ReportWire

Tag: Public Relations

  • Silicon Valley Confronts the End of Growth. It’s a New Era for Tech Stocks.

    Silicon Valley Confronts the End of Growth. It’s a New Era for Tech Stocks.

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    Silicon Valley could use a reboot. The biggest players aren’t growing, and more than a few are seeing sharp revenue declines. Regulators seem opposed to every proposed merger, while legislators push for new rules to crack down on the internet giants. The Justice Department just can’t stop filing antitrust suits against Google. The initial public offering market is closed. Venture-capital investments are plunging, along with valuations of prepublic companies. Maybe they should try turning the whole thing on and off.

    The only strategy that seems to be working is to lay people off. Tech CEOs suddenly are channeling Marie Kondo, tidying up and keeping only the people and projects that “spark joy,” or at least support decent operating margins. Layoffs.fyi reports that tech companies have laid off more than 122,000 people already this year.

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  • Walmart, Home Depot, Meta, DocuSign, Medtronic, and More Stock Market Movers

    Walmart, Home Depot, Meta, DocuSign, Medtronic, and More Stock Market Movers

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    This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit http://www.djreprints.com.

    https://www.barrons.com/articles/stock-market-movers-5b0c54ae

    • Order Reprints
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  • Entrepreneur | How to Make the Most of Your Public Relations

    Entrepreneur | How to Make the Most of Your Public Relations

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Public relations (PR) is essential to any successful strategic marketing plan, but is your business making the most of its PR efforts? An effective PR campaign not only delivers media coverage in your target publications. In addition, optimized PR feeds into all other analog and digital marketing efforts to help your business connect with its audiences, wherever they are.

    Why PR is so powerful

    Even in the age of digital marketing, public relations campaigns are based on pitching to the media. When just a few years ago, PR professionals focused on print and broadcast media only; they are now extending their efforts to include online-only publications and leading bloggers.

    The goal is simple: PR professionals are working with journalists and other content creators to add credibility to the brand they are representing. Media coverage not only creates exposure for the brand. It also adds a layer of credibility and trust that exceeds what other elements of a brand’s marketing strategy can provide.

    According to the Institute for PR, audiences consider so-called earned media to be more credible than other sources of information. This credibility is critical to brand development, whether you want to build brand awareness or establish thought leadership in your field. Earned media is the result of effective PR.

    The importance of PR is reflected in the industry’s continued growth. PR revenue is expected to grow worldwide from $88 billion in 2020 to $129 billion in 2025. PR agencies in the United States generated $14.5 billion in revenue in 2020. PR grew during the pandemic when advertising and the marketing industry as a whole contracted.

    Related: Need PR Wins? Think Into the Future First

    How to optimize the outcome of PR campaigns

    To optimize the results of PR campaigns and maximize the benefits of public relations for a brand, marketing and PR professionals need to recognize the strengths of PR. Although online and offline news coverage can support a brand in the short and the long term, PR thrives over time. In addition, PR campaigns have more impact when connected to other elements of a company’s marketing strategy.

    Focusing on the long term

    Establishing successful media relationships takes time. PR experts understand which publications are interested in covering which brands and consistently pitch relevant stories to their media contacts. They understand that not every journalist will pick up every press release or feature suggestion. Rather than blanket-emailing press releases, PR pros get to know the interests of the most relevant journalist and pitch stories that are likely to make the cut.

    The effort of relationship-building and consistency pays off when a brand receives attention in local and regional media outlets, eventually even getting the attention of national media. Industry-specific publications can also offer a great starting point for PR campaigns.

    PR is best used as a mid to long term component of a brand’s marketing strategy. Allowing time to establish and nurture media relationships plays to the strengths of PR. Of course, there may be situations when immediate crisis communications are critical to protecting a brand’s reputation. But in most cases, PR excels as part of a long-term strategy.

    Combining the strengths of PR with other marketing activities

    Despite its undoubted strengths, PR alone is not enough to achieve all of a company’s business goals. Expecting a single PR campaign to increase credibility, drive web traffic, establish thought leadership within an industry and drive foot traffic to local branches is unrealistic.

    Saying that, once marketing teams combine PR efforts with other strategic marketing activities, they will soon see the desired results. Combined with consistent brand messaging, for example, PR can improve brand perception among audiences.

    While public relations does not necessarily result in immediate sales, stories pitched to the media can effectively educate the public about specific products and services. Many online publications are happy to link to a company’s website, thus helping search engine optimization (SEO) and local search rankings.

    Related: Crafting The Best Public Relations Strategy For Your Business

    How PR, paid advertising and social media work together

    Where PR is ideal for improving a brand’s image in the long term and connecting with audiences through a third party, paid advertising offers short-term, data-driven opportunities.

    A strategically planned program of paid adverts can immediately increase brand or product exposure. Since the advent of digital marketing channels, it has become easier to reach highly targeted audiences, increasing the effectiveness of campaigns. Real-time campaign performance data allows marketers to iterate messaging and campaign design on the spot, further improving the effectiveness of their approach.

