A government report in November said the IRS issued $4 billion in fraudulent tax refunds over the previous year to criminals who were using other people's personal information. Attorney General Eric Holder said this week that the "scale, scope and execution of these fraud schemes" has grown substantially and the Justice Department in the past year has charged 880 people.
Who's involved? In a video message released ahead of the April 15 tax filing deadline, Holder said the scams "are carried out by a variety of actors, from greedy tax return preparers to identity brokers who profit from the sale of personal information to gangs and drug rings looking for easy access to cash."
Top Internet Stocks To Invest In 2015: Symantec Corporation(SYMC)
Symantec Corporation provides security, storage, and systems management solutions internationally. The company?s Consumer segment delivers Internet security, PC tune-up, and online backup solutions and services to individual users and home offices. Its Security and Compliance segment provides solutions for endpoint security and management, compliance, messaging management, data loss prevention, encryption, and authentication services to large, medium, and small-sized businesses, as well as offers solutions through its software-as-a-service (SaaS) security offerings. This segment?s products enable customers to secure, provision, and remotely manage their laptops, PCs, mobile devices, and servers. The company?s Storage and Server Management segment provides storage and server management, backup, archiving, and data protection solutions across heterogeneous storage and server platforms, as well as solutions delivered through its SaaS offerings to large, medium, and small-s ized businesses. Symantec?s Services segment offers implementation services and solutions, including consulting, business critical services, education, and managed security services. The company also provides various enterprise support offerings, such as annual maintenance support contracts, including content, upgrades, and technical support. It sells its products through its eCommerce platform, as well as through distributors, direct marketers, Internet-based resellers, system builders, ISPs, and retail locations worldwide. Symantec markets and sells its products through distributors, retailers, direct marketers, Internet-based resellers, original equipment manufacturers, system builders, and Internet service providers; and its e-commerce channels, as well as direct sales force, value-added and large account resellers, and system integrators. The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Wallace Witkowski]
Symantec Corp. (SYMC) �shares dropped 7% to $19.44 on heavy volume, after a brief halted at the closing bell, as the security software company fired Chief Executive Steve Bennett.
- [By Tom Taulli]
In a sudden move, Symantec (SYMC) has terminated its CEO, Steve Bennett. And Wall Street is definitely concerned, as SYMC stock is off about 12% in today�� trading.
- [By Paul Ausick]
Symantec Inc. (NASDAQ: SYMC) reported second fiscal quarter 2014 results after markets closed on Wednesday. For the quarter, the network security software maker posted adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.50 on revenues of $1.64 billion. In the same period a year ago, the company reported EPS of $0.45 on revenues of $1.7 billion. Second-quarter results compare to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates for EPS of $0.44 and $1.69 billion in revenues.
Top Internet Stocks To Invest In 2015: Yahoo! Inc.(YHOO)
Yahoo! Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a digital media company that delivers personalized digital content and experiences through various devices worldwide. It offers online properties and services to users; and a range of marketing services to businesses. The company?s communications and communities offerings include Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, Flickr, and Connected TV, which provide a range of communication and social services to users and small businesses enabling users to organize into groups and share knowledge, common interests, and photos. Its search products comprise Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Local, available free to users to navigate the Internet and discover content. The company?s marketplaces offerings and services include Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo! Travel, Yahoo! Real Estate, Yahoo! Autos, and Yahoo! Small Business, which allow users to research specific topics, products, services, or areas of interest by review ing and exchanging information, obtaining contact details, or considering offers from providers of goods, services, or parties with similar interests. Its media offerings comprise Yahoo! Homepage, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Finance, My Yahoo!, Yahoo! Toolbar, Yahoo! Entertainment & Lifestyles, Yahoo! Contributor Network, and Yahoo! Pulse, which are designed to engage users with online content and services on the Web. The company also offers marketing services, such as display and search advertising, listing-based services, and commerce-based transactions to advertisers. In addition, it provides software and platform offerings for third-party developers, advertisers, and publishers, such as Yahoo! Developer Network, Yahoo! Open Strategy, Yahoo! Application Platform, Yahoo! Updates, Yahoo! Query Language, and Yahoo! Search BOSS. The company has strategic alliances with Nokia and ABC News, Inc. Yahoo! Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Californi a.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jeff Reeves]
Unlike blanket sites like HotJobs from Yahoo (YHOO) or Monster Worldwide (MWW), Dice is compartmentalized with properties that includes tech portal Slashdot, oil and gas site Rigzone and finance site eFinancial Careers and medical career site Health Callings.
