HBO Max officially launches this week, and come June the streaming service will be loaded with fresh content.Read more...
I’ve always been a fan of the weekly free games you can get from Epic Game Store, and have amassed quite a collection of titles I’m sure I’ll get to someday. Today, Epic dropped what’s arguably its best free offering yet: Grand Theft Auto V, that delightful, …
A bike helmet can literally save your life if you fall and hit your head during a ride—but it’ll do you way less good (perhaps no good at all) if it doesn’t fit you properly.Read more...
Laura Loomer and Freedom Watch recently lost an appeal after suing Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Apple for alleged anti-conservative discrimination. It’s part of a long pattern of defeats for social media bias claims.
American Century recently released its Q1 2020 Investor Letter, a copy of which you can download below. American Century Focused Global Growth Fund posted a return of -16.95% for the quarter, outperforming its benchmark, the MSCI ACWI Index which returned -21.37% in the same quarter. You should check out American Century’s top 5 stock picks […]
After months of hype, WarnerMedia’s latest streaming service is here. HBO Max -- not to be confused with HBO Go or HBO Now -- is available today, and its debut brings a host of originals and exclusives to get you to sign up for yet another service. Max offers…
On May 15, some of the world's best investors -- including the "Oracle of Omaha," Warren Buffett himself -- had to file their quarterly 13F forms with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It offers a window into what top investors have been buying, selling, and leaving alone. Here are three stocks that top investors have recently been buying, and some reasons why you might want to do the same.
Yahoo Finance's Alexis Christoforous, Brian Sozzi, and Ethan Wolff-Mann discuss the rise in credit card fraud attempts as consumers are forced to use the online interface amid the coronavirus pandemic.
May is just a few days away, and when it arrives, a ton of new content on HBO Now arrives with it.Read more...
The coronavirus crisis has effectively reset the board. While both the economy and stock market will someday return to their earlier-year strength, neither will look the same. That means some of the best stocks to buy right now might look much different from top picks just a few quick months ago.The market might very well have another leg down. It's far too early to say we're out of the woods given that most of America is under quarantine and we have yet to see what first-quarter earnings and second-quarter guidance looks like. But we're getting late in the game for a truly defensive posture. That's closing the barn door after the horse has already bolted. While a few protective picks might be in order, now is the time to start planning for the next bull market.Even professional bears are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel."I'm selectively buying in my personal accounts," says John Del Vecchio, co-manager of the AdvisorShares Ranger Equity Bear ETF (HDGE). "There were plenty of companies that went into this crisis on life support, kept alive by cheap debt. You're going to see a lot of these companies fail. But at the same time, a lot of high-quality blue chips are on sale right now at prices we may never see again in our lifetimes."Many companies will be gutted. It might take years for airlines to return to pre-crisis passenger numbers, and they might go through bankruptcy or a government conservatorship in the meantime. Likewise, retailers and restaurants might be dealing with the fallout from lockdowns for months or years, as will their banks and landlords.However, some of Wall Street's best stocks could come out of this with relatively minor scratches. Many have massive stores of cash that will help them weather short-term profit drops. Some might actually benefit from a coming recession by picking up market share when its competitors fold. Many of these beneficiaries are tech stocks, but certainly not all. Plenty are in the gritty, old-fashioned real economy.Today, we'll look at 20 of the best stocks to buy now as investors shift their focus to the recovery. These companies boast a blend of well-positioned businesses, strong balance sheets and/or leading positions within their industries. SEE ALSO: 25 Dividend Stocks the Analysts Love the Most
Brown Advisory recently released its Q1 2020 Investor Letter, a copy of which you can download below. The Large-Cap Growth Fund posted a return of -13.05% for the quarter, outperforming its benchmark, the Russell 1000 Growth Index which returned -14.10% in the same quarter. You should check out Brown Advisory’s top 5 stock picks for […]
June is almost upon us. To help everyone prepare, Netflix just released the list of what’s coming and going from the platform next month.Read more...
