Facebook (FB) – Let Flighty Capital Fly & You Sit Tight

By now everyone should be aware of the fact that Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) reported excellent earnings results. But the stock has come off its highs reached ahead of the report nonetheless. That is because its performance, however excellent, was not good enough to keep the scarce capital resources of less patient investors in the stock at its valuation. Long-term holders, patient and willing to achieve a better than 20% annual appreciation rate in this stock will be rewarded, but impatient speculative buyers who took positions into its earnings will seek more prospective pastures through earnings season. I suggest investors let the trading capital run away for now; it’ll return again at higher price levels to support even higher levels later on down the road. See my report on Facebook (FB).

Please see our disclosures at the Wall Street Greek website and author bio pages found there. This article and website in no way offers or represents financial or investment advice. Information is provided for entertainment purposes only.

Why Facebook's Stock is Breaking Out

After trading range-bound for half a year, Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) shares have found new footing. I see a few good reasons for the start of this latest move. The company is importantly benefiting from fresh news about its operational progress and its valuation, which is serving as a reminder of the special opportunity the shares offer investors. The stock is also positioned to exaggerate the performance of a market now free of previous reasons for concern. And within-sector capital flows from value to growth names could be occurring now as well, which serves Facebook. As a result, Facebook shareholders should let go of any frustrations with the stock’s previous stall and take their fingers off the sell-trigger, because the stock should now begin to fulfill its promise again. I see this breakout driving to $85 without much difficulty, and to $90 as analysts raise their 12-month price targets thereafter. For the year, I see at least 32% upside appreciation potential for Facebook holders, and it appears the stock has started its move toward that goal. See my full report on Facebook (FB) here.

DISCLOSURE: Kaminis is long FB. Please see our disclosures at the Wall Street Greek website and author bio pages found there. This article and website in no way offers or represents financial or investment advice. Information is provided for entertainment purposes only.

Facebook (NYSE: FB) Should Do This To Unlock Value for Shareholders

I was overjoyed by Facebook’s (NYSE: FB) operational performance this past quarter as were most on the Street. Still, as I watched the stock collapse during its COO’s pre-conference call interview with CNBC (video no longer available at the site), I understood how the industry leader could do better for shareholders. Sheryl Sandberg had a fine interview, but I believe the company inadequately prepared the investment environment ground ahead of the EPS report. That I believe caused it to be poorly received and even today the stock’s compelling story fails to pull in bidders. Facebook has to properly prepare the seeds of price appreciation through clearer and more strategic communications geared toward the investors’ perspective. See my free report on Facebook here.

DISCLOSURE: Kaminis is long FB. Please see our disclosures at the Wall Street Greek website and author bio pages found there. This article and website in no way offers or represents financial or investment advice. Information is provided for entertainment purposes only.

Baidu (BIDU) – Beaten Back by China but Buy it Here

Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) has been beaten down over the last few months by bad news about economic activity in China and by some relatively disappointing earnings news from an important stock of the region as well. That situates the stock well heading into its own earnings report, but upside may be limited in this environment. Downside risk should be limited here as well, so I see the stock as okay to buy for the long-term here but I would not stake a short-term trade purely on the EPS report. See my full prescient report on Baidu here.

Please see our disclosures at the Wall Street Greek website and author bio pages found there. This article and website in no way offers or represents financial or investment advice. Information is provided for entertainment purposes only.

Facebook – Why I Went Long Again

Two weeks ago, on a day when Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) was dropping by more than $2 to around $74.30 a share, I took a new long position. Warren Buffett is known for advising amateur investors to buy when the blood is on the street, and that’s exactly what I did, but for more reason than the blood alone. There are two other good reasons I see further upside for Facebook in the offing and am still long today, despite the share move to over $78. See the Facebook report here.

DISCLOSURE: Mr. Kaminis is long FB. Please see our disclosures at the Wall Street Greek website and author bio pages found there. This article and website in no way offers or represents financial or investment advice. Information is provided for entertainment purposes only.

Facebook Can Weather Big Storms

Last Thursday’s market decline had me watering at the mouth, mainly because of the decline of a few stocks on my shopping list. Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) is one of those names, and it’s the kind of stock I think you have to buy when the market goes on sale. Facebook can weather big storms. Unlike Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA), which I recommended the sale of last week, Facebook (FB) is a momentum name I’m itching to purchase even today. I was lonely when Facebook dipped under $20 a few years ago when I was telling everyone and anyone to buy it. Back then, believe it or not, there were few of you saying the same thing. As it moved toward $30 I continued to reassure friends and followers that it was still a screaming buy. And now that it’s trading in the upper $70s, I’m still looking for entry points for this big future 10-bagger, as Peter Lynch would put it. See the full report on Facebook here.

