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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Microsoft, Intel, KLA, Lam Research and Garmin

VMware's (VMW) third-quarter fiscal 2020 results reflect strong top-line growth, driven by robust performance from NSX and vSAN product lines.

Twitter stock (NYSE:TWTR) has fallen out of favor. Part of this is the general "bah humbug" vibe that investors are giving to all social media stocks. And part of it stems from the social media company delivering a weak earnings report back in October. Not only did the company miss on earnings, but they lowered their guidance for the fourth quarter.Source: Worawee Meepian / Shutterstock.com Some analysts are suggesting that TWTR stock has now reached the oversold state. But with upward momentum only suggesting a gain of around 9% from current levels, TWTR seems like a short-term trade instead of a long-term investment.That being said, 330 million monthly active users (MAUs) give Twitter an appeal to advertisers. And since that's where Twitter makes their money, it's hard to ignore. Particularly since it is seen by users as being "the least bad" option among social media channels.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading TipsBut if you're thinking about buying low on Twitter stock, here are a couple of things to consider. Active Users Do Not Equate to Brand LoyaltyBrand loyalty is about choosing one brand at the expense of another. For example, there are many people who will choose to drink (and buy) Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) products at the expense of Pepsi (NASDAQ:PEP) products and vice versa. * 7 Strong Buy Stocks That Are Bargains Right Now Social media is not like that. Twitter can boast of 330 million MAUs and 134 million daily active users (DAUs). However, the vast majority of those users are not choosing Twitter at the exclusion of other social media outlets.Many users, for example, may use Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) to communicate with family and close friends. LinkedIn, which was acquired by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), is for professional use. Twitter lacks the same real or perceived niche. In many cases, users see it as a news outlet, but even there it isn't the only form of social media users are engaging with.A more interesting number would be how many unique eyeballs Twitter captures. I imagine that number would be much smaller. Purchase Intent Does Not Mean an Actual PurchaseBusinesses that market on Twitter have come to rely heavily on influencers. Influencers are individuals who have the ability to affect how users perceive brands or ideas in an online community. A 2016 study by Twitter and Annalect found that Twitter users reported an increase in purchase intent of over five times when they were exposed to promotional content from influencers.I've mentioned my marketing background in the past. Many excited marketing managers have shown me research results in which their brand scored high on "purchase intent."However sound the methodology is for defining purchase intention, it is, at best, a hypothesis. For example, in a study about cars, marketers may ask you "when do you intend to purchase a car?" I could say I intend to purchase a car in the next 12 months. It doesn't mean I'm going to purchase a car at all.In fairness, Twitter does have a more recent statistic that cites 40% of users have purchased an item after seeing it advertised on Twitter. Twitter Gave Up Its Unique Selling PropositionWhen Twitter first hit the social media scene, its defining characteristic was a 140-character limit. The idea was that users had a short attention span so give them what they want. Many users liked that feature about Twitter (and many users still do adhere to the smaller character limit).However, marketers found it limiting. So, Twitter upped the character count to 280. In doing so, it's become hard to tell the difference between a tweet and a Facebook or Instagram post. The lines have been blurred. Which takes me back to my statement about Twitter and brand loyalty. Users are clearly seeing Twitter as one of many options. And that means they're not unique.Being unique is essential for a channel like Twitter. As I mentioned above, LinkedIn has the benefit of being utilitarian. If nothing else, people are using it to network and look for jobs. Facebook has sheer volume going for it. Twitter has neither.I know there are several marketers that would disagree with me on this point. Many would say that expanding their character limit helped Twitter grow its user base. That's fair. But the argument I made earlier is that the vast majority of Twitter users are not unique to Twitter. Social Media Is the New NormalAs much as it may seem like I'm banging on Twitter, I use Twitter quite frequently. That doesn't mean I see TWTR stock as a good investment. I have a hard time seeing the long-term value in social media stocks in general. The emergence of Snap (NYSE:SNAP) with their Snapchat app, along with TikTok is making a crowded space more crowded.At some point, like the streaming wars, I believe users will have to pick and choose which accounts they stay actively engaged with. And that's why you have to look beyond the numbers before deciding if Twitter stock is a good investment. It's not for me.As of this writing, Chris Markoch did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. More From InvestorPlace * 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid * 7 Strong Buy Stocks That Are Bargains Right Now * 7 Excellent Bank Stocks Worth an Investment * 4 Small-Cap, Big-Dividend Stocks The post If You Must Invest in Twitter Stock, Know What Youa€™re Buying appeared first on InvestorPlace.

