tech stocks
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These Five High-Tech IPOs Are On Fire
Who says high-tech stocks have hit the skids?
In a move that bodes well for 2013 stock market, high-tech IPOs have been absolutely on fire in the closing weeks of 2012.
In fact, judging by their gains, high-tech IPOs have soundly beaten the rest of the market’s new issues over the last three months. At least five soared by more than 40%.
Even the IPOs that many market watchers thought would fizzle have jumped out of the box.
The most recent is SolarCity Corp. (Nasdaq: SCTY) which debuted last week.
Instead of landing with a thud, shares of the solar panel installer soared nearly 50% on its first day of trading from a reduced offering price of $8 a share.
That left SolarCity tied for third place among IPO performers in the quarter that ends Dec. 31. Even as of late yesterday, SolarCity shares were still up by 55%.
But SolarCity is just the latest big winner. Here is a look at the other four winning high-tech IPOs based on their closing prices as of last week.
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A New Speed of Light Breakthrough Gives Tech Investors Two Ways to Profit
If you could find a way harness the speed of light - 299,792,458 meters per second - in computing, processors could handle massive amounts of data at mind-numbing speeds.
That's why industry leaders have been pursuing the promise of optical computing for decades now.
At the very least, it could lead to computer speeds that are up to 100 times faster than what we have today.
Indeed, we've figured out how to pump light through fiber optics for super-high-speed communications in computer networks and the Web. That's become routine today.
But still, no one could find a way to solve the challenge of focusing light in tiny spaces like computer chips. It's a brick wall known as the "diffraction limit." Simply stated, it means that once you get into tiny spaces - like the postage-stamp size of a semiconductor - you can no longer focus a light beam.
Until now...
Two teams of computer researchers have just announced major advances that promise to make optical computing a reality in the very near future.
One comes from a famous tech leader whose shares are publicly traded; the other out of academia.
Of course, major advances in the lab often make it to the market in ways that mean profits for early investors.
This is one of those rare cases where a breakthrough happens at a prestigious university... and you could literally invest in the field today.
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2013 Tech Stock Forecast: The "Buzz-Worthy" Stocks The Market Will Love Next Year
The best way to score tech stock gains in 2013 is simple: tap into the areas where there is "constant buzz."
But before we get to the three areas that are the most buzz-worthy, let's start by clearing up one big myth. There really is no such thing as one tech industry.
High-tech now sweeps throughout the entire economy. We're talking everything from robot welders, to laser surgery, to hum-drum database management.
So, even if the economy remains flat or declines, there will still be buzz-driven tech stock winners, companies involved in fields that are so vital that customers simply must have their products.
That's why I tell investors to look for huge global trends that will continue no matter what happens with the fiscal cliff or the Eurozone debt crisis.
Ditto for the expected battles over Obamacare this year. Two years after its passage, we still don't know exactly how many states will set up the exchanges needed to put the law into practice.
Either way, it doesn't really matter...
There's so much going on in high tech that some specific tech stocks are bound to yield big gains in 2013.
I've narrowed it all down to three vital areas that should power through next year-- no matter what the economy or the politicians throw at them.
It starts with the biggest of them all, the mobile wave...
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Tech Stocks Go On Sale – Is Shah Buying?
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When I Look at the Future of Tech, All I Can Say is– “Wow!”
Can you imagine the home of the future?
It now appears that crews will be able to "print" out your home... in a single day... and hey, on Mars, no less, if that's where you want to go.
See, NASA is now funding a project in the fast-growing field of 3D printers.
These are devices that take blueprints and turn them into real objects. The "printer" has a nozzle that spits out special polymers. Once you add a binding agent, you can create everything from replica car parts to human jaws.
Back in March I wrote about these "desktop factories" in Money Morning. I predicted that, by the end of this decade, everyone from consumers to big businesses to solo inventors will be able to make their own unique products in just a couple of hours. (You can read that article right here.)
Now, with funding from NASA, USC engineering professor Behrokh Khoshnevis has devised a process he calls "contour crafting." The prof says the printed home of the future will have it all - wiring, plumbing, and air conditioning. He says this field has the "potential to build safe, reliable, and affordable lunar and Martian structures, habitats, laboratories, and other facilities before the arrival of human beings."
Wow...
Like I keep telling you, this is the Era of Radical Change. Soon, we will be traveling to other planets as a matter of course, as part of the New Space Race. So I wanted to keep you abreast of the latest breakthrough in this field.
And that was far from the only fascinating piece of cutting-edge tech I came across this month.
Take a look...
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Liquid Robotics is About to Grab a Big Piece of a Gigantic But Little-Known Market
Technology investors should keep an eye on Bill Vass. He's making a big splash in robotics.
You may not have heard of him but he used to run a $1.4 billion unit for Sun Microsystems that dealt with federal contracts. When Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq:ORCL) later acquired Sun, Vass' work there played a major role.
Before that, Vass served as an information technology (IT) honcho at the Pentagon. He had major input into some 6,800 defense IT systems with a budget of more than $35.5 billion.
As one of the nation's most senior high-tech experts, Vass now serves as CEO of a small but well-funded startup.
It's called Liquid Robotics.
And its self-propelled water bots can travel from California to Hawaii without using a single drop of fuel.
But here's where the big payoff comes in for investors: each bot is packed with sensors that can gather a wide range of critical data about the world's oceans.
Believe it or not, that opens up a gigantic but little-known opportunity.
According to Vass, that potentially puts Liquid Robotics at the forefront of a $40 billion market.
