The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Google, Facebook, Amazon.com, Microsoft and KB Home

News provided by

Mar 20, 2013, 09:30 ET

CHICAGO, March 20, 2013 /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 Google Inc. (Nasdaq:GOOG), Facebook (Nasdaq:FB), Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq:AMZN), Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) and KB Home (NYSE:KBH).

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20101027/ZIRLOGO)

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Tuesday's Analyst Blog:

Google Acquires Infrastructure Startup

Internet search giant Google Inc. (Nasdaq:GOOG) has acquired an infrastructure startup company, Talaria Technologies for an undisclosed sum to boost its cloud offerings.

Palo Alto-based, Talaria Technologies was founded by Austin Robison in 2011. It develops web application servers that add support and scalability to some of the most popular websites. After the acquisition, the Talaria team will become a part of Google's Cloud Platform team.

Talaria claims that its technology increases the efficiency of websites by allowing developers to use easier, high-productivity languages like Python and Ruby with the scalability advantage of a compiled language.

Facebook (Nasdaq:FB) is also doing a similar exercise by removing its existing PHP code with Hip Hop, which easily transforms codes. This exercise is expected to reduce its hardware costs and boost its applications.

Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq:AMZN) was one of the major pioneers of cloud computing. It modernized its own data centers and launched a cloud-computing business for external customers called Amazon Web Service (AWS) in 2006. Recently, Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) also acquired cloud-monitoring startup MetricsHub to boost its cloud-based services.

Google's acquisition may prove to be beneficial for the search giant, as the apps hosted on the Google cloud platform may now perform more efficiently. With Talaria's technology, Google can run the apps using less hardware, thus giving it a cost advantage.

IDC predicts that the cloud market may grow 130% to $43.0 billion by 2016. Further, Gartner predicts that around $677.0 billion may be spent on cloud services within the 2013–2016 timeframe. Thus, Google should be able to tap this opportunity, which may boost its top-line going forward.

In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012, Google's gross revenue (including TAC) touched a record $14.4 billion, representing sequential and year-over-year increases of 2.3% and 36.2%, respectively. Excluding the $1.5 billion contribution from Motorola, revenues were up 21.9% from the year-ago quarter.

Google has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

KB Home Closes Revolving Credit Facility

One of the leading homebuilding companies in the U.S., KB Home (NYSE:KBH) recently closed a new unsecured revolving credit facility worth $200 million. The company intends to use the proceeds from the offering to support its growth plans.

The credit facility included a clause where the commitment may be increased to up to $300 million, subject to other conditions.

Its growth plans include aggressive investment in land, activating communities, which were held for future development, increasing revenues per community, and strengthening management teams with additional resources.

Of late, KB Home has been involved in aggressive investment in land assets and communities. The rising demand for new homes has led to a favorable situation in the housing market, where inventory levels are dropping and prices are moving up. This has necessitated the building of adequate number of new homes to maintain the required level of inventory to meet growing demand. Acquiring lots and lands will help the company to capitalize on the increasing housing demand.

KB Home intends to open more than 120 communities in 2013, with more communities slated to come up in the later half of the year. As such, the community count is expected to increase by at least 15% to 20% by the end of next year. The company expects profitability for fiscal 2013. The proceeds from the offerings will support the company in meeting its targets.

KB Home carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Want more from Zacks Equity Research? Subscribe to the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5515.

About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Continuous coverage is provided for a universe of 1,150 publicly traded stocks. Our analysts are organized by industry which gives them keen insights to developments that affect company profits and stock performance. Recommendations and target prices are six-month time horizons.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5517

About Zacks

Zacks.com is a property of Zacks Investment Research, Inc., which was formed in 1978 by Leon Zacks. As a PhD from MIT Len knew he could find patterns in stock market data that would lead to superior investment results. Amongst his many accomplishments was the formation of his proprietary stock picking system; the Zacks Rank, which continues to outperform the market by nearly a 3 to 1 margin. The best way to unlock the profitable stock recommendations and market insights of Zacks Investment Research is through our free daily email newsletter; Profit from the Pros. In short, it's your steady flow of Profitable ideas GUARANTEED to be worth your time! Register for your free subscription to Profit from the Pros at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5518.

Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

Join us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Zacks-Investment-Research/57553657748?ref=ts

Disclaimer: Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investors should always research companies and securities before making any investments. Nothing herein should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security.

Media Contact
Zacks Investment Research
800-767-3771 ext. 9339
[email protected]
http://www.zacks.com

SOURCE Zacks Investment Research, Inc.