amazon.com Inc.
NASDAQ symbol AMZN, is the leading bookseller on the Internet, as well as a leading video and music seller. It also has numerous other store categories, including electronics, computer games, toys and tools. Through Amazon Services, the company also offers programs that let sellers market on its web sites.
Akamai Technologies Inc., $25.18, symbol AKAM on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 171.3 million; Market cap: $4.3 billion), helps companies improve the performance of their web sites. Its customers include Amazon.com, Adobe Systems, Apple, Microsoft and Yahoo. Akamai is a Hawaiian word meaning smart or intelligent. Akamai mirrors a customer’s web site onto its own network of servers, which are located in over 70 countries. That speeds up download times and cuts the risk of Internet outages or slowdowns, because users can access the closest server, or the one with the best connection. Demand for Akamai’s services continues to rise, particularly as more people use the Internet to view videos. The company gets 28% of its revenue from customers outside of the U.S....
BCE INC., $27.51, Toronto symbol BCE, has increased its quarterly dividend by 7.4%, to $0.435 a share from $0.405. The new annual rate of $1.74 yields 6.3%. This is the company’s third dividend hike since a private consortium led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan dropped its plan to buy BCE a year ago. BCE has also earmarked $500 million for share buybacks. That’s equal to 2.4% of its $20.9-billion market cap. From December 2008 to May 2009, the company spent $986 million to buy back 5% of its shares. Share buybacks increase the value of the remaining shares....
AMAZON.COM $128.36 (Nasdaq symbol AMZN; SI Rating: Extra Risk) (206-266-1000; www.amazon.com; Shares outstanding: 433.0 million; Market cap: $55.6 billion; No dividends paid) is now selling its Kindle e-book reader in Canada. The reader costs $279 U.S., plus shipping. Canadian Kindle users can wirelessly download files from Amazon’s Kindle store, which contains over 300,000 books. Most bestsellers and new releases will be $11.99 U.S. or less. Users can download Canadian newspapers, including the Globe and Mail and the National Post, as well as leading U.S. and international magazines and newspapers. For now, Canadians won’t be able to use all of the Kindle’s wireless-connection features, including subscriptions to blogs and the Kindle web browser. This is likely because Amazon has not reached a deal with a Canadian wireless carrier, such as BCE, Rogers or Telus....
LINAMAR CORP. $14 (Toronto symbol LNR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 64.7 million; Market cap: $905.8 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 0.9%; SI Rating: Extra Risk) will close its plant in eastern Ontario in the next few months. The company feels the plant, which makes parts for brakes, suspensions and other auto systems, is no longer profitable. It is also Linamar’s only facility outside of its main operations in southwestern Ontario. The company did not say how much it would have to pay in severance. Meanwhile, Linamar earned $0.02 a share in the three months ended September 30, 2009. That’s down 90.9% from $0.22 a year earlier. However, it’s a big improvement over the $0.16 a share it lost in the second quarter of 2009. These figures exclude writedowns and severance payments related to previous plant closures. Sales fell 22.1%, to $421.1 million from $540.4 million. However, the company has won $300 million in new contracts this year, partly because some of its competitors went bankrupt during the recession. Linamar is a buy....
DEVON ENERGY CORP., $67.50, symbol DVN on New York, has announced plans to sell its properties in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as its international assets. After taxes, the company expects the sales to generate between $4.5 billion and $7.5 billion. The properties that Devon is selling make up about 7% of the company’s proven reserves of 2.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent. But they are high-risk and costly prospects to develop, and consume over 30% of Devon’s spending. Their potential is huge, but they would take many years and billions of dollars more to develop. The sales will let Devon focus on its onshore North American properties. Apart from conventional production, these include shale oil in northern Texas and oil sands in Canada. The company also plans to cut its debt from $5.8 billion to as low as $2.5 billion. That’s just 8.3% of its $30.0-billion market cap....
AMAZON.COM $131.29 (Nasdaq symbol AMZN; SI Rating: Extra Risk) (206-266-1000; www.amazon.com; Shares outstanding: 433.0 million; Market cap: $56.8 billion) reported sharply higher results in the three months ended September 30, 2009. Revenue rose 27.8%, to $5.4 billion from $4.3 billion a year earlier. Earnings jumped 68.6%, to $199 million, or $0.46 a share, from $118 million, or $0.28 a share. That beat the $0.33 a share that analysts were expecting. Amazon’s North American media revenue rose 13% during the quarter. Overall media sales climbed 17%, to $2.9 billion. Revenue from electronics and other general merchandise jumped 44% to $2.4 billion. Revenue in the company’s “other” category, which includes Amazon’s web-services business, rose 25%, to $163 million. The company accounts for sales of its Kindle electronic-book reader in its electronics and general merchandise segment. It includes sales of Kindle books and other content in media sales....
RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST, $18.34, Toronto symbol REI.UN, announced its first expansion into the U.S. this week. The trust has formed a joint venture with Cedar Shopping Centers, Inc. (New York symbol CDR). Cedar owns shopping centres in northeastern and mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S. The new joint venture will hold seven of Cedar’s malls in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. RioCan will own 80% of this new company. It will also receive common shares and warrants in Cedar. Exercising these warrants would give RioCan a 15% stake in Cedar....
AMAZON.COM INC., $118.49, symbol AMZN on Nasdaq, shot up 26.8% today after reporting sharply higher results in the latest quarter. In the three months ended September 30, 2009, Amazon’s revenue rose 27.8%, to $5.4 billion from $4.3 billion a year earlier. Earnings jumped 68.6%, to $199 million, or $0.46 a share, from $118 million, or $0.28 a share. That beat the $0.33 a share that analysts were expecting. Amazon’s North American media revenue rose 13% during the quarter. Overall media sales climbed 17%, to $2.9 billion. Revenue from electronics and other general merchandise jumped 44% to $2.4 billion. Revenue in the company’s “other” category, which includes Amazon’s web-services business, rose 25%, to $163 million....
AMAZON.COM INC., $95.96, symbol AMZN on Nasdaq, is now selling its Kindle e-book reader in over 100 countries. The reader will ship on October 19, and will cost $279 U.S. Canada has not yet been included in the expansion. That’s because Amazon has not reached a deal with a wireless carrier, such as BCE, Rogers or Telus. Kindle users can download files from Amazon’s Kindle store, which contains over 350,000 books. Most bestsellers and new releases are just $9.99 U.S. each. International users will pay an extra $1.99 U.S. Users can also download leading U.S. and international magazines and newspapers, as well as over 1,200 blogs....
MOODY’S CORP., $18.85, New York symbol MCO, fell nearly 20% this week on new allegations that the company deliberately inflated its ratings on mortgage-backed securities and other complex investments. Bond issuers pay fees to rating agencies like Moody’s to rate their bonds. Some investors have sued the company, accusing it of knowingly issuing higher ratings so it didn’t risk losing these fees. Moody’s has denied the allegations. The stock also came under pressure after billionaire investor Warren Buffett lowered his stake in the company to 16.6% from 20.4% last July. As well, a court recently rejected a long-standing defence used by rating agencies that their opinions are protected under free-speech rights....