American Tower Corporation (NYSE: AMT) release of first quarter (Q1) 2019 results at 7:00 a.m. EDT on Friday, May 3, 2019, on the company's investor relations web page. The Company has scheduled a conference call & LIVE webcast on May 3, 2019, at 8:30 a.m. EDT, to discuss the Q1 2019 results.
An audio replay of the conference call will be available as follows:
Replay Dates:May 3, 2019 10:30 a.m. EDT to May 17, 2019 11:59 p.m. EDT
Replay Dial in: (800) 475-6701 U.S./Canada; (320) 365-3844 International
Access Code: 465582
American Tower is one of the largest global REITs, and a leading independent owner, operator and developer of multitenant communications real estate with a portfolio of approximately 171,000 communications sites. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, American Tower has operations across the United States and in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Paraguay, Peru, South Africa and Uganda. For more information: americantower.com and SEC filings and here.
American Tower and its two publicly traded competitors, Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) (domain: crowncastle.com) and SBA Communications (NASDAQ:SBAC), use the same business model, they own wireless towers and lease them to telecommunication carriers like Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint, on long-term contracts.
See also:
American Tower dips as Wells Fargo goes Neutral--seekingalpha.com Apr. 15, 2019
The real 5G winners: Tower companies--cnn.com Feb. 26, 2019
Growth Plans Set To Deliver Significantly For American Tower--seekingalpha.com Dec. 25, 2015
Crown Castle is the largest provider of shared communications infrastructure in the U.S., with more than 40,000 cell towers and approximately 60,000 route miles of fiber supporting small cells and fiber solutions across every major U.S. market.
Wireless Penetration vs. Mobile Broadband Penetration; 45% of $AMT's 175,000 cell towers are in India yet account for just 17% of revenue cc @howardlindzonpic.twitter.com/fmrUgMakdD
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) quarterly conference call to discuss first quarter (Q1) 2019 financial results, Monday, April 29, at 1:30 p.m. PDT / 4:30 p.m. EDT, via LIVE webcast. A replay of the webcast will be available through the same link following the conference call. Go to the Investor Relations website at abc.xyz/investor on April 29, 2019, to view the earnings release prior to the conference call. UPDATE: Earnings Release (pdf) excerpt:
"We delivered robust growth led by mobile search, YouTube, and Cloud with Alphabet revenues of $36.3 billion, up 17% versus last year, or 19% on a constant currency basis," said Ruth Porat, Chief Financial Officer of Alphabet and Google. "We remain focused on, and excited by, the significant growth opportunities across our businesses."
Editor's note:GOOGL shares have declined in early afterhours trading 29 Apr 2019.
About Alphabet Inc.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in September 1998. Today the company has grown to more than 90,000 employees worldwide, with popular products and platforms like Search, Ads, Maps, Gmail, Chrome, YouTube, and Android. In October 2015, Alphabet became the parent holding company of Google. Tweets by googlechrome
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) conference call and LIVE webcastto discuss Amazon's first quarter (Q1) 2019 financial results on April 25, 2019 at 5:30 p.m. EDT. The audio and associated slides will be available for at least three months thereafter at www.amazon.com/ir.
Q1 2019 Earnings Release (pdf)
Amazon reports Q1 2019 revenue of $59.7B, up 17% YoY, operating income of $4.4B, up from $1.9B in Q1 2018, and net income of $3.6B, up from $1.6B in Q1 2018. Amazon's AWS reported Q1 revenue of $7.7B, up 41% YoY and representing 13% of total sales at Amazon, up from 10% in Q4. Editor's note: shares are up in afterhours trading 25 Apr 2019.
Amazon reported a record net income of $10.1 billion in 2018, which was a considerable jump from $3 billion in 2017. CNBC breaks down where exactly the money came from and how Amazon Web Services, advertising and the third-party marketplace are driving Amazon's increased profitability. CNBC.com video above published Feb 18, 2019. Tweets by amazon
VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN),earnings call for the first quarter 2019: Thursday, 25 April 2019, at 4:30 p.m. EDT via listen-only LIVE webcastand teleconference call direct dial at (888) 676-VRSN (U.S.) or (786) 789-4776 (international), conference ID: Verisign. An audio archive of the call will be available at https://investor.verisign.com/events.cfm. Transcript here.
