Analyst Comments

Q1 Preview: Analysts Like Pandora's (P) Monetization Efforts, But Will Investors? May 23, 2012 03:33PM

Pandora (NYSE: P) shares are trading sharply higher amid an 80 point decline in the Dow Wednesday afternoon as investors prepare for the company's first-quarter 2013 earnings report. Results should be out just several minutes after the market close this afternoon.

Wall Street analysts expect Pandora to post a quarterly loss of 18 cents per share on sales of $74.34 million. The company's first-quarter 2012 loss totaled 2 cents per share, on sales of $47.64 million.

The stock currently has 14 analyst firms recommending to buy the stock ahead of results, eight suggesting to hold, and four suggesting to sell.

Pandora shares have surged about 21 percent over the last month, but are down about 20 percent since the end of February. On a year-to-date basis, the stock is relatively flat.

Analyst Commentary:

• JPMorgan - Likes the stock amid audience metrics which should be well above estimates and continued market share gains. The firm said it will be looking for indications of further improvements in mobile monetization "as the regional sales force expands and audience measurement comparable with radio materializes..."
  
  JPMorgan is modeling for first-quarter sales of $73.8 million and EIBTDA of ($27.2) million. Maintains Overweight.
  
  
• Wedbush - Said the company is "well-positioned to benefit from the growth of the mobile advertising market due to its popularity on mobile devices." Also cited important improvements in cost controls over the quarter. Wedbush said "management is correct in focusing on more meaningful earnings growth long-term. However, investors will lose patience if Pandora does not grow advertising revenue signicantly in FY:13, and we expect Pandora's share price to stagnate until investors see sequential advertising revenue growth."
  
  Sees a quarterly loss of 18 cents per share on sales of $75 million. Maintains Outperform rating.
  
  
• Barrington - "We continue to believe that the current mobile RPM rates should move higher as the mobile ad space becomes a more accepted alternative for advertisers." Somewhat separately, Barrington said, "Revenue and operating metrics remain a greater priority than bottom-line targets. The challenge is that while it is necessary to drive user base and listening hours higher, it is equally important to increase pricing significantly."
  
  Sees a loss of 19 cents per share on sales of $74.3 million. Maintains Outperform.

Find details of Pandora's quarterly conference call here. Stay tuned to our Earnings category to get the first-quarter results immediately upon release.

Piper Jaffray Says Analyst Compared Cree (CREE) to Wrong Solar Firm May 23, 2012 02:39PM

Following an earlier report in which Wunderlich's Theodore O'Neill compared Cree (Nasdaq: CREE) to both First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) and the hit film adaption starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn "Dead Man Walking," Piper Jaffray has blown the whistle on its peer.

Piper analyst Ahmar Zaman said the comparison of Cree to First Solar on the basis of raw materials costs isn't an "apples to apples" evaluation. He noted a better comparison for Cree would be to SunPower Corp. (Nasdaq: SPWR), which has been just about as sunny as a black hole over the last year. (Hint: the stock has been flat.)

Piper is keeping Cree at Overweight, and First Solar at Neutral. Shares of Cree are down 5.8 percent this afternoon, while SunPower shares are off 1.1 percent.

Q2 Preview: H-P (HPQ) Investors Should Look at Dell (DELL)...Seriously May 23, 2012 01:45PM

Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) shares are seeing some extraordinary pressure Wednesday heading into its second-quarter 2012 results, expected out after the market close. To access Hewlett-Packard's quarterly webcast, click here.

The Street currently expects Hewlett-Packard to report EPS of 91 cents on revenue of $29.92 billion. Numbers compare with EPS of $1.24 reported in last year's second quarter and EPS of 92 cents issued with Hewlett-Packard's first-quarter 2012 report.

Of note, Hewlett-Packard has bested the Street's earnings views by an average of 3.2 percent over the last six consecutive quarters. Also, Hewlett-Packard is down 47.7 percent since reporting quarterly results in the same period last year as macro pressures and increased competition have played a key role in sending shares -- as well as peer's shares -- lower.

No better is this displayed than from Hewlett-Packard competitor Dell, Inc. (Nasdaq: DELL). On Tuesday night, Dell issued a fiscal first-quarter 2012 miss amid weakness across most of its segments, from Large Enterprise to Consumer.

