Out Fox The $treet

Micron CEO updated corporate guidance at a technology conference. The company went forward with large buybacks in FQ1. The lowered revenue guidance will ultimately guide the stock. At an investor conference on Wednesday, the   Micron Technology   ( MU ) CEO updated guidance that was not a shock to our   investment thesis . The shocking part is that the company plowed ahead with large-scale stock buybacks in the face of a downturn gaining steam and knowledge that sector cycles always end up worse than expected. Read the full article on Seeking Alpha.  Disclosure: No position mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details.   

Small-Cap Insight Plenty of opportunity exists for Fusion-io ( FIO ) to be a major winner, but the company must improve execution. The potential to replace hard disk drives (HDDs) with flash-storage is enormous, but the company continues to spend too much on attracting new customers to generate much in the way of profits. Fusion-io aims to deliver the world's data faster via platform and defined storage solutions that accelerate virtualization, databases, cloud computing, big data and performance applications. It has long been primarily focused on Apple and Facebook as customers, but it has spent the last year transitioning to more enterprise and other hyperscale customers for diversification. Has the company finally reached the next growth phase that will push the stock higher? Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Even with the recent supply issues of competitor OCZ Technology (OCZ) , Fusion-io (FIO) remains a market leader so far unaffected by the supposed supply issues in the solid state drive (SSD) sector. The stock is generally considered expensive, but once compared to other tech stocks, the relative valuation in the sector and the stock appears clearer. The company is a leader in delivering storage solutions that accelerate virtualization, databases, cloud computing, and big data. The sector is one of the fastest growing around, with the two leading companies reporting revenue growth in the 80% range recently. But why are the companies trading at lower valuations than other hot tech stocks? Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Long OCZ. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

When Seagate Technology (STX) reported earnings back on July 30th, it confirmed that the company had completed a massive buyback of 45M shares for $1.25B. The puzzling part is that the company spent over $27 a share for a stock that traded below $10 for a few days back last October. Why load up now? The company is a worldwide leader in hard disk drives and storage solutions. Seagate actually ended the quarter with sequentially higher cash showing that the buyback was at least from cash generated from operations. A good example that the stock was trading considerably below the ability to generate cash if the company bought back 10% of the outstanding stock in one quarter alone. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No position mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Anybody following the stock or the solid-state drives (SSDs) industry has probably seen the drama with OCZ Technology (OCZ) over the last few weeks. Several influential journalists reported that a deal was done with Seagate Technology (STX) for over $1B, valuing the stock at close to $15. Unfortunately weeks have passed without a deal announcement and the stock that shot up to over $8 in after market trading on July 27th now trades under $5. On top of that news, the CFO announced his retirement last week adding more fuel to the speculation fire. Not to mention the annual shareholders meeting took place on Monday eliciting investor hopes of noteworthy news. At times like this, investors need to understand what they own with a clear defined plan for exciting the position. A smart investor either took advantage of the price spike or is now loading up shares as the rumors fade. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Dsiclosure: Long OCZ. Please review the disclaimer page for more de...

Interesting chart from the EIA on natural gas storage back to 1994 based on the end of March totals. March is the period when inventories normally hit the lowest level after a draw down from winter heating. Naturally since production is down and the winter was one of the warmest on record, inventories have soared. Figure - Working Natural Gas in Storage, End of March Inventories Source - EIA The real question will be whether producers such as Chesapeake Energy (CHK ) have cut back enough on production to reduce supply. If not, prices will continue going lower and storage will max out over summer. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Though Fusion-io (FIO) reported earnings that slightly beat estimates and revenue that handily beat estimates, the stock sold off 13% after hours. With 170% year-over-year revenue growth, the report made clear that the move to flash memory storage was gaining steam. Fusion-io provided revenue guidance for the next quarter that easily surpassed the Capital IQ analyst consensus, but that might also be weighing on the stock as investors tend to prefer more growth than basically flat sequential guidance. Read full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Long OCZ. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Note: This was my submitted title to Seeking Alpha, but alas the editor changed it. Must not be a fan of Storage Wars . As cloud computing (data centers), smartphones, and tablets continue stratospheric growth rates, the market needs faster, more reliable, and less power-hungry storage options. The digital junk has to be stored somewhere, and these new devices don't have the storage capabilities of traditional desktop computers loaded with large hard disk drives. Enter the SSDs, or Solid State Drives (read The SSD Revolution for a good overview of the sector) which provides a better alternative than traditional hard drives, though at a higher cost. Between analysts raising estimates for Fusion-IO (FIO) and OCZ Technology (OCZ) upping estimates for Q4, the sector has startling growth potential for 2012. Numbers that caught me by surprise. Read full article on Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No position. Please review the disclaimer page for more details.