UPDATE 25 Apr 2019: Verisign First Quarter 2019 Results (pdf) First Quarter GAAP Financial Results: VeriSign, Inc. and its subsidiaries (“Verisign”) reported revenue of $306 million for the first quarter of 2019, up 2.4 percent from the same quarter in 2018. Verisign reported net income of $163 million and diluted earnings per share (diluted “EPS”) of $1.35 for the first quarter of 2019, compared to net income of $134 million and diluted EPS of $1.09 for the same quarter in 2018. The operating margin was 65.4 percent for the first quarter of 2019 compared to 62.0 percent for the same quarter in 2018.
Financial Highlights: Verisign ended the first quarter of 2019 with cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $1.25 billion, a decrease of $17 million from the end of 2018. During the first quarter of 2019, Verisign repatriated $249 million of cash held by foreign subsidiaries, net of foreign withholding taxes. Cash flow from operating activities was $187 million for the first quarter of 2019, compared with $90 million for the same quarter in 2018. Deferred revenues as of March 31, 2019 totaled $1.05 billion, an increase of $29 million from the end of 2018. During the first quarter of 2019, Verisign repurchased 1.0 million shares of its common stock for an aggregate cost of $175 million. As of March 31, 2019, there was $891 million remaining for future share repurchases under the share repurchase program which has no expiration date.
Business Highlights: Verisign ended the first quarter of 2019 with 154.8 million .comand.net domain name registrations in the domain name base, a 4.4 percent increase from the end of the first quarter of 2018, and a net increase of 1.82 million during the first quarter of 2019 [Editor's note: .net registrations actually declined (see this News Review 4)a.), so the growth is all attributable to .com]. During the first quarter of 2019, Verisign processed 9.8 million new domain name registrations for .com and .net, compared to 9.6 million for the same quarter in 2018. The final .com and .net renewal rate for the fourth quarter of 2018 was 74.3 percent compared with 72.2 percent for the same quarter in 2017. Renewal rates are not fully measurable until 45 days after the end of the quarter.
Editor's note: during the conference call webcast 25 Apr 2019, CEO & Chairman James Bidzos said Verisign was in negotiations with ICANN in regard to .COM pricing and Amendment 35 to the Cooperative Agreement with the US government (NTIA), but had nothing to report of substance, and likewise, there was nothing new to report in regard to .WEB other than Verisign is still attempting to intervene as a party in the pending arbitration (IRP), Afilias vs ICANN. Guidance for total 2019 (domain name base) growth in .COM & .NET combined: 2.5 to 4.25 percent.
VeriSign, Inc. (domain: verisign.com), is registry operator for .COM and other Top-Level Domains (TLDs), manager of 2 of the world's DNS root zone's 13 authoritative name servers, serves as the root zone maintainer, and is a global provider of other domain name registry services and internet infrastructure. VeriSign's headquarters: Reston, VA; Chairman & CEO: D. James Bidzos.
"... we estimate that more than 2.1 billion people now use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Messenger (our "Family" of services) every day on average, and around 2.7 billion people use at least one of our Family of services each month. In the first quarter of 2019, we reasonably estimated a probable loss and recorded an accrual of $3.0 billion in connection with the inquiry of the FTC into our platform and user data practices, which accrual is included in accrued expenses and other current liabilities on our condensed consolidated balance sheet. We estimate that the range of loss in this matter is $3.0 billion to $5.0 billion. The matter remains unresolved, and there can be no assurance as to the timing or the terms of any final outcome ..."
Editor's note:$FB shares are UP in afterhours trading 24 Apr 2019. Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) release of first quarter 2019 financial results after market close on Wednesday, April 24, 2019. Facebook will host a conference call to discuss its results at 2 p.m. PDT / 5 p.m. EDT the same day. The LIVE webcast of the call can be accessed at the Facebook Investor Relations website at investor.fb.com, along with the company's earnings press release, financial tables, and slide presentation.
