The Yahoo Annual Meeting

Me and Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!

I have attended a lot of annual shareholder meetings over the last several years when they are located within a reasonable driving distance, including the meetings for Apple (AAPL), Disney (DIS), and Twitter (TWTR). Today, I attended the Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) annual meeting today, held at the Santa Clara Marriott in Santa Clara, California. I have been a shareholder of Yahoo! for many years.

One of the first things I noticed when driving into the parking lot was a bunch of protestors. I'm not exactly sure what they were protesting since the signs said something about Yahoo! and whales and ivory, which Yahoo! has nothing to do with.

There were almost 100 attendees at the meeting. After the introductions and formal business, Marissa Mayer, the CEO, first showed a video then went over the company's status, progress, and future. She first talked about how the company had over 400 feature launches and 30 major launches. She pointed out that there was an 8% increase year-over-year in GAAP revenues, and a 45% increase in Mavens (Mobile Video Native Social) GAAP revenues. The number of mobile users is in excess of 600 million, tripling the number from 2012.

Some of the goals she discussed were:
1. Play to Strengths to Increase User Engagement
2.  Drive Mavens Revenue Growth
3. Simplify the Business to Improve Execution
4. Efficiently Align Resources

The company is selling off over 4,000 non-strategic patents, exiting six offices around the world, and reducing workforce by 15% by the end of 2016.

Mayer mentioned that Yahoo! now has 1 billion users, one of only three companies to reach this level, the other two being Facebook (FB) and Google (GOOGL).

The meeting ended with a question and answer session.

You can see the entire annual meeting here:



Disclosure: Author owns YHOO, AAPL, DIS, and TWTR,

5 Ways to Protect Yourself From a Stock Market Crash

Don't be the fish in a Bear Market

The first day of this year, 2016, the stock market tanked. As I write this on Wednesday, January 6, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 237 points.

If you are concerned about the stock market and you think we are heading into a bear market, there are certain ways to protect yourself on the downside.

Here is a list of five ways to trade which can provide some protection during a period of falling stocks.

Short Stocks 

1. You can short stocks. If you have never shorted a stock before, this is what happens in simple terms. You borrow stock, you sell the stock, and eventually you have to buy the stock back eventually to return the stock that was borrowed, hopefully at a much lower price. (You don't actually see all this happening; it all happens electronically.) The different between what you sale the stock for and the price you buy it back is your profit (or loss). Traders should be aware that this can be a very risky trade and the potential loss from selling short is infinite.

Buy Put Options 

2. You can buy put options to protect stocks that you currently own, or you can buy a put on a stock you believe is going to drop. A put is the right to sell a stock at a certain price within a set period of time.

Here is an example. A stock is trading at 50, you buy a put with a strike price of 49. The strike price is the price at which you can put the stock to someone. You pay 1 for the option. If the stock drops to 45, your one dollar option increases to at least 4 (the difference between the 49 and the 45). If the stock closes at 49 or higher, then the option expires worthless, so your loss is limited to the cost of the put.

Writing Covered Calls

3. Writing calls against your stocks is one way to help protect your portfolio on the downside. Maybe you don't want to sell out of you stock positions, but you want some way to help reduce the loss on the downside. You can write covered calls. There is the chance that your stock could get called away if the stock starts to rally, but it just means that you made money on the transaction.

An example would be if the stock sells at 50 and you write a call with a strike price of 51 for 1. If the stock remains at the same price at option expiration, you make 1 per share. If the stock goes up to 53, you will get called away at 51 making 1 on the stock plus you collect another 1 for the sold option, for a total profit of 2. If the stock drops to 47, you lose 3 on the stock but you make 1 on the sold call for a net loss on 2. Without the written call, your net loss would be 3 on the stock.

Bearish ETFs 

4. Bearish exchange traded funds, also known as Bearish ETFs are investments that have a goal of providing the daily inverse of a stock index. The bearish ETFs are very volatile investments that are designed for short term trading, and not as long term investments. They achieve their performance through the use of various financial instruments including futures contracts, options,  collars, swap agreements, short positions, and other derivatives.

Double and Triple Bearish ETFs 

5. Double and triple bearish ETFs can provide a 200% or 300% opposite return of a sector or market. Listed at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com are over a dozen commonly traded triple bearish ETFs which investors can use to get a 300% play.

An example is the Direxion Daily S&P 500 Bear 3X Shares ETF (SPXS). This ETF has the goal of making 300% of the inverse of the performance of the S&P 500. What that means is, if the S&P 500 drops 2% in one day, the ETF should go up in value by 6%. Alternatively, if the S&P 500 rises by 2%, the ETF should drop by 6%, which would be a significant loss.

