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Microsoft (MSFT): Microsoft faces a delicate balancing act between its booming cloud business and struggling personal computing. In the first quarter revenue from cloud computing, consisting of server products, Azure and enterprise services, grew 8% to $6.4 billion. Azure, in particular, grew 116% with usage nearly doubling from a year earlier. Productivity business, which mainly comprises Office and Office 365, jumped up 6% to $6.7 billion, with Office 365 subscribers reaching nearly 24 billion. As expected, Personal computing declined 2% on a 72% decline in phone sales and 5% in gaming.

Investors expect that integrating Linkedin with Azure and other CRM products can continue to boost sales and usage. The move aims to capture Salesforce user base of sales and marketing professionals that could benefit from an all in one platform.

Microsoft's growth strategy doesn’t stop at just cloud computing. Through several acquisitions the company aims to break ground in the fast emerging Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence markets. Touching multiple fast growing markets can help offset the ongoing losses in personal computing.

Of course a few headwinds stand in Microsoft's way for another strong report. Weak FX translation along with macroeconomic volatility put international operations at risk for a down quarter. Additional uncertainty surrounding President Trump and his forthcoming policies create new risks for companies like Microsoft.

What are you expecting for MSFT? Get your estimate in here!

Google (GOOGL): During the quarter the company rolled three new products; DayDream, the Pixel Smartphone and Google Home. Outside of the core business, investors will be keen to know whether these items sold well during the holiday season. The Pixel and Google Home are up against tough competition. Apple’s far away dominance in the phone business makes it difficult for Google to carve out foothold in the space, while Amazon’s first mover advantage with Alexa puts it one step ahead of the Google Home. All these products are integral to Google’s grander plan of releasing a line of products that use its native Google Assitant software.

Let’s not forget about Google’s core business; advertising. In the third quarter revenue, core advertising revenue grew 18% to $19.82 billion, including traffic acquisition costs, and making up nearly 90% of total revenue for the quarter. A large portion of the increase came from general improvements in mobile and search but also a huge upswing in the Youtube platform. These ads typically cost more than a typical Google one and provide a new layer of support to the top line.

Google’s “Other Bets” or moonshot investments draws an equal amount of attention as the other segments. This part of the business includes side projects such as Nest home automation products, venture investments and self driving technology. In the third quarter “Other Bets” recorded a $865 million loss on just under $200 million in revenue. From an investor's point of view these other bets paint a sobering picture for quarterly results.

Other sectors on Google’s radar include cloud and productivity. The Google Cloud Platform has fallen off compared to Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Google Suite, on the other hand, poses a legitimate threat to Microsoft Office as more companies recognize the benefits.

What are you expecting for GOOGL? Get your estimate in here!

Intel (INTC): Analysts are optimistic that the chipmaker can deliver growth that exceeds company guidance for the third quarter. Management guided a 5% increase in revenue to $15.7 billion while the Estimize community forecasts are closer to 6%. A large portion of increase comes on the back of continued improvements in Internet of Things and data center markets. In addition, Intel recently created an Automated Driving Group that intends to challenge Nvidia in the space. Meanwhile, Apple started to use Intel modems in the iPhone 7 as it moves away from Qualcomm’s services. Large scale deals like this can support financial performance for an extended period of time.  PC sales, on the other hand, keep trending in the wrong direction. Overall weak PC demand and a recent surge from AMD puts pressure on core GPU sales.

What are you expecting for INTC? Get your estimate in here!

VMware (VMW): VMware remains a leader in desktop virtualization despite efforts from Microsoft and Citrix to dethrone them. Its strong product pipeline along with a recent partnership with Amazon cater a growing audience and customer base. New products and services like vCloud Air and vCLoud Air Network should aide the bottom line. Following the last report, management guided Q4 revenue of about $1.99 billion on about $850 million in license revenue. Rising competition from Microsoft and Citrix put VMware at risk of missing those figures.

What are you expecting for VMW? Get your estimate in here!

Paypal (PYPL): PayPal’s push into the fast growing space of mobile payments remains a key growth driver moving forward. Between PayPal itself, Braintree and Venmo, the company holds a significant lead in the space. New partnerships with Visa and Mastercard during the quarter provides additional brand exposure and sales volume through the platform. PayPal’s frenemy Apple puts pressure on financial performance moving forward. As Apple Pay continues to gain traction that might come at the cost of PayPal’s user base.