- [By Rick Munarriz]
Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO ) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG ) reported quarterly results this week. The market enjoyed Yahoo!'s performance and soured when Google came to the plate, but both companies offered similar snapshots of the challenge in monetizing mobile.
Hot Telecom Stocks To Buy Right Now: IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI)
IAC/InterActiveCorp engages in the Internet business in the United States and internationally. The company�s Search segment develops, markets, and distributes various downloadable toolbars; provides search, reference, and content services through its destination search and other Websites, including Ask.com and Dictionary.com; and aggregates and integrates local advertising and content for distribution to publishers on Web and mobile platforms, as well as markets and distributes mobile applications through which it provides search and additional services. Its Match segment offers subscription-based and advertiser-supported online personals services through its Websites comprising Match.com, Chemistry.com, OurTime.com, BlackPeopleMeet.com, and OkCupid.com, as well as through mobile applications and Meetic-branded Websites. The company�s ServiceMagic segment offers Market Match service that matches consumers with service professionals; Exact Match service, which enables con sumers to review service professional profiles and select the service professional that meets their specific needs; and 1800Contractor.com, an online directory of service professionals. This segment also offers Website design and hosting services. Its Media and Other segment operates CollegeHumor.com, an online entertainment Website that targets young males; Vimeo, a Website on which users can upload, share, and view video; and Pronto.com, a comparison search engine. This segment also engages in the creation of video content for various distribution platforms; and operates as an Internet retailer of footwear and related apparel and accessories, as well as focuses on multimedia business. The company was formerly known as InterActiveCorp and changed its name to IAC/InterActiveCorp in July 2004. IAC/InterActiveCorp was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Eric Volkman]
Rhyu joins the company from IAC's (NASDAQ: IACI ) Match.com, where he has filled the roles of both CFO and chief administrative officer since 2011. Previous to that, he was a senior vice president at News Corp's (NASDAQ: FOXA ) Dow Jones & Company. He also served as corporate controller for both Sirius XM Radio and GrafTech International (NYSE: GTI ) .
- [By Mani]
IAC InterActive Corp. (NASDAQ:IACI) should see improved margins and revenue from its Match business as subscriber growth could be boosted by favorable secular trends and new monetizing opportunities.
- [By Eric Volkman]
AP/Jim Mone Is Bitcoin a slam-dunk as the currency of the future? The Sacramento Kings seem to think so. The NBA team recently became the first pro sports franchise to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment. Basketball fans will be able not only to purchase tickets and merchandise online with the digital cryptocurrency, but also to use it to buy souvenirs at the arena come game time. The team is the latest in a growing number of commercial entities finding a slot in their virtual cash registers for Bitcoin. Little by little, momentum is building for a widespread acceptance of the upstart currency. Overstocking The Kings' drive towards the Bitcoin basket comes a week after the big online retailer Overstock.com (OSTK) announced it would start accepting payments in the currency. The move was an instant hit -- the first day the company had the nifty Bitcoin button as an option in its shopping cart, its customers used it to make more than 800 transactions for total sales of around $130,000. Overstock.com was by no means the first online marketplace to accept the currency. Numerous web retailers have been doing so for some time. It's a natural fit, %VIRTUAL-article-sponsoredlinks in a way, since Bitcoin exists solely in the digital realm. Customers booking flights on discount travel operator CheapAir.com, for example, can use Bitcoin to buy their tickets, as can love seekers on dating site OkCupid, owned by IAC/InteractiveCorp (IACI). These digital players are going to have plenty of company. Earlier this month, online games purveyor Zynga (ZNGA) started to dip its toes in the water, announcing that it was testing Bitcoin payments for some of its titles in conjunction with specialist transaction facilitator BitPay. But if Overstock.com didn't get there first, it's still the largest and most prominent e-retailer to take the Bitcoin plunge thus far. This is a big win for the currency and its advocates, and Overstock.com will surely be followed by more well-known comp