Another one of the bear market protection tools is an ETF called the ProShares Trust UltraPro Short QQQ ETF (SQQQ). The goal of this fund is to replicate three times the inverse of the NASDAQ 100 index using various types of derivatives. An example of what that means is that if the stock market, in terms of the NASDAQ 100 drops by 1%, this ETF should rise by 3%.

This index includes such stocks at Amgen (AMGN), Apple (AAPL), Baidu (BIDU), Cisco (CSCO), eBay (EBAY), Facebook (FB), Google (GOOG), Intel (INTC), Microsoft (MSFT), Netflix (NFLX), Starbucks (SBUX), Tesla (TSLA), Whole Foods (WFM), and Yahoo (YHOO).

Investors can be more specific in terms of what sectors will drop, or will drop the most. If you think energy stocks will tank, you could buy the Daily Energy Bear 3X Shares ETF (ERY), which attempts to track 300% of the inverse of the Energy Select Sector Index. For financial services companies, an option is the Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares ETF (FAZ).

For those that are bearish on gold, a triple bearish gold ETF called the Daily Gold Miners Bear 3X Shares ETF (DUST) is available. The ETF's objective is to make 300% of the opposite of the NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index.

For a free list of the most commonly traded triple bearish ETFs which can be downloaded, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Just remember that losses on the double and triple bearish can be substantial when the stock market rises.

One other option is to just ride out the market drops. Let's hope for a nice bull market for this year.

Disclosure: Author has various positions, including bullish, bearish, and neutral option positions, in DIS, AAPL, EBAY, YHOO, and TWTR.

By Stockerblog.com

Protect Yourself From Crashing Stock Markets with the SQQQ ETF

Last Friday morning at 8am, I wrote an article called 5 Ways to Protect Yourself in a Bear Market. Since then, the stock market has, well to put it bluntly, crashed. Using the Dow Jones Industrial Average (since that is the index that the media likes to use), by the end of the day on Friday, the index was down over 530 points. Then yesterday, Monday, the stock market was down 588 points (and had actually dropped around 1100 points intra-day). Today, the market tanked again, falling over 200 points. Hopefully, you did something to protect your portfolio.

One of the bear market protection tools is an ETF, an exchange traded fund, called the ProShares Trust UltraPro Short QQQ ETF (SQQQ). The goal of this fund is to replicate three times the inverse of the NASDAQ 100 index using various types of derivatives. What that means is that if the stock market, in terms of the NASDAQ 100 drops by 1%, this ETF should rise by 3%.

This index includes such stocks at Amgen (AMGN), Apple (AAPL), Baidu (BIDU), Cisco (CSCO), eBay (EBAY), Facebook (FB), Google (GOOG), Intel (INTC), Microsoft (MSFT), Netflix (NFLX), Starbucks (SBUX), Tesla (TSLA), Whole Foods (WFM), and Yahoo (YHOO).

Since the close last Thursday, SQQQ has risen from 24.33 to 31.10, an increase of 27%. The nice thing about using an ETF such as this is that you don't have to short stocks, you don't have to use options, and you don't have to use margin. Not a bad over three business days.

However, you should be aware that if the market goes against you, in this case if the market rises, your loss on the ETF can be substantial. If the market goes up 1%, you would lose 3% on the ETF.

The triple bearish ETFs are just another tool at your disposal to protect your portfolio and make money when stocks drop. They should only be used on a short term basis. For a free list of other triple bearish ETFs, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Italy PM Visited Tech Execs: Should We Be Looking at Italian Stocks?

Last week, the Prime Minister of Italy, Matteo Renzi, visited the top executives at Google (GOOGL), Yahoo (YHOO), and Twitter (TWTR), including Dick Costolo, Marissa Mayer and Larry Page. He also met with the Italian heads of startups.

Comparing the iShares MSCI Italy ETF (EWI) to the S&P 500, you would find that the Italy stocks have underperformed the S&P by over five percentage points. Do you think it is time for Italy to catch up?

Eyeglasses

One of the most famous Italian companies is Luxottica  (LUX), the largest eyeglass manufacturer in the world with more than 80% of the market. The company has even been featured on 60 Minutes a couple times. The stock trades at  33.6 times trailing earnings and 23.8 times forward earnings. Quarterly earnings went up by 11.0% on a 2.1% rise in revenues. The stock pays a yield of  1.3%.

Power

ENI (E), which was lucky enough to get one of the one-letter stock symbols, is in the energy, gas and power, and chemicals industries. The stock has a 12.7 price to earnings ratio and a forward PE of 13.9. Earnings for the latest quarter spiked by 139% on a slight drop in sales. The company pays a fat dividend of 4.7%.

Furniture

A more speculative stock is Natuzzi (NTZ) which make upholstered furniture, both leather and fabric. The stock trades for slightly above two dollars a share. Revenues were down slightly and earnings were negative for the latest quarter.

 For a free list of Italian stocks, which includes the price to earnings ratio and yield, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. Ciao!

