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(Bloomberg) -- Nintendo Co.’s Switch console is poised for its best holiday shopping season yet.The company will probably sell 9.46 million units of Switch hardware and 64.73 million units of software in the quarter ending December, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. While the forecast console numbers mark only a slight improvement on last year’s results, it’s games that deliver most of Nintendo’s profit, and software sales may climb about 23%.Achieving those numbers could prompt Nintendo to revise its conservative earnings outlook for the year ending March 2020. The Switch’s performance in its third holiday season will also hold clues for the console’s longevity in an industry where hardware is typically overhauled every five years and rivals Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp. are already planning new machines for the end of 2020.“This is typically where sales begin to peak out, but it looks like the Switch may have a longer life cycle,” said Kazunori Ito, an analyst at Morningstar Investment Services in Tokyo. “With a desktop console and a portable player in a single machine, Nintendo has a very effective platform for selling game software.”Nintendo designed the console so that it can be used on the big living room screen as well as on the go, and in September it also introduced a cheaper Switch Lite focused on expanding the mobile market. Combined sales have already topped 40 million units since launch in March 2017 and many analysts expect the Switch will last long enough to reach the 100 million record set by the Nintendo Wii.There’s More to Nintendo’s Game Than Gadget Sales: Tim CulpanThe Kyoto-based company has stuck with a conservative forecast for operating profit of 260 billion yen ($2.4 billion) on 1.25 trillion yen in revenue for the year ending March 2020. That’s short of analysts’ expectations of 308.8 billion yen and 1.28 trillion yen, respectively.Nintendo also expects to sell 18 million Switch units and 125 million new software titles this fiscal year. That compares with the average of four analysts’ estimates for 19.07 million, and the 147.43 million average of nine estimates.“Last year’s holidays is a high hurdle to clear,” said Masaru Sugiyama, an analyst at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. “But there is a good chance for year-on-year growth.”The 2018 lineup included a Pokemon double-issue that sold a combined 10 million units in a month and a half to the end of the year. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate launched on Dec. 7 and raked in sales of over 12 million units. Nintendo sold 9.42 million Switch consoles in that holiday quarter and a total of 52.5 million units of software.This year, Nintendo is again targeting the Pokemon fan base with two new titles -- Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield. The games, which debuted on Nov. 15, have come under criticism from fans unhappy with the quality of graphics and animations and the lack of the full stable of “pocket monsters.” Still, sales exceeded 6 million units during the launch weekend, making it the fastest-selling Switch game to date.“It’s a Pokemon title, so unless you are giving up on the franchise, it’s hard to imagine fans not buying it,” said Damian Thong, an analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd. “Pokemon Sword and Shield will probably end up being the single largest game in terms of launch year revenue, probably bigger than Smash Bros.”In October, Nintendo released Ring Fit Adventure, an $80 exercise game that comes with a flexible plastic ring that tracks the player’s motion by slotting in one of the Switch’s Joy-Con controllers and having the user strap the other to their leg. With that basic motion-capture setup, gamers wage heroic battles and clear stages by jogging and doing squats.Nintendo is looking to repeat the success of the Wii Fit -- the exercise game that broke new ground when it was introduced in 2012 along with a Balance Board peripheral. It sold more than 50 million units and was key to broadening the appeal of the Wii console to new audiences. Ring Fit Adventure is off to a promising start, as Nintendo on Friday apologized for being unable to keep up with overwhelming demand.The Wii went on to sell over 101 million units of hardware and 900 million games, setting a high standard of success that Nintendo has struggled to live up to since. The company’s share price hit its peak in the year following the Wii’s 2006 launch and the stock now trades about 40% below its 2007 record.So far, the Switch has held its own against its storied predecessor and has even done better in hardware sales during its first two holiday seasons.“The Switch can sell 20 million units annually for the next three years,” said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities Inc. “So it should easily get to 100 million.”Not everyone agrees. Macquarie’s Thong thinks a lot of the casual gamers that helped power the Wii’s runaway success have moved on to free-to-play games on smartphones, such as Nintendo’s own wildly popular Mario Kart Tour. There is also a lot more competition for people’s free time from social media and streaming video. Still, Nintendo’s prospects remain bright in the near-term.“The focus is the game, not the console itself,” Thong said. “2021 might be an even bigger year for title launches. There is a new Zelda game and it will be time for a mid-cycle refresh for all major Nintendo titles.”To contact the reporters on this story: Pavel Alpeyev in Tokyo at palpeyev@bloomberg.net;Yuki Furukawa in Tokyo at yfurukawa13@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Edwin Chan at echan273@bloomberg.net, Vlad SavovFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- Black Friday hit a record $7.4 billion in U.S. online sales as many shoppers spent the day clicking instead of lining up to buy.It was the second biggest U.S. online sales day ever, behind 2018 Cyber Monday’s $7.9 billion, according to a survey of 80 of the top 100 U.S. online retailers from Adobe Analytics.Shoppers increasingly favor buying online from the start of the holiday season, rather than waiting for Cyber Monday as they may have a few years ago. That’s in part as they transition to purchasing via mobile devices from using computers -- often at the office after the holiday weekend.Purchases made by smartphone on Friday accounted for $2.9 billion in sales, the most ever.“With Christmas now rapidly approaching, consumers increasingly jumped on their phones rather than standing in line,” said Adobe analyst Taylor Schreiner.Overall it remained unclear the percentages of sales online versus in stores this holiday weekend.Yet some shoppers still prefer the Black Friday in-store experience, which is sometimes a family hunting-and-gathering expedition after Thanksgiving festivities. About 6% more people visited stores this year, according the International Council of Shopping Centers.For example, the Atlantic Terminal Mall Best Buy in Brooklyn sold out of Apple Inc. iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pros on Friday and had lines stretching the length of the store as shoppers picking up Microsoft Corp. Xboxes and Nintendo Co. Switches among other big ticket items.One out of five dollars this holiday season will be spent between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday, according to Adobe figures, which are similar to estimates provided by Salesforce. Cyber Monday sales are poised to outshine 2018’s record by 19%.(Adds increase in shoppers in stores in seventh paragraph)\--With assistance from Cristin Flanagan and Jordyn Holman.To contact the reporters on this story: Hailey Waller in New York at hwaller@bloomberg.net;Giulia Camillo in New York at gcamillo@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny, Ian FisherFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