LiveDeal (Nasdaq: LIVE) – Discerning What May Have Driven its 58% Gain

LiveDeal (Nasdaq: LIVE) might be mitigating its delisting issue, or the day's 58% gain may be without solid basis. We explore several possibilities herein, and expect you'll find value in our perspective. LiveDeal (Nasdaq: LIVE) led most shares Wednesday on no corporate news and little sign of reason. Even the message boards were empty of speculation. Thus, the mysterious movement only drew in more capital and perpetuated momentum of the lightly traded microcap stock with few shares outstanding and fewer floating.

Our founder earned clients a 23% average annual return over five years as a stock analyst on Wall Street. "The Greek" has written for institutional newsletters, Businessweek, Real Money, Seeking Alpha and others, while also appearing across TV and radio. While writing for Wall Street Greek, Mr. Kaminis presciently warned of the financial crisis.

LiveDeal (Nasdaq: LIVE) – Discerning What May Have Driven its 58% Gain

Relative Tickers: Nasdaq: GOOG, Nasdaq: BIDU, Nasdaq: YNDX, Nasdaq: LNKD, Nasdaq: AKAM, Nasdaq: ACOM, NYSE: AOL, Nasdaq: ATRN, Nasdaq: ABTL, AMEX: BNX, Nasdaq: BITA, Nasdaq: JRJC, Nasdaq: CCIH, OTC: CLKZ.PK, Nasdaq: EDGR, Nasdaq: DIETD, Nasdaq: GSOL, Nasdaq: HSTM, Nasdaq: HSWI, Nasdaq: INSP, Nasdaq: INXN, Nasdaq: DATE, OTC: KBAS.PK, Nasdaq: LOCM, Nasdaq: LOOK, Nasdaq: LEDR, OTC: MMRF.OB, OTC: PCIR.PK, OTC: QPSA.PK, Nasdaq: REDF, Nasdaq: RENN, OTC: SLNM.PK, Nasdaq: SOHU, Nasdaq: SFUN, Nasdaq: SBAY, Nasdaq: TTGT, Nasdaq: KNOT, NYSE: TST, Nasdaq: TZOO, AMEX: TCX, Nasdaq: VTRO, Nasdaq: WWWW, Nasdaq: WBMD, Nasdaq: YHOO, Nasdaq: YOKU, OTC: ZAOFF.PK, Nasdaq: LIVE, Nasdaq: NGSX, Nasdaq: SCEI, Nasdaq: WFSLW, Nasdaq: NFEC, NYSEArca: TVIX, AMEX: XPO, AMEX: ESA, NYSEArca: CVOL, NYSE: DST, NYSEArca: VZZ, Nasdaq: OVRL, Nasdaq: DHRM, Nasdaq: HOLI, AMEX: ELC, Nasdaq: CMED, Nasdaq: SMRT, Nasdaq: CDTI, Nasdaq: EPOC, Nasdaq: RGDX, Nasdaq: SPMD and Nasdaq: PFED.

The stock closed up 58%, taking it to a technical level it had previously found comfort in. At $4.34 though, the shares still traded well short of their 52-week high of $22.25. Given the stock’s float of just 470K, based on Yahoo Finance data (Nasdaq: YHOO), it wouldn’t take much to move it like it did Wednesday. Institutional holders UBS (NYSE: UBS) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) recently (March 31, 2011) reported small stakes, though Thomson Financial data at Yahoo seems to show net sales on the institutional level in the quarter before last.

The latest news we could find on the wire was of LIVE’s delisting notification for violating a NASDAQ exchange rule regarding minimum shareholders equity, and so on May 24, 2011 it was given 45 days to show NASDAQ (Nasdaq: NDAQ) how it planned to achieve and sustain compliance. Therefore, perhaps the day’s movement can be explained to be relative to LiveDeal’s near-term ability to meet the NASDAQ’s listing rules. I say this because the shares began downward from $4 on the delisting release on May 24, and have restored the market value lost since that news broke in one day’s trading on Wednesday.

Thus, it would appear that someone is betting on the possibility of this company mitigating its delisting issue. The stock’s activity seems to reflect that driver if we are discerning clearly. My study of the company’s website turned up a bit of a confusing (to me) headline above the newest company press release on its press releases page (which I have saved and notified the company of), which read, “LiveDeal Secures Additional Commitments from Foreign Equity Investors.” There was no date on the press release teaser, leaving me unsure as to whether it was published today. Thus it was confusing to me. I suppose that if you only read that headline, something a prudent investor should never do, you may have misunderstood the page. However, if you clicked through the release underneath that headline, which offered a lead-in that discussed the appointment of the new CEO (onus on the reader to notice), you found a news item detailing the appointment of the new CEO, which is old news. There was no information about a new foreign investment in the release text or leader. Only the headline was confusing if taken in isolation, which any investor should never do! However, I wonder if any did.

I called in to LiveDeal and spoke with the Investor Relations contact, CFO Lawrence Tomsic, and he said the company had not issued any press release Wednesday nor announced any news of new foreign equity investors since the March 25 release last indicating so. He said the company had no comment with regard to the day’s stock movement, and knew of no specific timely reason for the stock’s activity Wednesday.