Top Internet Stocks To Invest In 2015: eBay Inc.(EBAY)
eBay Inc. provides online platforms, services, and tools to help individuals and merchants in online and mobile commerce and payments in the United States and internationally. Its Marketplaces segment operates ecommerce platform eBay.com; vertical shopping sites, such as StubHub, Fashion, Motors, and Half.com; and classifieds Websites, including Den Bl�Avis, BilBasen, Gumtree, Kijiji, LoQUo, Marktplaats.nl, mobile.de, Alamaula, Rent.com, eBay Anuncios, eBay Kleinanzeigen, and eBay Annunci, as well as provides advertising services. The company?s Payments segment offers payment and settlement services for consumers and merchants on and off eBay Websites and other merchant Websites. This segment operates PayPal, which enables individuals and businesses to send and receive payments online and through mobile devices; Bill Me Later that enables the United States merchants to offer, the United States consumers to obtain, credit at the point of sale for ecommerce and mobile tra nsactions; Zong, which allows users with mobile phones to purchase digital goods and have the transactions charged to their phone bill; and BillSAFE that enables customers pay for purchases upon receipt of an invoice. Its GSI segment offers an ecommerce services suite for enterprise clients that operate in general merchandise categories, including apparel, sporting goods, toys and baby, health and beauty, and home; and marketing services comprising full-service digital agency, enterprise email marketing, mobile advertising, affiliate marketing, advertisement retargeting, and in-depth analytics services. The company also offers X.commerce platform that provides software developers access to the company?s applications programming interfaces to develop functionality for various merchants; and Magento Connect, which allows developers to market and sell add-on functionality and solutions to merchants that use a Magento storefront. eBay Inc. was founded in 1995 and is headquarter ed in San Jose, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rex Crum]
IBM (IBM) �rose $1.39 a share to $186.16 and eBay (EBAY) �shares rose almost 2% to $54.37. Both companies are scheduled to report quarterly results next week.
Top Internet Stocks To Invest In 2015: Google Inc.(GOOG)
Google Inc. maintains an index of Web sites and other online content for users, advertisers, and Google network members and other content providers. It offers AdWords, an auction-based advertising program; AdSense program, which enables Web sites that are part of the Google Network to deliver ads from its AdWords advertisers; Google Display, a display advertising network that comprises the videos, text, images, and other interactive ads; DoubleClick Ad Exchange, a real-time auction marketplace for the trading of display ad space; and YouTube that provides video, interactive, and other ad formats for advertisers. The company also provides Google Mobile that optimizes Google?s applications for mobile devices in browser and downloadable form; and enables advertisers to run search ad campaigns on mobile devices, as well as Google Local that provides local information on the Web; and Google Boost for small businesses to participate in the ads auction. In addition, it offers And roid, an open source mobile software platform; Google Chrome OS, an open source operating system; Google Chrome, a Web browser; Google TV, a platform for the consumers to use the television and the Internet on a single screen; and Google Books platform to discover, search, and consume content from printed books online. Further, the company provides Google Apps, a cloud computing suite of message and collaboration tools, which includes Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Sites; Google Search Appliance that offers real-time search of business and intranet applications, and public Web sites; Google Site Search, a custom search engine; Google Commerce Search for online retail enterprises; Google Checkout to make online shopping and payments streamlined and secure; Google Maps Application Programming Interface; and Google Earth Enterprise, a firewall software solution for imagery and data visualization. Google Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rex Moore]
Google (NASDAQ: GOOG ) is hoping to take the lowly netbook to a whole new level with its high-end Chromebook Pixel.
In this first of a two-part series, Motley Fool analyst Rex Moore takes a look at the Pixel's impressive hardware features. Part two looks at the software aspects, and whether this netbook is worth its lofty price tag.
