Citigroup Receives A 'Buy' Rating By Merrill Lynch

When speaking of the banks currently operating in the United States, it will be seen that recently a lot of high end volatility was observed on the stock index right after a couple of new decisions were made by the Federal Reserve, which were to determine the way banks carried out their operations in the near future. The investors in the investment banks were keen to know how the changes will affect the banking system at large and it looks like Citigroup has already been given a raised stock value by some prominent analysts of Merrill Lynch equity firm.

Merrill Lynch analysts have been tracking down the changes that could be brought about by the changes in the interest rate getting raised by the government and it looks like things might just get better for Citigroup in the upcoming days, as analysts have suggested a raised price of around $65 to the Citigroup stock. This is majorly backed up by the positivity that was shown by the earnings that were released by the investment firm some time back. Furthermore, analysts also believe that for the book value of the stock, the value that should be considered should come around $60.

Citigroup bank has also managed to announce a revenue generation for the past quarter at $18.5 billion which did disappoint the investors for the obvious reasons that the revenue on a year over year basis fell by a huge 7% while the EPS remained at $1.42 for the quarter. However, there were some positives to be considered in the earnings call and it was most definitely the net income, which was reported at an increase of a colossal 23% as compared to the same quarter in the year before and was noted down at $4.2 billion.  

As for the more important things for the bank, the fact that Citigroup finance has worked out a successful plan of cutting down on costs and making its revenue generation still better is perfectly working out for the giant. The Merrill Lynch analysts also believe that the bank will soon be coming right up to the target of achieving its Return On Assets for the current year and when it does, it will still be in a better position than before and its stock price might also increase as well.

On a completely different side, the EPS targets for the next quarter have been lowered down by most of the analysts, where first it was $1.25 and after the amendments, it has now been made to $1.16.

Merrill Lynch Rated Citigroup Stock As Buy

Citigroup has already been given a raised stock value by some prominent analysts of Merrill Lynch equity firm

When speaking of the banks currently operating in the United States, it will be seen that recently a lot of high end volatility was observed on the stock index right after a couple of new decisions were made by the Federal Reserve, which were to determine the way banks carried out their operations in the near future. The investors in the investment banks were keen to know how the changes will affect the banking system at large and it looks like Citigroup has already been given a raised stock value by some prominent analysts of Merrill Lynch equity firm.
Merrill Lynch analysts have been tracking down the changes that could be brought about by the changes in the interest rate getting raised by the government and it looks like things might just get better for Citigroup in the upcoming days, as analysts have suggested a raised price of around $65 to the Citigroup stock. This is majorly backed up by the positivity that was shown by the earnings that were released by the investment firm some time back. Furthermore, analysts also believe that for the book value of the stock, the value that should be considered should come around $60.
Citigroup bank has also managed to announce a revenue generation for the past quarter at $18.5 billion which did disappoint the investors for the obvious reasons that the revenue on a year over year basis fell by a huge 7% while the EPS remained at $1.42 for the quarter. However, there were some positives to be considered in the earnings call and it was most definitely the net income, which was reported at an increase of a colossal 23% as compared to the same quarter in the year before and was noted down at $4.2 billion. 
As for the more important things for the bank, the fact that Citigroup finance has worked out a successful plan of cutting down on costs and making its revenue generation still better is perfectly working out for the giant. The Merrill Lynch analysts also believe that the bank will soon be coming right up to the target of achieving its Return On Assets for the current year and when it does, it will still be in a better position than before and its stock price might also increase as well.
On a completely different side, the EPS targets for the next quarter have been lowered down by most of the analysts, where first it was $1.25 and after the amendments, it has now been made to $1.16.

Tesla Reports Strong Sales Figures in China

The auto making company has reported great sales figures in China and expects to grow even further in the region

Tesla Motors released its sales report for the quarter that was wrapped up in the end of September and the sales that it has managed in the Asian region has surprised the analysts and investors to no end. The auto making giant was just observed to have make the big release of its Model X vehicle, which was entertained by the market with mixed emotions.

