Reactions to Google's (GOOG) $12.5 billion Motorola Mobility (MMI) purchase have been stunningly bipolar. The title to TechCrunch's recent SA piece, "Google's Motorola Acquisition Is Brilliant... Or Really Stupid", is a good example. Opinions abound, with some focusing on the defensive nature of what appears to be primarily a patent play, while others have praised the potential for growth.

Not content with the attention it's already been getting after downgrading US long-term debt, Standard & Poor's promptly made its skepticism public, as detailed here by equity analyst Scott Kessler. But many technology pundits have praised the move as strategic and forward-looking, emphasizing how it better positions the search giant to compete against the iOS phenomenon.

The variety in outlook on this bombshell development represents a very real problem for disciplined investors looking to benefit from the most rapidly growing part of consumer

Power One, Inc (PWER) reported Q2 FY2011 results on Thursday the 28th:

• Quarterly revenue grew 21% YOY for a total $260M, squarely in the middle of the $250-270M range guided in May's Q1 conference call.
• Diluted EPS missed consensus estimates of $0.22 by 1 cent on operating income of $53M, a 23% YOY increase over last year's Q2 results of $0.17 EPS and $31M income.
• The Renewable Energy Solutions segment generated sales of $180M, which represents 27% YOY top-line growth. Power One reported significant gains in domestic markets, China and India, the cumulative total from these regions increasing from only 4% to 18% of total revenue.
• The Power Solutions segment generated sales of $80M, an 11% YOY increase in top-line growth. The company is focusing on reducing expenses and improving operating efficiencies in this segment, but the larger opportunity clearly lies with the other business group.
• The

In a previous article, I provided a company profile for Power One, Inc (PWER) and presented an investment thesis which outlined the possibility for significant near-term price-appreciation, with its July 28th Q2 results as potential rebound catalyst. In anticipation of the earnings announcement later this week, here's an update to PWER's outlook:

SatCon's (SATC) disappointing earnings announcement and lackluster guidance for Q2 pummeled the entire sector, dragging PWER down about 6% on July 5th. SatCon reported weaker demand in European markets, especially Germany and Italy, after governments changed policies that offered incentives for solar technology. The day served as reminder that players in the solar arena and derivatives remain highly volatile. Power One is no exception with a beta of 2.17, and is currently trading at the bottom of its historical P/E channel, around 6.6x TTM on a range of 6.4 to 11.6.

Information sourced from the

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) reported Q2 results of $0.09 EPS this Thursday and forecast better than expected revenue guidance for the rest of year, prompting a surge of close to 20% in Friday trading and a slew of analyst upgrades. Most encouragingly, the company reported a significant increase in gross margin, from 43% to 46%.

After the release of its Llano mobility platform (click here for my article on the platform), has been met with mixed but on balance positive reviews. The company is now in the final stages before launching its first new architecture release since 2003's highly successful K8, an all-new CPU core designed dubbed 'Bulldozer'.

The Bulldozer technology refresh has walked a long and torturous road from planning phase to retail shelves and OEM bins. Originally outlined on AMD's annual analyst day in November 2009, the new chips are designed

With the macro environment suffering from domestic and international debt woes, the semiconductor sector (SOX) has shown signs of strain as well. A glance at the 6-month chart gives us reason to pause:

[Click all images to enlarge]

(Data and chart courtesy of Stockcharts.com)

The 50-day SMA is accelerating its downward slope and has crossed the rising 200-day SMA last week. Simultaneously, the MACD is flashing an average weak signal with a cross below the EMA, a significant 1.1 negative divergence and a net negative value of 4.7. Negative sentiment is confirmed by RSI and Williams %R indicators, both lingering near the oversold mark.

With technicals already looking weak, analyst chatter has poured gas onto the fire.

First, FBR Capital Markets' Craig Berger opined that weakening PC trends will finally catch up with Intel's (INTC) Q2 earnings announcement and possibly Q3 forecast, expecting a 3-4% revenue gap between what

Netflix's (NFLX) remarkable performance for the last year and a half has been well-documented, on SA and beyond. The company's march toward the $300 mark has been met with significant skepticism. Although a few high-profile shorts publicly backed out in February, contrarian interest continues to mount.

My aim here is not to dwell on details comprehensively covered by others, but rather to offer for consideration some objections to the basic premises of those short and intermediate-term bearish.

To address the major points made in support of shorting Netflix:

• Valuation metrics are stratospheric and therefore must decline.

The first part is unquestionably true. (Data and charts courtesy of YCharts)

Netflix 5-year PE Ratio vs. stock price

Through late 2009, Netflix traded in a broad but fairly well-defined PE channel, between 18 and 35 PE multiples. After the equity began its impressive rally in early 2010, we see the

Petroleo Brasiliero S.A. (PBR) is a mixed joint stock corporation controlled by Brazil's federal government, one of the largest energy companies in the world and a perennial presence in the top five companies in the world by market cap. Each ADS represents two shares. The company reports results in five segments:

The critical Exploration and Production segment includes activities in Brazil and sales of oil and gas, domestically as well as internationally. The Brazilian government owns by law all crude and gas reserves in Brazil, but PBR has rights to exploit these resources pursuant to concessions. Proven crude and gas reserves rose 7.5% in FY2010, and production rose 2.3%.