Disclosure: Author didn't own any of the above at the time the article was written and has no plans to do so in the next 72 hours.

By Stockerblog.com

How to Buy Alibaba Before the IPO

Most investors are aware that Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce company that got its start as a business-to-business portal, is going public, with its Initial Public Offering scheduled for later this month. This is expected to be the largest technology IPO in US history.

This is expected to be a very hot offering, so unless you are a good client of one of the major underwriters, such as Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, or Citi, the chances of you getting shares on the IPO are scarce.

Fortunately, there are a couple was of getting shares ahead of time, albeit indirectly. The technique is to buy stock in companies that own a substantial amount of the Alibaba stock.

I did this many years ago with Apple stock before it want public. There was a closed-end fund called the Nautilus Fund that owned shares of Apple before the IPO. I bought shares of Nautilus, and when Apple went public, Nautilus spun off a pro-rata set of shares to investors.

So there are a couple of publicly traded companies that own Alibaba, according to the company's F-1 Form that it filed with the SEC. The first is Yahoo (YHOO), which currently owns 523.5 million shares of Alibaba or 22.4%. It will be selling off 4.9% of Alibaba's shares, and holding on to 401.8 million shares or 16.3% of the company. Yahoo currently trades at 33 times trailing earnings and 30 times forward earnings.

The other company that owns a significant portion of the Alibaba shares is SoftBank (SFTBY), the Japanese based telecom and Internet company. SoftBank owns 797.7 million shares of Alibaba or 34.1% of the outstanding share, and has no plans to sell any of the shares of the IPO. SoftBank trades at 16.8 times trailing earnings.

Hopefully, Alibaba will provide an Open Sesame to your portfolio's profits. If you like interesting stock lists like this, you should check out the lists of stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, most of which are free.

Disclosure: Author owns YHOO.

By Stockerblog.com

Stocks with the Best Income per Employee

A few days ago, I wrote about the Revenue per Employee Ratio. Today I'm writing about the Net Income per Employee. It is one thing for a company to generate a lot of sales, but investors are looking for stocks that generate a profit.

To calculate the Income per Employee, also known as the Profit per Employee, you take the net income that the company had for the latest quarter and divide that number by the number of employees. The higher the number, the greater the profits that are generated by each employee on average. It is another way of looking at the efficiency of companies and comparing stocks.

If you look at the technology sector, you can see some interesting comparisons. Here are some examples:

Apple	(AAPL)	$480,137
Facebook	(FB)	$375,730
Google	(GOOG)	$245,447
Microsoft	(MSFT)	$226,535
Amazon	(AMZN)	$1,535
Cisco	(CSCO)	$104,935
Advanced Micro Devices	(AMD)	$7,591
eBay	(EBAY)	($4,667)
Dell	(DELL)	$12,239
Intel	(INTC)	$95,892
LinkedIn	(LNKD)	($4,001)
Yahoo	(YHOO)	$105,738
Hewlett-Packard	(HPQ)	$17,329
Oracle	(ORCL)	$96,661

The above is shown in the order of Revenues per Employee which was shown in the original article, to give you an idea of how the Income per Employee compares. As you can see, the first four, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, are in the same order for both Revenues per Employees and Income per Employee.

Over the last 12 months, the Apple stock price, in first place, is up 50.9% and Facebook, in second place. is up 93.0%. 

If you like interesting stock lists like this, check out WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author owns AAPL, MSFT, AMZN, YHOO, EBAY, INTC

By Stockerblog.com

Get Your Head Out of the Clouds and Look at Cloud Stocks

If you saw the 60 Minutes report on Amazon (AMZN) recently, you may have seen the delivery drones. But the more important aspect of the episode was the extensive cloud computing operations, and the point that the company provides cloud services for numerous companies and organizations including the U.S. Government. Even Netflix (NFLX), which is a semi-competitor, uses Amazon cloud services. 

Who is Getting into Cloud Computing?

Other companies are getting into clouds in a strong way, such as Adobe (ADBE). The company reported a 22% subscriber increase in its Adobe Creative Cloud operations, before the market opened this morning. The stock is up over 11% as I write this, based on that news.

What is Cloud Computing?

So what the heck is cloud computing in simple terms? Cloud computing means having  data stored remotely on servers in a different location, instead of on your computer. The servers of companies that provide this service represent the 'clouds', and those servers can be located anyplace, the next office, the next building, or the next state. And the servers don't have to be owned by your company, they can be 'rented' from companies such as Amazon.

Yahoo (YHOO) mail, Google (GOOG) gmail, and Microsoft's (MSFT) hotmail are examples of cloud computing for email in a small way. The email servers are not in your office or home,  they are located on Yahoo or Google or Microsoft servers. Many corporations, organizations, and universities are utilizing the email services of Google, which saves the expense of servers and saves on staffing costs.