Following the call, a replay will be available at the same website. A telephonic replay will be available for one week following the conference call at 404.537.3406 or 855.859.2056, Conference ID: 9195605. Transcripts of conference calls with publishing equity research analysts held on April 24, 2019 will also be posted to the investor.fb.com website.
UPDATE April 23, 2019 $TWTR shares are trading UP 16% mid-day.
Revenue: "Q1 was a solid start to the year with revenue up 18% year-over-year, reflecting particular strength in the US."
Profitability: "In Q1, revenue outperformance, in combination with lower expenses, resulted in better-than-expected profitability, with GAAP operating income of $94 million and GAAP operating margin of 12%."
Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) release of financial
results for the first quarter 2019: April 23, 2019, before the market open at approximately 4:00 a.m.
Pacific Time (7:00 a.m. EDT). On the same day, Twitter will host a conference call and LIVE webcast to discuss
these financial results at 5:00 a.m. Pacific Time / 8:00 a.m. EDT.
Twitter will be following the conversation about the earnings announcement on Twitter.com. To have
your questions considered during the Q&A, Tweet your question to @TwitterIR using #TWTR. To listen to
a live audio webcast, please visit the company’s Investor Relations page at investor.twitterinc.com.
Twitter has used, and intends to continue to use, its Investor Relations website and the Twitter accounts
of @jack, @nedsegal, @twitter and @TwitterIR as means of disclosing material non-public information
and for complying with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD.
Tech Review (TR 2019-03-30)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1)Apple $AAPL Rotting?2)China's T3 Initiative, 3)Investing:Q1 2019, Investor Notes: Eurozone Alarms Rising, 4)ICYMI Tech News: Google, Apple, Microsoft, Lyft, Amazon, Netflix, Disney, AT&T, Facebook, HP, Startups, FTC v. Robocallers. 1) Apple $AAPL Rotting?
Entering commoditized, fiercely competitive low-margin services cannot substitute for the high-margin profits that will be lost as global recession and saturation erode iPhone sales.--Charles Hugh Smith
Apple's Big Announcement: More TV, News, Credit Cards, and Oprah!
Apple's new entertainment subscription services and credit card, launched to great fanfare this week, could raise new concerns for the company over market power and competition issues. Apple executives at a star-studded event in Cupertino, Calif., this week unveiled subscription services in gaming, news and television, as well as a new Apple credit card. Sally Hubbard, director of enforcement strategy at the Open Markets Institute, told TheHill.com she is concerned that Apple is "controlling the game and playing the game too" as the owner of both the iOS App Store and creator of the iPhone.
The third generation of the butterfly keyboard on Apple's Mac laptops was supposed to fix all the problems. But nope. WSJ.com's Joanna Stern explains why the keyboards on the newest and most expensive MacBooks keep breaking—and the few things you can do about it. Wall Street Journal videos above published Mar 26 & 28, 2019.
2)China's T3 Initiative:
The formation of a new ride share initiative called T3 with 3 major Chinese state-run automakers, $BABA & Tencent is just one more example that the next wave of tech-based disruption in areas like mobility will be so expensive that no one or two companies can go it alone. $XLKpic.twitter.com/EEggSQGYfp
Alibaba, Tencent, Suning, and 3 Chinese SOE car makers, including Chongqing Changan Automobile, set up a $1.5 billion Chinese ride-hailing venture, a move that threatens China's dominant ride-sharing company, Didi Chuxing. 3) Investing
S&P 500 notches best start to a year since 1998, Dow rises more than 200 points on trade optimism--CNBC.com.
Snapshot Thursday, March 28: Stocks rose slightly, the S&P 500 holding steady over the past two weeks, but up 12% year-to-date. Treasury yields slightly higher, while the $US surged, hitting gold, which dropped nearly 1% to a three-week low of $1,290 an ounce.
Headwinds:
Investor Notes: Eurozone Alarms Rising
European Economic Storm Clouds--insidesources.com: on our way to another round of the European sovereign debt crisis?