Each week Forcerank runs a variety of games covering different industries. What we have found, is that the lowest ranked companies in their respective games deliver the biggest negative price movement and vice versa for those in the top position. This week we look at a list of companies that are consistently at the bottom or trending lower in their respective games. They include GoPro (GPRO), Salesforce (CRM), Adobe (ADBE), Gilead Sciences (GILD), VMware (VMW).

GoPro (GPRO) | Hardware: GoPro is hurting since releasing its abysmal third quarter results that missed by 26 cents on the bottom line and $60 million on the top. More importantly though, the action camera company cut guidance heading into the pivotal weeks of the holiday season. Shares dropped over 25% in the moments following the print and have yet to reconcile their losses. Since then, GoPro has seen a technical breakdown with on balance volume and MACD turning negative along with a bearish crossover of its 200 day moving average. GoPro’s newest products the Hero 5 and Karma drone are clearly not expected to meet the company’s initial goals when it debuted at the beginning of September. A series of downgrades along with deteriorating fundamentals and technical support a continued channel down.

Salesforce (CRM) | Large Enterprise Software: Salesforce had been riding a wave of positive momentum after it abandoned its bid of the beleaguered Twitter. Since then, Forcerank users had pushed it up in the enterprise software game, but with its scheduled quarterly report this week, the consensus has turned sour on Salesforce. Salesforce has seen pressure in recent quarters from increasing competition and consolidation in the cloud computing market. Microsoft’s acquisition of Linkedin this year has put Salesforce on the spot to make a move that will reinforce its position in the CRM market. These events along with decelerating growth have contributed to sluggish stock movement this year.  A breakdown in its chart suggest the worst has yet to come. In early October the 200 day moving average breached the 50 day in a bearish manner and more recently we have seen a bearish crossover in the MACD and steadily worsening volume growth. The combination of these factors led Forcerank users to drop their rankings from a 3 to 4.83 this week.

Adobe (ADBE) | Large Enterprise Software: Adobe, like the other names on this list, is facing a technical breakdown after a strong first half of the year. Just last week the stock closed a massive gap down that formed following its better than expected third quarter results . Over this time share prices have dipped below their 20 and 50 day moving averages as it looks to close additional gaps at $100, about $3.50 below its current trading price. The trend down has been supported by declining MACD and on balance volume. Forcerank users hammered Adobe this week, dropping it to the #5 spot in the enterprise software contest just ahead of Citrix Systems and Intuit.

Gilead Sciences (GILD) | Biotech: Fundamental growth has stagnated in recent quarters on the back of a slowdown in its key Hepatitis C franchise. The treatments have hit a roadblock following the release of Merck’s cheaper Hep C drug and greater adoption of generic drugs. Analysts at Stifel and Mizuho still remain optimistic about the biotech’s outlook and have initiated coverage with a buy rating. Forcerank users, on the other hand, are losing their cool with Gilead. Average user ranks have dropped from 4.9 at the end of October to about 5.5 this week. This pessimism is supported by weak technicals as the stock trades in the upper Bollinger limit, indicating it is overbought.

VMware (VMW) | Most Heavily Shorted: VMware, like Adobe, is coming down from its high created by robust third quarter results. Shortly following the report the stock received a number of upgrades that pumped prices significantly higher. Conventional wisdom would suggest a gap down is on deck before shares can breakout again. This means shares would need to drop down about $3.50 to $73.50 before pushing higher. Meanwhile its 4 month volume profile is most consistent with a $73 share price, which would fill the open gap. A bearish crossover in the MACD last week along with a plunging Forcerank ranking reinforce a downturn on the horizon.

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VMware, Inc. (VMW) Information Technology - Software | Reports October 26, After Market Closes

Key Takeaways

The Estimize consensus is calling for earnings per share of $1.11 on $1.77 billion in revenue, 1 cent higher than the Street on the bottom line and right in line on the top

Former foes, Amazon and VMware signed a partnership to become primary private cloud partners

VMware faces a number of near term risks including stiff competition, soft IT spending and economic uncertainty in some of its key markets

What are you expecting for VMW? Get your estimate in here!