Financial and Green Benefits of Cloud Computing

For corporations, cloud benefits are substantial. Cloud computing can reduce waste and carbon footprints along with providing significant cost savings. Companies that utilize cloud computing don't need to keep buying more servers. Costs relating to the disposal of old computers and servers is cut back significantly, since older computers can usually still take advantage of the cloud. Data security is the job of the cloud computing firm. Businesses can eliminate the techs that have to come out and install new software to each employees' station, and not have to hire network administrators monitoring the company's servers, since they have been replaced by the cloud.

Because of the financial and environmental benefits (I wrote about the green benefits of cloud computing in my book The Green Light on Green Stocks several years ago), investors are taking a closer look at cloud computing companies. According to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, there are over two dozen stocks in the cloud field, based on the free Cloud Computer Stock List, which includes companies involved in server farms, computer virtualization, and outsourced storage systems.

Major Players in the Cloud Computing Arena

The one of the largest corporations that falls into the cloud computer arena is Salesforce.com (CRM), which is a provider of customer-relationship management services. The company's stock symbol stands for Customer Relationship Management. Salesforce's customers have included Staples (SPLS), Expedia (EXPE), News Corp. (NWS-A), and SunTrust Banks (STI). Salesforce trades at 102 times forward earnings. Although currently generating negative earnings, quarterly revenues jumped 36.5% for the latest quarter  year-over-year. 

Citrix Systems, Inc. (CTXS) provides on-demand applications and online services, including GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, GoToTraining, GoToAssist, and GoToMyPC. This company has a trailing price to earnings ratio of 35, and a forward PE or 17. The latest quarterly earnings were down slightly, dropping 1.9%, however, revenues rose 11.1%. The company is debt free and has $3.73 in cash per share.

VMware (VMW) is another major cloud and virtualization company. Its product VMware vSphere is a cloud computing data center platform. It sports a trailing price to earnings ratio of 42, and a forward PE of 22. The company reported blowout quarterly,  with profits rising an astounding 66.2% on an remarkable 13.7% boost in revenues. Although VMware has $450 million in total debt, it holds $5.84 billion in cash, amounting to 13.56 in cash per share.

More Cloud Stocks

To access the free database of numerous companies involved in cloud computing in some way, that can be downloaded, sorted, and updated, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. A couple of them even pay dividends.

Disclosure: Author owns AOL and YHOO.

By Stockerblog.com

The Stock that Traded for $1,512,500 per Share

Many people think that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway stock (BRK-A) is the highest priced stock that ever traded, as it currently sells for $155,114 per share. There are a couple of California bank stocks that trade for more than $10,000 per share. Then there are stocks like Bactolac Pharmaceutical (BTCA) is a company which makes and distributes vitamins, nutraceuticals, and private label nutritional supplements. The stock last traded at $100,000 per share on December 21.

Hwever, none of these stocks come close to the real winner. The company is Yahoo! Japan Corporation (YAHOY). According to the Shareholder Relations department for the Yahoo! Japan company, the highest price of the stock was 167.9 million Japanese Yen on Feb. 22, 2000, during the dot com boom. If you exchange the amount of Japanese Yen into US dollars at the exchange rate at that time (Approx USD1=JPY111.01), it was approximately $1,512,500 per share. Now the stock is down to 13.95 per share.

Yahoo! Japan is a Japanese Internet company formed as a joint venture between the American Internet company Yahoo! (YHOO) and the Japanese internet company SoftBank (SFTBF). It was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

Disclosure: Author owns YHOO.

By Stockerblog.com

What the Fiscal Cliff Looks Like in Graphic Form

Here is what the S&P 500 looked like for most of the day. What a way to end the second to the last trading day of the year.

Chart courtesy of Yahoo! Finance (YHOO).

Why are Tech Stocks Kicking Butt Amongst all the Fiscal Cliff Drama?

This is a guest blog from Rachel Fox, successful young stock trader, actress, and head blogger for Fox on Stocks. She recently provided Stockerblog.com with an extensive interview about stock trading. Check it out.

Why are Tech Stocks Kicking Butt Amongst all the Fiscal Cliff Drama?

In the stock market, nothing is ever true straight across the board. While there are some exceptions to this pattern, I’m seeing a ton of technology stocks doing well. While other stocks are falling because of the Fiscal Cliff, pumping and dumping and going crazy, over the past month, many tech stocks are dodging the bullets and doing just great.

Take a look at these numbers:

Facebook (FB): Up more than 18% over the last month, quite surprising after the post-IPO lock up expired on November 14th.

Yahoo (YHOO): Up more than 25% over the last 3 months, while the S&P dropped 3% over the past 3 months. Go Marissa!

Research in Motion (RIMM): Up more than 53% this past month. Sounds like a cheesy lounge night club.

