E-commerce  company Shopify shares got a price target hike to $1,250 from $1,150.from a KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst.  Referring to Shopify’s Fulfillment Network as "a full-fledged, tightly integrated fulfillment solution," analyst Josh Beck raised his price target.

The analysts also raised his price target to $1,300 from $998. "We continue to see strength in Shopify’s near-term ability to capture share in e-commerce," said analyst Arounian.According to the analyst, “pull-forward in e-commerce trends” would be sustainable over time, driven in large part by ongoing changes to consumer habits. According to the analyst, the coronavirus pandemic has increased the importance of fulfillment for small to midsized businesses and direct-to-consumer companies - which boosts the relevance of the Shopify Fulfillment Network, which the company launched last year.

On Friday, Unity Software's   initial public offering led to a more than $13 billion valuation for the company that specializes in software tools for videogame designers.Shares pulled back a bit later, but still ended the first trading session up +31.4% at $68.35.  

That gives it a market valuation of $2.17 billion, based on the shares outstanding listed in its filings.  The company reported a loss of -$1.93 a share for the six months ended July 31; that is narrower compared to the loss of -$2.13 a share in the year-earlier first half.Revenue surged +38% to $96.6 million from $70.2 million.      

Tickeron's A.I.dvisor detected that the AroonUp green line is above 70 while the AroonDown red line is below 30.A.I.dvisor looked at 448 similar instances where the Aroon Indicator showed a similar pattern.

It can be a little difficult to keep track of and sometimes the trading is done at specified times due to required holding periods. One thing is certain though, it can be concerning when you see insider selling at a number of different firms within the same sector.The dollar amounts of the transactions varied from $1.6 million to as much as $79.7 million. The group as a whole does very poorly on the Tickeron Scorecard with six of the seven stocks earnings “sell” or “strong sell” ratings.

Zoom Video Communications posted its fiscal second quarter results that crushed analysts’ estimates. The video conferencing tech company’s non-GAAP earnings came in at 92 cents per share, well above consensus of 45 cents.  Sales surged  +355% year-over-year  to $663.5 million, exceeding  analyst consensus of $500 million. For the current quarter, Zoom projects total revenue to be within a range of $685 to $690 million.It expects  non-GAAP income of 73 or 74 cents.  Looking farther ahead, Zoom raised its full-fiscal year sales guidance to between $2.37 billion and $2.39 billion (reflecting an expected year-over-year increase of 281% to 284%), versus prior guidance of $1.775 and $1.8 billion.

Splunk reported a second-quarter loss of -$261.3 million, or -$1.64 a share, wider than the year-ago quarter’s loss of -$100.9 million, or -67 cents a share. The adjusted loss of - 33 cents a share, was in line with FactSet's forecast. Revenue of $491.7 million, fell short of the $520.4 million expected by analysts polled by Factset.In 41 of 47 cases where SPLK's MACD histogram became positive, the price rose further within the following month.

Salesforce  posted second second-quarter earnings that exceeded analysts’ expectations.The odds of a continued Uptrend are 67%. The Aroon Indicator entered an Uptrend today.

Shopify Inc.  reported second quarter earnings that beat expectations.  The e-commerce company’s  earnings for the three months ending in June came in at 29 cents per share per share, surpassing the Street consensus forecast of 1 penny per share.That compares to a loss of 26 cents per share over the same period last year. Total revenues surged +97% year-over-year to $714.3 million, while gross merchandise volumes more than doubled to $30.1 billion. Monthly recurring revenues was $57 million as of June 30, a 21% increase year-over-year. According to Tickeron, SHOP enters an Uptrend as Momentum Indicator exceeded the 0 level on July 27, 2020 This indicator signals that SHOP's price has momentum to move higher, since its current price moved above its price 14 days ago.

By analyzing market trends from the first wave, you can predict behavior for the second. Technology stocks have performed at historic levels this year, but the market is severely overbought.To compensate for that, look at performance during Q1 and Q2, the height of global Covid shutdowns.

SAP's preliminary report revealed Q2 results that were higher than analysts’ expectations. In the preliminary report (that comes ahead of a full Q2 report due on July 27),  SAP states that the software company’s  Q2 revenue rose +2% annually on a non-IFRS basis to €6.74 billion($7.62 billion).This means that SAP’s stock grew similarly to ORCL’s over the last 12 months. SAP's P/E Growth Rating (40) in the Packaged Software industry is in the same range as ORCL (55).

