Trefis Week in Review

Below is a summary of the activity on Trefis during the past week that we thought you would find interesting.

Insights from the Week

Tech, Media, Telecom

Zynga Launches Slingo, A Licensed Casino Game on February 17th

After Texas Holdem Poker and the recently launched Bingo, Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA) has unveiled yet another game in the casino genre – …

Investing in the Age of the Frugal American on February 17th

Submitted by Sizemore Investment Letter as part of our contributors program The February 13 issue of Barron’s made a statement that caught my eye…

LinkedIn Founder, Reid Hoffman Looking for a Bigger Slice of China – Can He Really Succeed? on February 17th

Submitted by TechNode as part of our Contributors Program A professional social network like LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD) is clearly valuable. Its market cap …

7 Key Mobile App Trends: ’The Rise of the Planet of the Apps’ Infographic from App Annie on February 17th

App Annie, a leading Apple mobile app analytic company based in Beijing loves to analyze app data. For many app developers looking to optimize…

Nvidia’s GPU & Mobile Businesses Suffer Slightly in Q4 on February 17th

As expected, Nvidia’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) GPU business suffered in Q4 of fiscal 2012 as a result of hard drive shortage. Its…

Dish Network Earnings Preview: What We Are Watching on February 17th

The second largest U.S.  satellite TV service provider Dish Network (NASDAQ:DISH) will report its Q4 and full year 2011 results on Feb …

Applied Materials Earnings: Beats Again, Stock Rises as Outlook Improves on February 17th

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT), the world’s leading supplier of manufacturing solutions for the semiconductor, display and solar industries, reported results …

Weekly Tech Review: Zynga and Microsoft on February 17th

This week was quite eventful for technology companies, especially Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA), which announced its first quarterly earnings after its IPO. We …

Zynga’s New Games Drive User Growth in Q4 2011; 2012 Full of Promise on February 17th

Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA) reported its Q4 2011 earnings, with higher-than-expected quarterly revenue of around $311 million. The total revenue for 2011 was $1.14…

Weekly Telecom Notes: Sprint, Verizon and AT&T on February 17th

The past week saw quite a few developments in the telecom sector. AT&T (NYSE:T) started the week off with a …

Weekly Mobile Updates: Google, Motorola Mobility, Apple and Microsoft on February 17th

The past week saw quite a few developments in the mobile sector. Foremost among them were the approvals that Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) got …

Apple to Rollout Mac OS Upgrade By Mid-2012 on February 17th

Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL) released a preliminary version of the next upgrade to its Mac OS X operating system, dubbed ‘Mountain Lion’, to…

China Tech in 5 Words – Open, Clone, Cloud, Mania and Entrepreneurship on February 17th

Submitted by TechNode as part of our contributors program Open Tencent, the Chinese Internet which has long been criticized for its closeness held a …

Put to the Test, Google Wallet Delivers on February 16th

Submitted by  Wall St. Daily as part of our contributors program When my friend’s wallet was stolen last week, the thief didn’t…

CBS is Well Positioned for 2012 on February 16th

CBS (NYSE:CBS) reported its Q4 2011 earnings yesterday. While the revenues showed a decline compared to Q4 of 2010, the profits increased…

PlayBook Discounts Improves RIM’s Tablet Market Share But Hurts Margins on February 16th

It seems that cheaper tablets are indeed finding buyers. It all started with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) selling the Kindle Fire for a modest …

After Consumers, Now Government Agencies Turn Backs On BlackBerry on February 16th

Corporates were once considered to be  Research in Motion’s (NASDAQ:RIMM) forte. Even though RIM continued to lose its presence in the …

Tough Times Behind Yahoo? Not So Fast! on February 16th

Just when we thought that Scott Thompson was getting ready to reinvent Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO), the two longstanding issues of selling its Asian …

Sprint’s Lucky to Have Clearwire While Lightsquared’s LTE Plans Flounder on February 16th

Are the lights finally out for troubled wireless provider Lightsquared? It seems so. The company’s efforts to launch a wholesale LTE network…

Investors Should Take Little Comfort in Intel’s Mobile Push on February 16th

Intel’s (NASDAQ:INTC) current market price suggests that the stock is trading at its highest levels in the past three years. …

AT&T Doubles Smartphone Upgrade Fee; Looking for iPhone Subsidy Relief on February 16th

AT&T (NYSE:T) has hiked its activation fee on phone upgrades from $18 to $36 according to a memo issued to all…

Intel’s Ready to Introduce Romley Server Processor on February 16th

Intel’s (NASDAQ:INTC) dominance in servers has grown in the past few years. Its rival  AMD (NYSE:AMD) rapidly gained …