Whether it was for the tax deduction and deferred taxable gains of a traditional IRA or the future tax-free gains of a Roth IRA (after you wait five years and reach age 59 and a half, of course), that contribution will yield rich rewards down the road. Three options that could be great for your IRA are salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), Visa (NYSE: V), and Alibaba (NYSE: BABA). For years now, cloud computing has been picking up steam and fueling "digital transformation" -- a catch-all phrase for organizations looking to update their operations for the 21st century.
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) today announced its participation in the following investor conferences.
If you’re hyped for space exploration between the Apollo mission anniversaries and the planned return to the Moon, you now have a way to show your enthusiasm on your wrist. Casio has released a limited edition DW5600NASA20 G-Shock watch that, as the name sugg…
If you want to learn about what it takes to succeed as a retailer, there's no better company to study than Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST). Costco is also beloved by bargain shoppers for its low prices. The profits Costco makes from selling membership plans allow it to sell its wares only slightly above cost.
DOW UPDATE Shares of Walt Disney and Exxon Mobil are trading lower Thursday morning, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average into negative territory. Shares of Walt Disney (DIS) and Exxon Mobil (XOM) have contributed to the index's intraday decline, as the Dow (DJIA) was most recently trading 68 points (0.
It’s been over 25 years since Doom was unceremoniously released on a university FTP server. And despite its age, the classic first-person shooter has become a mainstay, not just for gamers, but also for programmers. The game has shown up on a ridiculous amoun…
In this mini-episode of our explainer show, Upscaled, we break down NVIDIA's latest GPU, the A100, and its new graphics architecture Ampere. Announced at the company's long-delayed GTC conference, the A100 isn't intended for gamers, or even for workstation us…
Fans upset over Zack Snyder’s original Justice League movie in 2017, and who have campaigned since then for Warner Bros. to “Release the Snyder Cut,” will finally get their wish. WarnerMedia is working with Snyder on a new version for HBO Max.
Distillate Capital recently released its Q1 2020 Investor Letter, a copy of which you can download below. The Distillate Capital’s U.S. Fundamental Stability & Value (U.S. FSV) strategy posted a return of -19.39% for the quarter (net of fees), outperforming its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index which returned -19.60% in the same quarter. You should […]
Don’t throw away your junk mail — or you might throw away your stimulus payment. The U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service began sending out Economic Impact Payments as prepaid debit cards last week. Problem is, these Visa (AT:VISA) cards are being issued by MetaBank (the Treasury’s financial agent) and delivered in plain envelopes from Money Network Cardholder Services — neither of which are familiar names for many folks.
Unlike most penny stocks, these three companies are leaders in their respective industries and could provide market-beating returns for a while.
Epic Games Store gives away free games every week, and it’s next one could be its biggest giveaway yet. A since-deleted tweet from the company’s official Twitter account suggests that gamers could soon snag the mega-popular GTA V for free, to keep forever.Acc…
Payment card issuing startup Marqeta has raised $150 million from a U.S. institutional investor, doubling its valuation to $4.3 billion, the company said on Thursday. The Oakland, California-based company declined to disclose the name of the investor. The deal comes a year after Marqeta raised $260 million in a round led by hedge fund Coatue Management with participation from Vitruvian Partners and others.
PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) stock has been a huge winner in 2020. The company has suffered only a modest negative impact from the novel coronavirus. And while the company has had to increase reserves for potential credit losses due to the virus, it's made up for that and more with a huge surge in payments activity. As a result, its shares are up an astounding 39% year-to-date. And for anyone that bought at the March lows, PayPal has soared 76% since the bottom.Source: JHVEPhoto / Shutterstock.com That said, the good news is that Paypal stock could have further to go still. That's because PayPal is one of the best-positioned companies out there for dealing with the current economic environment. With the virus still a lingering threat, who wants to be handling grimy physical cash right now? Many transactions have moved online, and PayPal is there to facilitate them.In the span of a few months, we've seen years worth of economic activity move into the digital realm -- and PayPal is right at the heart of the action. That said, it gets even better. PayPal is seeing demand soar even while the credit card companies are witnessing declining volumes for a reason we'll discuss in a moment.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading TipsOverall, PayPal is in the sweet spot, and its shareholders are reaping the benefits. Leading The Contactless Retail RevolutionPayPal should be a huge beneficiary of post-coronavirus "contactless" retail practices. While contactless retail may seem like a simple phrase, it encompasses a ton of territory. You have traditional e-commerce, curbside pickup, cashier-less checkout in stores, in-app payments and more. The good news is that many of these options put PayPal on equal footing with the credit card networks. Therefore, plastic's traditional monopoly on digital payments is breaking down. * 10 Stocks on a Bankruptcy Watch Contactless retail is hardly just a U.S. phenomenon either. In the United Kingdom -- for example -- thanks to the coronavirus, a major card company raised the limits on transaction sizes for many contactless payments. For British pound-based commerce, the limit increased from 30 pounds to 50 pounds per transaction. Following the increased limit, the average contactless transaction size has jumped nearly 50%, to 14 pounds each, and the contactless channel is earning tremendous market share, picking up nearly half of purchases within that price range.Of course, skeptics will say that this sort of uptake is happening primarily due to the crisis. And once it passes, people may return to their old ways. Some will, undoubtedly, but many won't. And once people become accustomed to the ease of contactless payments, many shoppers will stick with it forever -- thus increasing PayPal's share of the overall ecosystem. Astounding ResultsOverall, we can see this playing out in the company's most recent operating results. During April, PayPal gained 7.4 million new accounts and grew processed payments 18%. Given the sharp overall drop in economic activity, these are staggering figures. The total commerce pie shrank dramatically during April, yet PayPal managed to produce strong double-digit growth.This is in stark contrast to the major credit card companies. In fact, both Visa (NYSE:V) and Mastercard (NYSE:MA) suffered 20% or greater declines in transaction activity over the same period.This shows another advantage to PayPal, as it tends to be favored by younger and more online customers who have rising earnings power as they get older. Visa and Mastercard are undoubtedly great brands. However, some of their most profitable business is tied to established business customers who will be reining in spending for the foreseeable future.Up until this crisis, Visa and Mastercard were widely viewed as the most powerful and entrenched payments companies out there. However, as PayPal gains market share, its valuation will continue to catch up with the credit card titans. Paypal Stock VerdictSimply put, PayPal is an innovative market force that will continue to lead. The company was already producing fantastic results before the current pandemic started, and what's going on with the health crisis will be an unbelievable shot of adrenaline for the war on cash. Therefore, as long as people are being careful, PayPal will take more market share -- not only from cash, but also from credit cards.Yes, Paypal stock is rich. It is trading at 46 times forward earnings, and nearly 10 times revenues. Both of those are way up there, but it is deserving of its premium price. The company has grown its earnings at more than 30% a year compounded over the past five years, and analysts see 20% earnings per share (EPS) growth going forward. These are tremendous numbers in any environment, and especially so with the coronavirus-induced recession causing slowdowns for so many other leading companies.Even the credit card companies have been showing signs of weakness thanks to the economic situation. Yet, Visa and Mastercard routinely trade for more than 30x earnings, and were trading for as much as 20x sales prior to the March market crash.Collectively, PayPal doesn't look bad at all by comparison, so don't let its valuation scare you too much. The company's fundamentals fully support a bullish outlook right now.Eric Fry is an award-winning stock picker with numerous "10-bagger" calls -- in good markets AND bad. How? By finding potent global megatrends … before they take off. And when it comes to bear markets, you'll want to have his "blueprint" in hand before stocks go south. Eric does not own the aforementioned securities. More From InvestorPlace * Top Stock Picker Reveals His Next 1,000% Winner * America's Richest ZIP Code Holds Shocking Secret * 1 Under-the-Radar 5G Stock to Buy Now * The 1 Stock All Retirees Must Own The post Hereas How PayPal Stock Is Ringing Up Massive Gains appeared first on InvestorPlace.
Fads come and go, but the Minecraft craze has yet to abate. Mojang Studios -- the game’s creator -- and Microsoft announced today that 200 million copies of the sandbox game have been sold since its launch in 2011. To put that into perspective, Grand Theft Au…
The key characteristics of companies that can stand the test of time include a long runway for growth, a dominant market position, and a large and untapped addressable market. Amazon clocked up net sales of $75.5 billion during the previous quarter, up 26.6% year over year, while generating trailing twelve-month free cash flow of $24.3 billion. Amazon's dominance should allow it to continue to grow over the long term, as more countries industrialize and more consumers switch to e-commerce.