IBD Stock Of The Day: Progyny has a first-ever buy point from an IPO base. The fertility services firm, with key clients Microsoft and Google, is profitable. Earnings are due Wednesday.

Zscaler's (ZS) first-quarter fiscal 2019 results are expected to benefit from demand for its cloud-based security solutions.

Facebook's (FB) Beat Games acquisition is expected to expand its VR game content portfolio, which will eventually help it sell more VR hardware devices.

Services such as Dropbox, iCloud and Google Photos silently scoop our data up from our phones, into the ether. A hard disk drive, similar to those found in a desktop PC, usually needs to be replaced every three to five years, while tape — which is still widely used for archival storage and takes much longer to copy — can degrade over several years. With extra storage capacity being added all the time, tending to all that storage has become an increasing burden for cloud computing providers.

Nov.28 -- Sunny Bangia, deputy portfolio manager at Antipodes Partners Ltd., talks about U.S. and Asian stocks. He speaks with Paul Allen on "Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia."

Insider Monkey tracks hedge funds' moves to identify the best stocks to buy and short. We recommend about 10-15 long positions and 5-10 short positions in our quarterly newsletter every quarter. Our long strategy was launched 5.5 years ago and its stock picks outperformed the Russell 2000 ETFs by 40 percentage points. Our short strategy […]

Bigger often proves better at art fairs, where large-scale works tend to emerge the most memorable. Expectations are therefore as high as the works at Meridians, Art Basel Miami Beach’s first section for large-scale art. When the fair opens next week, 33 installations will be presented in the new Grand Ballroom of the Miami Beach Convention Center.

AT&T (T) provides revamped 5G solutions in collaboration with Microsoft's Azure cloud platform to foster networking capabilities and edge computing solutions for an agile data infrastructure.

Should investors consider buying struggling Slack stock before it reports its Q3 fiscal 2020 financial results on Wednesday, December 4 amid Microsoft competition?

