Nasdaq AMZN Amazon

Chip makers continue to face headwinds in certain end markets, mainly the PC market. Nonetheless, investors are upbeat about several chip stocks due to the demand induced by the growing interest in generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. We used TipRanks’ Stock Comparison Tool to place Intel ( NASDAQ:INTC ), Advanced Micro Devices ( NASDAQ:AMD ), and Qualcomm ( NASDAQ:QCOM ) against each other to find the most attractive chip stock as per Wall Street analysts.    Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) Chip giant Intel impressed investors last month with its better-than-anticipated Q2 2023 results and third-quarter outlook. The company’s Q2 2023 revenue fell 15% year-over-year to $12.9 billion. Despite a continued decline in revenue, the company returned to GAAP profitability after two consecutive quarters of losses.    Intel’s cost reduction efforts helped it improve its Q2 2023 bottom line. The company expects to generate $3 billion in cost savings this year. While Intel said that cloud companies are focusing more on getting graphics processors for their AI applications instead of Intel’s central processors, it is confident that in the longer term AI will expand the total addressable market for its server CPUs.    What is the Target Price for Intel Stock? On July 28, Truist Financial analyst William Stein increased his price target for Intel to $37 from $32 and reiterated a Hold rating on the stock. The analyst noted that the company reported its second consecutive "good quarter" with its commentary around manufacturing process improvements, new products, and cost-cutting all seen as constructive. Nonetheless, Stein cautioned that two quarters are still a "fragile trend," and he sees the company’s total addressable market for the company’s X86 to remain challenged over the long term. Wall Street is sidelined on INTC, with a Hold consensus rating based on five Buys, 19 Holds, and six Sells. The average price target of $36.07 implies 2.7% upside. Shares have risen 33% so far in 2023.   Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) Advanced Micro Devices’ Q2 2023 results beat analysts’ estimates, even as revenue declined 18% due to persistent weakness in the PC market. Revenue from the data center segment declined 11% year-over-year but was up 2% sequentially. The growth compared to the first quarter was a result of the accelerated adoption of Intel 4th Gen EPYC CPU, with revenue nearly doubling sequentially due to robust demand in the cloud market. During the Q2 earnings call, AMD CEO Lisa Su said that 30 new AMD instances were launched in the cloud in the second quarter, with multiple Genoa processor instances announced by Amazon’s ( NASDAQ:AMZN ) Amazon Web Services, Alibaba ( NYSE:BABA ), Microsoft ( NASDAQ:MSFT ), and Oracle ( NYSE:ORCL ). Overall, the company expects its EPYC revenue to grow by a double-digit percentage sequentially in Q3 2023, driven by the robust demand for the 4th Gen EPYC CPU. While AMD’s Q3 2023 revenue guidance fell short of expectations, it remains confident about the road ahead. With regard to the opportunities in generative AI, the company said that customer interest in its MI300A and MI300X GPUs is very high. AMD sees a multibillion-dollar growth opportunity in AI across cloud, edge, and other endpoints. For instance, in the data center space alone, AMD expects the market for AI accelerators to reach over $150 billion by 2027.   Is AMD a Buy, Sell, or Hold? Following the Q2 print, Citigroup analyst Christopher Danely upgraded his rating on AMD to Buy from Hold on August 2 and increased the price target to $136 from $120. Danely had earlier thought that AMD’s AI products would be margin dilutive and investors would be concerned about the stock’s expensive valuation. However, the analyst admitted that he was “wrong on both counts." Wall Street’s Strong Buy consensus rating on AMD stock is based on 25 Buys and six Holds. The average price target of $142.38 implies nearly 23% upside. Shares have rallied 79% year-to-date. Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) Qualcomm’s fiscal third-quarter earnings surpassed the Street’s expectations, but Q3 revenue and a weak outlook for the fiscal fourth quarter disappointed investors. The company’s high exposure to the slumping handset market adversely impacted its Q3 FY23 revenue, which declined 23% year-over-year to $8.5 billion.   Moreover, Qualcomm expects Q4 FY23 revenue in the range of $8.1 billion to $8.9 billion, reflecting a year-over-year decline in the range of about 22% to 29% due to macroeconomic pressures, weak mobile devices market, and channel inventory drawdown. Looking ahead, the company believes that it is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the upcoming on-device Gen AI opportunity. The company claims that its AI technology is highly differentiated, backed by high-performance, low-power heterogeneous computing across its central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), and neural processing unit (NPU) offerings. What is the Forecast for Qualcomm Stock? On August 3, Deutsche Bank analyst Ross Seymore downgraded Qualcomm from Buy to Hold and lowered the price target to $120 from $130. The analyst contended that the continued headwinds that the company is facing in the Handset segment raise concerns that the issues are not just cyclical but structural as well.  In contrast, Piper Sandler analyst Harsh Kumar reiterated a Buy rating on QCOM and said that the company does not seem to be losing market share but is just stuck in a tough handset market. With 13 Buys and five Holds, Wall Street has a Moderate Buy consensus rating on Qualcomm. The average price target of $136.75 implies 12.6% upside. Shares have risen 10.5% so far in 2023. Conclusion Wall Street is highly bullish on Advanced Micro Devices and sees higher upside potential in the stock compared to Intel and Qualcomm. Aside from analysts, hedge funds are also optimistic about the stock and increased their holdings in AMD by 430,000 shares last quarter. As per TipRanks’ Hedge Fund Trading Activity Tool, the Hedge Fund Confidence Signal is Positive on AMD.   Disclosure