Epic Games’ GTA V giveaway caused chaos beyond Epic’s own games store. Rockstar is warning of problems accessing GTA V for PC and the company’s Games Launcher due to “extremely high player volumes.” We’ve asked the developer for comment, but it doesn’t take m…
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- After a prolonged shutdown, Ford Motor Co. officially resumed production at its North American factories this week. It hasn’t been as smooth a process as the company might have hoped: Ford had to temporarily close two critical facilities this week to allow for a deep cleaning after workers tested positive for the coronavirus. An Explorer SUV plant in Chicago was closed a second time after an employee at a nearby supplier facility tested positive for the virus, causing a parts shortage.This is the reality of manufacturing for the time being as companies fret about worker safety and the legal and reputational risks of not doing enough to protect employees. Unlike Ford, whose products fall into a category of consumer spending that’s become even more discretionary amid the pandemic, wide swaths of the industrial sector were deemed essential and allowed to remain operational. Those companies, too, have had their share of growing pains as they adjust to a new way of working.Boeing Co. temporarily closed its factories in the Puget Sound area in March after a worker died of the coronavirus and later briefly shuttered work at its 787 plant in South Carolina. CBS Minnesota reported earlier this month that a Honeywell International Inc. facility in Minneapolis had closed after a worker tested positive. Whirlpool Corp. closed its Amana, Iowa, refrigerator plant at least twice after employees tested positive for the virus, according to the Gazette local paper. Deere & Co. and Altria Group Inc.’s Philip Morris USA are among the many others that have had to close plants on a limited basis to avoid outbreaks among workers. Lockheed Martin Corp., meanwhile, said this week it will temporarily slow production of the F-35 fighter jet because of delays at suppliers. It’s a lot harder, though, to bring factories back to life than it is to just figure it out as you go along. Ford may be a manufacturer, but because it’s one of the few to have experienced an extended lockdown, it’s arguably a better benchmark for the non-industrial economy. You better believe that office-based companies that have sent most of their workers home are keeping a close eye on how the likes of Ford fare in flipping the switch back on. Seeing the automaker’s setbacks this week, companies that can operate without their employees clustered in the same place may be less keen to rush back. They’re getting a more continuous stream of work out of their employees now than they would if they had to hit the pause button and clear out the office every few weeks. And the mixed messages from the White House aren't helpful: President Donald Trump is due to visit a Ford factory in Michigan that’s been converted to ventilator production and has been wishy-washy on whether he will adhere to the company’s face-mask requirements. Already, American Express Co. CEO Steve Squeri and Visa Inc. CEO Al Kelly said this week that most of their employees would work from home for the rest of the year. Some 28% of employers recently surveyed by Challenger, Gray & Christmas said they would make work-from-home arrangements permanent for at least some employees. Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and social media site Twitter Inc. are among those who have publicly said remote working will be their indefinite default option. Facebook Inc. said Thursday it would follow suit and move to a more permanent remote workforce.At the end of the day, manufacturing or non-manufacturing, it's all interconnected. How permanent this shift to work from home will be is debatable, but if companies end up needing less office space, by default that means fewer HVAC systems, commercial lighting, fire and security products or even 3M Co.’s Post-it notes. And if workers aren’t going to be commuting, do they still need to buy cars from Ford? There's a lot riding on getting reopening right. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Brooke Sutherland is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and industrial companies. She previously wrote an M&A column for Bloomberg News.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Battlefield V may be slowly winding to a close, but developer DICE has assured players that a new Battlefield game is on the way, and will arrive in 2021. The company has revealed that this month’s The Battle on Scarif update will be the last for Star Wars Ba…
As it teased, Sony is going all-in on vlogging with the ZV-1, a video-centric compact that fuses features form the popular RX100 V and RX100 VII cameras. It has a 20-megapixel 1-inch sensor that’s big enough to deliver decently blurred backgrounds, along with…