Shopify  shares got a price target hike from analysts at RBC Capital. On Thursday,  RBC Capital  analysts boosted their price target on the e-commerce company to $1,000 per share from $825 per share. They reaffirmed their outperform rating.  According to the analysts, the market "still underappreciates" some aspects about Shopify. RBC expects Shopify’s annual revenue to climb to $25 billion by 2028, from an estimated $2.3 billion in 2020. The analysts mentioned that Shopify has garnered more than 1 million merchants on its platform, which is more than triple from 325,000 merchants in 2016. RBC also projects that Shopify's take rate, or the percentage of transactions on its platform that the company keeps, will expand by 30 to 40 basis points in the near term on growth in payment adoption.

NortonLifeLock  got a rating boost from Baird analyst Jonathan Ruykhaver, on strong customer demand. Ruykhaver raised his rating on the cybersecurity company to outperform from neutral.He lifted his price target for Norton shares to $25 from $24.  Ruykhaver mentioned that NortonLifeLock  made “significant progress” with reducing “stranded costs”.

Unfortunately, I was also bullish on banks and that sector ranks 32nd out of 33 for its price performance thus far. Of course, the software industry is part of the larger tech sector and you can even break the software companies down into smaller groups.One segment of the software industry that has performed particularly well is the “software as a service” group. What separates this group of stocks from other software manufacturers is that all of these companies provide software that provides specific needs or services for customers.

LivePerson shares jumped  Wednesday, following stock price target hikes from  three analysts. The conversational commerce and AI software company received price target boost ,from B. Riley, to $36 from $31.Jefferies analyst Samad Samana mentioned that LivePerson’s major first-quarter increase in messaging volume as the coronavirus pandemic began to spread underscores the value proposition of messaging vs. phone calls. Mizuho hiked the price target to $40 from $30, reiterating its buy rating too. LivePerson signed 130 deals in the first quarter,which reflects  a year-over-year increase of+ 10%.

Lyft  said it’s laying off 982, or 17%, of its workforce, amid covid-9 pandemic.The major portion of the cost will be reflected in the second quarter results, according to the company. The company has also lowered base salaries for 12 weeks for overtime-exempt employees - 30% for executive leadership, 20% for vice presidents and 10% for all other exempt employees  

Zoom Video CEO and founder Eric Yuan dumped $38 million of the company's stock.  Ahead of an investigation into security breaches at the video conferencing company, Yuan and several other senior executives sold millions of dollars worth of their shares. Yuan made $10.5 million in sales on Jan. 14, followed by another $12.5 million on Feb. 12, and $15.5 million on March 16. Chief Marketing Officer Janine Pelosi has made close to $14 million in trades since February, according to the Daily Mail. Sales have been declared to the SEC.

A SunTrust analyst initiated coverage of online/mobile gaming company Zynga with a buy rating.  Analyst Matthew Thornton said in a note to investors that Zynga offers “ pure-play exposure to the large and fast growing global mobile game market" on the back of its growing and diversified gaming portfolio and highly experienced management team and Board. Thornton also mentioned Zynga’s pipeline of at least 7 games, including FarmVille, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, and others,  as well as a strong balance sheet  including more than $1.4b in cash as major strengths of the company.Small Giant, Gram Games) which he believes should augment organic growth with M&A in what he mentions  is a highly fragmented market," "Our own conversations with private mobile game publishers suggest to us that a sale to Zynga (under the current team) is generally viewed as a desirable outcome," Thornton  said.

According to analysts at Jefferies, Activision Blizzard is on track to experience a substantial boost in earnings, amid consumers’ growing engagement in  playing games on their smartphones. Jefferies analysts Alex Giaimo and Ken Rumph indicated that Activision's mobile gaming division is set to become a $1 billion business by 2023, adding 25 cents of incremental revenue. A survey commissioned by Jefferies reveals that 90% (of the 1,000 smartphone owners polled) play games on their phones, while 41% reported the time spent on mobile games had increased over the past year. Activision’s 'CoD Mobile' (Call of Duty) already garnered 100 million downloads, or four to five times annual console/PC sales, the analysts wrote.According to the Jefferies analysts, 'CoD Mobile' alone will contribute $300 million in gross bookings and 7 cents a share in earnings in 2020.