The Refining, Transportation and Marketing segment includes refining, crude oil exports, imports, petrochemicals and

The smart phone business resembles a war field. There are makeshift alliances, shifting allegiances, victories and routs ... above all, a constantly changing landscape with new technologies enticing a growing proportion of consumers to make the switch to the latest and greatest. As companies jostle for advantage, attempting to capture as much of this exploding business as possible, it seems as if everything is in question and nothing is impossible.

Within just the last month, we've seen:

• Troubled Canadian giant Research In Motion (RIMM) plummeted more than 22% on Q2 results and revised yearly guidance. I admit to underestimating the strength of the negative sentiment propelling RIM's crash, which now trades at barely 40% of its May high of $70.
• The formerly dominant Nokia (NOK) first released a widely admired but irrelevant N9 smart phone, then impressed by showcasing a working Windows Phone prototype
• Apple (AAPL) and Samsung

Managed health care equities had a blockbuster first half of the year, significantly outperforming the market as a whole. The Dow Jones U.S. Health Care Providers index has returned more than 23% YTD, about three times as much as the 8.58% return of the broader DJIA. Analysts have taken note, attributing the over-performance to a recovery in investor confidence from the uncertainty associated with health-care reform in the U.S. through 2010 and repositioning in more defensive sectors.

Looking at the performance of iShares' Dow Jones U..S Health Care Provider ETF (IHF) which attempts to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Dow Jones U.S. Select Health Care Providers Index, gives a sense of how strong the rally has been:

(Click to enlarge)

Beyond sentiment and momentum, however, the financials tell a compelling story. Here are last quarter's reported EPS results for the top

After suffering a severe beat-down earlier in the year and sideways action through spring and early summer, Power-One Inc. (PWER) looks like a solar sector play with potential for rapid price appreciation and sustainable long-term growth prospects.

The company is the second-largest designer and manufacturer of photovoltaic inverters in the world. It operates two units:

1. The solar-oriented Renewable Energy Solutions division provides products which convert, regulate, purify, store and manage renewable electrical power. Energy inverters harvest solar or wind energy and convert the DC power from solar panels or variable AC from wind turbines into conditioned AC energy for transportation through transmission lines. According to S&P analysts, renewable energy is outpacing the rest of the power industry, with a mean estimate of 20% CAGR through 2014.

2. The Power Solutions division provides AC/DC and DC/DC converters and network power systems for data center applications including data storage, servers and

Amid continued drumbeats that social networking is the future, NewsCorp (NWS) divested a majority of its MySpace holdings for pennies on the dollar. Specific Media, a mostly anonymous advertising company, purchased a dominant (95%) stake in the moribund site. One questions the wisdom of the acquisition, as MySpace's attempt to reposition itself as a hub for music lovers and artists has failed to put the breaks on a long-time fade into irrelevance.

MySpace's slow-motion implosion is the stuff of bubble 2.0 legend, but also largely a function of hindsight. Inspired by now-defunct Friendster, the site saw explosive growth and hammered main rival Facebook in traffic through 2006 and 2007, reaching a peak estimated valuation in the neighborhood of $12B when NewsCorp attempted to fold it into Yahoo (YHOO). For a good while, it seemed that Rupert Murdoch's half-billion and spare change gambit would pay off in

Micron Technology (MU) reported a large Q3 miss last Thursday, announcing $0.07 per share vs. consensus estimate in the $0.13 to $0.17 range. Traders reacted promptly, pummelling the stock for a 14.47% drop the next day. The equity has now seen a skid for more than third of its value in the last three months, posting a 37.58% downswing.

• Revenue was a reported $2.14B, down from $2.28B last year, missing Street expectations of about $2.35B.
• DRAM sales (60% of FY2010 revenue) dropped 7% compared to Q2 on lower volume.
• NAND memory (28% of FY2010 revenue) dropped 5% compared to Q2 on lower ASPs.
• Gross margin saw a slight increase compared to Q2, up to 22% from 19%.

The post-announcement conference call is best summed by a direct quote from CEO Steve Appleton:

More specifically, desktop and notebooks continue to be weak and I'll

After seeing a one-month slide of about 18%, AMD (AMD) appears poised for a significant bounce. The company has been punished for struggling to find a CEO, but the release of the well-received Llano mobility platform positions it to deliver strong results in the back-to-school and holiday seasons.

After capturing the performance crown from Intel (INTC) early in the decade, AMD lost the advantage to its competitor's R&D resources and has been playing catch-up since the release of the Core line of processors. Perhaps recognizing that it can't compete in tit-for-tat technology refreshes, AMD has chosen to pursue a dual strategy, positioning itself as the as value alternative to Intel's offerings and emphasizing that everyday computing performance results are the result of CPU/GPU interaction rather than processor workload alone, with an end-goal of combining central and graphics processing on the same die.

