Technology

Goldman Sachs reaffirmed Snowflake Inc (NYSE:SNOW) a Buy rating and price target of $220

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Analyst Kash Rangan reaffirmed a Buy rating and price target of $220. Snowflake reported solid quarterly results, but its guidance fell short of high expectations, Rangan said. The stock came under pressure due to the “lack of beat flow-through” on operating and free cash flow margins and a “growing dispersion between cRPO / RPO and forward revenue growth,” he added. “Snowflake’s true beat-and-raise in a still constrained spending environment underscores the stability of consumption and optimization trends through mid-August,” the analyst wrote. The company’s NNR “displayed the lowest rate of sequential deceleration in the past 2+ years,” he further stated.

Goldman Sachs reaffirmed Snowflake Inc (NYSE:SNOW) a Buy rating and price target of $220 Read Post »

Why Snowflake Skeptics Are Winning the Day After Earnings

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Analysts say Snowflake didn’t do enough to articulate its strategy, address competition concerns or reassure on growth outlook Investors and analysts wanted more from Snowflake Inc., beyond the company’s latest earnings beat and outlook hike. While Snowflake’s (SNOW) results came in better than expected Wednesday afternoon, the data-software company didn’t deliver the same magnitude of a sales beat as it has in the past. Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss noted that the company topped expectations by about 2%, whereas a quarter before it had logged a 5% beat. From Weiss’s perspective, “the trajectory of decelerating growth likely fails to address existing bear cases around rising competitive intensity.” He wrote: “Waning optimization headwinds and emerging new product initiatives should support growth, but investors may need more concrete signals to get onboard.” Weiss has an equal-weight rating and $175 target price on the stock. Snowflake shares are down 13.7% in afternoon trading

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Fresh off $1.6 Billion Loss, Intel Prepares for Possible Activist Investors

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By Claudia Assis Intel Corp. has hired advisors, including those with Morgan Stanley, to help defend the company against potential shareholder activism, CNBC reported late Friday. The report cited people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified due to confidentiality. Intel (INTC) and Morgan Stanley (MS) did not immediately respond to requests for comment from MarketWatch. Intel shares were holding to a 1% advance in after-hours trading Friday, after ending the regular session up 2.2%. The stock has seen steep losses recently, however. It is down nearly 70% this year as the company struggles to find its footing in the new AI landscape dominated by rival Nvidia Corp. (NVDA), and earlier this month posted a $1.6 billion quarterly loss. See also: Intel has sold its stake in Arm after a big rally for the chip-design stock It was unclear Friday whether Intel was under new activist pressure,

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Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript Summary

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The following is a summary of the Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript: Financial Performance: Applied Materials reported record Q3 revenue of $6.78 billion, which was up 5% year-over-year. Non-GAAP gross margin improved to 47.4%, up 100 basis points year-over-year. Non-GAAP EPS of $2.12, up 12% year-over-year. Operating cash flow and free cash flow were nearly $2.4 billion and over $2 billion, respectively. Q4 revenue and non-GAAP EPS expectations also indicate continued growth. Business Progress: Strong execution in device architecture shifts for AI, including leading-edge logic, high-performance DRAM, high-bandwidth memory, and advanced packaging. Expansion in services, with Applied Global Services delivering record revenue and expecting continued low double-digit growth. Increased investments in new product developments for ICAPS and advanced packaging technologies, expecting these segments to drive significant future growth. Opportunities: AI and datacenter computing trends driving demand across semiconductor systems, especially in DRAM, high-bandwidth memory, and advanced

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Applied Materials’s Increased Investments Will Result in Greater Growth

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Applied Materials CFO Brice Hill says this quarter’s artificial-intelligence-fueled profit and revenue boosts are a harbinger for accelerated growth in its fiscal 2025. “We’re not giving a guide for ’25, but we think there’s a lot of energy around the AI markets,” he says. Unlike competitor Intel, Applied says it has no plans to cut back expenditures. Rather, the company’s continued growth will require increased investments related to research and development. That’s because AI ambitions are driving increased demand for chips, “as well as the need for significant advances in semiconductor innovation,” CEO Gary Dickerson says. Applied posts higher profit and revenue in its fiscal 3Q, while shares fall 2.7% in after-hours trading.

