CHICAGO, Nov. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include the Amazon (Nasdaq:AMZN-Free Report), Google (Nasdaq:GOOGL-Free Report), Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT-Free Report), Alibaba (NYSE:BABA-Free Report) and Priceline (Nasdaq:PCLN-Free Report).
Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free.
Here are highlights from Monday's Analyst Blog:
Technology Stock Roundup
With earnings season drawing to a close, new products like Amazon (Nasdaq:AMZN-Free Report) Echo, cloud initiatives from Google (Nasdaq:GOOGL-Free Report) and price cuts by Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT-Free Report) and Google caught the headlines again last week.
Earnings Highlights
Alibaba: Alibaba's (NYSE:BABA-Free Report) second-quarter results reflected the ongoing investment across the ecommerce market, so those expecting anything different would have been surprised. Investors didn't seem to care that the company intended to go on investing and instead cheered the surge in revenues.
And those certainly didn't disappoint: Alibaba saw strong double-digit revenue growth in both the international and domestic Chinese businesses. And it wasn't just the business volume that grew so significantly; both active buyers and sellers also grew strongly, especially on mobile devices. Even its cloud infrastructure segment, which remains under 2% of total revenue, jumped 50% from last year.
Priceline: Priceline's (Nasdaq:PCLN-Free Report) business is a little different from Expedia's since it is stronger internationally while Expedia's strength is the domestic market. Some international markets are not conducive to high prices, so Expedia's ADRs are often stronger. But this shortcoming is often overcome with increasing volumes (although in the last quarter it was attributable to the addition of OpenTable, which didn't have any cost of sales).
Both companies have increased marketing spending in an attempt to pick up share in what is still a relatively fragmented market. Competition is heating up however as the companies look to expand in Asia where there are a number of strong home-grown players.
Another Device from Amazon
The last device was a smart phone called Fire that pretty much went up in flames. But this time round it's something rather interesting that Amazon is likely experimenting with. It's a cylindrical thingy that can hear your requests even in a crowded room by filtering out background noise including music. And it's supported by a virtual assistant that jumps to obey every time you say the word.
But you have to call it Alexa if you want a response, so hopefully there are no other Alexas in the vicinity. At the moment, it can improve your general knowledge, feed you news and weather info, or help you find and play music. But chances are there are a few things it will do better, like helping you buy what you need from Amazon by simply asking Alexa.
Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free.
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