Topic: Growth Stocks

The Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, February 22, 2008

Article Excerpt

SONY CORP. ADRs $46.77, New York symbol SNE, rose 5% this week after Toshiba Corp. said it would abandon its HD DVD high-definition video format due to declining sales and market share. Sony is the leading developer of the rival Blu-ray format, and the demise of HD DVD should lead to higher royalty income from sales of Blu-ray players and discs. The end of the format war should also fuel demand for Sony’s high-definition TV sets, as well as its PlayStation 3 video game console which includes a Blu-ray DVD player. Sony is a buy. HEWLETT-PACKARD CO. $47.40, New York symbol HPQ, gained 8% this week after it reported earnings that exceeded consensus forecasts. In its first fiscal quarter ended January 31, 2008, earnings rose 32.3% to $0.86 a share from $0.65 a year earlier. Most of the gains came from lower operating costs, plus lower prices for memory chips and other computer components. Revenue rose 13.5%, to $28.5 billion from $25.1 billion,…