Spotify Raises Premium Prices For Second Time in a Year

/ / Consumer Discretionary /

Spotify Technology (SPOT) on Monday announced plans to raise its premium subscription prices for the second time in about 12 months. The company’s individual plan was lifted by a dollar to $11.99 after the audio streamer in July 2023 raised the price to $10.99. The new price will be reflected in US subscriber bills beginning next month, according to Spotify. The company is raising prices so that it can continue to “invest in and innovate on” product features, according to a picture of an email that will be sent to subscribers. Prices were raised to $16.99 from $14.99 for Premium Duo and to $19.99 from $16.99 for the family plan. The cost for students will remain at $5.99. In April, Spotify swung to a larger-than-expected first-quarter profit on a 20% jump in revenue that also surpassed analyst views. Premium revenue climbed 20% in the March quarter, led by 14% subscriber […]

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Spotify Really Tests Its Pricing Power

/ / Consumer Discretionary /

By Dan Gallagher Spotify gave investors the price hike they were looking for. Its also betting big that its subscribers wont tune out. The music streamer announced its latest round of price increases for its U.S. plans on Monday. Investors have been banking on such a move all yearespecially since the companys first-quarter report in April, where CEO Daniel Ek confirmed such a move was coming. Spotifys shares jumped more than 4% Monday morning, building on a 9% gain since the last earnings report. The stock is now up 65% for the year, far exceeding the gains of any other streaming provider. Netflix is up 31% for the year, by comparison. But Spotify has long been in the uncomfortable position of competing not with other streamers, but with tech giants like Apple and Amazon that can use music streaming as a loss leader to keep users tied into their ecosystems.

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CFRA Maintains Buy Opinion On Shares Of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.（AMD）

/ / Technology /

At Computex 2024, AMD provided greater insights across its AI hardware capabilities in both data center and PCs. On the accelerator side, AMD introduced an annual cadence (like NVIDIA) where its plans to make the Instinct MI325X available in Q4 (focus on memory capacity with 288GB of ultra-fast HBM3E). AMD also highlighted that the MI350 Series will be available in 2025, with up to 35x AI inference boost versus the MI300 Series, while the MI400 accelerators will launch in 2026. Its Turin EPYC CPUs will be available in the second half of 2024. On the device side, AMD also highlighted its Ryzen AI 300 Series for Copilot+ PCs. Although AMD remains well behind peer NVIDIA, it is expected to generate at least $4B in GPU server revenue in CY 24 during its first full year selling the offering, largely supported by its partnership with Microsoft. We await whether AMD’s GPU

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FactSet Facing Downside Risks Amid Rut in Financial Services Sector, BofA Says

/ / Financials /

FactSet Research Systems (FDS) is facing downside risks as its sales are under pressure amid an ongoing malaise in the financial services sector, BofA Securities said Thursday in a note to clients. The company’s annual subscription value and revenue will likely stay stuck in a rut amid an uncertain environment and lackluster capital markets activity, the investment firm said, adding those factors may lead to delays in decisions by clients and slower closing of major deals. FactSet’s organic annual subscription value growth has decreased from high-single digits in fiscal years 2021 through 2023 ending Aug. 31 to mid-single digits, BofA said. The investment firm said that it’s worrying that “softer volumes are leading to more intense competition” and it sees risks to organic annual subscription value exiting fiscal Q4 in the guided range, which is the low end of 5% to 7% growth. The investment firm downgraded FactSet to underperform

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Marvell Reports Worse-Than-Expected Q1 Results: The Details

/ / Technology /

Marvell Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVL) reported its first-quarter financial results after the bell Thursday. Here’s a look at the highlights from the report. The Details: Marvell reported quarterly earnings of 24 cents per share, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of 25 cents and is a 22.58% decrease from earnings of $0.31 per share from the same period last year. Quarterly sales came in at $1.16 billion which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $1.18 billion and is a 12.18% decrease from sales of $1.32 billion year-over-year. Marvell also reported non-GAAP gross margin of 62.4% for the quarter. “Marvell delivered first quarter fiscal 2025 revenue of $1.161 billion, above the mid-point of guidance, driven by stronger than forecasted demand from AI. Our data center revenue grew 87% year over year, with the start of a ramp in our custom AI programs complementing our substantial base of electro-optics revenue,” said Matt Murphy, Marvell’s chairman and CEO.

