Filed under: Company News, Market News, Automotive Industry, Telecommunications, Investing
There were plenty of winners and losers this week, with the leading online retailer introducing a new digital storage perk and another 3-D printer darling hosing down its near-term outlook. Here’s a rundown of the week’s smartest moves and biggest blunders.
Tesla Motors (TSLA) — Winner
Tesla’s Model S sedan may be expensive, but its popularity continues to grow. Tesla delivered a record 7,785 of its electric cars during the third quarter. It managed to move the cars despite a factory shutdown in July for retooling.
Tesla is on track to move 50 percent more cars this year than it did last year. It also sees enough orders and deliveries for a 50 percent increase next year, and that’s just for its flagship Model S sedan. Tesla expects to introduce its Model X crossover vehicle during the third quarter of next year.
Wireless Industry — Loser
It isn’t easy being a cellphone service provider these days. Sprint (S) posted a larger than expected quarterly deficit this week. It’s not alone in failing to live up to Wall Street’s profit targets. It joins AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ) and T-Mobile (TMUS) in falling short of analyst bottom-line estimates.
All four of the country’s largest wireless carriers falling short isn’t a coincidence. The marketplace has gotten competitive, and while that may translate into better rates for smartphone owners, it’s going to be rough on the industry’s margins.
Matthew McConaughey — Winner
Comedians have had a field day poking fun at Matthew McConaughey’s bizarre television commercials for Ford’s (F) Lincoln, but it seems as if McConaughey and Ford are the ones getting the last laugh.
Lincoln had its best October in seven years, with sales soaring 25 percent over the prior year. McConaughey’s odd ads and the even stranger parodies that have been done up by “Saturday Night Live,” “South Park” and Ellen DeGeneres are drawing attention to Lincoln and its MKC crossover.
Ford itself wasn’t as fortunate. Its namesake cars slipped in October, resulting in a total 2 percent overall decline. Lincoln is too small to move the needle at Ford, but its success is still refreshing to see.
Stratasys (SSYS) — Loser
The market has cooled on 3-D printing stocks, and this time it was former market darling Stratasys lowering its earnings outlook for the entire fiscal year. Stratasys also warned that capital expenditures will roughly triple in 2015, giving investors even more to worry about on the earnings front.
3-D printing has been one of this year’s biggest losers. The printers that create physical objects are technological marvels, but they are still too slow and expensive for mainstream use. Stratasys has held up better than its smaller peers this year, but now it’s proving mortal, too.
Amazon.com (AMZN) — Winner
Amazon.com has been busy lately. This past week alone it introduced a new consumer electronics device and began testing speedier deliveries in California using taxis. However, let’s talk about Prime Photos.
Amazon will now provide free unlimited cloud-based photo storage for its Prime members. Even videos can be uploaded as long as they are shorter than 20 minutes and take up less than 2 gigs of storage. Once the snapshots are up on Amazon’s servers, they can be accessed from nearly any Web-tethered device.
Amazon raised its annual Prime price from $79 to $99 earlier this year. It’s a great deal for regular shoppers, who receive free two-day shipping for Amazon-stocked merchandise through the service, but now loyalty is being rewarded with unlimited photo storage to go along with its growing catalogs of music and video that can be streamed.
Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz owns shares of Ford. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Amazon.com, Ford, Stratasys and Tesla Motors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. Check out our free report on the Apple Watch to learn where the real money is to be made for early investors.
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Source: Investing
