Technology

How Salesforce’s Potential Informatica Deal Is an Unwelcome Flashback to Its Old Ways

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By Therese Poletti Investors are wary, based on Salesforce’s spotty history of M&A Wall Street did not react well to reports that Salesforce Inc. might buy Informatica, as investors were reminded of its mixed track record at acquisitions. Shares of Salesforce (CRM) tumbled 7.3% on Monday, and shaved 125 points off the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, following a Wall Street Journal report late Friday that the cloud-software giant is in advanced talks to buy Informatica, a data-management software developer, for an estimated $11 billion. While there were mixed thoughts on Wall Street, it’s worth pointing out that activist investors pounced on Salesforce last year as growth stalled and its market value was cut in half, following years of hit-and-miss acquisitions that were intended to drive revenue growth. Last March, Salesforce disbanded its M&A committee, a move applauded by Elliott Management as one of a few recommendations it had made […]

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Apple’s Smartphone Sales Slump as China Rivals Ris

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By Jiahui Huang and Ben Otto Apple’s global smartphone shipments hit the skids in the first quarter, toppling the tech giant from its top position globally and raising concerns about a crucial business line amid rising competition from Chinese rivals. Apple’s iPhone shipments fell 9.6% on year to 50.1 million units in the first quarter, according to preliminary data from research firm International Data Corporation late Sunday. Samsung’s shipments fell 0.7% to 60.1 million units, enough for the South Korean company to reclaim its status as the number one seller of smartphones worldwide, IDC said in its quarterly tracking of smartphone shipments. Apple had overtaken Samsung in the fourth quarter. Apple’s market share fell to 17.3% from 20.7% a year ago, while Samsung’s fell to 20.8% from 22.5%. The declines in the two companies’ market share come even as total shipments of the top five makers of smartphones expanded for

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CFRA Maintains Strong Buy Opinion On Shares Of Microsoft Corporation

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CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows: We increase our 12-month target price to $475 from $455 based on a P/E of 33x our CY 25 view, above historical, as we see upside to forward expectations related to an improving AI growth trajectory/high visibility. We raise our FY 24 (Jun.) EPS estimate to $11.74 from $11.56 and FY 25 to $13.43 from $13.04. We start FY 26 at $15.39. Ahead of Mar-Q results expected on 4/23, we look for EPS of $2.84 on 15% revenue growth. We think all eyes will be on Azure, which we see growing 29%, with 6 to 8 percentage points of AI contribution. Any insights on Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption will also be monitored (first full quarter), as we do expect to hear positive commentary and see positive contribution

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Meta Stock Has More Upside as Advertising Improves, Analyst Says — Barrons.com

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By Angela Palumbo Meta Platforms stock has more room to grow because users remain engaged with its social-media platforms even as the amount of advertising there increases, Citi says. Analyst Ronald Josey increased his price target on Meta to $590 from $525 on Monday. That implies a 15% increase from the stock’s closing price on Friday. Josey also reiterated his Buy rating on the company, Facebook’s parent, and said the stock remains his top pick. “With Meta’s newer ad innovations (Adv.+ Creative, Reminder Ads, longer form Reels, etc.), a new AI video architecture, and greater overall advertiser adoption, we believe advertiser demand for Reels (and Meta) continues to improve,” Josey wrote in a research note. In 2023, Meta unveiled additions to its Ads Manager software suite that are intended to make it easier for advertisers to produce their content. Josey said that increased advertising on Meta’s social-media platforms hasn’t made

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ASML Not Expected to Benefit From AI for a While

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It is too early to get over-excited about how Dutch semiconductor-equipment maker ASML Holding could benefit from artificial intelligence, Bernstein analysts write in a research note. AI is already a key growth driver for Nvidia, whose sales more than tripled and earnings surged more than eightfold in its fiscal fourth quarter as it scrambles to meet demand for AI-powered chips. The analysts expect to hear how the AI opportunity could develop for ASML in the longer-term at the company’s investor day on Nov. 14. ASML shares trade flat at EUR909.50.

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CFRA Maintains Buy Opinion On Shares Of Alphabet Inc.