VMware is scheduled to report third quarter earnings tomorrow, after the market closes. This is the first quarter after partner company EMC was acquired by Dell in September. The new Dell brand now holds about 80% of VMW shares which were previously held by EMC. Shares have barely been impacted by the move and have traded sideways for the past 30 days. This should also have little to no impact on its financial performance. Analyst expectations have been tepid on the heels of the upcoming report.

The Estimize consensus is calling for earnings per share of $1.11 on $1.77 billion in revenue, 1 cent higher than the Street on the bottom line and right in line on the top. Compared to a year earlier that represents an 8% increase in earnings and 5% in sales. Shares historically drop by 1% immediately through the print, only to jump 30 days following a report.VMware is well positioned to leverage its leading position in the virtualization market to other markets such as data centers, hybrid cloud and mobile devices. These three markets will likely be the fastest growing segments in cloud computing over the next several years. VMware also continues to form strong partnerships with major players such as Google and IBM. A recent partnership with Amazon might be the most important though. The former foes will now be primary private cloud partners, enabling VMware to leverage Amazon’s robust footprint in the cloud market.

A few major concerns still stand in the way of its success, including stiff competition, soft IT spending and macroeconomic uncertainty in some of its key markets. Additionally, a subpar report from key competitor Citrix last week might be an indication of weakness in the virtualization market. Do you think VMW can beat estimates? There is still time to get your estimate in here!

Hybrid cloud is the hot thing in cloud.

Amazon Web Services on Thursday announced VMWare Cloud on AWS, a solution due out in 2017 with VMWare (VMW), that lets businesses more easily run and manage applications, regardless of whether they’re hosted on-site, remotely or a mix of both.

According to Gartner VP Thomas Bittman, as much as 50% of all AWS clients, or hundreds of thousands of businesses, also users VMWare’s tools, so the benefits for those businesses are obvious.

Because VMWare had traditionally focused on an IT infrastructure with on-site servers, and AWS was built from the ground up to store and crunch data on remote servers, juggling the two services for clients involved getting around two distinctly different sets of software. VMWare Cloud on AWS promises to cut down on that juggling by offering one unified software experience to get around.

For Amazon (AMZN) and VMWare, the partnership allows both businesses to capitalize on the booming “hybrid cloud” — a trend which businesses run and manage applications on servers that are on-site, as well as remote servers.

For many businesses, the transition to a hybrid cloud set-up is already in full swing, as cloud computing offers them excellent performance at competitive prices. Indeed, the India-based market research firm Infoholic Research estimated in a June report that the global hybrid cloud market will balloon from $41.2 billion in 2016 to $241 billion in 2022.

Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy and VMWare CEO Pat Gelsinger

  Thursday’s announcement benefits AWS and VMWare, albeit in different ways. Although AWS remains the #1 public cloud provider — since its infrastructure relies on crunching and storing data entirely on remote servers — the VMWare Cloud on AWS solution acts as a veritable on-ramp for businesses long accustomed to running their businesses with servers on-site with VMWare but who also want the cost-savings and performance benefits of AWS and sheer global scale it provides.

VMWare’s own efforts to expand into the public cloud which AWS dominates are either early or have been largely unsuccessful. Partnering with AWS gives VMWare clients the best of both worlds: the ability to avail of AWS’s benefits, but with the familiarity of VMWare’s tools.

“Large enterprise customers want to go to the cloud,” explained Dave Bartoletti, principal analyst at Forrester Research. “They also need to figure out what to do with all their VMWare tools. It’s a big hurdle for them to say, ‘Ugh, I have to do everything, learn new tools from the ground-up.’ This solution takes some roadblocks out of the way for them.”

And while AWS already has over 1 million paid customers, including NASA, Netflix (NFLX) and Comcast (CMCSA), Thursday’s announcement gives AWS the ability in the medium-to-long term to win over more business from companies as they get more and more used to the idea of their applications running on servers as far-flung as Ireland, Mumbai and Beijing.

There’s also the issue of Microsoft (MSFT), which remains a distant second to AWS as far as public cloud market share goes, but which VMWare views as a fierce competitor. Where VMWare has stumbled in its cloud offerings, Microsoft has thrived over the last several years, outpacing on both price and feature roll-out. Microsoft has also done a better job building a virtual bridge from the private cloud to the public cloud, according to Bertoletti, with a product called Azure Stack, which launches next year. The VMWare Cloud on AWS solution allows VMWare to stay competive, added Bertoletti.