Exxon Mobil, AT&T, Apple, and Microsoft are among the companies that paid out the most in dividends in terms of total dollars paid. Their yield and growth rates, however, say different things.

The two-day trading period around Thanksgiving???the Wednesday before and the Friday after???has traditionally been strong for stocks.

The last time I wrote about Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD), I said Advanced Micro Devices stock could maintain its momentum and stay hot, adding that for "long-term buy-and-hold investors AMD does appear attractive at current prices."Source: Joseph GTK / Shutterstock.com That's when AMD stock price traded was $28.90. Advanced Micro Devices stock jumped to $41.79 before pulling back to $39.25. For the year, AMD stock price is now up 112%, with no shortage of love from analysts. AMD Is Even Getting Plenty of Love From AnalystsCowen analyst Matthew Ramsay reiterated his "outperform" rating Advanced Micro Devices stock, saying he was upbeat on the name after meeting with AMD CEO Lisa Su.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips"We believe AMD's consistent track record of execution under her leadership, and stable roadmap, is increasingly resonating with customers and investors," he noted. * 7 Stocks to Buy in December Wells Fargo analyst Aaron Rakers jumped on the bandwagon, increasing his price target to $48 from $40 on the heels of gains in the server market."We continue to see AMD's wins in [High Performance Computing] / supercomputing as increasing validation of the company's strong competitive positioning in datacenter CPUs…thus remaining supportive of our positive upside thesis," he wrote.However, as bullish as these analysts are, I'd suggest waiting for the stock to pullback. At the moment, it's become aggressively overbought at its upper Bollinger Band. Advanced Micro Devices stock is also oversold on RSI, MACD, and on Williams' %R.But once it pulls back, it will be one of the best stocks to consider for 2020. AMD Stock Still Has Plenty of Growth AheadIn recent weeks, investors were let down by AMD.Its net income came in at $120 million, or 11 cents per share last quarter, compared to the $102 million and EPS of 9 cents during the same period a year earlier. Its revenue shot up to $1.8 billion from $1.65 billion.Analysts, on average, were looking for 18 cents on sales of $1.81 billion.However, the company's slightly weaker than expected guidance didn't sit well with the owners of Advanced Micro Devices stock. AMD now expects Q4 revenue of $2.05 billion to $2.15 billion. Analysts, on average, were looking for $2.15 billion.Still, even with that slight hiccup, there are plenty of catalysts ahead for AMD stock.One, as InvestorPlace contributor Laura Hoy noted, "Over the next six months, Advanced Micro Devices is planning to launch more 7-nm products that are expected to give a significant boost to the firm's bottom line. Analysts at Cowen told clients the line of products will, "drive above-consensus growth, share gains, margin expansion and AMD share appreciation."Two, gaming consoles from Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) due to be launched next year use AMD chips. That alone offers AMD a powerful catalyst.Three, AMD continues to chip away at Intel's (NASDAQ:INTC) lead in the computer chip market.In fact, AMD's 7nm Ryzen 3000 processors are seriously challenging Intel's market position. At the end of Q3, AMD had an 18% share of the desktop chip market, up from 17.1% at the end of Q2, and 5% in Q2 of 2018. In Q3, its market share in mobile processors jumped 3,8 percentage points YoY to 14.7%, according to Tech Radar, which added:"With AMD's CEO, Lisa Su, promising Ryzen 4000 Mobile processors in early 2020, , we could see further growth in this key market for AMD. It's already scored a big win with Microsoft releasing an AMD-powered Surface Laptop 3. Previously, Surface devices have used Intel processors exclusively." The Bottom Line on Advanced Micro Devices StockWith plenty of growth in store for 2020, there's plenty to like about AMD stock. The only concern I have at the moment is how technical overbought Advanced Micro Devce stock has become.Once AMD stock price drops meaningfully, I'd recommend accumulating Advanced Micro Devices stock for the long-term.At the moment, AMD is not attractiveAs of this writing, Ian Cooper did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. More From InvestorPlace * 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid * 7 Stocks to Buy in December * 7 Unsteady Stocks Investors Should Consider Selling Before 2020 * 7 Entertainment Stocks to Buy to Escape Holiday Blues The post Advanced Micro Devices Stock Will Be a Strong Buy Once It Pulls Back appeared first on InvestorPlace.

