Today: Alphabet, the Mountain View-based owner of Google, reached an all-time closing high price of $765 on Wednesday after favorable comments from an analyst who raised price targets. Also, Atmel sale looms, Pandora looks overseas and Apple eyes mobile payments.
The lead: Alphabet aka Google shares hit all-time high
Mountain View-based Google owner Alphabet reached an all-time closing high price for its stock Wednesday after favorable comments from an analyst who raised price targets for the search giant.
Alphabet closed at $765.25 on Wednesday.
So far this year, Alphabet shares are up 44.2 percent.
The tech titan’s stock has been particularly hot in 2015. Over the 12 months that ended Wednesday, Alphabet’s stock is up 37.5 percent.
MKM Partners boosted Alphabet’s price target to $945, up from a prior rating of $805. MKM reiterated a buy rating on Alphabet stock.
“Mobile usage growth is very strong,” MKM analyst Rob Sanderson wrote in a research note on Wednesday. “This trend is likely sustainable for some time.”
The new price targets suggest that Alphabet’s upside is 23 percent higher than current levels.
At present, Google’s revenue for each mobile search on gadgets such as smartphones and tablets is about 25 percent below the revenue for searches from desktop devices such as personal computers, MKM estimated.
“Mobile search revenue will eventually match and exceed desktop monetization,” MKM stated.
SV150 market report: Atmel gets support for sale, Pandora looks overseas, Apple eyes mobile payments
San Jose-based Atmel gained a vote of confidence from its prospective buyer Dialog Semiconductor, which brushed off an activist shareholder’s demand that Dialog scuttle its proposed purchase of semiconductor firm Atmel. Dialog said the shareholder, private equity firm Elliott Management, was seeking short-term trading gains rather than long-term value in seeking cancellation of the Atmel sale to Dialog. Atmel jumped 4.4 percent.
Oakland-based Pandora is seeking to expand into foreign markets with a quest to gain rights to play songs outside the United States. Pandora, an Internet radio service, is seeking international access to music catalogs, including those based in the United Kingdom. Pandora rose 3.3 percent.
Cupertino-based Apple is in talks with an array of banks, including some with a major presence in the Bay Area, to develop a mobile person-to-person payment service. The service would be akin to the Venmo service offered by PayPal. Square, Google and Facebook provide their own payment services. Wells Fargo, Chase, U.S. Bank and Capital One Financial are among the banks in discussions with Apple.
Menlo Park-based Facebook said requests from government agencies for data about its accounts are on the rise. The requests from organizations that include U.S. law enforcement agencies, jumped 18 percent during the first six months of 2015 compared to the same period the year before.
Silicon Valley Big 10: Facebook up 1 percent, Google owner Alphabet up 0.9 percent, salesforce.com up 0.6 percent, Netflix up 0.1 percent, Cisco Systems down 0.6 percent, eBay down 0.7 percent, Intel down 1.1 percent, Gilead Sciences down 1.5 percent, Oracle down 2.2 percent.
Silicon Valley tech stocks
Up: The biggest winners by percent change were Aemetis, Atmel, Pandora Media, Infinera, Advanced Micro Devices.
Down: The biggest losers by percent change were Super Micro Computer, Nektar Therapeutics, Depomed, FireEye, Cepheid.
The SV150 index of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies: Down 4.89, or 0.25 percent, to 1,699.60.
The tech-focused Nasdaq composite index: Down 16.22, or 0.32 percent, to 5,067.02.
The blue chip Dow Jones industrial average: Down 55.99, or 0.32 percent, to 17,702.22.
And the broad-based Standard & Poor’s 500 index: Down 6.72, or 0.32 percent, to 2,075.00.
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