Insiders' Blog

According to data from StatCounter Wednesday, global users of Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android moved from 23.1 percent in January to 23.9 percent in February. By comparison, arch nemesis Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) was flat at about 24 percent between the months.

Looking back to last February, Android's worldwide market share was 15.2 percent while iOS market share was 24.6 percent.

Research In Motion's (Nasdaq: RIMM) BlackBerry was fourth at 6.8 percent. The company's market share was at 6.9 percent during the preceding month.

Atop the heap is former Nokia (NYSE: NOK) OS Symbian, holding a 31.8 percent global market share.

In the U.S., however, things are a bit different. Apple's iOS moved from a 45.4 percent share last month to 46.4 percent share. Android moved from 41.8 percent up to 41.9 percent and BlackBerry shifted from 5.8 percent last month to 5.7 percent.

Of the four, RIM is the only stock in negative territory Wednesday.

...or maybe the best?

Yesterday, Goldman Sachs commented that Verizon (NYSE: VZ) should ditch Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone...and soon.

In October, it was rumored that Sprint (NYSE: S) would commit about $20 billion to secure its place amongst its brethren in providing the iPhone for its customers. The deal ended up costing Sprint about $15.5 billion and covers the promised sale of 30.5 million iPhones. Even then Sprint said it will lose money through at least 2014.

Now, even for larger carriers like Verizon and AT&T (NYSE: T), which have roughly twice as many wireless subs as Sprint each, the impact from iPhone subsidies is telling. Last quarter alone Verizon was hit on its operating margins from subsidizing the iPhone, leading to mixed results for the company and some sell-off from investors.

Likewise, sales of smartphones at Sprint led to a wider loss for the company: from 31 cents per share last year to 43 cents in 2011s fourth-quarter, wider than the 37 cent loss forecast by the Street. Adjusted OIBDA margin moved from 17.6 percent during 2010's fourth quarter to 10.8 percent.

For Sprint and the iPhone, things might be different. It almost needs the iPhone to continue to thrive and remain relevant. Last quarter, Sprint slung 1.8 million iPhones, leading to a net gain of 161,000 contract customers, and an overall wireless base of 55 million customers.

Sure, it's losing money on every iPhone sold and will continue to do so for some time, but with shares down 45 percent over the last year, Sprint's bet on the iPhone is the same as a bet on its future...for better or worse. After all, stock prices don't just reflect pure numbers; they're also a show of investor confidence in the company at its direction.

Then again, Sprint did just come off one of its best quarters, adding subs and increasing ARPU left-and-right. Churn was even lower. Bleeding is bleeding and maybe Sprint should mimic Nokia and start carrying more Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows Phones.

Because being third to a product out of three doesn't make you a leader...it makes you an also-ran.

Shares are down 3.7 percent Wednesday.

The IPO for casino operator Caesars Entertainment (NYSE: CZR), well, looked like a casino in its first few minutes of trading...

After pricing a small float of just 1,811,313 shares at $9, and opening at $9.06, shares were halted on a circuit breaker five minutes later after surging to $12.86. Shares continued to as high as $13.95 before settling in at the current price of $13.61.

Caesars Entertainment is a well-known casino powerhouse, operating the Caesars, Harrah’s and Horseshoe brand names in the United States. As of September 30, 2011, the company's facilities had an aggregate of approximately three million square feet of gaming space and approximately 42,000 hotel rooms. The company also has 40 million Total Rewards members.

Caesars Entertainment was brought public by private-equity firms Apollo Global and TPG Capital, which bought the company in December of 2006.

While the float was small, the market capitalization is still quite large. 125,025,500 shares will be outstanding after the offering, which places the market cap at approximately $1.6 billion.

The company posted net revenue of $6.62 billion and a loss of $467 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2011.

The deal was led by Credit Suisse and Citigroup.

Caesars is a highly leveraged company. As of September 30, 2011, the company had $22.5 billion in face value of outstanding indebtedness.

Drybulk shipping stocks are making a move higher again Wednesday as the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) is moving off of 25-year lows for the third day in a row

Companies like DryShips (Nasdaq: DRYS), Navios Maritime (NYSE: NM), Diana Shipping (NYSE: DSX), Eagle Bulk (Nasdaq: EGLE), Teekay Corp. (NYSE: TK), have been hit in recent months as the cost to ship goods has plummeted. The BDI fell 67 percent from well over 2,000 last November to the mid-600 range. Monday's move higher in the BDI marked the first intraday increase since December 12th.

The BDI last traded around 672, up about 1.8 percent for the session.

As reported earlier in the week, many shippers are refusing contractions until the environment improves.

Shares of DryShips are the leader this morning, currently up 5 percent on the session. Navios and Teekay are also in positive territory.

The chairman and chief executive officer of Abiomed (Nasdaq: ABMD), Michael Minogue, appeared on Jim Cramer’s Mad Money yesterday. Shares are trading up 3.52 percent in the early trading following the airing of the interview last night.

During his interview, Mr. Minogue covered the company previous quarter's upside and whether shares are attractive at their current level.

On February 3, 2012, the company reported its third quarter results with earnings of $0.11 per share on $32.2 million in total sales, well above the Street's consensus which was calling for an earnings loss of $0.01 per share on $31.43 million in revenues.

Mr. Minogue highlighted that the company's heart pump, Impella, is gaining attraction and popularity within the healthcare industry as it recently made medical guidelines in November. The government and insurance agencies are both willing to reimburse patients for the procedure. Impella sales were up 31 percent in the last quarter. The CEO noted that it allows the patient to keep their original heart. The pump was approved back in 2008 and has now been installed in over 7,000 U.S. patients within 605 hospitals.

The company itself has roughly $70 million in cash and no debt. Shares are trading up 74 percent on a year-over-year basis and are up 27 percent year to date.

Cramer is enthusiastically bullish on the future of the company and its pipeline as the company is currently working on products to target much larger markets.

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