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Shares in Akami Technologies (AKAM) pulled back 2% in Tuesday’s after-hours trading, despite the company posting impressive second quarter earning results.Specifically, Q2 Non-GAAP EPS of $1.38 beat Street estimates by $0.17 while GAAP EPS of $0.98 also topped consensus expectations by $0.20. Revenue of $795M surged 12.8% year-over-year (14% when adjusted for foreign exchange) and easily beat estimates by $27.62M.Most impressively, AKAM’s Cloud Security Solutions revenue was $259M, up 27% year-over-year, while Web Division revenue was $404M (up 7%) and Media and Carrier Division revenue was $390M (up 19%).“Akamai’s outstanding top and bottom line results in the second quarter were powered by the strong growth of our Security and Media solutions and our continued operational excellence,” said Dr. Tom Leighton, Akamai’s CEO.Looking forward, Q3 & FY20 Guides came in modestly above Street, with a few notable drag factors (i.e. the banning of Chinese apps in India, Summer Web traffic moderation & IP revenue hits as two of the largest contracts were renewed down).Following the report, RBC Capital analyst Mark Mahaney reiterated his hold rating on the stock while boosting his price target from $94 to $105.“AKAM posted Beat & Raise Q2 results w/ multi-year high Revenue Growth & record high EBITDA Margin (45%), thanks to very strong Web traffic growth, robust Cloud Security growth & opex efficiency” he cheered.However he notes that AKAM shares have already surged 30% year-to-date and that “Revenue Growth Deceleration is highly likely (implied in H2 guide), which likely checks the current multiple and may modestly pressure it over the next 12 months.”Overall, AKAM scores a cautiously optimistic Moderate Buy consensus from the Street, alongside a $123 average analyst price target (9% upside potential). (See Akami stock analysis on TipRanks).Related News: Amazon Shares Rise As Analysts See More Upside Visa Pulls Back On Revenue Miss; RBC Reiterates Buy Call Starbucks Spikes 6% After-Hours As Earnings Top Estimates More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Mondelez Reports Mixed Q2; RBC Says Risk/ Reward Skews Positive * Seagate Drops 8% In Extended Trading On Earnings Miss, Weak Outlook * McDonald’s Global Sales Hit By Pandemic; Top Analyst Sticks To Hold * AMD Reassures On Its Chip, GPU Production Amid Intel Delays

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Shares of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) rose 10.3% in after-hours on Tuesday, thanks to the better-than-expected 2Q earnings and upbeat guidance. Its earnings of $0.18 per share marked a whopping 125% year-over-year growth and beat analysts’ estimates of $0.16.Revenues grew 26% to $1.93 billion year-over-year and surpassed Street estimates of $1.86 billion. Strong chip demand by PC manufacturers and data center operators drove AMD's 2Q revenues and earnings.The company raised its full-year revenue growth outlook. It now expects revenues to increase by 32% in 2020 compared with its earlier expectations of 25% growth.Following the financial results, Piper Sandler analyst Harsh Kumar raised the stock's price target to $82 (21% upside potential) from $60 and maintained a Buy rating. Credit Suisse analyst John Pitzer increased the price target to $75 (11% upside potential) from $33, while reiterating a Hold.On July 27, Merrill Lynch analyst Vivek Arya ramped up the stock's price target to $77 from $65 and reiterated a Buy rating. Arya believes Intel’s (INTC) 7-nanometer product delay “could accelerate AMD market share gains back toward their historical peaks of 20% for PC and 25% servers, up from 17% and 10%, today.”Overall, AMD has a Moderate Buy analyst consensus. The average price target of $63.56 implies 6% downside potential in the coming 12 months. (See AMD stock analysis on TipRanks).Related News: Intel Faces Analysts’ Wrath, Stock Slips Over 16% AMD Biggest Beneficiary of Intel’s 7nm Delay, Says 5-Star Analyst AMD Surges To 52-Week High On Intel’s Woes More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Seagate Drops 8% In Extended Trading On Earnings Miss, Weak Outlook * McDonald’s Global Sales Hit By Pandemic; Top Analyst Sticks To Hold * AMD Reassures On Its Chip, GPU Production Amid Intel Delays * Sanofi, GSK Agree UK Supply Deal For 60M Covid-19 Vaccine Doses

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Miller Value Partners recently released its Q2 2020 Investor Letter, a copy of which you can download here. The Opportunity Equity Fund posted a return of 47.02% for the quarter (net of fees), outperforming its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index which returned 20.54% in the same quarter. You should check out Miller Value Partners' top […]

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In an interview with Yahoo Finance’s Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates discusses how misinformation of the coronavirus pandemic is spreading rapidly on social media, and what steps the tech giants are taking to curb it.