As Apple’s Stock Climbs, Working Conditions at Suppliers in Question on February 16th

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) couldn’t have started 2012 on a better note. First came the announcement of a blowout December quarter earnings …

Patents May Provide Insight into Google’s Rumored Home Entertainment System on February 15th

Posted by Maulin Shah of Envision IP, Inc. using our contributor tool With recent news of Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) planning to release a…

Comcast Gets a Boost from Improving Subscriber Trends on February 15th

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) released its Q4 and full year 2011 results today and there are signs of solid improvement in subscriber trends and free…

Google Sharpens its Teeth… And May Take a Bite Out of Apple on February 15th

Submitted by  Wall St. Daily as part of our contributors program Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Justice and European regulators approved Google’s …

Amazon and eBay: 2 Companies With Very Different Growth Strategies on February 15th

As summarized in a recent note from the co-founder of Hunch, which was later acquired by eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), both eBay and Amazon…

Apple’s Ready to Roll Out 4G Enabled iPad 3 for Verizon and AT&T on February 15th

Rumors around the iPad 3 specifications are increasing by the day. Last week AllThingsD reported that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) could introduce the iPad …

Applied Materials Earnings Preview: What We’re Watching on February 15th

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) is the leading semiconductor equipment manufacturer globally. It reports its earnings for the quarter ended Jan 31, 2012 on…

LinkedIn Could Find Cracking China Market Easier Than Google or Facebook on February 15th

LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD) could be in talks with major Internet companies in China, according to reports, with plans to enter the lucrative Chinese…

Apple Sets New All-Time Highs in Post Earnings Buying Bonanza on February 15th

Investors continue to lap up the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) phenomenon. In the three weeks that have passed since Apple released its FY 2012 …

Constant Contact Ventures Further into Mobile Marketing with New Partnership on February 15th

Constant Contact (NASDAQ:CTCT) has announced a new partnership with DIDMO, the creator of Magmito, a cross-platform mobile app creation tool. The …

Facebook’s Updated Photo Viewer Improves Ad Visibility on February 15th

Regular Facebook users recently woke up to a surprise, with the website adopting a markedly different format to view photographs. This is one of…

RIM Extends PlayBook Promotion to Attract Developers on February 15th

With the help of a strong apps ecosystem, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) have been able to consolidate their positions …

OpenTable Expenses Rising, Stock Still Worth $55 on February 15th

Last week, we summed up  OpenTable’s (NASDAQ:OPEN) Q4 2011 results in our article  OpenTable Shows Resilience Despite Tough Environment . …

Broadcom New Coverage: $50 Fair Value on Wireless Demand Growth on February 14th

Broadcom (NASDAQ:BRCM) is a leading manufacturer of Wireless connectivity chips, mobile baseband and application processors, digital set-top box and home networking solutions…

Groupon Working to Improve Both Its Image and Its Website on February 14th

After a slew of public relations (PR) mishaps since it filed for its IPO, daily deal giant Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) is aiming …

Amazon and Verizon to Throw a Wrench in Netflix’s Streaming Plans on February 14th

Last week has shown that while there are hopes of expansion in international markets, the online movie streaming company Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) will …

Salesforce.com to Widen Cloud Computing Reach with Deloitte Partnership on February 14th

Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) is one of the leaders in the cloud-based enterprise software market, where it competes with the likes of Oracle (NASDAQ…

Is Google Planning a Major Hardware Launch? on February 14th

According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, search giant  Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is mulling a major move into home entertainment and possibly …

Zynga Partners with Hasbro to Make Money from Branded Toys on February 14th

Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA) has announced a new partnership with Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS), a multinational toy and boardgame maker, to develop toys and…

Amazon May Produce its Own e-Content Soon on February 14th

Following the footsteps of Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) YouTube, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) seems to focusing on …

Oracle Launches Advanced Analytics for Big Data on February 14th

Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) launched Advanced Analytics, which combines Oracle’s Data Mining offering with the Oracle R Enterprise language. With this new…

Microsoft Shows Off More of Windows on ARM and Office 15 on February 14th

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has revealed some more details about Windows on ARM (WOA) as well as Office 15. Windows 8 will be …

Google’s Motorola Mobility Deal Gets Green Light from U.S. and Europe on February 14th

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) received approvals for its proposed Motorola Mobility (NYSE:MMI) acquisition from both the European Commission as well as the U.S…

Google Wins EU, US Approval to Scoop Up Motorola and its Patents on February 14th

