The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, Google and Tyco International
CHICAGO, March 10, 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 Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO-Free Report), Facebook, Inc. (Nasdaq:FB-Free Report), Twitter, Inc. (NYSE:TWTR-Free Report), Google Inc. (Nasdaq:GOOG-Free Report) and Tyco International Ltd. (NYSE:TYC-Free Report).
Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free.
Here are highlights from Friday's Analyst Blog:
Yahoo Acquires Yet Another Startup
Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO-Free Report) continues to maintain its startup acquisition spree. Vizify, a firm that converts social media data into visualizations and videos, is the latest to join the ranks. However, given the small size, Yahoo did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.
Vizify was founded by Todd Silverstein, Jeff Cutler-Stamm, and Eli Tucker in 2011 and has raised $1.46 million by making Internet biographies for its users. It allowed customers to create visualisations, infographics and videos by using their pictures, posts or tweets shared on websites like Facebook, Inc. (Nasdaq:FB-Free Report) and Twitter, Inc. (NYSE:TWTR-Free Report).
The premium members could get their biographies presented from vanity domains. A vanity domain name is a customized domain with popular keywords or phrases.
Henceforth, Yahoo! will discontinue all the operations of the firm and its team of five members will join its media product division. Also, Vizify will refund the cash to its paid users.
Premium members who have registered for vanity domains will get free ownerships later on. It will no longer allow new user registrations. A vanity domain name is user's personal customized domain.
Since Yahoo! is already concentrating on personalizing user experience, the latest buy will be an added advantage. Recently, Yahoo! announced that users will no longer be able to access its range of online services by using their Facebook or Google Inc. (Nasdaq:GOOG-Free Report) logins to help the company accumulate more detailed user data and personalize its services.
Yahoo! is focused on improving its search business and is putting all its efforts into retaining and adding to its user base. It is taking all necessary steps to pep up the company's web products and drive declining revenues. The search engine has made nearly 40 acquisitions since Marissa Mayer became CEO in 2012 in order to gain new talent and technology.
Recently, the Internet portal acquired mobile-marketing company Sparq; Incredible Labs, the developer of personal-assistant app Donna and Wander, creator of social photo-diary based days app for iPhone and many other startups to beef up its mobile business.
It also signed a partnership agreement with Yelp in order to enhance its local search results and attract more users.
Currently, Yahoo! carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Tyco Shareholders Approve Dividend Hike
Security and protection services provider Tyco International Ltd. (NYSE:TYC-Free Report) recently got shareholders' approval for increasing its dividend payout. The quarterly dividend of 18 cents per share or 72 cents on an annualized basis represents a 12.5% hike from the existing payout.
Based on the closing price of $43.81 as on Mar 6, the proposed dividend affirms a decent yield of 1.6%. Tyco will pay the first of the increased quarterly dividends on May 21 to shareholders of record on Apr 25.
A steady dividend payout is part of the long-term strategy of Tyco to provide attractive risk-adjusted returns to its stockholders. In addition, decent dividend increases at periodic intervals have been one of the company's most attractive features.
The company had earlier hiked its dividend in Apr 2013, when it raised the quarterly dividend payout from 15 cents to 16 cents per share or from 60 cents to 64 cents on an annualized basis. Tyco also has a share repurchase program in place and has consistently returned significant cash to its shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Just a few days back, Tyco increased its share repurchase authorization to $2 billion from the existing $1.75 billion.
All these factors probably fuelled the stock price momentum, with Tyco scaling a new 52-week high of $43.98, before closing the trading session a notch lower at $43.81. This comes to a healthy year-over-year return of 37.6%.
Tyco's share prices have steadily been on an uptrend from Sep 2013. Despite its strong price appreciation, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock still has enough fundamental strength to drive it upward. The stock is currently trading at a forward P/E of 20.8x and has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 13.9%.
Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free.
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