The smart car makers reported massive figures of selling around 1,345 vehicles back in the Chinese region in the third fiscal three month period of the year which showed a huge growth on a quarter over quarter level as it sold around 797 cars in the quarter before this one. In the second quarter, the hybrid car giant managed to sell around 883 in totality. According to a Chinese spokesperson of the auto making giant, it was noted that the total number of cars that were sold by the giant in just a time period of nine months came around a figure of 3,025 which turned out to be more than what was being expected by the giant. This is being taken as a huge accomplishment for the company as only a couple of months back, it was seen that the Chinese people did not take the revelations of the foreign company well in their region and they clearly were not ready for the kind of technology that was being proposed by the auto makers in the first place.

However, this seems to have changed on a massive scale keeping in mind the excessive amount of sales of the Tesla vehicles that have now been sold in China. The success of the luxury cars being sold in the country was properly disclosed to the public in a press conference which was held in Beijing a week ago, when CEO Elon Musk went to the city for an official trip.

In the same press release, Musk spoke to the media and talked about how the giant is capable enough to reaching the same targets in China, that have been reached in the United States. This might not be possible in little time and might actually be observed in the next four to six years. By the next year’s first financial quarter, the electric car makers have made plans to initiate sales of its Model X cars. The sales,  however, will be dependent on the kind of response the vehicle gets from the Chinese public and it will be determined by their interest and adaptation to the new technology offered in the new model. 

NHTSA Challenges Tesla Motors

NHTSA has written that airbag inflators have been installed in Tesla's vehicles.

Tesla Motors has been challenged in its home country. Seven more companies, including Tesla, could be challenged by withdrawal from the market because they deploy air bag inflators designed by the Japan-based autoparts company, Takata Corporation, as mentioned in letters written to them by U.S. security regulators last week.

Until now, 23,400,000 Takata passenger and driver airbag inflators have been recollected from U.S. automobiles delivered by 11 different companies, including Fiat Chrysler and Honda. The inflators have the capacity to blast with a lot of force, disgorging metal shrapnel. At least eight people have died across the globe and hundreds have been hurt due to the problem.

Tesla News affirmed that The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has written to a various automakers, including Spartan Motors, Volkswagen, Suzuki, Jaguar-Land Rover, Tesla Motors, and Mercedes Benz looking for details on which vehicles have been equipped with the controversial gas releasing gadgets.

Tesla News today reported that the letters stated, “It is expected that the scope of the current Takata recalls may expand as time goes on and will likely grow to include vehicles that are outside the scope of the current recalls”. NHTSA stated one objective of the letters is to find out the number of extra automobiles might need to be withdrawn from the market. The department is arranging for October 22, public meeting in Washington to discuss a current inquiry into Takata and if the institution would manage all recalls to speed up the repairing process.

Tesla Motors news exclaimed that it could order expansion of the recalls, which is currently encompassing 11 truck- and auto companies, including Toyota Motor Corporation, General Motors, Ford Motors Company, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Honda, Diamler Trucks, and Fiat Chrysler. The U.S. security regulatory agency is questioning all seven companies to classify every vehicle that employs the device with ammonium nitrate as the propellant.

The letters have stated that the Japanese company’s philosophy regarding the factor responsible for the problem is that chemical degrading takes place over time. This “could potentially lead to overaggressive combustion or potentially cause the inflator to rupture.” Aerial dampness, temperature, and time have also been held responsible for the problem, the letters stated.

It is probable that the governmental authority’s concern would not only adversely affect the company’s image in the high-tech world but also cut down its sales, market share, and profits. The installation of the Asian airbag inflators is not the only issue faced by Tesla in the U.S., as it is currently facing selling problems in the country after its direct selling model was banned in West Virginia. People are concerned about safety and security during drives and long journeys. They would not compromise on this feature of any vehicle.