AMD purchased Canadian graphics technology company ATI in

Nokia's (NOK) Stephen Elop took time at a pre N9-release event to position the device as a "proof of concept" launch showing the company's willingness to change and offer new products while continuing to execute around its industrial design expertise:

Now one of the big questions we get is, "Yes, so you're launching this device but we know you're transitioning to Windows Phone, what's the point? What is the point?" Well, the point is this: there is a whole collection of innovation that is available in the N9 that is going to live on.

If it sounds as if Mr. Elop is about to plug upcoming devices, you're right: Nokia's CEO, after asking the crowd to turn off recording devices, briefly showcased a phone nearly identical in shape, design and presumably, specifications, running Windows 7 Mango. It seems not all in the crowd heeded the request to

Nokia (NOK) recently launched its first and last MeeGo-powered smartphone, the N9. Intended as replacement to the successful but now faltering Symbian platform, MeeGo has since been abandoned in favor of Windows phone on the heels of an announced strategic partnership with Microsoft (MSFT).

Reviews can be characterized as wistful, with Information Week calling it "gorgeous." The N9 looks like a solid piece of technology that ought to have been a smash hit about two years ago. Nokia has borrowed from competitors designs and tried to do one better, including a 3.9 inch, AMOLED, Gorilla-glass protected touchscreen, penta-band radio (even high-end Android devices are typically only equipped with quad-band) and a high-end camera equipped with low-aperture, Carl Zeiss optics.

But operating systems live and die by way of the software ecosystem they support, and MeeGo looks still-born, with little incentive for developers to sink in the time

Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. (NBIX) is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in research and development of medications addressing metabolic system-related diseases and neurological disorders such as anxiety, depression and insomnia.

The company has a goal of advancing one new clinical candidate into development each other year. Its most active program is a hormone receptor antagonist for issues concerning women's health. The lead candidate is elagolix (NBI-56418) for treating endometriosis. In September 2008, the company announced positive Phase 2b data showing reduced loss in bone mineral density, comparable pain reduction and a relatively low incidence of side-effects. Under FDA guidance, a second study was launched in 2010, yielding similarly positive results. (See company press release on the elagolix presentation it delivered June 16th at the World Congress on Endemetriosis.)

Neurocrine Biosences reported that its global partner, Abbott Labs, will advance elagolix to Phase 3 study for endometriosis in late 2011 following a

Intel (INTC) recently unveiled plans to commercialize its Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture in the high-performance computing space -- dedicated supercomputers primarily used by governments and research facilities. The announcement came at the International Supercomputing Conference, where Kirk Saugen, a vice president and general manager of the Data Center Group, outlined goals to reach exaflop (quintillion computer operations per second) performance by the end of the decade, more than 100 times faster than today's top machines.

MIC is an offspring of Intel's failed Larrabee GPU initiative, an ambitious hybrid software/hardware graphics processing unit retired in late 2009. The silicon developed as part of that project is now a multi-core math co-processor well suited for demanding floating point tasks.

Intel plans to position future offerings in direct competition to Nvidia's (NVDA) Tesla line of chips, threatening its growth prospects in a world where Nvidia's core business, dedicated graphics, os

Steve Ballmer is as well known for his infelicitous public remarks as he is for running Microsoft (MSFT) for more than a decade.

A dubious distinction, to be sure. The range of his proclamations is certainly broad: the alleged Mark Lucovsky incident, when he purportedly punctuated a threat to "bury" Google's (GOOG) Eric Schmidt by throwing a chair, confounding media statements ("The thing that is Vista is on its track") and comments about successful competitors, including a throw-away about consumers "paying $500 more" just for an Apple logo.

But if being well-spoken and empathetic was a measure of successful executives, we'd have a very different cadre of folks floating to the top of the business world. Instead, we get individuals who title their autobiographical ruminations "Only the Paranoid Survive." Investors, analysts and consumers don't expect CEOs to serve the same function as a

Aetna Inc. (AET) offers a great opportunity for both short-term traders and long-term investors due to a comprehensively solid mix of appealing valuation, technical momentum and strategic long-term growth prospects.

Aetna is a large-cap U.S. provider of healthcare, dental, pharmacy, group life, disability, and long-term care benefits, ranked third nationally in terms of enrollment numbers. The company reports in three segments:

• Healthcare, 92.3% of FY2010 revenue, is clearly what the company focuses on. It offers HMO, POS, PPO and indemnity benefit products.
• Group Insurance, 6.6% of FY2010 revenue, provides group life, disability and long-term care products.
• Large Case Pensions, 1.1% of FY2010 revenue, is a legacy business of various retirement products including annuities and pensions for defined benefit and defined contribution plans.

The company has shown real growth in the last decade, increasing its health plan enrollment members from 13 to about 18.5 million, almost doubling operating revenue