pressure for three years as PC sales have declined, although the market appears to be stabilising in recent months.

Currency shifts against the strong U.S. dollar also crimped profit in the fiscal second quarter, ended December 31, although Microsoft did not specify by how much. Microsoft gets almost three-quarters of its revenue from overseas, but a significant amount of that is still in US dollars.

Commercial licensing is chiefly sales of Windows and Office to business customers, which is Microsoft’s biggest revenue generator.

Microsoft reported profit of $5.86 billion for the latest quarter, compared with $6.56 billion last year.

Sales rose eight percent to $26.47 billion, largely due to the acquisition of Nokia’s phone handset business last year.

Analysts had expected revenue of $26.3 billion including some restructuring costs.

 

Intel has a perky bottom line

Posted on November 21, 2014 by - News

Intel-logoIntel’s bottom line is looking a little cheery thanks to the fact that the death of the PC was overstated and people are buying them again.

Intel said that its revenue outlook for 2015 was above what the cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street expected and it was even going to raise its dividend.

Intel claimed that its revenue will grow by a mid-single digit percentage next year which is not what we usually associate with a middle digit.

Analysts on average have been forecasting 3.4 percent revenue growth for 2015.

Chairman Andy Bryant said he saw progress in Intel’s strategy of staking out a big chunk of market share in tablets this year by offering manufacturers subsidies to use its chips.

“I’m not going to tell you I’m proud of losing the kind of money we’re losing but I’m also going to tell you I’m not embarrassed by it like I was a year ago about where we were,” Bryant said. “This is the price you pay for sitting on the sidelines for a number of years and then fighting your way back into the market.”

Intel expects gross margins in 2015 to be 62 percent, plus or minus two percentage points. Analysts on average expected 63 percent gross margins for 2015 and 2014.

Capital spending next year will be about $10.5 billion, the company said, compared to about $11 billion expected in 2014.

Intel also said it would increase its dividend by six cents to 96 cents on an annual basis.

Intel’s results point to the death of the industry myth, put about by the Tame Apple Press that the iPad had killed the PC and everything was going mobile. We said that mobile was a parallel development and that PC sales slumped due to a downturn in the economy coupled with the fact that PCs were lasting longer and there was no need to upgrade.

CEO Brian Krzanich said Intel was on track to exceed its goal of seeing its chips used in 40 million tablets this year. That strategy made Intel the No 2 tablet chip supplier in the June quarter, according to market research firm Strategy Analytics, but it cost the company billions of dollars in subsidies.

 

Cisco e’st an escargot, get it?

Posted on November 13, 2014 by - News

Cooked_snailsCisco has predicted that it will have a current quarter profit below what the cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street predict.

It is blaming capital budget cuts at telecom service providers and weak sales in emerging markets.

The move is surprising because Cisco had previously expected better revenue and profit for the first quarter.

Chief Executive John Chambers said on a post earnings conference call with analysts that the service provider is the big challenge. Two to three US service providers have dramatically slowed the order rates with us, he said.

AT&T, the No. 2 U. telecom services provider, said last week that it would trim its 2015 capital spending outlook to $18 billion from $21 billion.

Cisco has also struggled with sluggish sales and increased competition in emerging markets. The company said sales in China fell by a third in the first quarter.

The US service providers are not buying. Revenue from US service providers dropped 18 percent, although sales from emerging economies declined six percent.

The company forecast adjusted profit of between 50-52 cents per share and revenue growth in the range of 4-7 percent for the second quarter ending January. Analysts were expecting a profit of 53 cents per share.

However the better than expected revenue and profit is still on, thanks to an increase in demand for its new high-end switches and routers.

Total revenue rose to $12.25 billion from $12.09 billion and Net profit fell to $1.83 billion from $2 billion a year earlier.

Nvidia turns in good results

Posted on November 7, 2014 by - News

nvidia-gangnam-style-330pxGraphics chip maker Nvidia posted higher fiscal third quarter revenue than many of the cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street expected.

Revenue in the fiscal third-quarter ended Oct. 26 was $1.225 billion, up 16 percent from the year-ago quarter, compared with Wall Street’s random guess of $1.202 billion.

For the current fourth quarter, Nvidia said it expects revenue of $1.20 billion, plus or minus two percent. Analysts on average expected fourth quarter revenue of $1.198 billion.

Third-quarter net profit was $173 million compared to $119 million a year ago.

Nvidia did better by focusing on using its Tegra chips to in entertainment and advanced navigation systems in cars made by companies including Volkswagen’s Audi, BMW and Tesla.

In the third quarter, revenue from Tegra chips for automobiles and mobile devices jumped 51 percent to $168 million. Nvidia’s PC graphics chip business expanded 13 percent to $991 million.

Lenovo sees a 19 per cent jump in profit

Posted on November 6, 2014 by - News

lenovo2Lenovo reported a 19 percent jump in profit in the second quarter, but revenue fell short of what the cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street expected.

Quarterly revenue rose seven percent to $10.5 billion, but sales from its mobile device division fell six percent to $1.4 billion.

The ThinkPad maker tightened its hold over global PC sales even as the broader market shrunk. Sales of both laptops rose 0.9 percent and desktops sales increased by 6.4 percent.

Net profit was $262 million, exceeding the $260 million expected by analysts.

The company additionally named Jerry Yang, the Yahoo co-founder, to its board of directors. Yang, who is also an Alibaba Group Holding Ltd director, formerly served as a Lenovo board observer.

On October 1, Lenovo bought  IBM’s low-end server business. Of the transactions, Lenovo said that the acquisition will make Lenovo the third largest player in the global and the number one player in the China x86 server market.

“This has enabled Lenovo to capture the significant growth opportunities in the enterprise hardware systems space,” a spokesLenovo said.