For years, Samsung’s C-Lab has backed projects and products that are a bit out of place, sold alongside its TVs, phones and, er, washing machines. The latest group to receive backing includes the timeliest of gadgets, given lockdown: an artificial smart windo…
Visa Inc (NYSE: V) shares are up 16% in the past month, but at least one larger option trader is betting on more upside from the credit card giant as the US economy begins to open back up.The TradeOn Tuesday morning, Benzinga Pro subscribers received an option alert related to an unusually large Visa trade. * At 11:56 a.m., a trader bought 12,000 Visa call options with a $220 strike price expiring on Sep. 18 at the ask price of $2.84. The trade represented a more than $3.4 million bullish bet.Why It's ImportantEven traders who stick exclusively to stocks often monitor option market activity closely for unusually large trades. Given the relative complexity of the options market, large options traders are typically considered to be more sophisticated than the average stock trader.Many of these large options traders are wealthy individuals or institutions who may have unique information or theses related to the underlying stock.Unfortunately, stock traders often use the options market to hedge against their larger stock positions, and there's no surefire way to determine if an options trade is a standalone position or a hedge. In this case, given the relatively large size of Tuesday's Visa option trade it could certainly be institutional hedging.Visa's Uncertain OutlookThere doesn't seem to be any company-specific news that could have triggered the large buy on Tuesday, suggesting the buyer may simply see Visa as a major beneficiary of an overall recovery in the economy in the coming months.Wall Street has been quiet on Visa since last Wednesday when Cowen reiterated its Outperform rating and $196 price target for Visa. Earlier this month, Visa withdrew its full-year guidance but reported a 4% increase in fiscal second-quarter profits.Bullish sentiment among StockTwits messages mentioning Visa was at 93.4% on Tuesday, up from its 2020 low of 56.6% on April 3. V Chart by TradingView new TradingView.widget( { "width": 680, "height": 423, "symbol": "NYSE:V", "interval": "D", "timezone": "Etc/UTC", "theme": "light", "style": "1", "locale": "en", "toolbar_bg": "f1f3f6", "enable_publishing": false, "allow_symbol_change": true, "container_id": "tradingview_a8284" } ); Benzinga's TakeThe $3.4 million call purchase has a break-even price of $222.84, suggesting 14.7% upside for the stock in less than four months. Visa is expected to report earnings in late July, so the trader may be expecting relatively strong fiscal third-quarter numbers or a rally if and when Visa updates its full-year guidance.Prior to the health crisis, Visa was forecasting double-digit revenue growth for the full year.Do you agree with this take? Email feedback@benzinga.com with your thoughts.Related Links:How Large Boeing, Delta Options Traders Are Positioning As Economy Reopens How To Read And Trade An Option AlertSee more from Benzinga * Here's How Much Investing 0 In American Express in 2010 Would Be Worth Today(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
If you’ve gotten to the stage of quarantine where you’ve watched every episode and season of “Law and Order,” “CSI” and “NCIS,” you may be looking for your next courtroom drama fix. Well, look no further than the highest court in the land: Thanks to the COVID…
Leave it to a bored adolescent to come up with one of the most ingenious ways to appear “present” in a Zoom chat I’ve ever seen—especially if the chat is on the larger side and someone isn’t paying much attention to your webcam in the grid view. Read more...
A little more than five years after NextVR streamed its first live VR broadcast from California to my house in Michigan, Apple confirmed it’s acquiring the startup. While Apple has built AR features into some of its platforms already, rumors of a bigger push …
DOW UPDATE The Dow Jones Industrial Average is falling Thursday morning with shares of Walt Disney and 3M facing the biggest setback for the price-weighted average. The Dow (DJIA) was most recently trading 6 points (0.
The financial services giant and payment network operator has been investing aggressively in the fintech space.
Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) announced today that Chris Newkirk will join the company in the newly created position of Chief Strategy Officer. In this capacity, Mr. Newkirk will lead the Corporate Strategy organization to drive strategic planning for Visa overall, and in partnership with Visa’s regional teams. He will be a member of the Executive Committee and report to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Al Kelly. Mr. Newkirk will begin work at Visa on June 15.