What Will Twitter's Earnings Pose Off This Quarter

Twitter Inc. is expected to release its earnings report later today. Here is the earnings preview

For a very long time now, earnings season for Twitter Inc. has proved to be dreadful. The company is missing analysts’ expectations in every other quarter. It was believed that the company has posted poor results in nine consecutive quarters which raised concerns among the investors and shareholders regarding its leadership management and strategy to do business. The former CEO, Dick Costolo, stepped back from his position because of the same reason. Now the pressure lies on Jack Dorsey who is expected to bring Twitter back to its normal ways.

There is no doubt in the fact that the company has seen major changes since July when it posted its last quarterly earnings. The social media network named Jack Dorsey at its full-time permanent new CEO. It also nominated as a new executive chairman to improve the decision making of the company. And launched a game changing product called as Moments. Twitter made some fundamental changes in its platform and interface as well where the company also rolled out unlimited direct messages option. Its major announcement in recent times was to shed almost 8 percent of its work force throughout the world.

The social media giant is expected to post its earnings later today. Analysts at FactSet have surveyed regarding how the company’s result will pose off in this quarter. According to Market Watch, the company is expected to adjust the earnings per share (EPS) of 5 cents. This is improved if compared to the same quarter last year where the company only managed to post adjusted earnings per share of 1 cent.

Analysts at FactSet have predicted that Twitter will easily post sales of $560 million in this quarter which is almost doubled than the sales of the same quarter last year. The company reported $361.3 million in sales at that time only.

However, Twitter stocks are not showing any improvement lately. It is estimated that they have significantly declined by a massive 17 percent in the last three months. The main reason of as to why the stocks fall down was the announcement of a permanent CEO. Ever since then, the stocks have trended upwards. In fact, social media website’s shares have managed to increase by 14 percent.

It is estimated that the company will have a better quarter finally after so long this year. 

Qualcomm Introduces IP Camera Reference Platform With Many Features

Qualcomm has launched a camera platform with advance processing, imaging and analytics capabilities to advance security cameras.

The American chipmaker, Qualcomm, has launched a new device. It made an announcement today that its Snapdragon 618 IP camera reference design and development platform has been introduced by its affiliate Qualcomm Technologies (QT). The new device integrates QT’s analytics technology, connectivity, prominent processing, and imaging to provide support to more smart and strong professional safety cameras.

Qualcomm news exclaimed that the new platform encompasses IP camera SDK and reference design, supporting broad connectivity, heterogeneous computing facility for video analytics and 4K HEVC video. QT’s official, Raj Talluri, stated, "Qualcomm Technologies continues to drive meaningful value across the IoT ecosystem, and we're seeing tremendous traction in the use of our platforms across many vertical segments.“

Qualcomm Breaking news affirmed that the camera platform integrates a strong 6-core, next-gen GPU, 64-bit computing, embedded digital signal processor together with innovative video analytics to go beyond the smart camera to "conscious camera", which could not only execute on-camera video analytics, like facial detection, Qualcomm Zeroth object classification, and object detection, but also stream 4K HEVC.

With the help of such intelligence in the new device, customers could move from costly, server-based video-analytics in the cloud to additionally consistent camera-based analytics. By only streaming information when eligible events take place, the new QT’s platform is pioneered to lower down cloud storing costs and network bandwidth requirements for clients using cloud-based safety services.

Qualcomm news today informed that Anthony Murray (QT International employee), stated, "Moving the video analytics processing from the server to the camera at the point of capture will open up a new class of big data applications. Qualcomm Snapdragon processors already power over 500 smartphone designs with 4K UltraHD video capability, so it's natural for us to bring this same technology leadership into IP camera space."

The platform is broad reference design for a 4K HEVC IP Camera with strong connectivity and implausible computation power. Its features are given below:

• Six core, 64 bit computing with dual 1.8 gigahertz ARM CortexTM-A72 plus quad 1.2 gigahertz Cortex-A53 cores.
• Combined X8 LTE with Global Mode and cutting-edge carrier aggregation up to 2x20 megahertz in both uplink and downlink.
• LTE Cat 7 supported for top speeds of 300 MBPS download / 100 MBPS upload.
• NG Qualcomm Hexagon digital signal processor and Qualcomm Adreno GPU together with the 6-core 64-bit computing to offer entire, heterogeneous computation system for imaging and CC advanced analytics.
• Double image signal processors to provide support for up to 21 mega pixel pictures and 4K video with HEVC coding and dedicated hardware h.264, providing up to 50% cut down in bandwidth.
• Power managing IC with combined audio codec that supports effective battery operation.