And from what I can see, Vass is making all the right moves.
One to Keep an Eye On
In fact, Vass recently launched a new unit that will target the Pentagon for sales at a time when the Navy desperately needs cheaper sources of data.
Meanwhile, just a few weeks earlier, Liquid Robotics snared both a contract and an investment from Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE:SLB), the oil services giant with a market cap of about $100 billion.
As I see it, that means Liquid Robotics is now on a clear path to issuing shares to the public in as little as three years.
Along the way, Vass is making quite a name for himself and his firm.
For investors that's a good thing, since it helps build the brand, keeping potential competitors at bay while adding value to any IPO down the road.
Turns out, Vass is in high demand these days.
While I was on the phone with one of his reps to arrange a chat with Vass, Liquid Robotics was juggling the details of a special about tracking great white sharks that ran on the Discovery Channel.
The TV show featured the firm's Wave Glider, the wave-powered marine robot that looks like a high-tech surfboard. The autonomous device has already set world records by covering some 13,000 nautical miles on the high seas.
His PR rep also was working out the details of an interview with Time magazine. All of this follows recent stories in both The New York Times and Forbes.
So, I'm glad to report that Vass was able to fit me in to his crowded schedule.
After all, Liquid Robotics is one of those startups you need to know about as a key player in what I call the Era of Radical Change.
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Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) is Looking More and More Like a Dividend Stock
Since the height of the dot.com boom, the transformation of Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) has been extraordinary.
These days, the Silicon Valley Internet giant looks more and more like a dividend stock rather than an explosive growth company.
In fact, last Wednesday, the San Jose-based behemoth increased its dividend rate by a whopping 75% (from 8 cents per share to 14 cents) starting with the present quarter. That gives shares of Cisco a new dividend yield of roughly 3% which among the highest of major tech stocks.
For investors seeking a reasonably safe return and a less volatile investment, a great deal of value can be found in Cisco these days since the company now plans to return half of its cash flow to investors by way of dividends and stock buybacks.
And while the company may not post eye-popping revenue growth year-after-year, Cisco does appear poised to post healthy results and robust cash flow for years ahead.
That means Cisco's dividend will be both safe and stable.
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It's Apple vs. Samsung in a Fight for Mobile (Nasdaq: AAPL)
The multi-front war between mobile computing rivals Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co. (PINK: SSNLF) moved into a California courtroom this week.
Brewing for months, the patent trial officially began on Monday with jury selection. Apple is suing Samsung for $2.5 billion in damages, accusing the Korean company of "slavishly copying" both the hardware and software of its iPhone design.
Samsung has emerged as the biggest threat to the iPhone's continuing growth. Samsung sold 50 million smartphones in the June quarter, by far the most of any vendor.
Meanwhile, AAPL reported sales of just 26 million iPhones in its June quarter - a major concern since Apple gets more than half of its revenue and profits from the iPhone.
Samsung has countersued, claiming the iPhone infringes on patents it holds that enable all smartphones to function. Samsung wants a 2.4% licensing fee for each iPhone sold, which would cost Apple a whopping $2 billion per year.
The ferocity of the fight stems from what's at stake. Both want to dominate the rapidly growing market for mobile computing devices -- smartphones and tablets.
"This is a cage match for rights to one of the most lucrative markets in the world," Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Financial, told the Los Angeles Times. "They're fighting on everything: They're fighting on innovation, they're fighting on price, they're fighting in the courts."
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2 Tech Stocks for the Next 10 Years…and Neither One is Apple
During the great Dotcom days, analysts were fond of saying that "growth is the new income." Back then, tech stocks were all the rage.
Some even went as far to say that if a tech stock didn't have a triple digit price/earnings ratio, it wasn't worth buying. There were even 70 year-olds at the time who bragged about the optical networking stocks they owned - but couldn't program the clock on their VCRs.
That didn't end so well....did it?
But it's been a long time since the Dotcom crash. Twelve years later, tech stocks are stronger than ever.
The trick is to find good companies with good ideas that can translate their core competencies into niches that complement each other.
That way, when one niche falters, the others pick up the slack.
Alternatively, winning tech stocks need to dominate their sector with quality goods, innovative leadership and a dynamic corporate structure. They also have to have proprietary technologies that can keep pace with a rapidly changing marketplace.
If you rest on your laurels these days, it can mean ruination, no matter what size company you are or how much market share you own.
If you doubt that, consider this....
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Tech Stocks Carry the Stock Market Today
The stock market is trying to hold on to gains for a third consecutive day as tech stocks lead today's charge.
Investors are trying to brush off jobless claims that increased from last week and existing home sales that fell to an eight-month low.
After financials held the earnings spotlight for a week tech stocks are starting to take over. For the most part they are keeping up the positive trend set by banks.
Intel Corp. ( Nasdaq: INTC) reported second-quarter results after Tuesday's close that beat market expectations and offered strong full-year guidance. Intel stock rose more than 3% in trading yesterday but is down slightly today.
International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) reported after yesterday's closing bell and blew past the average earnings per share estimate of $3.42 when it announced EPS of $3.51.
Yet, revenue for the second quarter fell 3% from last year to $25.8 billion, missing analysts' forecasts of $26.3 billion.
The company cited the debt crisis in Europe as one of the main factors bringing sales down but issued a positive outlook for the remainder of the year. IBM raised its 2012 profit outlook by 10 cents, to $15.10, ahead of Wall Street's median forecast of $15.06.
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