$BHE said it filed definitive proxy materials with SEC in connection with upcoming 2016 Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be held on May 11. $BHE shareholders of record on March 14, are entitled to vote at 2016 Annual Meeting. $BHE's BoD unanimously recommends that shareholders vote WHITE proxy card FOR election of director nominees.
$GOOGL $GOOG intends to use cash primarily to support organic growth. The stock repurchase program has been extended to 8.6Bil more Class-C shares. The primary areas of investment will be machine learning, Cloud, Search and YouTube. In 4Q17, the company forged partnerships with Cisco, Salesforce and SAP for Cloud, G-Suite and Analytics services.
$GOOGL $GOOG said it expects traffic acquisition costs to continue to increase in near term, reflecting the growing strength in mobile search. In 2Q18, products of home gadget division Nest were launched in 12 new countries. During the quarter, Waymo, the fleet of fully-automated self-driving cars, surpassed 4MM miles of driving on public roads.
The iPhone maker $AAPL's revenue jumped 12.6% to $88.29Bil in 1Q18, though the number of iPhone units sold fell 1% YoY, thanks to the pricier iPhones that increased the company's margins. Japan had the highest growth in revenue of 26% followed by Rest of Asia Pacific, Europe & Greater China. $AAPL guided for 2Q18 revenue of between $60-62Bil.
Geographically for 1Q18, $AAPL showed good growth across all regions. Japan showed the highest momentum with revenue surging 26% YoY, while China revenue grew 11%, driven by higher sales of the company's premium smartphone iPhoneX. The company also reported that its active installed base of devices reaches 1.3Bil in January.
Search service giant $GOOG $GOOGL incurred a heavy tax-related charge in 4Q17, and slipped into the negative territory. Contrary to expectations, Alphabet reported a loss of $4.35 per share, triggering a sharp fall in the stock price. Strong advertisement revenues lifted the topline by 24%. Other Bets remained in loss, despite a rise in revenues.
$XLNX's revenues from Advanced Products for 3Q18 continued to be strong, increasing 30% from the same quarter a year ago and comprising 56% of company sales. This is supported by accelerated growth in the company's industry-leading 20nm and 16nm technology nodes, which inturn reflects very broad-based customer adoption.
$XLNX reported a 92% drop in 3Q18 earnings due to about $183MM in tax expenses resulting from the recent enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Net income fell to $12MM or $0.05 per share from $142MM or $0.52 per share last year. Revenue grew 8% to $631MM. Operating income increased 16% to $190MM.
$IBM said it expects to deliver operating EPS of about $13.80 for 2018. The company also expects free cash flow of about $12Bil, resulting in free cash flow realization of over 100%. Additionally, for 2018, revenue growth is expected at current spot rates.
For FY17, $IBM generated free cash flow of $13Bil, excluding Global Financing receivables. The company also returned $9.8Bil to shareholders through $5.5Bil in dividends and $4.3Bil of gross share repurchases. $IBM ended 4Q17 with $12.6Bil in cash, while debt totaled $46.8Bil, including Global Financing debt of $31.4Bil.
Big Blue $IBM reported its first ever revenue growth in five years, with 4Q17 revenue growth of 3.5% YoY to $22.5Bil, driven by cloud computing business and artificial intelligence investments. However, $IBM reported a net loss of $1.05Bil or $1.14 per share, impacted by a one-time charge of $5.5Bil associated with the enactment of U.S. tax reform.
Spurred by the Republican tax reform, $AAPL said it would increase its direct contribution to the US economy to over $350Bil over the next five years. The tech giant expects to invest over $30Bil in capital expenditures in the US during this period and create over 20,000 jobs through hiring at existing campuses and opening a new one.