Because of the possibility of a gunslinging investor potentially acting on incomplete due diligence, the driver of the 58% move in the stock could be without any base, though I cannot be sure; it could also be an independent bet on the company avoiding delisting; or it could be on another issue or theory or other reason. Whatever the case, I perceive risk in holding the shares now after the big gain, while not knowing certainly the true driver and with those possibilities seemingly in the cards.

If the stock is up on a presumed ability to avoid delisting, without any other important news, it would seem the shares would find balance at around $4, where about it traded steadily before the delisting warning. If the stock appreciation was driven by faulty reasoning, then the stock could move back toward where it stood before Wednesday, in my estimation, which was $2.75. In after-hours trading Wednesday, speculators have taken the shares to near $5 (seen on Yahoo Finance), which based on our reasoning here, looks lofty in my view (above $4) if not completely without base given the risks outlined above.

Note: Risk of missing upside also exists if the catalyst for the day's rise is something other than NASDAQ listing violation mitigation but still construed as positive by the market, or if that catalyst exists simultaneously with another, or for many other reasons.

We will continue to explain vaguely understood stock movements as best we can for our readers, so join our mailing list or revisit us regularly. We welcome your requests. Simply submit your stock questions to us via comments to any of our articles or to a button we will establish shortly atop the blog. If the stock is especially active that particular day, or if it is of broad interest otherwise, we will dedicate a post toward answering your question.

Disclosure: The author has no direct or beneficial interest in the shares of or securities relative to LiveDeal (Nasdaq: LIVE) or any other stock mentioned in this article.

The day’s top gainers included LiveDeal (Nasdaq: LIVE), NeurogesX (Nasdaq: NGSX), Sino Clean Energy (Nasdaq: SCEI), Washington Federal (Nasdaq: WFSLW), NF Energy Saving (Nasdaq: NFEC), VelocityShares Daily 2X (NYSEArca: TVIX), Express-1 Expedited Solutions (AMEX: XPO), Energy Services of America (AMEX: ESA), C Tracks Exchange Traded Notes (NYSEArca: CVOL), DST Systems (NYSE: DST), iPath Long Enhanced S&P 500 VIX (NYSEArca: VZZ), Overland Storage (Nasdaq: OVRL), Dehaier Medical Systems (Nasdaq: DHRM), Hollysys Automation (Nasdaq: HOLI), Eastern Light Capital (AMEX: ELC), China Medical (Nasdaq: CMED), Stein Mart (Nasdaq: SMRT), Clean Diesel Technologies (Nasdaq: CDTI), Epocrates (Nasdaq: EPOC), Response Genetics (Nasdaq: RGDX), SuperMedia (Nasdaq: SPMD), Park Bancorp (Nasdaq: PFED).

This article might interest other Internet Information Providers like Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), Yandex (Nasdaq: YNDX), LinkedIn (Nasdaq: LNKD), Akamai (Nasdaq: AKAM), Ancestry.com (Nasdaq: ACOM), AOL (NYSE: AOL), Atrinsic (Nasdaq: ATRN), Autobytel (Nasdaq: ABTL), Banks.com (AMEX: BNX), Bitauto (Nasdaq: BITA), China Finance Online (Nasdaq: JRJC), ChinaCache International (Nasdaq: CCIH), Clicker Inc. (OTC: CLKZ.PK), EDGAR Online (Nasdaq: EDGR), eDiets.com (Nasdaq: DIETD), Global Sources (Nasdaq: GSOL), HealthStream (Nasdaq: HSTM), HSW Int’l (Nasdaq: HSWI), InfoSpace (Nasdaq: INSP), InterXion (Nasdaq: INXN), Jiayuan.com (Nasdaq: DATE), Knobias (OTC: KBAS.PK), Local.com (Nasdaq: LOCM), LookSmart (Nasdaq: LOOK), Market Leader (Nasdaq: LEDR), MMR Information (OTC: MMRF.OB), Prime Companies (OTC: PCIR.PK), Quepasa (OTC: QPSA.PK), Rediff.com (Nasdaq: REDF), Renren (Nasdaq: RENN), Salon Media (OTC: SLNM.PK), Sohu.com (Nasdaq: SOHU), SouFun Holdings (Nasdaq: SFUN), Subaye (Nasdaq: SBAY), TechTarget (Nasdaq: TTGT), The Knot (Nasdaq: KNOT), TheStreet.com (NYSE: TST), Travelzoo (Nasdaq: TZOO), Tucows (AMEX: TCX), Vertro (Nasdaq: VTRO), Web.com (Nasdaq: WWWW), WebMD (Nasdaq: WBMD), Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), Youku.com (Nasdaq: YOKU) and Zaio Corp. (OTC: ZAOFF.PK).



Please see our disclosures at the Wall Street Greek website and author bio pages found there. This article and website in no way offers or represents financial or investment advice. Information is provided for entertainment purposes only.