Microsoft has announced the December 2019 Games with Gold lineup. Xbox One is getting Insane Robots and Jurassic World Evolution. Xbox 360 is getting Toy Story 3 and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate HD.

The economic development organization for Medina County has partnered with Microsoft Corp. and local provider commZoom to expand wireless broadband access to rural areas.

Patti Payne has just the thing as holiday season is ramps up: Apple Cup jokes, a special haiku book and a look at the global efforts of the YWCA.

I read an article recently about Slack (NYSE:WORK) losing 11% of its market value on Nov. 19 due to news Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Teams was taking a commanding lead in the enterprise messaging solutions market. Source: The Art of Pics / Shutterstock.com InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading TipsAlthough the MSFT stock price barely moved on the news, it was a gentle reminder to those long Microsoft that a lot of good things are happening right now for the company. On a roll, Microsoft's growth looks to be accelerating, justifying a loftier valuation. * 7 Stocks to Buy in December In late October, I wrote a piece entitled "7 Reasons to Buy Microsoft Stock Now." One of the reasons was Microsoft Teams. I argued that the company had yet to make its collaboration software a priority. Yet the news that Microsoft has 20 million daily active users, 66% more than Slack, and is growing DAUs at 50% per quarter, has got to be disheartening to Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield, who has seen Slack stock go from a 48.5% first-day gain in June to a 13.5% decline through Nov. 25. While Butterfield swears employees of companies using Slack enjoy it -- they reportedly spend nine hours a day using it (does any work get done?) -- you can't help but think Teams will soon put Slack out of business. However, it isn't Microsoft Teams that's got me particularly excited about its growth opportunities, but rather a quick peruse of its financials. Something Called "Performance Obligations"I like to consider myself a "big picture" thinker, who is more about a company's business model and vision for the future than I am a "number cruncher." Still, when I recently took a quick look at Microsoft's Q1 2020, the words "performance obligations" and "unearned revenue" caught my attention. Those who read every last line of a 10-Q are likely very familiar with both of these terms. I, sadly, am not. It's not that I don't understand what they mean; it's just that my "big picture" brain tends to stick to simple things like understanding how each segment performed and why. I don't tend to get more granular than that, although from time to time, I will.This is one of those times. Performance obligations, according to its 2019 10-K, "represents contracted revenue that has not yet been recognized ("contracted not recognized revenue"), which includes unearned revenue and amounts that will be invoiced and recognized as revenue in future periods." It goes on to say its customers are committing to longer contract terms for its products and services. That's excellent. Some might call it "sticky" revenue. Anyway, in its Q1 2020 10-Q, it says that the company's performance obligations at the end of September were $89 billion, with 50% to be recognized by next September ($44.5 billion) and the remaining 50% ($44.5 billion) after that. Consider it similar to a backlog a manufacturer might have on orders meant to be completed at a later date for future delivery. In Q1 2019, its performance obligations were $71 billion, with approximately 60% to be recognized over the next 12 months ($42.6 billion) and 40% after that ($28.4 billion). In Q1 2018, its performance obligations were $59 billion, with approximately 60% to be recognized over the next 12 months ($35.4 billion) and 40% after that ($23.6 billion). What Does This Tell Us About MSFT Stock?In the last three years, future revenue due over the next 12 months grew by 26% from $35.4 billion to $44.5 billion, while the future revenue due after that grew by 89% from $23.6 billion to $44.5 billion. Now, I'm no CFO, but if this doesn't tell you Microsoft's growth opportunities are accelerating, nothing will. And that's terrible news for the Slacks of the world. At the time of this writing Will Ashworth did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. More From InvestorPlace * 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid * 7 Stocks to Buy in December * 7 Unsteady Stocks Investors Should Consider Selling Before 2020 * 7 Entertainment Stocks to Buy to Escape Holiday Blues The post MSFT Stock: Microsoft Teams Highlights Companya€™s Growth Opportunities appeared first on InvestorPlace.

Kubernetes is accelerating the transition away for legacy client-server technology by making cloud-native software development easier, better and faster.

The service from AT&T; and Microsoft is for a select group of customers, and the next cities to get the service will be Los Angeles and Atlanta.