Projects In View

NEWS
Snap ‘euphoria’ near-term is covering up longer-term concerns, analyst
says
Snapchat parent Snap Inc. was initiated at Susquehanna Financial with a neutral rating,
saying any upside from near-term “eurphoria” and potential product innovations are
offset by concerns over competition and valuations over the longer term. Analyst Shyam
Patil set a $22 price target on the stock, which is 29% above Snap’s IPO price of $17, but
2% below Thursday’s first-day closing price of $24.48. “Euphoria could cause a shortterm
disconnect between fundamentals and valuation, but longer-term we struggle to see
Snap as an investment with meaningful upside potential from current levels,” Patil wrote
in a note to clients. Patil expects new products to help daily average users (DAU) rebound
in the near term, and believes Snap’s total addressable market is “undeniably large,” he is
concerned about competitive positioning over time with the launch of Facebook Inc.’s Instagram
Stories. On Thursday, Instinet started coverage of Snap with a reduce rating and
Pivotal Research initiated it with a sell. Currently, the average rating of the six analysts
surveyed by FactSet is the equivalent of underweight and the average stock price target
is $16.50. Meanwhile, the stock gained 0.7% in premarket trade, while early indications
suggested a 0.1% decline for the S&P 500 .
Apple also suing Qualcomm in U.K.
Apple Inc. has filed another lawsuit - its fourth - against Qualcomm Inc. related to a
battle over licensing fees, according to a report by Bloomberg. The iPhone maker filed
the suit in a U.K. court, expanding similar legal cases it has against Qualcomm, one
of its long-time suppliers, in California and China. The lawsuit reportedly claims that
Qualcomm unfairly charged royalties for technologies that weren’t covered by their
long-time agreement and would use its position as the world’s biggest smartphone
chip maker to bully Apple into paying more than it should have. According to the
Verge, Apple says the lawsuit was filed back in January alongside the other lawsuits,
but just now is being brought to the surface because of a refiling in the U.K. Shares of
Qualcomm, which saidearnings were hit last quarter in part because of high legal fees,
fell 0.2% in after-hours trade.
Immersion shares plummet after results, outlook fall short of Street
view
Immersion Corp. shares plunged in the extended session Thursday after the touch-feedback
technology, or haptics, company reported a wider-than-expected loss for the quarter
and an outlook that fell short of Wall Street estimates. Immersion shares dropped
17% to $8.90 after hours. The company reported an adjusted loss of 27 cents a share
on revenue of $9.3 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated a loss of 16
cents a share on revenue of $10.3 million. For 2017, the company forecast an adjusted
loss of 76 cents to $1.05 a share on revenue of $38 million to $42 million. Analysts had
estimated a loss of 21 cents a share on revenue of $54.1 million. “In addition to normal
considerations, our guidance for 2017 takes into account the ongoing litigation with
Apple and the current unlicensed status of Samsung,” Immersion said in a statement.
Last year, Immersion filed patent infringement lawsuits against Apple Inc. for technology
used in iPhones and the trackpads used in MacBooks.
In Brief
Bill Gates supposedly has
long way to go to catch
the real richest man in the
world Coming in at around
$86 billion, Bill Gates has
ridden his Microsoft MSFT,
+0.37% fortune straight to
the top of the Forbes list
of the world’s richest men.
Then again, the business
magazine doesn’t take
into account the world
leaders and “dictators who
derive their fortunes entirely
as a result of their
position of power.”
If it did, there’d likely be a
new top dog, according to
reports that revisited the
idea that Vladimir Putin’s
net worth, virtually impossible
to measure, tops
$200 billion.
Uber used secret tool
‘Greyball’ to sidestep
authorities Uber Technologies
Inc. has for years
employed a program
that uses data from its
ride-hailing app and other
tools to evade government
officials seeking to identify
and block the service’s
drivers, according to a person
familiar with the matter.
The program, which
Uber calls Greyball, was
designed to prevent people
from using the Uber
app in violation of the
terms of service, including
law-enforcement sting
operations and competitors
attempting to disrupt
Uber’s operations.
Oil closes up amid Libyan output
concerns, but posts weekly loss
Oil futures settled higher Friday, buoyed by
uncertainty surrounding Libya’s crude production,
but prices still registered a loss for
the week on the back of rising U.S. output.
Prices, however, saw a loss of more than
1% for the week, fueled by rising U.S. crude
production, another rise in the number of
active oil rigs, record domestic supplies and
overall strength in the dollar.
“Remember one of the reasons some
are skeptical about the success of
OPEC cuts is because some producers
like Libya have no production
cap,” said Phil Flynn, senior market
analyst at Price Futures Group. “Maybe
the fighting has put that cap in
for a while.”