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CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows: GOOGL held its Google Cloud Next 2024 event in Las Vegas where it made a host of AI hardware/software announcements. Most notably, GOOGL unveiled its first Arm-based custom silicon CPU (Axion) and latest LLM model update (Gemini 1.5 Pro) that offers new enhanced AI capabilities (e.g., native audio). AI features coming to Google Workspace include Google Vids (an AI video creation tool), Gemini additions to Gmail, and a host of productivity tools that it looks to monetize (e.g., AI note taking/meeting summaries, translation, new security package) at an add-on cost of $10/month per user. GOOGL also announced its Vertex AI Agent Builder, a tool for Enterprises to help build AI agents, and confirmed Blackwell GPUs will be available in 2025. Overall, we come away impressed with GOOGL’s

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Buy Mobileye Stock, Analysts Say. Its Self-Driving Products Are Unrivaled. — Barrons.com

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By Emily Dattilo Mobileye Global’s autonomous driving technology is unmatched, and investors are missing out, Wolfe Research said in a note upgrading the stock Friday. Analysts led by Shreyas Patil upgraded shares of the autonomous-driving systems company to Outperform from Peer Perform and established a target for the price of $41 in a research report Friday. The stock has fallen 28% so far this year to trade around $31. To put it simply, the analysts don’t see any self-driving competition that comes close to what Mobileye is bringing to the market, across a number of metrics. “At this point we do not see a clear rival that can match Mobileye’s capabilities in cost, performance, or scalability,” they wrote. That will become more apparent over the next six to 12 months as more car equipment manufacturers sign up to use the system, the analysts added. Mobileye’s “hands-free/eyes-on” SuperVision system is similar

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Wedbush’s Dan Ives Says Apple Has ‘Best Installed Base In The World’ For Its AI Future: WWDC A ‘Key Moment’ For Cupertino

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Wedbush’s Dan Ives believes that Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) installed user base of over 2 billion is the “best” in the world as far as its AI opportunity is concerned. What Happened: Ives thinks Apple’s upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June will be a “key moment” for Cupertino. Ives thinks Apple will unveil a “key part” of its AI strategy at WWDC. “I believe [it] ultimately goes to an AI App Store… which is going to be… developers, they’re going to build apps,” Ives said in an interview with Hankyung Global Market, adding that the services category is going to be a “huge opportunity” for Apple. Although Apple has been slow to adopt AI in its portfolio of devices and services, unlike its rivals Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Microsoft Corp., Ives believes Cupertino will take that leap with the iPhone 16 that is all set to launch in September this year. “They will not be on the

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Qualcomm Stock Should Get an AI Boost. But Beware of Earnings and Guidance. — Barrons.com

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J.P. Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee on Thursday placed Qualcomm shares on the firm’s “Negative Catalyst” watch list, although he maintains his Overweight rating on the stock with a $170 target price. The analyst suggests that the recent optimism about a pickup in phone sales may be a little misplaced. “We are yet to see any significant change in the fundamentals of the smartphone market with the recovery expected to remain muted in 2024.” he writes in a research note. And Chatterjee adds that recent data on the China smartphone market raise concerns about the strength of the expected recovery. Chatterjee says March quarter revenue appears to be tracking to $9.5 billion, above the midpoint of Qualcomm’s guidance range and Street consensus as tracked by FactSet, both at $9.3 billion. But he thinks June quarter guidance will be about in line with the Street at $9.1 billion, which he doesn’t think

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Microsoft Can Double Its EPS by 2029 Based on Position in Cloud, Gen AI, Morgan Stanley Says

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Microsoft’s (MSFT) “strong secular positioning” in tech, cloud and generative artificial intelligence should help the company double its earnings per share to $24 by fiscal 2029, Morgan Stanley said in a note Thursday. Given the company’s leading position, the business should be able to achieve a compound annual growth rate of 14% in revenue and 16% in earnings per share over the next five-year period, the firm said. Growth in the company’s earnings and revenue will be driven by its cloud business, while its first mover advantage in generative AI should further compound the gains. Morgan Stanley estimates the company’s revenue from its largest three generative AI initiatives could jump from around $5 billion in 2024 to almost $67 billion in 2029, and as much as $120 billion in a bullish scenario. The firm raised its price target to $520 from $465 on the company’s stock and maintained its overweight

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