Zynga (ZNGA): Up more than 4% this past month

They all happen to be in the technology sector and have all out performed the market by a very nice amount.

Q: Why did this happen?

A: Matt Gohd, senior managing director at WallachBeth Capital says, “Find a group of stocks that everyone hates, that are down significantly, and buy them,"

This seems to be what happened here. These technology stocks had been beaten down so much and had such low expectations, that when the tiniest piece of good news came out, the result was a nice bump in the stocks price.

What’s the moral of the story?

Even in troubled economic times, you can buy and sell stocks and make money. You may have to look to unpopular or downtrodden stocks to pick your Long Buy position, but those opportunities to make money are always there.

Check out the Rachel Fox interview about stock trading.

Did a Stock Really Trade for Over $1,000,000 a Share?

What do you think was the highest priced share of stock ever to trade? And what do you think that share price was? If you think it's Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) (BRK-B), you would be wrong.

The company was Yahoo! Japan Corporation (YAHOY) (YAHOF), according to StockMarketTrivia.com. A representative for Shareholder Relations for the Yahoo! Japan company stated that the highest price of the stock was 167.9 million Japanese Yen on Feb. 22, 2000. If you exchange the amount of Japanese Yen into US dollars at the exchange rate at that time (Approx USD1=JPY111.01), it was approximately $1,512,500 per share.

Yahoo! Japan is a Japanese Internet company formed as a joint venture between the American internet company Yahoo! (YHOO) and the Japanese internet company SoftBank (SFTBF). It was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

For the latest quarter ending June 30, 2012, the company reported an earnings increase of 7.6% on an 8.0% rise in revenues. The stock trades on the JASDAQ and in the US in the over-the-counter market.

Disclosure: Author owns YHOO.

By Stockerblog.com

MC Hammer Shows Up for SOPA Protest in SF

Rapper MC Hammer showed up and spoke at a SOPA protest rally in front of City Hall in San Francisco yesterday during the noon hour. Hundreds of supporters of the protest were in attendance. If you aren't familiar with SOPA, it is the Stop Online Piracy Act proposed law to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property. Numerous large web sites protested yesterday by having a blackout for their sites. Protesters believe that the law is too heavy handed and that it impede the growth of Internet businesses and Internet start-ups. The company and organization protesters, most of which had blackouts, included Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, AOL, LinkedIn, eBay (EBAY), Mozilla, Roblox, Reddit, Wikipedia, Reporters Without Borders, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the ACLU, and Human Rights Watch.



MC Hammer speaking to the crowd

Is Your Head in the Clouds? Are Your Stocks in the Clouds?

Have you seen more ads on TV and in print about clouds and cloud computing? Cloud computing is having your programs and data stored remotely on a server in another location, instead of on your own individual computer. As long as you have an Internet connection, you can have a cheap old computer and still take advantage of cloud computing. The servers of companies that provide this service represent the 'clouds', and those servers can be located anywhere. Yahoo (YHOO) mail, Google (GOOG) gmail, and Microsoft's (MSFT) hotmail are examples of cloud computing in a limited way. The email servers are not in your office or home as you use the Yahoo or Google or Microsoft servers. Some universities and companies are utilizing the email services of Google, which saves them money on servers and saves on staffing.

Cloud computing can reduce waste and carbon footprints along with providing significant cost savings. Companies that utilize cloud computing don't need to Costs relating to the disposal of old computers and servers is cut back significantly. Data security is the job of the cloud computing firm. Businesses can eliminate the techs that have to come out and install new software to each employees' station. Network administrators monitoring the company's servers are reduced also.

Investors like the green and financial benefits of cloud computing companies. According to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, there are over 25 stocks in the cloud field, based oh the free Cloud Computer Stock list, which includes companies involved in server farms and outsourced storage systems.

The one of the largest corporations that falls into the cloud computer arena is Salesforce.com (CRM), which is a provider of customer-relationship management services. The company's stock symbol stands for Customer Relationship Management. Salesforce has customers of all sizes, including the Staples (SPLS), Expedia (EXPE), News Corp. (NWS-A), and SunTrust Banks (STI). Salesforce trades at 43 times forward earnings. Latest quarter revenues were up 33.8% year-over-year. However, GAAP diluted earnings per share were breakeven, and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share decreased 7% year-over-year to $0.28.

Citrix Systems, Inc. (CTXS) provides on demand applications and online services, including GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, GoToTraining, GoToAssist, and GoToMyPC. This debt free company has a forward price to earnings ratio of 28. The latest quarterly earnings were up 55% on a revenue increase of 18%.

VMware (VMW) is another major cloud and virtualization company. Its product VMware vSphere is a cloud computing data center platform. It sports a forward price to earnings ratio of 44. The company reported that latest earnings increased an 60% in earnings on a 33% increase in revenues.