Remember the scary inverted yield curve — supposedly a sign recession was near? Nobody else does either. Those who ignored it scored $2.2 trillion in wealth on S&P; 500 stocks.

Manchester City’s owner has agreed to sell a $500m stake to California-based Silver Lake in a deal that breaks a record in sports valuations and fuels the football group’s international expansion. The US private equity firm is buying more than 10 per cent of City Football Group at a valuation of $4.8bn, injecting new capital into the Abu Dhabi-controlled organisation that owns Manchester City and affiliated teams in the US and China. On Wednesday, Silver Lake and CFG announced the deal, first reported by the Financial Times.

Microsoft is the second West Coast technology giant ramping up for an expansion in Midtown, a center for tech companies drawn by the pull of Georgia Tech, one of the country’s top engineering schools.

Manchester City’s owner has agreed to sell a $500m stake to Silver Lake in a deal that breaks a record in sports valuations and fuels the football group’s international expansion. The US private equity firm is buying more than 10 per cent of City Football Group at a valuation of $4.8bn, injecting new capital into the Abu Dhabi-controlled organisation that owns Manchester City and affiliated teams in the US and China. On Wednesday, Silver Lake and CFG announced the deal, which was first reported by the Financial Times.

Russell Clark is dubbed as the "world's most bearish hedge fund manager" because he is not only shorting the market, he is using leverage and shorting the market at the same time. Russell Clark's Horseman Capital returned 7.5% in 2018 when the S&P 500 Index lost nearly 5%. We shared his December 2018 investor letter (you […]

(Bloomberg) -- Dell Technologies Inc. lowered its annual revenue forecast after component shortages from supplier Intel Corp. blunted growth prospects despite buoyant corporate demand for new personal computers. Political and economic uncertainty also is weighing on sales of servers to big business clients.Adjusted sales will be $91.8 billion to $92.5 billion for fiscal year 2020, Dell Chief Financial Officer Tom Sweet said Tuesday during a conference call with analysts. The company said in August that revenue would be $93 billion to $94.5 billion in the fiscal year ending in January.Intel said last week it’s facing challenges delivering components to customers because of tight supply and limited chip inventories. Sweet said the development will affect Dell’s ability in the current period to produce some commercial computers for corporate clients, which is a key market. Business purchases of Dell’s PC often spur the sales of additional products and services, generating a higher profit margin.The company also continues to contend with falling demand for servers amid geopolitical and trade tensions. Weaker sales in China and among large corporate clients led a 16% decline in third-quarter revenue from servers and networking gear.“Obviously we’re not extraordinarily happy with them right now,” Sweet said about Intel in an interview. “I don’t have a pathway to mitigate the supply constraints that they’ve given me for Q4.”Shares fell more than 3% in extended trading, after closing at $53.19 in New York. The stock has gained 8.8% this year.This is the second time Dell has cut its annual sales forecast in the past three months. Sweet said he had always expected to narrow the range, as he did in August, because the initial revenue guidance was broad.Earlier, Dell said adjusted revenue increased 1.2% to $22.9 billion in the fiscal third quarter, just missing analysts’ average estimate of $23 billion.Dell reported profit, excluding some items, of $1.75 a share in the quarter ended Nov. 1. Analysts, on average, projected $1.59, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. During the conference call, Dell raised the low end of its 2020 earnings forecast to $7.25 to $7.40 a share, from $6.95 to $7.40. Lower component prices have aided the profit margins of Dell and rival HP Inc., which also reported earnings Tuesday.Revenue in the personal computer division increased 4.6% to $11.4 billion in the quarter. Commercial sales rose 9.4% due to corporate clients upgrading their computers to adopt Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 10 operating system. Revenue from consumers, on the other hand, fell 6.4% in the period.Sales from Dell’s data-center unit declined 6.1% to $8.39 billion, the Round Rock, Texas-based company said in a statement. Storage hardware sales increased 6.9%, but servers and networking gear pulled down the unit.Dell’s revenue growth is helped by its majority interest in software maker VMware Inc. VMware reported sales Tuesday that exceeded analysts’ estimates, rising 12% to $2.46 billion. Profit, excluding some items, was $1.49 a share, topping analysts’ average estimate of $1.42. VMware makes software that allows customers to combine multiple tasks on a single server, and is trying to shift to selling more programs that help companies run applications in the cloud and in their own data centers.Dell repaid about $1.1 billion of gross debt in the most recent period and has paid down about $3.5 billion so far this year. The company said it repaid more than $18 billion in gross debt since its EMC Corp. acquisition, announced at $67 billion, closed three years ago and is on target to repay about $5 billion of gross debt in fiscal 2020.\--With assistance from Dina Bass.To contact the reporter on this story: Nico Grant in San Francisco at ngrant20@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Andrew Pollack, Dan ReichlFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Former Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire said Brad Smith reinvigorated the idea of the Cascadia Corridor.