Fintel reports that on August 4, 2023, Baird maintained coverage of Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) with a Outperform recommendation. Analyst Price Forecast Suggests 5.44% Upside

Fintel reports that on August 4, 2023, Truist Securities maintained coverage of Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) with a Buy recommendation. Analyst Price Forecast Suggests 5.44% Upside

Fintel reports that on August 4, 2023, Canaccord Genuity maintained coverage of Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) with a Buy recommendation. Analyst Price Forecast Suggests 5.44% Upside

Fintel reports that on August 4, 2023, Susquehanna maintained coverage of Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) with a Positive recommendation. Analyst Price Forecast Suggests 5.44% Upside

Fintel reports that on August 4, 2023, Exane BNP Paribas upgraded their outlook for Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) from Underperform to Neutral . Analyst Price Forecast Suggests 5.44% Upside

Fintel reports that on August 4, 2023, TD Cowen maintained coverage of Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) with a Outperform recommendation. Analyst Price Forecast Suggests 5.44% Upside

Fintel reports that on August 4, 2023, Wells Fargo maintained coverage of Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) with a Overweight recommendation. Analyst Price Forecast Suggests 5.44% Upside

Twin strikes by Hollywood actors and writers have put the damper on Vancouver's summer of movie magic, forcing the industry's creative minds to turn to sometimes surprising side hustles to ride out the tough times.

We’re back to bad news being good news. A weaker than expected jobs report lifted the market. The contrarian logic is that weakening employment numbers will give the Federal Reserve room to pause its campaign of raising interest rates.  

Retirement accounts and the 401(k) have become somewhat synonymous. By far the most popular type of retirement account is the 401(k), with close to 35% of working-age people (age 15 to 64) having one or an equivalent like a 403(b). The percentage is even higher for adults when yo

Following Amazon’s (AMZN) impressive second-quarter results on Thursday, investing in e-commerce looks very intriguing right now.

A highly awaited inflation report and elevated bond yields offer the latest test to a U.S. stock rally that has delivered hefty gains this year.

The JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF’s ( NYSEARCA:JEPI) combination of high yield and monthly payments has quickly made it one of the market’s most popular ETFs. Investors who like JEPI’s style now have another high-yield competitor to consider -- the NEOS S&P 500 High Income ETF ( BATS:SPYI) , which also pays on a monthly basis and yields 10.7%. Let’s take a closer look at this intriguing new option for high-yield investors.  What is SPYI ETF's Strategy? Launched in August of 2022, SPYI is still a relatively small ETF from NEOS with just $218 million in assets under management (AUM) that employs a similar strategy to the much larger JEPI.  NEOS says that SPYI “seeks to generate high monthly income in a tax efficient manner with the potential for equity appreciation in rising markets.” NEOS essentially seeks to fully replicate the S&P 500 ( SPX ) and generates its high yield by receiving the dividend payments from its S&P 500 holdings, and then adds to this yield with the distributions generated by its selling of S&P 500 covered call options, which generates a premium. NEOS also touts that the SPYI ETF is tax-efficient in that it uses "SPX index options classified as section 1256 contracts (60% long term/40% short term)." Lastly, NEOS also highlights the fact that its strategy may lead to lower volatility in a "mildly bullish or mildly bearish environment." Is There a Tradeoff? This strategy certainly helps to juice yield, but as with anything in life, there is always a tradeoff. While SPYI mentions the potential for equity appreciation in rising markets, selling covered calls caps this upside at a certain point because if the price of the underlying stock rises beyond the strike price, that's additional upside that SPYI investors miss out on. You can see this play out in real time with the results of SPYI, JEPI, and other similar ETFs. So far, SPYI has generated a great 17% return year to date (as of the end of the most recent month), but the broader market (represented here by the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF ( NYSEARCA:VOO) was actually up an even better 20.6% over the same time frame. Similarly, JEPI also trails VOO with a return of 7.3% year-to-date. SPYI is less than a year old, so it's hard to judge how its strategy will perform over time. However, using JEPI as a reasonable proxy for it, this strategy has also trailed the market over a three-year time frame with a total return of 11.5% versus a 13.7% return for VOO. JEPI is fairly new itself, but using another "S&P 500 covered call ETF" to look at this strategy over time for comparison's sake, we can see that the Global X S&P 500 Covered Call ETF ( NYSEARCA:XYLD) has trailed VOO over the past five and 10 years, with total annualized returns of 4.7% over the past five years and 7.0% over the past 10 years versus far superior returns of 12.2% and 12.6% over the past five and 10 years, respectively, for VOO. None of this is to say that SPYI is a bad ETF or that covered-call ETFs are bad, and these are still pretty solid returns, but it simply illustrates the fact that they have historically tended to leave upside on the table versus simply investing in the broader market. SPYI's Holdings SPYI offers investors ample diversification. It holds 506 stocks, and its top 10 holdings account for 30.7% of its assets. Below, you can take a look at SPYI’s top 10 holdings using TipRanks’ holdings tool.  Because SPYI invests in the S&P 500, its holdings are fairly similar to that of the S&P 500 index itself. Apple ( NASDAQ:AAPL ) is the fund’s largest holding with a 7.6% weighting, followed by the other 'magnificent seven' tech stocks that have led the market to new heights in 2023 -- Microsoft ( NASDAQ:MSFT ), Amazon ( NASDAQ:AMZN ), Nvidia ( NASDAQ:NVDA ), Alphabet ( NASDAQ:GOOG ) ( NASDAQ:GOOGL ), Tesla ( NASDAQ:TSLA ), and Meta Platforms ( NASDAQ:META ).   Overall, this is a very strong group of holdings with some great Smart Scores to boot. The  Smart Score is a proprietary quantitative stock scoring system created by TipRanks. It gives stocks a score from 1 to 10 based on eight market key factors. A score of 8 or above is equivalent to an Outperform rating. As you can see, six of SPYI's top 10 holdings feature Outperform-equivalent Smart Scores of 8 or above. SPYI itself boasts a strong ETF Smart Score of 8. Is SPYI Stock a Buy, According to Analysts? Turning to Wall Street, SPYI has a Moderate Buy consensus rating, as 59.08% of analyst ratings are Buys, 35.42% are Holds, and 5.5% are Sells. At $55.90, the average SPYI stock price target implies 13.2% upside potential. SPYI Has High Fees One clear downside of SPYI is its high fees. SPYI has an expense ratio of 0.68%, which is pretty high. This is a fairly complex strategy, so it is understandably going to be more expensive than a basic index ETF. However, the problem for SPYI is that it is also considerably more expensive than JEPI, which runs a very similar strategy and charges an expense ratio of just 0.35%, essentially half of what SPYI charges.  In year one, a JEPI investor investing $10,000 into the ETF would pay $35 in fees, while an SPYI investor investing the same amount would pay $68. The differences can really add up over the years. Over the course of a three-year investment, assuming that each ETF returns 5% per year and that the fees remain the same as they are now, the JEPI investor would pay $113 in fees, while the SPYI investor would pay $218, which is a meaningful difference to returns over time. Keep in mind that this gap would also grow further over the years. Investor Takeaway SPYI has a lot of positive attributes, but there are also a lot of considerations investors need to make before considering an investment in this high-yield fund. On the plus side, SPYI’s double-digit yield is hard to beat, and its monthly payout schedule is appealing to dividend investors.  On the downside, on a more general level, SPYI’s strategy of selling call options leaves some upside on the table as the market rallies since selling calls caps this upside. On a more specific level, if investors are okay with this tradeoff and still want to invest in SPYI, the question then becomes a matter of SPYI versus JEPI. Both ETFs are appealing, but JEPI has a far lower expense ratio, so an SPYI investor would pay considerably more in fees over time (unless the fee gets lower as the fund gets larger, which is a possibility). So an interested investor would need to weigh investing in SPYI against investing in JEPI. However, I can also see the nascent and much smaller SPYI carving out a niche for itself and serving as a viable investment for investors who love JEPI and its strategy and want to diversify away from it with a similar ETF that would give them another stream of dividend income on a different schedule.  Disclosure