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Shares in Visa (V) pulled back 2% in Tuesday’s after-hours trading after the financial giant reported disappointing revenue for the fiscal third quarter.Specifically, revenue of $4.84B represented a 17% year-over-year decline, and missed consensus estimates by $10M. However non-GAAP EPS of $1.06 beat Street forecasts by $0.02, as did GAAP EPS of $1.07 which beat estimates by $0.03.Meanwhile, overall payment volume of $1.95T beat the analyst estimate of $1.90T.Through July 21, Visa said that U.S. payment volumes are up in the mid- to high-single digits, with debit outperforming credit. U.S. card not present (ecommerce) volumes are also relatively stable.Processed transactions have improved to roughly flat in July from down 4% year-over-year in June and 24% in April. Finally, cross- border volumes declined 44% year-over-year for both the month of June and the first three weeks of July.“Overall volume trends point to stabilization, while cross-border volumes / international fees continue to struggle given the lack of travel” commented RBC Capital analyst Daniel Perlin following the report. “However, contactless & new payment flows point to solid long-term growth” he added.Looking forward, Perlin believes that FQ4/20 results will have significant noise as service fees are calculated on a one-quarter lag. Management noted that if service fees had been calculated without the lag, FQ3/20 services fees would have declined (11%) y/y and total net revenue growth would have been 4.5ppt lower.“We believe that the lag and incentive percentage increase will result in FQ4/20 new revenue growth to be worse than FQ3/20’s y/y decline of (17%)” the analyst warned.Perlin nonetheless reiterated his buy rating on the stock but dropped his price target from $247 to $243. This still suggests significant upside potential from the current share price of $197.“Our valuation is based on our view that V will be able to expand its constituencies, improve its competitive position, and accelerate secular trends as we emerge into a more normalized phase of growth” he explained.Overall, Visa scores a bullish Strong Buy analyst consensus with an average analyst price target of $212 (8% upside potential). (See V stock analysis on TipRanks).Related News: Amazon Shares Rise As Analysts See More Upside Intel Faces Analysts’ Wrath, Stock Slips Over 16% Verizon (VZ) Stock Looks Attractive After Earnings, Says 5-Star Analyst More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Sanofi, GSK Agree UK Supply Deal For 60M Covid-19 Vaccine Doses * Shopify Files For $7.5B Mixed Shelf Offering Ahead Of Earnings * Pfizer Raises 2020 Profit Forecast On Recovery Outlook; Shares Leap 4% * Avis Pops 10% In Extended Trading On Q2 Beat, Pick-Up In Rentals

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If you want to know who really controls Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its…

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(Bloomberg) — Two decades ago, a burst in the dot-com bubble meant that shares of Ballard Power Systems Inc. may have been dead in the water. Now, it’s rebounding with a vengeance.After a meteoric rise that saw the hydrogen fuel-cell company’s stock surge more than 400% between late 1999 and March 2000, it crashed almost immediately after, falling 88% over the next 18 months.Fast-forward 20 years and the Burnaby, British Columbia-based company is one of the best-performing stocks in Canada this year with a gain of 117%. That’s not far off the 154% jump in shares of Shopify Inc., a darling of the tech industry.“There’s a lot of momentum behind it,” Cormark Securities analyst MacMurray Whale said in an interview. In the years since Ballard’s sudden boom and bust, it launched a joint venture with Weichai Power Co. in China in 2018 and has directed its focus away from passenger cars and toward electrifying medium- and heavy-duty vehicles such as buses and transport trucks.“This is all about China,” Whale said.Guy McAree, director of investor relations and marketing at Ballard, said the decision to focus on buses and trucks was driven by the fact that “those are the vehicles that have a disproportionate impact on the environment.”The firm received almost 32% of its 2018 revenues from China, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Earlier this month, the stock rallied to a 17-year high after it received a $7.7 million order from its joint venture. The company’s technology currently powers over 650 electric buses and more than 2,200 electric trucks in the world’s second-largest economy, Alfred Wong, managing director at Ballard, said in a statement then.Cormark’s Whale also credited Ballard’s recent rally with the growing popularity of electric vehicles, pointing to Tesla Inc.’s 300% surge from its March low. “I think Tesla has shown that you can make a better margin than the normal vehicle,” he said. Whale has a buy recommendation on Ballard’s stock with a C$35 price target.Ballard’s shares still have a lot of ground to cover. Unlike the early 2000s, when the stock reached a pinnacle of C$192, its closing price on Tuesday was C$20.13.Tech Bubble EuphoriaWhale, who covered Ballard two decades ago for National Bank Financial, said the rise and fall at the turn of the millennium is partly attributable to the “euphoria” surrounding the dot-com bubble.“Ballard got caught up in that and they couldn’t deliver because it was technically too hard to do in the time-frame they had set themselves,” he said. “It was too early.” The company was not yet focused on heavy-duty vehicles, which has since become its niche.According to McAree, there has since been a “tremendous” improvement in the performance of fuel-cell products and a reduction in the cost of building them. “I don’t have a crystal ball, but we do think that people are seeing the value,” he said.Ballard has six buy recommendations, three holds and no sell ratings, with an average price target of C$26, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.Some CautionNot everyone is bullish. Just last week, New York-based hedge fund Lakewood Capital called Ballard a “consistently loss-making and cash-burning Canadian company” in a letter.“We have tracked Ballard Power (and several other fuel cell stocks) for the past decade, and on five separate occasions, investors bid up the shares in a frenzy only to be left holding the bag months later when they came crashing down to earth,” the hedge fund said.Whale also preached a bit of caution, saying everything “could change on a dime.”“If there’s no follow-on order after hydrogen programs were announced, or that follow-on order isn’t very interesting, then the stock goes down,” Whale said. “It’s as simple as that.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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