    High-quality visual content, including images and videos, can be compelling in local newspapers, broadcast outlets and online channels. By streamlining advertising and PR messages, paid and earned media start working hand in hand to reach users of publications they already enjoy and, more importantly, trust.

    Social media has been another fairly recent addition to a marketing team’s choice of channels where they connect with their audiences. Like traditional media, social media offers a range of opportunities, including paid, earned and owned coverage.

    While earned coverage continues to come with the highest level of credibility even on social media, a company’s owned media channels offer another opportunity to share the results of PR efforts. By sharing stories that have been published about the brand, marketers are allowing the third-party credibility of those stories to reflect on the brand.

    Existing followers will feel reassured in their choice of brand followership, and sharing stories from credible sources may catch the interest of new potential audiences.

    Related: How to Utilize Public Relations Without Sacrificing Your Own Narrative

    Bringing it all together

    Successful marketing relies on a solid strategy that joins the strengths of PR and other marketing activities. Combining PR with the power of branding, content creation, advertising campaigns, and social media outreach allows companies to generate the marketing results and overall business growth they are looking for. On its own, PR is powerful, but in combination with other marketing activities, public relations become unbeatable.

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    Jessica Wong

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  • Entrepreneur | 7 Ways to Integrate PR Into Your Daily Marketing Activity

    Entrepreneur | 7 Ways to Integrate PR Into Your Daily Marketing Activity

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Want to help your company stand out from the crowd? There’s one strategy that goes beyond the reach of ads or traditional digital marketing tactics and can create an even bigger impact: an effective public relations strategy.

    An excellent public relations strategy can mean distinguishing between struggling to get noticed and receiving the attention you’ve worked so hard for. It pushes your brand message beyond likes, clicks and new followers, creating a memorable brand presence and telling your company’s story how you want it to be perceived.

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    Renée Warren

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  • Trade Desk stock rockets after earnings as CEO says company is outperforming like never before

    Trade Desk stock rockets after earnings as CEO says company is outperforming like never before

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    Shares of Trade Desk Inc. surged on Wednesday after the advertising-technology company issued an upbeat outlook that helped quell fears about the digital-ad market.

    Chief Executive Jeff Green spoke positively on the earnings call about the company’s performance relative to rivals, saying that the company grew 24% in the fourth quarter while most of its “large competitors” saw negative growth.

    Trade Desk’s
    TTD,
    +25.60%
    revenue rose to $491 million from $396 million, while analysts tracked by FactSet were modeling $490 million.

    “I don’t think we’ve ever had the level of industry outperformance in our six years or so as a public company as we did in 2022,” he said, according to a transcript provided by AlphaSense/Sentieo. “And it means that we can be very confident that we’re gaining share and that our platform continues to gain traction with advertisers.”

    Shares of Trade Desk were up 28% in morning action. Shares of streaming-media company Roku Inc.
    ROKU,
    +9.04%    ,
    which is due to post results after the closing bell, were up more than 7%.

    Executives at Trade Desk, which makes programmatic ad technologies for connected television, see that area of the market as particularly compelling right now.

    “Not only is the shift from linear to CTV driving significant growth in digital spend as advertisers shift dollars from linear TV to connected TV, but more spend is happening outside the walled gardens as advertisers shift spend from user-generated content to premium streaming content,” Green shared.

    The company reported fourth-quarter net income of $71 million, or 14 cents a share, compared with $8 million, or 2 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. On an adjusted basis, Trade Desk said it earned 38 cents a share, down from 42 cents a share a year before but ahead of the FactSet consensus, which was for 35 cents a share.

    For the first quarter, management anticipates at least $363 million in revenue, along with about $78 million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda).

    The FactSet consensus was for $358 million in revenue and $75 million in adjusted Ebitda.

    “2023 will be the year that everything in TV changes,” Green told investors on the earnings call. “The market needs an upfront that is always on, but also leverages data so that content owners sell fewer, more relevant ads at higher CPMs and advertisers get more efficacy.” CPM stands for “cost per mille” and measures what advertisers pay for impressions.

    The company also announced Wednesday that its board of directors has authorized it to buy back up to $700 million of its stock.

    “The new share-repurchase program is designed to help offset the impact of future share dilution from employee stock issuances,” Trade Desk said in a release.

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  • Big Tech just added to a shrinking forecast, but maybe Bob Iger can brighten the mood

    Big Tech just added to a shrinking forecast, but maybe Bob Iger can brighten the mood

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    Wall Street’s expectations for 2023 have been diving as forecasts for the new year come in light, and the news could get worse once they factor in disappointing results from Big Tech. But at least Bob Iger is coming back for a sequel.

    Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple all disappointed with holiday earnings this week. Their forecasts ranged from nonexistent to piecemeal to meh, and the fallout will only add to the biggest dive in Wall Street’s expectations through the beginning of a year since 2016.