To access the free Excel spreadsheet database of numerous companies involved in cloud computing in some way, that can be downloaded, sorted, and updated, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. You can also get info on the green aspects of cloud computing from my book The Green Light on Green Stocks: A Quick Guide to Green Investing and Making Money in Alternative Energy Stocks, in which I described cloud computing as a green industry and a way of providing money saving services to many corporations.

Disclosure: Author owns YHOO.

By Stockerblog.com

Why Clouds are Green: Cloud Computing Stocks

Cloud computing can go a long way to reducing carbon footprints and businesses are catching on. But the biggest advantage to companies is the cost savings. Corporations that utilize cloud computing don't need to periodically upgrade computers as often, and they don't need to own a lot of servers. The costs and issues relating to the disposal of old computers and servers is reduced dramatically. There is no need to deal with data security, as that is the job of the cloud computing firm. Companies don't have to have a technician to come out and install new software to each employees' station. There is also no need for lots of network administrators monitoring the company's servers.

So what is cloud computing? One way to look at it is having your programs and data stored remotely on a server far away, instead of on your own individual computer. As long as you have an Internet connection, you can have a low level computer and still take advantage of cloud computing. The clouds are simply the servers of companies that provide this service, and those servers can be located anywhere in the world. If you have Yahoo (YHOO) mail, Google (GOOG) gmail, or Microsoft's (MSFT) hotmail, then you are using cloud computing in a small way. You don't have the email servers in your office or home, you use the Yahoo or Google or Microsoft servers. Many colleges and universities are turning over their student email services to Google, which saves them money on servers and saves on staffing for support.

The blog, Software Advice, recently published an article on what they refer to a cloud apps companies. The article, Q1 2011 Cloud Apps Financial Results Roundup, lists and describes the top ten pure play cloud app companies, showing where they stand in terms of revenue, operating income, customer count, average annual subscription value, and market cap.

With both green and financial benefits to cloud companies, investors are taking a closer look. There are over 25 stocks in the cloud field, according to the Cloud Computer Stock list at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, which includes companies involved in server farms and outsourced storage systems.

The 800 pound gorilla in the room is Salesforce.com (CRM), which is a provider of customer-relationship management services that has coined the phrase 'the end of software'. Salesforce has customers ranging from the very small to the very large, including the Corporate Express division of Staples (SPLS), Expedia (EXPE), Dow Jones Newswires subsidiary of News Corp. (NWS-A), and SunTrust Banks (STI). Salesforce trades at a very lofty 78 times forward earnings. Total first quarter revenues were $504 million, an increase of 34% year-over-year. Subscription and support revenues were $474 million, a rise of 35% on a year-over-year basis. By the way, the company's stock symbol stands for Customer Relationship Management.

VMware (VMW) is another major cloud and virtualization company. Its product VMware vSphere is a cloud computing data center platform. It sports a forward price to earnings ratio of 40. The company reported that latest earnings increased an incredible 60% in earnings on a 33% increase in revenues.

Citrix Systems, Inc. (CTXS) provides on demand applications and online services, including GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, GoToTraining, GoToAssist, and GoToMyPC. This debt free company has a forward PE of 30. The latest quarterly earnings were up 55% on a revenue increase of 18%.

One of the companies covered by Software Advice is Concur Technologies (CNQR) provides employee spend management solutions including Concur Travel & Expense, Concur Expense, Concur Cliqbook Travel, and Concur Invoice, on-demand employee spend management solutions. The stock trades at 43 times forward earnings, and revenues for the latest quarter were up 16%.

To access a free Excel spreadsheet database of numerous companies involved in cloud computing in some way, that can be downloaded, sorted, and updated, go to wsnn.com. You can also get info on the green aspects of cloud computing from my book The Green Light on Green Stocks: A Quick Guide to Green Investing and Making Money in Alternative Energy Stocks, in which I described cloud computing as a green industry and a way of providing money saving services to many corporations.

Disclosure: Author owns YHOO.

By Stockerblog.com

Green Cloud Stocks

If you watch much television, you have probably seen several commercials relating to Microsoft's (MSFT) Cloud service. So what is this 'cloud' that all these techies are talking about?

An easy way to explain cloud computing is having your programs and data stored remotely on a server far away, instead of on your own individual computer. As long as you have an Internet connection, you can have a fairly dumb computer ans still utilize cloud computing. The clouds are simply the servers of companies that provide this service, and those servers can be located anywhere in the world. If you have Yahoo (YHOO) mail, Google (GOOG) gmail, or hotmail, then you are using cloud computing in a small way. You don't have the email servers in your office or home, you use the Yahoo or Google servers. Many colleges and universities are turning over their student email services to Google, which saves them money on servers and saves on staffing for support.