Last year when  Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced its acquisition of  Motorola Mobility (NYSE:MMI) for $12.5 billion at a whopping premium of 63%…

LinkedIn Looks to Hitch a Ride from Mobile Ads in 2012 on February 13th

After posting a strong results in 2011 with 60% subscriber growth and a 139% growth in its corporate clients,  LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD) is …

RIM Courts App Developers at DevCon by Showing Them the Money on February 13th

Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) continues to receive a lot of media attention since the leadership shakeup a few weeks back. The company …

Bing-Yahoo Lose Net U.S. Search Market Share in January on February 13th

Despite spending billions of dollars trying to build, market and improve Bing’s search engine, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) hasn’t been…

DirecTV Earnings: Heightened Competition Could Weigh on Subscriber Additions on February 13th

The biggest American satellite pay-TV service provider DirecTV (NASDAQ:DTV) will be reporting its Q4 and full year 2011 results on 16th Feb 2012…

Is Motorola Doing Google’s Bidding with Patent Suits on Microsoft & Apple? on February 13th

After playing defense for months, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) looks to be on the offensive in the patent wars, with its acquisition target Motorola…

Nvidia Earnings Preview: What We Are Watching on February 13th

Graphics and mobile chip maker Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) will release its Q4 fiscal 2011 and full year results February 15. As almost 30% …

Sprint Worth $3.70 Despite Margin Pressure From iPhone on February 13th

Sprint’s (NYSE:S) stock has come under a lot of pressure lately, falling by close to 7% since the company announced …

Sirius XM Will See Price Hikes Pay Off in 2012, Lowers Subscriber Growth Guidance on February 13th

Last week Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI) reported its Q4 and full year 2011 results. While for the year, the company beat subscriber guidance…

A 9-Inch Kindle Fire Could Drag on iPad 3 Sales on February 13th

The intense competition between Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) in the tablet market shows the effectiveness of Amazon’s tablet…

Comcast Earnings Preview: What We Are Watching on February 13th

The biggest U.S cable operator Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) will release its Q4 and full year 2011 results February 15.  The most recurring issue …

Consumer

Why is PepsiCo Stepping Up Marketing Spend in 2012 on February 17th

PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) is planning an additional $600 million spend in advertisements in 2012 which will likely heat up the cola wars. Indra …

H.J. Heinz Earnings Update: Asia/Pacific, Ketchup Lead the Way on February 17th

H.J. Heinz Company (NYSE:HNZ), which announced its Q3 earnings on 17 February, posted healthy revenue growth buoyed by the impressive growth …

Ford Worth $15.70, Shows Strength in U.S. Business and Core Brands on February 16th

The automotive sector has had a challenging ride given the continuous economic crisis in the Euro zone and slowing growth in the emerging markets. …

Sin Stocks Trailing Their More Virtuous Peers in 2012 on February 15th

Submitted by Charles Sizemore at Sizemore Investment Letter as part of our contributors program With the first week of February behind us, one trend …

Daimler’s U.S. and China Sales Carry Earnings, New Markets Support Outlook on February 15th

Daimler (PINK:DDAIF) registered record breaking fourth quarter earnings thanks to buoyant sales growth of Mercedes cars in the U.S. and China. The…

Dunkin’ Shows Solid Execution and Big Growth Plans in Earnings on February 15th

Dunkin’ Brands Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:DNKN) reported healthy revenue growth but profitability was a worry as operating income remained flat. Net…

Rite Aid Update: Stock Jumps As Company Announces Refinancing Bond Deal on February 15th

Rite Aid’s (NYSE:RAD) stock jumped on Monday as the drug retailer announced plans to retire debt though a bond sale with…

Extreme Value Stores: Occupy the Poor on February 14th

Submitted by Rocco Huang as part of our contributors program This is the second in a series on how businesses can prosper in a stagnating…

The Best Growing Consumer Dividend Stocks For The Next Five Years on February 14th

This article was submitted by Dividend Yield using our Trefis Contributors tool Stocks from the consumer goods sector are characterized by low volatility and stable…

Urban Finishes the Year on High Note After a Stumbling Start on February 13th

Teen apparel retailer Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) reported Q4 sales last Thursday, posting an increase of 9% in net sales. The company also…

Gaming Sector Updates: GameStop, EA Smacked by Lower Video Game Sales in January on February 13th

Gaming stocks such as  Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA),  Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) and  GameStop (NYSE:GME) plunged after the disclosure by …

RadioShack Hopes to Entice Customers with Low Price Guarantee on February 13th

RadioShack (NYSE:RSH) recently launched a new low price guarantee scheme on mobile phones as a way to assure customers that they are offering…