Facebook 3Q Earnings Review

The social media giant is expected to report an EPS of 55 cents in the third quarter of the fiscal year of 2015

Facebook Inc has set its eye on the fourth day of November to reveal its earnings report for the third quarter of the year and the general sentiments that have been received by the analysts in the industry seem to be quite over to the bullish side. The analysts at the Wall Street have discussed the potential  of the media company’s stock and have come to the conclusion that the giant is going to report some highly positive figures in the future which might end up making the investors a little too happy. A couple of days before the actual earnings call; the networking site has received ratings which have relatively upgraded its stock by a huge difference.

Analysts at equity firm SunTrust were seen to upgrade the price target on the Facebook stock to a value of $125 which shows an overly bullish outlook of the analysts, as currently the shares of the social media networking company stand at a price of $99.67. This upgrade is mainly based on the high amount of revenue that is being gathered by the media firm through the ads it has been displaying on smart phones, through its apps.

According to a detailed research made by two different firms, it was derived that the growth that the media firm actually attains from the ad industry could turn out to be around 50 percent more than what the Wall Street analysts are predicting. A couple of analysts firm have covered the stock and among them, Raymond James has come up with an estimated EPS at 52 cents while for the sales figure, the predictions are touching around $4.37 billion.

The social media platform has been deemed to do an ‘outperform’ on the stock in the coming year as per the analysis made by the analysts. Another equity firm has provided a price target of $115 to the company, which is clearly more than the expectations of the Street analysts who have suggested a $113.50 target to the Facebook shares.

Presently, the shares of the media giant are trading at a share price of $98.2 which have also experienced an increase in the past week, rising by 1.13 percent.

Dell Teams Up With Microsoft Corporation For Hybrid Cloud Service

Dell and Microsoft have collaborated to develop a new Azure-based hybrid cloud system.

Dell has collaborated with Microsoft Corporation, which would help the company to extend its cloud facility with a newly launched hybrid cloud feature based on Azure. Both organizations have employed their respective technologies to pioneer the Dell Hyrbid Cloud System for Microsoft. The announcement of the system was made by their respective CEOs, Satya Nadella and Michael Dell, on stage at the event of Dell World 2015 on Wednesday in Texas.

The technology has been offered to eliminate the obstacles found on the course to the cloud. Publicized as "the industry's first integrated, modular hybrid cloud solution", this new converged technology integrates application, servers and storing capacity in a combined box and is believed to link easily to the Corporation’s Azure cloud facilities, contravening through the hybrid cloud implementation barriers of control, cost and complication.

Dell news exclaimed that the computer manufacturer stated, "It brings simplified, automated deployment and maintenance capabilities, a unique payment solution to reduce customer investment risk, and unparalleled hybrid cloud governance, control and policy-based automation for Microsoft Azure and other cloud environments."

Dell financial service reported that the new hybrid cloud facility is also stated to offer clients with three major benefits: the capability to develop and provision workload patterns through innovative amalgamation with Dell Cloud manager; on-premise private clouds with reliable Azure public cloud access; and basic public and private management of cloud across Windows Azure Pack.

The management decided in the event that the new hybrid cloud proposals would be able to create a huge part of the information technology for future. As part of the proclamation, the company has also participated in the Cloud Solution Provider Program, indicating that it could be taking action as a retailer of Azure facilities, Office 365, and the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite.

Dell drivers affirmed that both organizations’ cloud announcement was shortly followed by Michael Dell comment at Mr. Satya, stating that its hardware appliances are quite expensive.

Mr. Dell took this action after the two of them were asked the question that whether they were ‘frenemies' or friends with the introduction of the Surface that could be witnessed taking Dell’s position as a personal computer manufacturer.