These same benefits apply to companies, especially when extended to data storage and computer software. There is no need for a technician to come out and install new software to each employees' station. There is also no need for a bunch of network administrators monitoring the company's servers.

In addition to the personnel side, there are also many green (and financial) benefits. Companies don't need to periodically upgrade computers, and they don't need to own a lot of servers. The costs and issues relating to the disposal of old computers and servers is reduced dramatically. There is no need to deal with data security, as that is the job of the cloud computing company. The benefits of clouds are extensive, and there are over 25 stocks in the cloud field, according to the Cloud Computer Stock list at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, which includes companies involved in server farms and outsourced storage systems.

One fast growing example is Salesforce.com (CRM), which is a provider of customer-relationship management services that has promoted 'the end of software'. Salesforce has customers ranging from the very small to the very large, including Corporate Express division of Staples (SPLS), Daiwa Securities (DSECY.PK), Expedia (EXPE), Dow Jones Newswires subsidiary of News Corp. (NWS-A), SunTrust Banks (STI), and Kaiser Permanente. Salesforce trades at a very high 72 times forward earnings. Revenues for the latest quarter were up 29%, however, earnings dropped almost 47%.

VMware (VMW) is another major cloud and virtualization company. Its product VMware vSphere is a cloud computing data center platform. It sports a forward price to earnings ratio of 39.6. The company reported that latest earnings increased an amazing 112% in earnings on a 37% increase in revenues.

Citrix Systems, Inc. (CTXS) provides on demand applications and online services, including GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, GoToTraining, GoToAssist, and GoToMyPC. This debt free company has a forward PE of 28. The latest quarterly earnings were up 7% on a revenue increase of 17%.

To access a free Excel spreadsheet database of numerous companies involved in cloud computing in some way, that can be downloaded, sorted, and updated, go to wsnn.com. You can also get info on the green aspects of cloud computing from my book The Green Light on Green Stocks: A Quick Guide to Green Investing and Making Money in Alternative Energy Stocks, in which I described cloud computing as a green industry and a way of providing money saving services to many corporations.

Disclosure: Author owns YHOO.

By Stockerblog.com

Top Web Sites

The top eleven web sites according to Alexa, ordered by Alexa Traffic Rank, are as follows:

* 1. Google (GOOG)
* 2. Facebook
* 3. Youtube
* 4. Yahoo (YHOO)
* 5. Live
* 6. Baidu (BIDU)
* 7. Wikipedia
* 8. Blogger
* 9. MSN (MSFT)
* 10. Tencent
* 11. Twitter

Free Stuff for Investors

The best things in life for stock market traders and investors may actually be free. There are many items for investors, including books and magazines, which are available without charge. Here are some worth checking out.

Free iPhone Investment Applications

There are several applications designed investors, which are available for the Apple (AAPL) iPhone which can be downloaded for free. For example, Bloomberg has a great iPhone app which provides the latest financial news, stock info, and more. There is another free app called iThread which is a database of hundreds of technology companies, along with who invested in them, who they invested in, contact information, officers, and much more. Great for venture capitalists or those that are looking for venture capital. If you are an investor in real estate, you can check out the Trulia app, which finds homes for sale and open houses in your area. To access these applications, just click on the App Store icon, then the Search icon, type in 'Stock', and click Search. Yahoo (YHOO) has a nice app called Y! Finance and so does Forbes, TheStreet (TSCM), and Morningstar. I usually check the price of oil, natural gas, and gold with an app called BlackGold.

Free Trading Magazine

A free subscription to SFO Magazine is available, which covers stocks, futures, options, forex and ETF's. This magazine, which has been around for many years, is designed for the individual trader. By the way, SFO stands for Stocks, Futures, Options.

Free Investing E-Books

You can get 13 Free Stock Market E-Books, all in a pdf format which can be downloaded and read on your computer or printed out. These are provided by swing-trade-stocks.com.

You can also receive a free stock market book, offered by traderslibrary.com. You can choose from one of three different investment ebooks.

Free Stock Market Games

A free stock market game, using a Virtual Stock Exchange, also known as a Stock Market Simulation or Fantasy Stock Market, which allows you to practice your trading for free, is available from howthemarketworks.com. A stock market simulator game is also available from investopedia.com.

There is also a free stock market trading game at Wall Street Survivor.

Free Stock Screeners

There are plenty of free stock screeners out there, and if you have an online brokerage account, they probably have a screener on their site. There are several other sites that have free screeners available including Yahoo! Finance, thestreet.com (TSCM), and MarketWatch.com.

Free Top Hedge Fund Info

Have you ever wondered what the top hedge funds and top mutual funds are investing in? Want to follow in their footsteps, piggyback on their stockholdings? You could spend many hours combing through SEC records to get this info, or you could do it the easy way, by going to Stockpickr.com, which has all that information at your fingertips for free.