Starbucks ( NASDAQ:SBUX ) stock is fresh off a mixed third quarter of results that saw sales and comparable store sales (comps) fall short of expectations, thanks in part to subtle weakness in the U.S. market. Indeed, SBUX stock has cooled off in a significant way this summer, partially because of consumer-facing headwinds, but various analysts expect Starbucks stock to heat up from here as the company gets back on the growth track under its new leader and CEO, Laxman Narasimhan. Indeed, Starbucks served up a rather lukewarm quarter, but it's one that should be forgiven by investors as the company continues pushing forward with its plans to reinvigorate growth and margins. At writing, many analysts are relatively bullish on SBUX, with a Moderate Buy consensus rating. I'm inclined to take a similar stance as Starbucks moves forward with its reinvention plan under its new leader. Starbucks' Q3 Saw Sales Slip, but There Were Notable Positives For Q3, the Seattle-based coffee giant clocked in adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.00, topping the consensus of $0.95. However, revenue of $9.2 billion (up 12% year-over-year) came in just shy of estimates calling for $9.3 billion. On the surface, Q3 did not seem like anything to write home about. Pay more emphasis on the sales slip in the U.S., if you will, but I believe it's a mistake to ignore the impressive 46% growth out of China. Further, Laxman Narasimhan sounded as confident as ever in Starbucks' trajectory from here. As a part of the Q3 earnings call, Mr. Narasimhan noted the company has "multiple paths" to "drive significant growth and margin improvement" to create "long-term shareholder value." Indeed, Starbucks may need to deal with lingering margin-impairing headwinds (higher labor and input costs) moving forward. However, such headwinds seem unlikely to last for too long as the company continues its push into the lucrative Chinese market while embracing various automation opportunities. Undoubtedly, Narasimhan may be relatively new on the job, but he's a top boss who's worth giving the benefit of the doubt. He's been in the trenches, working as a barista on select days, and looks well-equipped to tackle the slew of company-specific (think strikes) and macro pressures (in the U.S. and China) that have been weighing down the firm well before Mr. Naraimhan was at the helm. The latest results mark Mr. Narasimhan's second quarter as CEO of Starbucks. Indeed, the Q3 results were somewhat less impressive than Q2, but it's an EPS beat nonetheless in a fairly challenging quarter. As Consumers Recover, Starbucks Could Quickly Find Itself at New Highs As consumer spending heats up again (I believe Amazon's ( NASDAQ:AMZN ) spectacular second quarter signifies that the consumer is alive and well), I'd look for the industry tides to turn back in Starbucks' favor, perhaps far quicker than many expect. Undoubtedly, shifts in discretionary spending tend to come quite quickly. With that, some investors who wait until after strong results are delivered stand to miss out on the most sizeable upside moves. Though Starbucks' third quarter was technically a top-line miss, I find it remarkable that "complex coffee drinks" experienced record demand. Complicated drink orders full of add-ons from Starbucks do not come cheap, especially after the recent wave of inflation! They're quite an unnecessary splurge that doesn't seem to indicate an imminent recession. With tested consumers that seem to be showing subtle signs that they're ready to loosen the purse strings again, I view the current risk/reward in SBUX stock as favorable from here despite the underwhelming third-quarter headline numbers. Is SBUX Stock a Buy, According to Analysts? On TipRanks, SBUX stock comes in as a Moderate Buy. Out of 22 analyst ratings, there are eight Buys and 10 Holds. The  average Starbucks price target is $116.18, implying upside potential of 15.4%. Bank of America Securities analyst Sara Senatore stands out as one of the bigger bulls on Starbucks. Just a few days ago, she reiterated her Buy rating on the stock, with a Street-high price target of $150.00, which implies a massive 49% upside move from here. The Bottom Line on Starbucks Shares Don't make too much of Starbucks' latest lukewarm quarter. The stock seems to be going flat again but could be in a spot to retest its highs over the next year if the consumer is, in fact, poised to continue recovering from a slump. Once Chinese and American consumer spending gets on the same page, it may be too late to seize today's modest price of admission. At writing, SBUX shares trade at 24.8 times forward price-to-earnings, which is in line with the restaurant industry average of 24.3 times. Disclosure 

What you need to know… The S&P 500 Index ($SPX ) (SPY ) Friday closed down -0.53%, the Dow Jones Industrials Index ($DOWI ) (DIA ) closed down -0.43%, and the Nasdaq 100 Index ($IUXX ) (QQQ ) closed down -0.51%. Stocks on Friday gave up an early advance and...

Wall Street closed lower on Friday after a report of slowing U.S. labor market growth, and all three major indexes posted weekly losses as investors braced for more possible downside surprises a day after disappointing earnings from Apple.

The NASDAQ 100 After Hours Indicator is up 3.46 to 15,278.38. The total After hours volume is currently 63,084,453 shares traded.The following are the most active stocks for the after hours session: Apple Inc. (AAPL) is +0.03 at $182.02, with 4,689,326 shares traded. As reported

Wall Street fell on Friday after a report of slowing U.S. labor market growth, and all three major indexes posted weekly losses as investors braced for more possible downside surprises a day after disappointing earnings from Apple.