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JP Mangalindan is a senior correspondent for Yahoo Finance covering the intersection of tech and business. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.  

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JPMorgan (JPM) – The big bank reported earnings and revenue that topped Wall Street estimates. JPMorgan’s fixed income revenue jumped 48% during the quarter from one year ago, driven by the Brexit vote, central bank actions and money-market fund reforms in the US.

Wells Fargo (WFC) – The embattled bank reported that third-quarter earnings dropped 3% as revenue rose 2% to $22.3 billion. The earnings results come just two days after John Stumpf stepped down as CEO and chairman. Wells Fargo has faced scrutiny for opening as many as 2 million unauthorized accounts.

Under Armour (UA) – The athletic retailer was upgraded by Piper Jaffray to overweight from neutral. The firm cited on-going traction for the company in the footwear and women’s segments as the reason for its bullish call. Piper Jaffray also upped its price target on the stock to $44.

Amazon (AMZN), VMWare (VMW) – The two companies have reached a deal to boost its competition among cloud providers. VMWare’s new cloud service will run on both its own VMWare-equipped data centers and Amazon’s web-based servers.

Each week Forcerank runs a variety of games covering different industries. What we have found, is that the lowest ranked companies in their respective games deliver the biggest negative price movement  for that week. This week the losers include Time Warner, Yelp, VMware, Evercore and Coach.

Time Warner (TWX) | Media: In the three weeks that Media game has been in existence, Time Warner’s average rank has progressively become worse. In the inaugural game, the cable provider garnered an average rank of 4.79 which then dropped to 5.31 and this week it holds down the bottom spot with an average user rank of 6.5. Since then, shares have dropped 3% and should continue to see greater declines. The stock is currently trading below its 20 and 50 day moving average combined with a negative MACD, spelling trouble for investors. Finally, share prices are still well above the volume profile, so a continued dip cannot be ruled out.

Yelp (YELP) | Social Media: Since bottoming out in February, shares of Yelp are up a resounding 160%. Despite the rebound, Yelp is still the worst ranked company in this week’s social media game, there is certainly a case to be made for a broad pullback. Conventional wisdom would suggest that such a large spike in a small amount of time is not sustainable. Closely watched technical indicators also support a dip on the horizon. There is still a very large gap yet to be filled just above $32 while an RSI of 63 is slightly reflective of an overbought stock.

VMware (VMW) | Most Heavily Shorted: For a second week, VMware was the worst ranked company in the most heavily shorted and large enterprise software contest. Shares are down  about 8% in the past 12 months driven by an ongoing slowdown in revenue growth. The stock has received a number of downgrades over this time, the most recent coming from Goldman Sachs at the start of September. The investment bank downgraded the stock from buy to neutral, similar to a move made by Citigroup a month earlier. Meanwhile, the company’s chart doesn’t do them any justice. There are multiple gaps below its current trading price that still need to be filled. Additionally, negative OBV and declining MACD support a downturn on the horizon.

Evercore (EVR) | Financials: This week, Evercore replaces Wells Fargo as the worst stock in the financial contest. The biggest news from this investment bank is the recent departure of its head of quant research. Shares are down nearly 2.5% in Monday morning trading and 6% year to date. Additionally, the company is trading below its 20 and 50 day moving average.

Coach (COH) | Apparel: Coach shares are down nearly 11% year to date after multiple quarters of weak quarterly earnings. Two weeks ago the stock was downgraded by Morgan Stanley to Underweight from Equal Weight. Luxury brands like Coach haven’t translated well in this current retail environment where discounters are king. Frequent discounts and growing outlet stores have kept sales afloat but have severely hampered margins. Meanwhile a bearish crossover of its 200 day average above its 20 day average is sign of near term weakness. The saving grace in Coach’s freefall is that it appears to be oversold, which means a reversal could be near.  

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Each week Forcerank runs a variety of games covering different industries. What we have found, is that the lowest ranked companies in their respective games deliver the biggest negative price movement  for that week. This week the losers include Viacom, Wells Fargo, Tableau, Groupon, and Coach

Viacom Inc (VIAB) | Media: After coming off a legal battle that lasted virtually the whole summer, Viacom continues to make headlines. Now the media conglomerate is believed to no longer be interested in selling the underperforming Paramount Pictures. Shares are already down 10% this year and new downgrades could extend those losses even further. The most recent coming from Stifel which downgraded the stock from buy to hold citing concerns over Paramount. Closely watched technical indicators like on balance volume and MACD support this current trend down.