Zipcar Earnings Preview: Solid Growth Expected, European Expansion Continues on February 13th

Zipcar (NYSE:ZIP) will announce its fourth quarter and full year 2011 results Tuesday. Having posted losses for several years, the car sharing…

9 High Yield Stocks On The Way To New 52-Week Highs on February 13th

This article was submitted by Dividend Yield using our Trefis Contributors tool …

Avon Products Earnings Preview: What We’re Watching on February 13th

Avon Products (NYSE:AVP) will announce its annual results Tuesday as we watch for its progress in arresting the declines in its sales and…

The Best Stocks With Dividend Growth From Last Week on February 13th

This article was submitted by Dividend Yield using our Trefis Contributors tool Here is a current sheet of companies that have announced a dividend increase…

Energy

SunPower Beats Estimates on Residential Push on February 17th

High efficiency solar panel maker SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR) beat sales estimates on strong performance in the residential and commercial components (R&C)…

How Shale Gas Is Leading To Energy Independence on February 16th

Submitted by In Pursuit of Value as part of our contributors program Two articles concerning shale gas have caught my attention this morning. “ …

Chesapeake Takes One For the Team on February 16th

Submitted by In Pursuit of Value as part of our contributors program This week’s news that Chesapeake (CHK) is going to sell…

Suntech Power Earnings Preview: Margins in Focus on February 16th

Suntech Power (NYSE:STP), one of the world’s largest PV manufacturers, is expected to release its 2011 Q4 earnings over the…

Rumors Fly of Severe German Solar Cuts in the Offing on February 16th

Deutsche Bank has indicated that Germany’s next cut on solar subsidies could be harsher than expected. According to the leading German bank,…

Chevron Kazakh Venture Seeks to Pump in $6 Billion to Expand Output on February 16th

Chevron Corp.’s (NYSE:CVX) Kazakhstan venture will seek to spend between $5 to $6 billion to sustain output in the country&…

Trina Solar Earnings Preview: German Rush Should Boost Results on February 16th

Trina Solar (NYSE:TSL) is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of solar panels and has the lowest cost of manufacturing among…

BP, Anadarko Plan New Offshore Gas Project in South China Sea on February 15th

BP (NYSE:BP), hit by falling output, is looking to begin exploration in blocks in the South China Sea. BP has a …

Exxon Finds Support From Some Sections of Iraqi Government Despite Threats on February 15th

Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Rosh Shaways came to the support of major oil companies like Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM)…

LDK Solar Earnings Preview: Polysilicon Pricing in Spotlight on February 15th

Vertically integrated PV manufacturer LDK Solar (NYSE:LDK) is expected to come out with its Q4 earnings update shortly. The company was severely …

First Solar’s Solar Farm Deal Hits Regulatory Hurdle on February 14th

First Solar (NYSE:FSLR) saw its stock ease by almost 10% after it announced last week that it may be forced to buy back…

Basic Materials

What Are the Potential Outcomes for Silver in 2012? on February 17th

This was submitted by Lior Cohen, M.A. at Trading NRG using the Trefis Contributor Tool I have already written and posted my projections for…

Earnings Season Update: Proceed With Caution on February 15th

This articles was submitted by Louis Basenese of Wall St. Daily as part of our contributors program Nearly a month ago – when aluminum …

Barrick Gold’s Preview: Gold’s Rally Will Make Earnings Sparkle on February 15th

Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX), the largest gold producer in the world, is set to announce its fourth quarter and full year earnings for…

Gold Price – Daily Outlook February 15 on February 15th

This was submitted by Lior Cohen, M.A. at Trading NRG using the Trefis Contributor Tool Gold continues to dwindle as they have finished yesterday…

Vale Earnings Preview: Iron Ore Prices Could Weigh on Sales Volume on February 14th

Vale (NYSE:VALE), the biggest iron ore mining company globally, will announce its fourth quarter and full year earnings for 2011 on Wednesday…

Gold – Daily Outlook February 14 on February 14th

This was submitted by Lior Cohen, M.A. at Trading NRG using the Trefis Contributor Tool Metals started off the week with slight changes as…

Cliffs Natural Resources Preview: What We Are Watching on February 13th

Cliffs Natural Resources (NYSE:CLF) is set to announce its fourth quarter earnings on Wednesday.  We are expecting soft results relative for the …

2012: A Political Year for Gold on February 13th

Submitted by Bob Kirtley at www.skoptionstrading.com using our contributors tool This year our screens, radio and the media in general will be dominated by …

