NexOptic Technology Corp (TSXV: NXO)
You’ll Never See The World The Same Way Again
Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) has announced more steps it’s taking to keep up Internet access for Americans during the COVID-19 crisis.
The company had offered two months of free Internet for new, low-income customers of its Internet Essentials service, and said it was boosting the speed of that program to 25 Mbps download/3 Mbps upload.
It’s now opening its Xfinity WiFi hotspots for free across the country for anyone, not just Xfinity Internet subscribers. That’s good for 60 days.
And it’s pausing its data plans for 60 days, giving customers unlimited data for no extra charge.
Falling in line with other utility offerings, it’s backing off on disconnects and late fees.
Millions more Americans are expected to work from home as employers increasingly issue telecommute directives due to the coronavirus.
As a result, AT&T (NYSE:T) is waiving data overage fees for all home internet users who are not currently on unlimited data plans, while Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) said it would up the data speeds on the internet service it offers to low-income customers.
Verizon (NYSE:VZ) similarly announced it would boost its capital guidance range from $17B-18B to $17.5B-18.5B in 2020 to accelerate its “transition to 5G and help support the economy during this period of disruption.”
Rosenblatt analyst Bernie McTernan says Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) could consider buying Disney (NYSE:DIS) after the 34% sell-off.
McTernan: “We believe those with long time horizons, like megacap companies with large cash balances and whose equity outperformed Disney over the last three weeks, like Apple, could take advantage of the volatility.”
The analyst says Disney+ could help boost Apple’s TV+ streaming service, which he sees as off to a slow start.
McTernan notes that Disney has a roughly $165B market cap, and Apple has about $107B of cash and securities.
Apple shares are up 6.2% pre-market to $264. DIS is up 5.9% to $97.27.
Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives thinks Amazon (AMZN +3.8%) and Microsoft (MSFT +5%) could end up sharing the Pentagon’s JEDI cloud contract.
Yesterday, news broke that the Defense Department asked a federal court for 120 days to reconsider aspects of the award process.
Ives says that “the writing is on the wall that the Pentagon needs to likely break up this contract in order to move it along.”
The analyst notes how “critical” JEDI is to the Pentagon “and longer-term strategic global military operations/infrastructure.”
Citi says that Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) and Xilinx (XLNX +2.3%) look like the best “places to hide” among semiconductors due to the current coronavirus uncertainty.
Analyst Christopher Danely notes that in past downturns, “stocks with high, sustainable gross margins such as XLNX or high-margin recurring revenue such as QCOM outperformed.”
Danely maintains a Sell rating on AMD (AMD +6.7%), saying the company has “underperformed in 2/3 of downturns.”
Citi maintains a Buy rating on Qualcomm. The company has a Bullish average Sell Side rating.
QCOM shares are up 3.6% to $69.44.