Data from Streetinsider.com's Ratings Insider has eight analysts with a Buy on Hewlett-Packard, 17 at Neutral, and seven with a Sell-equivalent call. The Street's average price target is $29.50, ranging from $20 up to $39. Over the last 52-week time period, Hewlett-Packard has traded within a range of $20.57 to $37.70.

Analyst Comments

• Goldman Sachs sees HP meeting guidance calling for EPS of 88 cents to 91 cents. The firms own view calls for EPS of 89 cents on revs of $30.34 billion.
  
  Despite the lukewarm expectations, Goldman also sees HP needing to step-up its Imaging and Printing Group game in the back half of 2012 in order to meet its own guidance calling for EPS of at least $4.
  
  Goldman has faith in HP's Personal Systems Group: "We believe increased competitiveness and some degree of channel fill should enable HP’s PSG unit to post better results than our forecast. Indeed, IDC PC data showed that the company was able to post annual unit growth of 3.4% in the March quarter."
  
  For Enterprise, Goldman sees a challenging quarter. Like Dell, HP may have suffered from execution issues as well as HDD supply constraints.
  
  
• JPMorgan sees revs of $29.83 and EPS of 93 cents. The firm said HP is "returning to the old playbook." The firm commented, "...research indicates that HP is working to rationalize headcount and SKUs in both PCs and printers. At the same time, HP has been focused on jumpstarting PC revenue growth. This setup is similar to the old playbook of boosting total revenue growth with PCs, while supporting EPS growth with below-therevenue-line items."
  
  
• Deutsche Bank is looking for EPS of 94 cents on revs of $30.11 billion. (Not picking on one firm, but we'll take the time to note here that Deutsche was notably above actual Dell numbers.) Deutsche believes investors should keep an eye on another round of headcount reductions to the tune of 25,000 to 30,000 employees. Deutsche pointed out previous cuts (about 50,000 under Hurd) did little to improve HPs competitive position or reduce reliance on troubled businesses.
  
  On HP's outlook, Deutsche noted restructuring efforts should allow the company to meet its non-GAAP goal of $4 per share, but cautioned, "the company will face growing headwinds through the summer relating to soft Consumer PC demand trends/ lack of a tablet strategy, re-investment/ margin pressure in Services performance and weak printing."

Stay tuned to StreetInsider.com's EPS Insider section to see our analysis of the highly-anticipated quarterly results within seconds of their release. You can also check out HP's past performance at Streetinsider's HP's Income Statement.

Barclays Maintains an 'Overweight' on Camelot Information Systems (CIS); Q1 Trends Mostly In-line May 23, 2012 01:44PM

Barclays maintains an 'Overweight' on Camelot Information Systems (NYSE: CIS) price target of $6.00.

Analyst, Darrin D. Peller, said, "As CIS continued positioning itself to drive further revenue turnaround in its FIS business line, adjusted cost of revenues and sales/marketing expense increased sequentially as a percent of revenues, as anticipated. Excluding a change in goodwill accounting for a prior acquisition and a tax refund, 1Q adjusted EPS would likely have been slightly better than expectations."

Raising FY12 EPS Estimate from $0.36 to $0.40 (vs. consensus of $0.34). Barclays maintains FY13 at $0.60.

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Camelot Information Systems click here. For more ratings news on Camelot Information Systems click here.

Shares of Camelot Information Systems closed at $2.41 yesterday, with a 52 week range of $1.75-$18.50.

Barclays Earnings Review on Analog Devices (ADI); Slow and Sure Wins The Race May 23, 2012 01:36PM

Barclays maintains an 'Equalweight' on Analog Devices (NASDAQ: ADI) price target of $40.00.

Analyst, C.J. Muse, said, "The key takeaway from ADI's print is that the semi recovery continues, but at a slightly lower-than-expected rate off the bottom. Our estimates move marginally lower, though we see earnings power of $2.35/$2.75 in CY12/13 with CY13 uplift led by a return to normal top-line growth of +7%. We continue to view ADI as one of the highest-quality analog names supported by ~3.4% dividend yield, ~$10 in net cash/share."

Muse maintains an equalweight rating, but would use a dip to the low $30's as an (attractive) entry point. FY12 EPS Estimate cut from $2.28 to $2.20 and FY13 from $2.79 to $2.71.

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Analog Devices click here. For more ratings news on Analog Devices click here.

Shares of Analog Devices closed at $35.80 yesterday, with a 52 week range of $29.23-$41.44.