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Marvell Technology Shares Slip as Earnings Edge Guidance — Barrons.com

/ / Technology /

By Eric J. Savitz Marvell Technology shares are losing ground in late trading Thursday after the chip maker posted April quarter results that edged Street estimates. For the fiscal first quarter, Marvell reported revenue of $1.16 billion, down 12% from a year ago, but slightly ahead of both the company’s forecast and the Street consensus as tracked by FactSet at $1.15 billion. On an adjusted basis, Marvell earned 24 cents a share, a penny above the company’s forecast, but in line with the Street consensus. Adjusted gross margin of 62.4% was within the company forecast of 62% to 63%. Marvell said that the company saw “stronger than forecasted demand” from AI related applications in the quarter. Data center revenue was up 87% from a year ago, Marvell said. For the July quarter, the company sees revenue of $1.25 billion, give or take 5%, slightly above consensus at $1.22 billion, with

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Dell Earnings Show Fervent AI Demand, but Margin Talk Sends Stock Sliding

/ / Technology /

By Emily Bary Shipments of AI servers more than doubled sequentially to $1.7 billion Dell Technologies Inc. blazed past expectations for its latest quarter as it continued to benefit from explosive artificial-intelligence demand, but analysts keyed in on the margin impact of that growth. Management shared an expectation for Dell’s (DELL) gross-margin rate to decline roughly 150 basis points in fiscal 2025, due to “inflationary input cost, the competitive environment and a higher mix of AI optimized servers.” Overall operating income declined 14% to $920 million in the latest quarter, while operating income within infrastructure solutions slipped 1% to $736 million despite the big rise in revenue for that segment, which houses the server business. The stock extended its pullback from record highs, dropping 13.1% in Thursday’s after-hours session despite upbeat revenue guidance for the fiscal second quarter as well. The stock had dropped 5.2% during the regular session, to

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Dell’s AI Servers Expected to Drag on Margins

/ / Technology /

Dell’s AI-oriented servers, which are providing a boost to sales, come at a cost for margins. CFO Yvonne McGill says on a call with analysts that a higher mix of AI-optimized servers will likely weigh on margins for the year, and the company expects the gross margin rate to decline about 150 basis points. Inflationary input cost and competition are also factors in the gross margin shift. Gross margin declined 250 basis points in 1Q as the company faced steep competition on prices and higher AI server mix. Shares fall 18% to $139.65 post-market.

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Dell Facing Price Pressure On Servers and PCs

/ / Technology /

Dell Technologies is cutting prices in the face of steep competition across multiple product lines. The company notes that competition was a pressure on margins in 1Q. CEO Michael Dell says that the downcycle in personal computers has made for strong competition, with major promotions from the holiday season continuing into 1Q. He also notes that in AI servers, where sales are booming, the company is not the price leader–and those offerings tend to come with lower margins. “We’re not the one running the price down,” he says. “We are again getting a premium for the value that we’ve generated or created in our products.” Dell shares fall 19% post-market.

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Costco 3Q Profit Rises on E-Commerce Strength

/ / Consumer Discretionary /

By Ben Glickman Costco’s profit rose ahead of Wall Street’s expectations in the third quarter as the company’s surging online sales buoyed results. The wholesale retailer reported a profit of $1.68 billion, or $3.78 a share, in the 12 weeks ended May 12, compared with a profit of $1.3 billion, or $2.93 a share, a year earlier. Analysts polled by FactSet expected a per-share profit of $3.70. Revenue rose 9.1%, to $58.52 billion, beating the $58.02 billion expected by analysts polled by FactSet. Same-store sales were up 6.6% for the period, compared with the 6% expected by Wall Street analysts. Canada and other international stores posted a higher jump in comparable sales than U.S. stores. E-commerce comparable sales were up about 21% from a year earlier. Write to Ben Glickman at ben.glickman@wsj.com

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Costco Beats Profit and Sales Forecasts, but Stock Pulls Back From Record Highs

/ / Consumer Discretionary /

By Tomi Kilgore and Claudia Assis Same-store sales increased the most in five quarters, and beat expectations for an 11th straight quarter Costco Wholesale Corp. reported fiscal third-quarter profit, revenue and same-store sales that all beat Wall Street forecasts, but shares of the membership-based warehouse retailer pulled back from a record high. The stock (COST) slipped 0.9% in Thursday’s after-hours session, after closing the regular session up 1.1% at a record $815.34. Net income for the quarter to May 12 rose to $1.68 billion, or $3.78 a share, from $1.30 billion, or $2.93 a share, in the same period a year ago. That beat the FactSet consensus for earnings per share of $3.70. Total revenue grew 9.1% to $58.52 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $58.02 billion, as net sales increased 9.1% to $57.39 billion and membership fees were up 7.6% to $1.12 billion. Comparable sales, or sales from stores

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