Wells Fargo (WFC) | Financials: Wells Fargo is still in the midst of its fake account scandal that will surely not be forgotten in the near future. The company’s CEO was ordered to testify on Capitol Hill in regards to his involvement, or lack thereof, in the scandal.  At the testimony, Stumpf openly denied that this was an orchestrated act by management and apologized to all those who were impacted. It’s often the case that a company’s stock performs poorly when its CEO is interrogated by the Senate. Sometimes no news is good news.

Tableau (DATA) | Enterprise Software (Small/Mid): Shares are down 43% year to date thanks to a weak fourth quarter that cut the stock by 25%. Since then, shares have largely traded sideways with recent earnings reports failing to shine new light. Adding to its woes, the stock has become victim to a slew of downgrades. In the past few months, RBC Capital, DA Davidson and Deutsche Bank all downgraded the stock. More recently the company gave a bearish crossover when share prices dipped below its 50 day moving average.

VMware (VMW) | Most Heavily Shorted: VMware was the worst ranked stock in the two games it was featured in this week: most heavily shorted and large enterprise software. Shares are down 8.4% in the past 12 months driven by an ongoing slowdown in revenue growth. Meanwhile the company’s chart doesn’t do them any justice. There are multiple gaps below its current trading price that still need to be filled. Additionally negative OBV and declining MACD support a downturn on the horizon.

Coach (COH) | Apparel: Coach shares are down nearly 11% in the past month with abysmal fourth quarter earnings largely to blame for the downturn. Just last week the stock was downgraded by Morgan Stanley to Underweight from Equal Weight. Luxury brands like Coach haven’t translated well in this current retail environment where discounters are king. Frequent discounts and growing outlet stores have kept sales afloat but have severely hampered margins. Meanwhile a bearish crossover of its 200 day average above its 20 day average is sign of near term weakness. The saving grace in Coach’s freefall is that it appears to be oversold, which means a reversal could be on the horizon.  

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VMware, Inc. (VMW) Information Technology - Software | Reports April 19, After Market Closes

Key Takeaways

The Estimize consensus is calling for earnings per share of 96 cents on $1.68 billion in revenue, 1 cent higher than Wall Street on the bottom line and $5 million on the top

VMware continues to make major advancements in new and old products which has them well positioned in the fast growing cloud space

VMware faces a number of near term risks including stiff competition, soft IT spending and economic uncertainty in some of its key markets

What are you expecting for VMW? Get your estimate in here!

Cloud computing has been the fastest growing industry in the tech space over the past 5 years consisting of three major components; SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS. One of the leaders in SaaS has been the fast rising VMware. This Monday, VMware is scheduled to report Q2 earnings with hopes that its robust package of services and products will carry the stock to new heights. Shares of VMware just breached their 50 day moving average, momentum on their side heading into Monday’s report.

The Estimize consensus is calling for earnings per share of 96 cents on $1.68 billion in revenue, 1 cent higher than Wall Street on the bottom line and $5 million on the top. Compared to a year earlier this represents a 4% increase in earnings and 5% in sales. Shares are up 15% in the past 6 months but over a year they have dipped 25.8%.

On the heels of its report, Barracuda announced strong quarterly results that sent shares surging over 25%. Both Barracuda and VMware’s businesses are highly related so good news for one often implies good news for the other. There is already a high likelihood that VMW beats estimates this Monday. On average the company beats Wall Street and Estimize in 99% and 79% of reported quarters, respectively. VMware is well positioned to leverage its leading position in the virtualization market to other markets such as data centers, hybrid cloud and mobile devices. These three markets will likely be the fastest growing segments in cloud computing over the next several years. VMware also continues to form strong partnerships and ended 2015 with relationships with Samsung and Google.

During the quarter the company has released updates to its VMware Workspace ONE and announced a new endpoint security solution power by Tanium. They have also seen an uptick in colleges implementing their products.

A few major concerns still stand in the way of its success, including stiff competition, soft IT spending and macroeconomic uncertainty in some of its key markets. Currently, the company operates in the same environment as Microsoft, Citrix and Amazon. Staunch competition has initiated a pricing war within the industry, effectively marginalizing profits and margins. Do you think VMW can beat estimates? There is still time to get your estimate in here!