Top of the Order:
HP Gains On PCs: HP, the company responsible for the personal-computer and printing businesses of the old Hewlett-Packard, said Wednesday that gains in its PC business helped it report better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results.
After the stock market closed, HP said that for the quarter that ended Jan. 31, it earned 36 cents a share on $12.7 billion in sales, compared to earnings of 36 cents a share on revenue of $12.2 billion in the same period a year ago. Excluding one-time items, HP earned 38 cents a share.
Those results surpassed the estimates of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, who expected HP to earn 37 cents a share on $11.85 billion in revenue.
HP’s results included personal systems (what HP calls PCs) revenue of $8.25 billion, a 10 percent gain from a year ago. Total PC units sold rose 8 percent, with notebook shipments rising 12 percent. Desktop PC sales stayed flat with the year-ago period.
HP said that for its current, fiscal second quarter, it expects earnings, excluding one-time items, to be in a range of 37 cents to 40 cents a share. Analysts had earlier forecast HP’s earnings for the quarter to be 38 cents a share.
Middle Innings:
AMD is a-Ryzen: Advanced Micro Devices has been on a pretty good run over the last year. It’s had a strong recent earnings report. Its semiconductors have managed to make inroads in the data center and graphics markets. And you couldn’t blame its investors for celebrating as AMD shares have risen 621 percent over the last year.
No, that is not a typo in that last line. One year ago, AMD’s stock closed at $1.97 a share. On Wednesday, AMD shares ended the day at $14.22. Numbers don’t lie. AMD’s been a good investment and its shareholders have to feel good about where the company is going.
And now, with the release of its new Ryzen 7 PC chips, AMD is looking to take another shot at the biggest player on the block: Intel.
AMD took the wraps off of three new Ryzen 7 chips ranging in price from $329 to $499 depending on a processor’s speed. And those chips are said to be less expensive and faster than similar offerings from Intel. The new PC semiconductors can be pre-ordered now and will be available on March 2.
Jay Z the VC?: He once said, “I’m not a businessman. I’m a business, man.” And then he married Beyonce. He is Jay Z. Musician. Entrepreneur. Rich guy. And…Did we mention he is Beyonce’s husband?
He’s also, apparently, about to get into the venture capital game.
Jay Z is reportedly going to launch a VC fund along with Roc Nation President Jay Brown, one of Jay Z’s longtime business associates. The two aren’t going to be setting up the fund themselves. They are said to be partnering with VC investor Sherpa Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm that has put money into a few companies you might have heard about: Airbnb, Uber, Munchery and Hyperloop Tech, just to name a few.
The size of the fund involving the “Jays,” as they are called, isn’t known.
Bottom of the Lineup:
Here’s a look at how some leading Silicon Valley stocks did Wednesday.
Movin’ on Up: Gains came from Depomed, Rocket Fuel, Zynga, Aviat Networks and YuMe.
In the Red: ServiceSource International shares plunged almost 31 percent to close at $4.18. On Tuesday, the San Francisco-based revenue management software company reported fourth-quarter earnings that missed Wall Street expectations and gave a first-quarter sales outlook that also fell short of analysts’ forecasts.
Other decliners included Oclaro, Silver Spring Networks, NeoPhotonics and FireEye.
The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index slipped by 0.1 percent to 5,860.63.
The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2 percent to end the day at 20,775.60.
And the broad-based Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gave up 0.1 percent to close at 2,361.82.
Quote of the Day: “Steve’s vision for Apple stretched far beyond his time with us. He intended Apple Park to be the home of innovation for generations to come.” — Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook. Cook was referring to the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, in a statement in which the company said its new Apple Park campus would open in Cupertino in April.
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