Free Investment Spreadsheet Templates

There are several free investment related Excel spreadsheet templates available from 18stocks.com, such as 'How Long to Become a Millionaire' and 'Stock Recovery Analysis'.

Free Stock Certificate Valuation

Have an old stock certificate from a company like Enron or WorldCom or maybe you just have an old stock or bond certificate that you inherited from your grandmother? Want to find out what it is worth as a collectible? Maybe you want to get rid of it for tax loss purposes, or just turn your trash into cash. You can get a free valuation of your old stock certificate as a collectible at AntiqueStocks.com.

Free Sortable Stock Lists

One site that has dozens of free stock lists in an Excel format is WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. The lists can be downloaded, updated, and sorted, and include such industries as Brazil stocks, Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway Stocks, candy and chocolate stocks, casino stocks, china stocks, cloud computer stocks, lithium stocks, shipping stocks, and water purification and desalination stocks. There is also a free retirement analyzer spreadsheet template from the site.

Disclosure: Author owns AAPL and YHOO.

By Stockerblog.com

Do Investors Have Their Heads in the Clouds?

A year ago when I wrote my book The Green Light on Green Stocks: A Quick Guide to Green Investing and Making Money in Alternative Energy Stocks, I started touting cloud computing as a green industry, not to mention a way of providing money saving services to many corporations. Cloud computing as a growing industry is finally being recognized. Look at Salesforce.com (CRM), which is up 633% since it started trading in 2004. Last week, Isilon (ISLN) shares jumped 28.5% in one day, after EMC announced it would take over the company at $33.85 a share.

So what is cloud computing? It is having your programs and data stored remotely, 'in the clouds,' instead of on individual computers. As long as you have Internet connection, you can have a fairly dumb computer ans still utilize cloud computing. So where are these so-called clouds? They are basically, in very simple terms, the servers of companies that provide this service, and those servers can be located anywhere.

Do you have Yahoo (YHOO) mail, Google (GOOG) gmail, or hotmail? Then you are using cloud computing in a small way. You don't have the email servers in your office or home, you use the Yahoo or Google servers. As a matter of fact, many public universities are turning over their student email services to Google, giving students a type of gmail account. It saves them money on servers and saves on staffing for support.

These same benefits apply to the private sector, especially when you extend it to data storage and computer software. You don't need a technician to come out an install new software to each employees' station. You don't need a bunch of network administrators monitoring the company's servers. You don't need to periodically upgrade computers. You don't need to own a bunch of servers. You cut down on the costs and issues relating to the disposal of old computers and servers. You don't need to deal with data security, as that is the job of the cloud computing company. The benefits of clouds are extensive, and there are over 25 stocks in the cloud industry to choose from, according to the Cloud Computer Stock list at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, including companies involved in server farms and outsourced storage systems.

Salesforce.com is a provider of customer-relationship management services that has promoted 'the end of software'. Salesforce has customers of all sizes, including Corporate Express division of Staples (SPLS), Daiwa Securities (DSECY.PK), Expedia (EXPE), Dow Jones Newswires subsidiary of News Corp. (NWS-A), SunTrust Banks (STI), and Kaiser Permanente. Salesforce trades at a lofty 76 times forward earnings, debt in the amount of $476 million, with over $742 million in cash. The company just reported a quarterly sales increase of 30% year over year, with a one cent drop in earnings per share.

VMware (VMW) is another major cloud and virtualization player. Its product VMware vSphere is a cloud computing data center platform. It sports a forward PE ratio of 45. The company has $450 million in debt with $2.9 billion in cash. The company reported that latest earnings increased an incredible 121.4% in earnings on a 45.8% increase in revenues.

Citrix Systems, Inc. (CTXS) provides on demand applications and online services, including GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, GoToTraining, GoToAssist, and GoToMyPC. This debt free company has $902 million in cash and carries a forward PE of 29. The latest quarterly earnings were up 64.3% on a revenue increase of 17.8%.

To access a free Excel spreadsheet database of numerous companies involved in cloud computing in some way, that can be downloaded, sorted, and updated, go to wsnn.com.

Disclosure: Author owns YHOO.

By Stockerblog.com

What Googlers Think About Google

Previously, we've posted articles about what Googlers think about the stock market and about gold.

But have you ever wondered what Googlers think about Google (GOOG)? Here it is:


Speaking of Google, what do Yahooers (YHOO) think about Google? Check it out:

Microsoft Founder Paul Allen Suing a Bunch of Tech Companies

Paul Allen, one of the co-founders of Microsoft (MSFT), is suing Google (GOOG), Apple (AAPL), Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo (YHOO), eBay (EBAY), Netflix (NFLX), AOL (AOL), Office Depot (ODP), OfficeMax (OMX), and Staples (SPLS). He is claiming that the companies are infringing on the patents held by Interval Licensing LLC, another company he founded.