Gold and Silver Weekly Outlook for February 13-17 on February 13th

This was submitted by Lior Cohen, M.A. at Trading NRG using the Trefis Contributor Tool Here is a short recap of the developments in…

Why Barrick, Silver Wheaton Are Eyeing GLDN As It Soars on February 13th

Submitted by David Gould through our Trefis contributor tool As Seeking Alpha’s leading contributor on Basic Materials, I have run into many …

Financial Services

NYSE Euronext Continues to Perform Strongly Despite Failed Merger on February 17th

NYSE Euronext (NYSE:NYX) reported a net income of $110 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2011 compared to the net income …

CME Group Revised Price Estimate of $285 on February 17th

We have updated our analysis of CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) and r evised our price estimate for the company’s stock to $285…

Financials Weekly Notes: Barclays, RBS & Morgan Stanley on February 17th

It was one more of those see-saw weeks for bank stocks, as the Eurozone continues to reign on investor sentiments. Starting the week on…

Moody’s Issues Rating Downgrade Warning For 17 Banks on February 17th

The credit rating agency Moody’s announced late Wednesday that it is reviewing the ratings of 17 banks and securities firms with sizable global…

Volcker Rule Debate Intensifies As Opinions For & Against Swell on February 16th

It looks like the battle between proponents of the Volcker Rule and the country’s biggest banks will go on for quite a while…

RBS Shares Hit As Moody’s Puts U.K. on Negative Watch on February 15th

The RBS Group (NYSE:RBS) saw its shares lose more than 5% of their value over trading on Tuesday, as investors reacted to …

Barclays Profits Sink In Challenging Quarter, Stock Still Worth $15 on February 14th

Barclays (NYSE:BCS) reported performance figures for Q4 and full year 2011 on Friday, seeing a decline in income numbers across all its …

Moody’s Likely To Downgrade All Major Banks Due to Euromess on February 14th

Moody’s looks set to follow-up its decision to downgrade the credit ratings of 6 European nations with a downgrade in the debt ratings…

No Takers For RBS’ Cash Equities Business, More Trouble Likely Ahead on February 13th

The RBS Group (NYSE:RBS) was forced to shut down its EMEA cash equities business last week when it failed to find buyers for…

Industrials & Transportation

Where is GE Stock Headed? A Look Through Financial Ratios on February 17th

Their is a lot of speculation in the market about where the General Electric (NYSE:GE) stock is headed. With no clear consensus …

Corning Renews Agreement with Samsung Despite Overcapacity Hangover on February 16th

Corning (NYSE:GLW) has extended its agreement with Samsung Corning Precision (SCP) and the AMLCD division of Samsung Electronics for the next five…

CSX Chugs Ahead with Solid Results, Revised $27 Fair Value on February 15th

While CSX Corporation ‘s (NYSE:CSX) stock traded down slightly after its earnings release, but we believe that the company’s…

Johnson Controls Gets a Boost from New Contracts Despite Lowered 2012 Guidance on February 14th

Johnson Controls (NYSE:JCI) recently bagged some orders from customers that are aiming to tap Johnson Control’s expertise in the field of…

Boeing Bags the Biggest Commercial Aviation Order in its History from Lion Air on February 14th

Boeing (NYSE:BA) has announced that it has finalized a firm order with Indonesian airlines, Lion Air, for the delivery of 230 aircraft…

Halliburton Looks to Push Shale Revolution To Asia With Petronas Deal on February 14th

Leading oilfield services player Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) has announced a deal with Malaysian state oil company Petronas to explore shale reserves in the country…

GE Fine Tunes its Southeast Asia Strategy as Growth Beckons on February 13th

General Electric (NYSE:GE) is taking concrete steps to monetize the opportunity emerging in the countries of Southeast Asia. GE has decided to …

The Best Yielding Services Stocks With Strongest Expected Earnings Growth on February 13th

Submitted by David Gould through our Trefis contributor tool …

AvWorks Rising Volume Positioned To Outperform Boeing, Lockheed on February 13th

Submitted by David Gould through our Trefis contributor tool Since I first wrote my bullish piece on Boeing (BA) here, the aerospace and …

Health Care

Abbott Labs New Coverage: $62 Trefis Price Estimate on February 16th

Abbott Labs (NYSE:ABT) is a diversified global healthcare conglomerate primarily operating in four segments: pharmaceutical, nutritional, vascular and diagnostics. The company…

Completely Eliminating Pharmaceutical Company Financial Conflict of Interest on February 14th

This article was submitted by Pharma Reform as part of our contributors program A guest post in Forbes by Dr.Tom Yates, a UK-based physician,…