The latest Market Talks covering Technology, Media and Telecom. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.
1215 ET - HP Inc. joins the chorus of other companies touting its changing footprint. The computer and printer maker says it expects more than 90% of its products sold in North America to be built outside of China by the end of fiscal 2025. CEO Enrique Lores on an earnings call says China will continue to be an important manufacturing hub for the rest of the world. He adds that HP is managing tariff increases on China and has included them in its outlook, while also being ready to manage any changes that come with additional tariffs. "Depending on the scope, while some of our mitigating actions can take a few months lead there we would be focused on fully offsetting over time," says Lores. Shares retreat 7.2% to $30.74. (denny.jacob@wsj.com; @pennedbyden)
0841 ET - RBC says Quebecor's risk-reward potential is more attractive after a period of downward estimate revisions since its acquisition of Freedom and lowered growth expectations. "We expect Quebecor to be a beneficiary of a more disciplined wireless and Internet pricing environment with potential for renewed growth in Telecommunications that could be a catalyst for multiple expansion," analyst Drew McReynolds says. But in the absence of renewed growth, McReynolds says he still sees some upside potential given higher free cash flow generation and debt repayment given the low dividend payout ratio. (adriano.marchese@wsj.com)
0653 ET - Pearson has made some decent progress in recent times as it transitions from analog to digital, AJ Bell's Russ Mould writes in a note. "Once reliant on selling big, expensive academic textbooks, the company has achieved a leading role in online learning," Mould says. The London-listed education company has already brought in innovations such as artificial intelligence to enhance its offerings, he adds. "While there will be excitement about the potential, investors will increasingly want to see evidence of how AI is delivering returns for the business too," he says. Shares are up 1.7% at 1,358 pence. (najat.kantouar@wsj.com)
0135 ET - The market size of China's AI all-in-one server industry could reach 149 billion yuan, or about $20.45 billion, in 2028, with software services accounting for a 40% share, HSBC Global Research analysts write in a note. An AI all-in-one service refers to computing hardware with deeply integrated software for AI deployment, they add. This is a new market for software solution providers and subsector leaders stand to benefit more, they say. While Nvidia's GPUs dominate the market, Chinese domestic alternatives, such as Huawei's Ascend solution, are gaining market share in China, they add. Sangfor Technologies is the analysts' preferred sector pick due to its industry-leading position. HSBC Global Research maintains a buy rating on the stock with a target price of CNY158.00. Shares are last at CNY102.01. (jiahui.huang@wsj.com; @ivy_jiahuihuang)
1940 ET - The composition of Life360's 2025 revenue guidance looks better than RBC analyst Wei-Weng Chen had anticipated, even though the top line is broadly in line. Chen tells clients in a note that the tracking app developer's guidance for US$450 million-US$480 million in revenue comfortably straddles prior market expectations for US$465 million. However, more revenue is expected from the company's higher-multiple businesses. Advertising revenue guidance looks to be higher than expected, while subscription revenue guidance of US$350 million-US$360 million compares with an average analyst forecast of US$344.7 million. RBC has a last-published outperform rating and A$26.00 target price on the company's Australia-listed stock, which is up 4.1% at A$22.63. (stuart.condie@wsj.com)
1848 ET - Duolingo is working on retaining its resurrected users, those who return to the app. That is the one piece the language-learning app still needs to work on, CEO Luis von Ahn says on a call with analysts. At the same time, the company is seeing slightly more resurrected users than new users at the top of the marketing funnel, von Ahn says. Another area Duolingo is looking at is pricing after making available its paying plan Duolingo Max in almost every country except for countries like China--because of the use of OpenAI. "In some of the poorest countries, our price is too high," but the company is focused on never losing money on Max, von Ahn says. Overtime, Duolingo expects to be in a position to lower prices in countries like India. Shares fall 7.1%, to $348.99, in post-market trading. (sabela.ojea@wsj.com; @sabelaojeaguix)
1844 ET - Investors seem to find Duolingo's significant investments toward AI and automation risky at this time. The language-learning app is growing "pretty fast in all of its markets," but the market doesn't seem to embrace the effects that this push in expenses will have on its margins. Duolingo, which also expects its revenue growth to step down throughout the year, projects a hit of roughly 300 basis points to margins in the 1H, followed by an improvement in the 2H as it works to improve AI costs. "While this means a more moderate pace of profit growth compared to the exceptional levels of the past two years, we're still delivering margin expansion just with an eye on building something even bigger," CEO Luis von Ahn says on a call with analysts. Duolingo shares fall 8% in after-hours. (sabela.ojea@wsj.com; @sabelaojeaguix)
1735 ET - Life360's annual outlook looks stronger than the market and Ord Minnett analyst Lindsay Bettiol was expecting. With the tracking-app developer having already reported the bulk of its 2024 performance prior to announcing its annual result, Bettiol highlights the 2025 guidance as the most important thing to look for. And it all looks good, he says in a note to clients. Guidance for subscription revenue, advertising revenue and adjusted Ebitda are all ahead of where Bettiol expected them to be. Ord Minnett's buy rating and A$23.14 target price on the company's Australia-listed stock are under review. Shares are at A$21.74 ahead of the open. (stuart.condie@wsj.com)
1319 ET - Sellers are adapting to a shifting market, Realtor.com says, with 16.8% of homes seeing price cuts in February, up from 14.6% last year. New listings were up 4.2% year over year--the highest February activity since 2021--pushing median list prices down to $412,000, below 2024 levels, partly due to more smaller homes listed. Despite increased activity, no clear link ties markets with big government workforces to the sharpest slowdowns. Inventory growth, days on market, and price softening show no distinct trends in these areas yet, likely due to recent workforce shifts. Federal job cuts could eventually impact housing in government-heavy regions, Realtor.com says, depending on private-sector strength, but effects may lag as sellers typically need weeks to list homes. For now, these markets mirror broader trends, with potential changes still on the horizon. (chris.wack@wsj.com)
1250 ET - The slide in AppLovin's shares in response to short seller reports this week could be a good opportunity for investors to scoop up the stock at a low price, Bank of America analysts say. Shares are down 26% over the past five days, but profit margins and long-term growth still exceed competitors by a mile, analysts say. AppLovin's CEO in a statement and blog post refuted the fraud claims made by short sellers. The analysts expect the lower stock price to dissipate as financial strength is expected to continue. "It stands on the precipice of transforming the mobile game industry into a new e-commerce advertising medium." (katherine.hamilton@wsj.com)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 28, 2025 12:20 ET (17:20 GMT)
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