Dell answered by stating, "We're absolutely friends", but then said that clients’ requirements drive the coalitions that he and his company formulate in the industries, and that consumers are interested in Microsoft. "But the volumes are not very high, and the prices are pretty high", Michael added.

It could be assumed that the tie-up would not only intimidate their rivals but also enhance their reputations in the market.

Tesla Stock Loses Reliability in Survey

The auto making company has been downgraded by Consumer Reports magazine following a survey on the Model S vehicle

Tesla Motors was recently seen witnessing one of the biggest dips of all times in which it fell by a massive 9 percent in a single trading session held on Tuesday, October 20. This fall in the share value was due to the downgrade it received from Consumer Reports magazine for its Model S sedan with a new title of a car which is ‘worse-than-average’. This title was suggested by the Magazine to the auto making company’s most popular electric car after a thorough survey that was carried out by it based on research made on around 1,400 SUVs. Following the research, it was seen that a couple of problems were seen to be reported by the firm in which the issues were with the sunroof, the hatch of the car along with the most basic part of the car: the charging part.

According to the report released for the Tesla car, it was seen that the Model S was deemed as an electric vehicle which was emerging everyday with new problems for the customers, which was also something that was putting them off the edge. The survey also showed that a huge number of people, who owned the Model S car, were seen to end up having their electric motor replaced with a new one due to the high number of problems taking place within it.

As Reuters reported, this was relatively the first time that the car maker received such a negative title on its smart cars which is why Tesla stock reacted violently to the ratings, and that too in a very colossal manner. The same magazine carried out another survey on the auto company back in the month of August which resulted in it received a rating of 103 out of a 100 points for performance and this was also seen as a record breaking moment for the luxury cars makers as before that time, no other auto company attained such a high rating from the magazine.

As for the software system of its cars, Tesla P85D, it has clearly been stated as the best experience that the customers could ever have and this is something that the analysts still believe in. The experience was considered as the best one because of two important reasons, in which one was how the giant’s vehicle was an electric one and the other one was how it costed around $100,000 only to be offering such a high technology service to the customers riding the smart cars. However, the recent downgrade is believed to be coming from the compromises the giant is believed to be making with its cars productions since it seems to be focusing entirely on other important projects like the establishment of the Gigafactory.      

IBM Develops Application For Blind People

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IBM develops cognitive application with Carnegie Mellon to guide visually impaired people.

IBM Corporation has taken a step to address the concerns of visually impaired people. It has collaborated with Carnegie Mellon University to establish a system for developing cognitive assistance applications for the blind people. CMU and IBM Research’s scientific experts lately proclaimed a new open platform to provide support to the development of smartphone applications that could let the blind people keep a track of their environment in a better manner.

IBM News disclosed that Big Blue teamed up with the University’s famous robotics institute to develop a pilot application, known as NavCog, which uses cognitive technologies and currently offered sensors to provide information to blind people in the CMU campus about the environment by “whispering” into their ears through the ear buds or by formation of sensations on smartphones. The NavCog application would soon be offered free on the Application Store.

IBM Breaking News reported that an official of IBM and visiting faculty member at CMU, Chieko Asakawa, stated, "While visually impaired people like myself have become independent online, we are still challenged in the real world. To gain further independence and help improve the quality of life, ubiquitous connectivity across indoor and outdoor environments is necessary. I'm excited that this open platform will help accelerate the advancement of cognitive assistance research by giving developers opportunities to build various accessibility applications and test non-traditional technologies such as ultrasonic and advanced inertial sensors to assist navigation."

IBM news today exclaimed that the organization has developed the first series of cognitive support instruments for developers offered through its BlueMix Platform as a Service (PaaS). The open instrument kit comprises of an application for steering, a map excision instrument, and localization procedures that could inform blind people about their location, direction, and additional details about the neighboring environment.

The computer vision software is equipped with the capacity to turn smartphone photos of the nearby environment into a three dimensional space model to enhance navigation and localization for people with impaired vision.