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Microsoft Corp., Twitter Inc. — they all endorsed the “Contract for the Web,” a document that Tim Berners-Lee, the man credited with inventing the World Wide Web, hopes will make sure the internet doesn’t spawn a dystopia of unequal access, zero privacy and manipulated information.Those endorsements are enough to dismiss Berners-Lee’s action plan as so much idealistic blather. I’ll believe in the tech giants’ good intentions when they sign on to the web inventor’s other project, Solid, designed to give users full control over their personal data. Or if they adopt the business model proposed by another web pioneer, Brendan Eich, the creator of the JavaScript programming language.The contract is the product of a campaign to save the web that Berners-Lee launched a year ago. Some 80 organizations worked on its nine principles, calling for action on the part of governments, corporations and ordinary users. Nations are supposed to make sure everyone has access to modern infrastructure and the necessary skills to use the internet; that content and privacy regulations uphold human rights; and that healthy competition exists. Companies are supposed to keep services affordable, respect privacy and promote open-source technology. Users have a responsibility to keep online discourse civil and fight for their rights.In short, all the bad practices should be abandoned and all the good ones promoted. The same governments and companies that have allowed the bad practices to proliferate now will behave differently, Twitter’s howling mobs will be shamed into silence and Facebook’s fake-news-targeting machine will grind to a halt. Not going to happen.It’s not that Berners-Lee is naive. The Solid project shows he understands that the web’s problems are caused by predatory business models based on the monetization of people’s personal data without their informed consent (and no, hitting a button to make an annoying pop-up go away isn’t that). The idea behind Solid is that every web user should keep personal data in a secure place, and applications should merely access it for their purposes with the user’s permission instead of accumulating the data. This would make life easier both for users and for app developers, who suddenly would be free from the hassle of storing and manipulating all that data.But three years after the first version of Solid was released and a year after Berners-Lee launched a start-up, Inrupt, to commercialize it, it’s still far from being a household name. There aren’t nearly enough apps built for the platform for anyone but a small group of enthusiasts to bother with trying to understand how it all works, and popular websites still invite users to log in using Google or Facebook rather than a Solid POD, or personal online data store. Eich’s project tackles the data-harvesting problem from a different angle. Brave, Eich’s web browser, doesn’t transmit everyone’s internet usage data to its parent company the way Google’s Chrome does. What it does instead is allow users to sign up for blockchain-based “basic attention tokens,” which are rewards for viewing ads. The tokens can be used to pay for eligible services. This takes care of the consent and ad-personalization issues: I use Brave on my smartphone and see only those ads that can’t be kept out by its ad blocker, but if I chose to, I could opt into viewing more of them and get paid, sort of.Eich's project has made a bit more progress than Solid. The browser, according to its creators, has 8 million monthly active users and some 37,000 “content creators” who accept the tokens. The biggest of these is Wikipedia, and some major media outlets such as the Washington Post and the Guardian are on the list. But it still doesn’t make much sense for users to sign up, unless they like the adult service Xhamster, which has the second highest traffic rank after Wikipedia among Brave partners. There's not enough useful content that can be bought for the tokens. And, of course, a number of other browsers have far more users than Brave.Inrupt's and Brave's attempts to reinvent how the web works would take off in a big way if internet giants such as Google, Facebook and Twitter embraced them, agreeing to reinvent their business models to make them less harmful. Neither Berners-Lee nor Eich expects them to do that, of course, but the limited progress they have made show how late in the game they’ve come up with their fixes for what’s wrong with today’s internet. I wouldn’t go so far as to call their efforts quixotic: These are great ideas, and they have enough followers to keep them alive if not to take over the world. But both Berners-Lee and Eich are Davids facing a number of corporate Goliaths who are good at batting away all kinds of stones.When it comes to generically civic-spirited documents, the Goliaths are always happy to sign up. Hold on, though: Amazon wasn’t among the signatories at the time of this writing. Perhaps it simply doesn’t want to appear hypocritical.To contact the author of this story: Leonid Bershidsky at lbershidsky@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Tobin Harshaw at tharshaw@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Leonid Bershidsky is Bloomberg Opinion's Europe columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