Germany: views of “Current Economic Conditions” at Euro Debt-Crisis Level--wolfstreet.com
EU: A Proposed Megadeal Exposes the Grim Outlook for Europe’s Banks--bloomberg.com: Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank joining forces would be just the start of a long, painful process. No-Deal Brexit Now Likely Says European Commission--see also Five Reasons to Love a No Deal Brexit.
European Prognosis negative: the Financial Times reports that Deutsche Bank A.G. is looking to raise between €3 billion ($3.4 billion) and €10 billion in equity to help consummate the planned merger with peer Commerzbank A.G., “a move designed to end the debate over whether Germany’s largest lender has enough capital.” In a commentary, Jeffrey Snider of Alhambra Investment Partners wrote that the ECB’s efforts to incentivize credit growth through penalizing idle reserves has backfired, demonstrating the differences between theory and practice.
They really have no idea what they are doing. The ECB is not a collection of newfound doves, they are chickens without their heads. Either way, it does not amount to anything good, and adds more weight to the considerable and growing list of everything bad.--grantspub.com The average European bank’s holdings of sovereign debt are about 170 percent of its core Tier 1 capital, more than triple the exposure at U.S. banks, according to Deutsche Bank research analysts. What’s more, about 60 percent of an average European bank’s sovereign bond holdings are of those issued by their home government. Why? Because government bonds carry zero risk weightings on banks’ books. This creates some perverse incentives.
Eurozone flash manufacturing PMI plunges to 47.6 in March, 71-month lows--fxstreet.com. See also: The eurozone lacks the scaffolding to withstand the symmetrical shock of the next recession, which could imperil the euro itself.--socialeurope.eu.
4)ICYMI Tech News:
Google, Microsoft, and Apple Are Fighting For Classrooms--CNBC.com video--chart above source:futuresource-consulting.com. Chromebooks are winning. Lyft closesup 9% on its first day of trading after raising $2.3B in its IPO, which valued the company at over $20B--NASDAQ: LYFT.
Amazon, Netflix, Apple, Disney, or AT&T? The Surprising Winner In The Streaming Service Race--seekingalpha.com--$AMZN. See alsoApple launches Apple TV+ (video) and YouTube Bows Out of Hollywood Arms Race With Netflix and Amazon--bloomberg.com.
Facebook: 10 Reasons Why I Have Sold All My Shares--seekingalpha.com--"Mark Zuckerberg wrote that Facebook will become "privacy-centered". This is really not believable, and if it would be, shareholders should be worried even more ... Zuckerberg himself has become a problem for Facebook."
New research reveals that Google built biases into its search results that influenced the 2018 midterm elections - possibly costing Republicans three congressional districts. --zerohedge.com. Apple Infringes Qualcomm Patent; Judge Recommends Ban on Some iPhones--bloomberg.com. Apple$AAPL: few analysts have looked at the headwinds in Europe and the longer term challenges in China.--seekingalpha.com.
The $130 billion digital advertising market may be dominated by Google and Facebook, but Amazon will start selling video spots on its smartphone shopping app.--zerohedge.com.
Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Mike Lynch faced off against each other in London’s High Court on Monday in a multi-billion dollar showdown over HP's 2011 purchase of the Autonomy software business he founded. The Autonomy-HP deal was a disaster, due, in part, to a failure of due diligence by HP whose CEO at the time, Leo Apotheker, was subsequently fired.
Startups Look Elsewhere: "With the cost of living surging across California, it's hardly surprising that the state has seen the largest net loss of residents as frustrated Californians seek more affordable climes like Nevada and Texas ... many of those who haven't left wish they could."--zerohedge.com.
Fintech Trends In 2019 (pdf): breaking down the disruption of financial services and what's ahead in 2019.
Personal Tech: FTC Crackdown Stops Operations Responsible for Billions of Illegal Robocalls. Unwanted calls pitched auto warranties, debt-relief services, Google listings, and a fake charity--FTC says it has fined four robocalling companies, responsible for “billions” of US calls, which will also cease operations--ftc.gov.