The integration of these various technologies, called as "cognitive assistance", an accessibility research field employed to help blind to re-gather details by supplementing weakening or missed capabilities. Research experts aim to make an addition of a variety of localization technologies, encompassing sensor fusion, which combines information from various environmental sensors or modern cognitive functioning, like facial identification in public places.

It could be claimed that IBM’s initiative would be welcomed by different organizations aiming to serve the visually impaired people, as it tends to serve their interests. 

IBM Corp To Announce Earnings On October 19

The software company is all set to announce its earnings on October 19, which will determine the sentiments investors should be having towards the stock of the company

International Business Machine Corporation has witnessed some important highs in the recent times, in which the giant has experienced a rise in the stock price coming around at 5 percent, which has also been appreciated by analysts who are covering the stock of the company. Despite the increase, it was also seen that the shares of the tech giant observed a lower than 6 percent share values on a year to year basis. In the quarter before the current one, the revenue that was collected by the giant came around to be at a drop of 32 percent in the hardware department, whereas the software sales also dropped which brought a downfall to the revenue by 10 percent, another alarming figure to be taken into consideration by the giant.

Analysts who are looking at the IBM stock closely are talking about how the shareholders will be able to know what the stock holds for them once the earnings are released on October 19. Keeping in mind the kind of sales it has recently been making the industry, most of the equity analysts are expected to downgrade the giant’s stock for the earnings call. However, for analysts who choose to focus on the dividend yield that is offered by the management of the company at around 3.5 percent, are sure to upgrade the stock of the firm in the near future.

The CEO of IBM, Ginni Remetty, has spoken to the press on a lot of occasions and has expressed how the slow shift of the company from old school computers to the new technology is what has made the firm a little backward in the tech industry. In the same manner, rival Microsoft has also gone through the same efforts of trying to keep up with the fast moving changes in the industry, which has been on the giant’s expense for a really long time.

The tech and software giant, however, is not thought to be working up to Microsoft’s level so far as it has still not grasped the massive changes being made in the cloud computing business. However, the giant has still been growing in terms of its data storage network. According to its previous quarter, the growth has come out to be at 20 percent, which is being considered by the analysts to be more than what Microsoft has achieved, even though it is supposedly on top of the cloud and tech business when it comes to production of PCs.

EBay Afraid To Lose Market Share

The new and existing e-commerce businesses have threatened EBay off its market share

EBay Inc. is in a proper competitive market at the moment. It is facing intense competitions from all sides. At one time, Amazon wants to over take the company in the online retail business and then it launches an online auction webpage as well to take on EBay. On the other hand, various startups are launching that is just trying to replace the e-commerce website and the recent launch of Sell It Easy has taken all the hype. It is estimated that the new start up, Sell It Easy, will give a better alternative option to the online buyers and sellers.

Hence, eBay is facing competition from all, the established and the new, business recently in the industry which has further threatened the company to lose its market share. Alibaba and Amazon seem to be the biggest threats to the company as well as the online retailing giants such as Wal-Mart.

The tough competition can be noted from the way EBay is doing its business. Its average spending per active user is also declined significantly. In 2013, it used to around $636 which is now $515 in 2015. But the company has seen a slight user growth and this will be a continuous trend as the company will not become obsolete at any point. However, the market price of the company is nearly 20 percent less than the estimated price and the reason behind this is the declination of enthusiastic users and user growth.

As Forbes reports, “The number of active users is a key driver for this segment. Using Trefis interactive technology, if we assume the number of active users on eBay to remain flat at current levels (around 167 million), over the forecast period, our valuation would be close to the current market price.”

According to sources, the company will see a major downfall in its EBITDA margin for transaction revenues as well. The value will be nearly 46.7 percent this year after decreasing from 51.8 percent from last year. If the same conditions are carried forward by the company, it will turn out to be really bad as the business is just declining as the user growth is negligible.

This is the reason why companies like Amazon and Alibaba have now surpassed the online auction web page. These both online retailers add magnificent numbers to its user data base daily. EBay will have to come up with new strategies to revive its business in the long run.

Ebay stock was up 2.15% to $24.51 at market close on Thursday.