- [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]
John Raoux/AP Beats Electronics and Beats Music won't turn Apple (AAPL) into a streaming-audio rock star overnight, but for $3 billion, Apple gets to add a leading maker of premium headphones and a young, promising streaming music service to its lineup. More importantly, the deal gives Apple hip hop icon Dr. Dre and legendary record producer Jimmy Iovine as key executives who can perhaps breathe new life into its fading iTunes music platform. Right now, the tech giants seem to have it all. Apple, Google (GOOG), and aging software behemoth Microsoft (MSFT) have tens of billions in the bank and long track records of success. But none of them have found cracking the streaming music market to be easy. All three dot-com giants have invested in their own online music platforms, but it's Spotify and Pandora (P) that are turning heads -- and connecting to headphones. The Unlikely Kings of Music Spotify and Pandora have different formulas, but both have been successful -- for them. Sweden's Spotify, with more than 10 million premium subscribers, offers users the ability to pick the tracks they want to hear, and customers are willing to pay as much as $10 a month for the right to take their commercial-free playlists to mobile devices. Its on-demand model became a sensation through Europe before hitting the U.S. three summers ago. Pandora doesn't allow listeners to pick the tracks. It uses algorithms to develop playlists based on user preferences. It is primarily consumed as a free service with ad blocks. Just 3.3 million of its 76 million active listeners pay to enjoy Pandora as a commercial-free experience. They enjoyed 1.7 billion hours of audio content last month Microsoft and Google decided to follow Spotify's model with Xbox Music in late 2012 and Google Music a few months later. Neither company has offered up metrics on their success, but that's likely telling in and of itself. Apple chose Pandora's discovery model when it rolled out iTunes Radio last Septemb
Top Internet Stocks To Invest In 2015: Amazon.com Inc.(AMZN)
Amazon.com, Inc. operates as an online retailer in North America and internationally. It operates retail Web sites, including amazon.com and amazon.ca. The company serves consumers through its retail Web sites and focuses on selection, price, and convenience. It also offers programs that enable sellers to sell their products on its Web sites, and their own branded Web sites. In addition, the company serves developer customers through Amazon Web Services, which provides access to technology infrastructure that developers can use to enable virtually various type of business. Further, it manufactures and sells the Kindle e-reader. Additionally, the company provides fulfillment; miscellaneous marketing and promotional agreements, such as online advertising; and co-branded credit cards. Amazon.com, Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jason Moser]
Online sales grew 16% last year in the U.S. alone, yet still only accounted for about 5% of total consumer-goods sales. That number is expected to double over the coming five years thanks to companies like Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN ) and even Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT ) , which is focusing more resources on its e-commerce division. While it's true that Amazon's total revenue is less than 14% of �what Wal-Mart brings in each year, on the flip side of that coin Walmart's online sales of about $8 billion annually are only about 12.5% of Amazon's total sales.
- [By Patricio Kehoe] push through their video on demand or SVOD services, Discovery is bound to benefit from licensing agreements in the future.
International Expansion Boosts Valuation
Discovery�� most recent acquisition of Prosieben�� SBS Nordic assets and a 20% stake in TF1�� Eurosport are strategically well-placed deals, given the company�� strong presence in the Western European market. This is reflected in the firm�� annual revenue growth of 13.2%, well above the industry average of 3.3%. For the next five years, revenue is expected to average an 11% growth rate, while the current 20% EBITDA growth margin is expected to reach a five-year average of 42%. These margin boosts will be the consequence of the company�� international expansion, where a 59% revenue increase closed the fiscal 2013 metrics at $4.5 billion.
Although advertising represents 50% of Discovery�� revenue income, which could be problematic in the case of a recession, I believe this company�� business model and 41% operating margins will solidly balance out headwinds. Furthermore, the outstanding 185.10% returns on capital (ROC - Greenblatt), as well as the strong 24% EPS growth rate, leave me feeling very bullish about this media giant's future. In fact, earnings per share will progressively grow from $2.50 in 2013 to $3.96 in quarter four of 2015. And despite the stock�� trading price premium of 47% compared to the industry�� average of 19.2x, I think investors would benefit from entering the market now, given the growing price trend.� �
Disclosure: Patricio Kehoe holds no position in any stocks mentioned.
Also check out: Lee Ainslie Undervalued Stocks Lee Ainslie Top Growth Companies Lee Ainslie High Yield stocks, and Stocks that Lee Ainslie keeps buying
About the author:Patricio KehoeA fundamental analyst at Lone Tree Analytics - [By Steve Symington]
On Tuesday,�Amazon.com� (NASDAQ: AMZN ) �stock closed within 1% of its 52-week-high as the company announced Amazon Birthday Gift, "a new way for customers to surprise friends on their birthdays by joining together to send Amazon.com Gift Cards with birthday messages" on Facebook (NASDAQ: FB ) .
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