Out Fox The $treet

For the second consecutive earnings report the stock of Angie’s List (NASDAQ: ANGI ) has soared over 30%. Is this due to irrational exuberance or a change of fundamentals at the company? Angie’s List provides a web service that allows paid users the opportunity to find service providers recommended by the community. The company now has nearly 2 million users and spends a large percentage of revenue on sales more » Disclosure: No position mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Only a month ago this article theorized that airlines might finally be investable. Fortunately both Delta Airlines (NYSE: DAL ) and US Airways Group (NYSE: LCC ) obliged the theory by reporting strong Q1 earnings. A quarter that is typically the weakest actually turned solidly profitable for two of the market leaders. In fact, Delta claimed the highest profit in over a decade. Unless new competition comes out of left field or more » Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

The rumors are always ripe in the Verizon Wireless saga between 55% owner Verizon ( VZ ) and 45% owner Vodafone ( VOD ) . The news has gone from a Verizon buyout of Vodafone's share to buying all of Vodafone and now back to buying out Vodafone's share. The latest news leak is that Verizon has hired advisors for a bid of $100B for the Verizon Wireless stake. Could Vodafone with a $150B market cap really receive a $100B payout on its 45% stake? Actually the data suggests the value will be 20-30% higher. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Long VOD. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

While performing research for an article on Netflix ( NFLX ) , the constant discussion on original content made me wonder about other content generators. Especially when considering the massive valuations of entertainment content companies. As an example, nonfiction content creator Discovery Communications ( DISCA ) has a market value of $28B and The Walt Disney Corporation ( DIS ) is worth $111B. Is it possible for user generated content to ever create companies of that size? All of those firms are vastly different from a focus of distributing content in the case of Netflix to the creating content for a vast network of cable channels at Discovery to creating films and TV shows at Disney. In general, all of the companies are involved in the creation and distribution of entertainment content that has historically had significant value creation. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more deta...

After the close on Wednesday several technology firms reported earnings with vastly different stock reactions. In the tech world, earnings season tends to be a moment of wild swings. The stock reaction can be nothing more than expectations getting out of hand and investors turning too bearish or the result of a shift in the business fundamentals. Either way, the moves highlight the problems with investors getting too bullish or bearish as most stocks tend to eventually revert to the mean average. In the after hours action, investors got a prime example of what happens when a market leader makes a move in one direction. The likelihood exists that the stock will revert to the mean eventually and no better time exists than an earnings report. This exact scenario occurred in the earnings reports for Akamai Technologies ( AKAM ) , Equinix, Inc. ( EQIX ) , and Fusion-io, Inc. ( FIO ) on Wednesday night. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions men...

As natural gas prices soar this year, Chesapeake Energy ( CHK ) is likely the biggest beneficiary. The heavily indebted, asset rich firm will make out like a bandit if natural gas prices triple as Jeremy Grantham suggested earlier this month. As Chesapeake was its own worst enemy with an aggressive land acquisition and drilling plan over the last decade, the company might become its own best friend with a scaled back capital spending plan. After a decade of rapid growth, Chesapeake turned into the largest independent producer of natural gas and a leading landholder in the vast majority of the important shale areas. The company has a leasehold on 15M net acres and has a reserve base of nearly 20 Tcfe. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

While the stock has been very volatile today, the news on the new capital program was very bullish. The news on the earnings front were mostly inline with the recent expectations from the market. The massive new capital return program blows away any previous programs in the markets. Apple (AAPL) announced plans to utilize around $100B of cash in the program by the end of calendar 2015. A plan that we suggested the company implement just a few days ago (see Apple: Time To Unleash A Massive Buyback Program ). The details include approving a 15% increase in the quarterly dividend to $3.05. The increase jumps the dividend up to 3%. The company will now spend $11B on these annual payments. The biggest move though was the increase in the repurchase authorization to $60B from $10B. Now the question is whether the company will make a substantial initial splurge with the stock trading around $400 or if it needs to borrow cash in the short-term to avoid paying any taxes on repatriating f...