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Google Near-Term Operations Not Expected to Be Disrupted by Court Ruling, Wedbush Says

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Alphabet’s (GOOG, GOOGL) Google near-term operations are not expected to be disrupted by a recent court ruling that concluded that Google is a monopolist, Wedbush Securities analysts said in a note Wednesday. “The [US Department of Justice] has not formally communicated what possible remedies it may pursue, and proceedings will likely be held in the coming months to determine potential remedies,” the analysts, including Daniel Ives, said in the note. The analysts also took note of a Bloomberg report that the DOJ is considering a bid to break up Google. “We believe this would be a stretch and also Google will clearly appeal these rulings which will be in the court system for years possibly,” the analysts said. They said they continue to see a breakup of the Big Tech business models as “highly unlikely down the road.”

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Buy Micron Stock, Analyst Says. It’s All About AI Server Demand.

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Micron Technology is poised to become a winner from the rising demand for artificial-intelligence semiconductors, according to New Street Research. On Tuesday, analyst Pierre Ferragu reaffirmed a Buy rating on the stock and reiterated his $150 target price. He notes the memory outlook for datacenters for the second half of 2024 is “strong on all fronts with AI ramping and traditional server recovering,” and predicts Micron will keep beating expectations in the coming quarters. In early trading Tuesday, Micron stock rose 1.9% to $96.41. Ferragu estimates demand for memory in the AI server market will go up by 14 times over the next four years to $50 billion in 2027 from $3.5 billion in 2023. “Increasing HBM [high bandwidth memory] content in AI servers is a multiyear growth driver for memory,” he wrote. Micron is a leader in the markets for DRAM, which is used in desktop computers and servers,

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Justice Department Mulls Google Break-Up, Other Options After Court Ruling

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The US Department of Justice is considering options such as a bid to break up Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) unit Google after a recent court ruling found that the technology giant monopolized the online search market, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the deliberations. The company could be forced to share more data with competitors, with other possible options including steps to prevent it from gaining an unfair advantage in artificial intelligence products, the unnamed sources told the news outlet. If the DOJ proceeds with a breakup plan, the Android operating system and Google’s Chrome web browser could be the most likely units for divestment, the people reportedly said. Government officials are also considering forcing a sale of AdWords, one of the sources told Bloomberg. Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled that Alphabet operated an illegal monopoly and violated US antitrust laws by spending tens of billions

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Apple to See Higher iPhone 16 Shipments on AI-Driven Upgrade Cycle, Wedbush Says

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Apple (AAPL) is expected to ship more iPhone 16 units than Wall Street originally estimated, with potentially more customers looking to upgrade due to the company’s artificial intelligence features, according to Wedbush Securities. The brokerage anticipates initial shipments of the upcoming model of the technology giant’s flagship product to be closer to over 90 million units, compared with the market’s forecast of 80 million to 84 million units, it said in a Sunday client note. Wedbush estimates that roughly 300 million iPhones worldwide have not been upgraded in over four years. “With anticipation from the Street and broader tech industry building for Apple’s iPhone 16 AI driven launch in September, our recent Asia checks this week are giving us more confidence this upgrade cycle will kick off a long awaited renaissance of growth for Cupertino over the next year,” analysts led by Daniel Ives wrote in the note. Wedbush maintained

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Intel Calls Off Innovation Conference After Turbulent Two Weeks

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Intel is canceling its Intel Innovation conference for the year after two weeks in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. The chip giant’s stock plunged last week after its sales fell short of analyst expectations, and it said it planned to lay off about 15,000 employees. The company’s decision to replace the conference with “smaller, more targeted events” appears to be part of its urgent attempt to cut costs as Chief Executive Pat Gelsigner tries to right the ship.

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Intel’s Senior Unsecured Rating Downgraded by Moody’s

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Intel (INTC)’s senior unsecured rating was downgraded by Moody’s to BAA1 from A3 rating over apprehensions about the chipmaker’s profitability, Reuters reported Thursday citing the credit ratings firm. Moody’s also changed Intel’s unsecured ratings outlook to negative from stable, while affirming the company’s Prime-2 short-term commercial paper rating, the report said. Moody’s said that it expects Intel to face much weaker profitability over the next 12 to 18 months, according to Reuters.

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Apple Due For Much-Needed iPhone Upgrade Cycle

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Apple will trigger a much-needed iPhone upgrade cycle when it integrates its artificial-intelligence offering, called Apple Intelligence, into the iPhone 16 this fall, DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria says in a research note. The integration may be one of the most compelling use-cases of generative AI on the consumer-side, and should drive upgrades, particularly as the backwards compatibility of Apple Intelligence only goes to the iPhone 15 Pro, the analyst says. Apple’s iPhone sales were down slightly but relatively flat in 2Q, but the iPhone 15 family is still leading the smartphone category in many key markets, Luria says. Shares rise 3% to $224.83, on a day that the overall tech sector is under pressure

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