We searched utilizing our Zacks Stock Screener for blue-chip stocks from the broader tech industry that investors might want to consider buying right now...

There are two pieces of news on the U.S.-China trade deal for investors to know today. First, China is promising more protection for intellectual property. Second, despite contradictory media reports about a trade deal, there is some credibility to Gao Lingyun, an expert who is apparently close to the trade talks, saying that the “two sides have reached a broad consensus” for the first part of an agreement.

One of the simplest things that everyday investors can do to improve their performance over the long haul is to study the best practices and investments of the world's top investors. And while that typically invokes names such as Warren Buffett and Carl Icahn, don't forget the money managers overseeing billions of dollars at mammoth pension funds.Understanding the secrets of large-scale investors can put you miles ahead of those people who simply wing it without first coming up with a long-term plan. One way investors can shortcut the process is to follow the top stocks of these top investors. Indeed, following the moves of Warren Buffett has become a quarterly ritual.But while following the stock picks of big-name investors such as Buffett, Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn is an excellent way to hone your skills, another place many people fail to consider is pension funds.Even the largest pension funds might not have the same recognition as Buffett or Icahn. Nonetheless, CalPERS and the New York State Common Retirement Fund manage billions of dollars for the public state and local employees of California and New York. They and other pension funds have a fiduciary duty to current and former employees who are saving for retirement.As a result, it pays to follow pension funds' highest-conviction stock picks, too. Many of these funds have high concentrations in several of the same stocks, so just note that if a stock is a major holding in one fund, chances are it holds significant sway across numerous pension systems on this list. SEE ALSO: Every Warren Buffett Stock Ranked: The Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio

We dive into 3 tech stocks that investors might want to buy heading into December with the stock market at new highs...

Video game system makers are hoping to score in the battle for buyers with some pretty big Black Friday deals. The real winners might be those looking to give gaming consoles. If they can wait until Black Friday, they'll save $100 or more on some consoles, with a number of discounts also coming on controllers and other accessories and games.

The company has a strong edge with its current GPU chips, essential for data warehousing operations Continue reading...

The company has a strong revenue model and a fantastic growth story, but investor optimism is too high Continue reading...

Morgan Stanley favors non-U.S. stocks at this point, and suggests that investors tilt their U.S. equity holdings towards defensive stocks.

Female fund managers perform almost exactly in line with their male counterparts but make very different investing decisions, including embracing tech stocks but not financials, according to Goldman Sachs research.