    Analysts’ average forecast for 2023 earnings from the S&P 500 index
    SPX,
    -1.04%
    dropped by 2.5% in January, according to FactSet Senior Earnings Analyst John Butters, the worst in seven years. Those projections began heading lower last year, and the decline is only steepening — analysts are now projecting 3% earnings growth in 2023, and that is contingent on a big holiday rebound from the results being released this quarter.


    Uncredited

    The news was even worse for the first quarter, for which projections declined 3.3% in January as companies whiffed on their forecasts at a rapid pace: 86% of the 43 companies that have guided for first-quarter earnings have missed projections, Butters reported. Earnings are now expected to decline 4.2%, which would be the first year-over-year earnings decline since the third quarter of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic write-offs started to come in.

    Big Tech only added to the downward trajectory in recent days. Amazon.com Inc.
    AMZN,
    -8.43%
    missed on its holiday earnings as well as its forecast for the first quarter, and that company could determine if S&P 500 profits rise in 2023 all on its own. Amazon’s worst holiday earnings since 2014 could also contribute to the consumer discretionary sector’s first earnings decline since the beginning of the pandemic, with holiday sector earnings now expected to drop more than 5%.

    Google parent Alphabet Inc.
    GOOGL,
    -2.75%
    GOOG,
    -3.29%
    and Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc.
    META,
    -1.19%
    also missed their respective earnings targets amid problems with the digital-advertising industry, leading to the communications-services sector having the worst earnings season in the S&P 500. Profit has declined 25.2% in that sector so far, the worst among the 11 S&P 500 sectors, but would be down just 6.5% without the effects of Meta and Alphabet, Butters reported.

    Apple Inc.
    AAPL,
    +2.44%
    also didn’t do projections any favors, reporting its biggest sales decrease since 2016 and an earnings miss Thursday afternoon. In a piecemeal forecast, executives projected a similar sales decline in the calendar first quarter, though unofficially.

    This week in earnings

    After the busiest week in earnings season wrapped up, don’t expect much of a breather — 95 S&P 500 companies are expected to report in the week ahead, the third consecutive week with at least 90 companies reporting. There will be plenty of intrigue among companies not in the S&P 500 too, including Robinhood Markets Inc.
    HOOD,
    -3.59%
    and Affirm Holdings Inc.
    AFRM,
    -14.14%
    reporting together on Wednesday afternoon.

    Only one Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA,
    -0.38%
    stock will report, but that is the Wednesday call you will want to tune in for: Bob Iger’s return to the Walt Disney Co.
    DIS,
    -2.21%
    earnings show.

    The calls to put on your calendar
    The numbers to watch

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  • The Success of Your PR Campaign Depends on These 3 Essential Elements

    The Success of Your PR Campaign Depends on These 3 Essential Elements

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    A successful public relations (PR) campaign should be a consistent, audience-building machine that helps you reach your target audience while sharing a positive message about your brand. Getting media coverage is a great way to raise awareness for your company and can help you attract new investors or customers. Before you start sending out news releases and pitching story ideas to reporters, it’s essential to take a step back and define what success looks like for your campaign.

    Many entrepreneurs believe their business idea is so good that it should be in every media outlet. However, this is not a feasible or realistic goal. To have a successful PR campaign, you need to start with strategy and be realistic about what can be accomplished. You need to have messaging that goes beyond describing what problems your business solves. You need to explain why it matters. Additionally, you need to determine how you will measure success.

    The best way to ensure a successful PR campaign is to bring on a trusted PR firm or PR expert to advise your company on the best steps. Beginning with a sound strategy, a PR advisor can map out realistic benchmarks and expectations, and they will have solid media connections to ensure a successful campaign.

    Related: 4 Guiding Principles for Building and Deploying a Great PR Strategy

    Strategy

    When starting a new PR campaign, your company needs to reach the right audience and determine what action that audience takes upon hearing your message. Do you want to increase brand awareness? Drive traffic to your website? Boost sales of a specific product or service? Once you’ve determined your goal, you can start thinking about how best to measure success.

    Identifying your target audience is another critical step. After all, there’s no sense in reaching people who are not interested in what you do. When you know who you’re trying to reach, you can create messaging that resonates with them and pitch story ideas that will capture their attention. You should also have a good idea of which media outlets will reach the most significant number of people in your target audience. A solid PR firm can help determine which publications will be best and likely has ties with them that ensure the timing of your message reaching readers lines up with your goals and overall strategy.

    Your public relations strategy should focus on which journalists and media outlets are most likely to be interested in your story and will reach your target audience. Remember that PR is a long game — it’s not just about getting one story placed in a top-tier publication. A well-executed PR campaign will secure multiple placements in targeted media outlets over time. This will increase your chances of reaching your target audience and achieving your desired business objectives.

    Messaging

    Secondly, what is the best approach for the story? Beyond describing what problems your business solves, do you have messaging explaining why it matters? Your message should be clear, concise and engaging enough that someone who knows nothing about your company will want to read more.

    Your messaging should also address the following questions:

    • Who are you trying to reach?
    • How are you going to help them?
    • Why should they care?

    Answering these questions will help focus your PR efforts and ensure your message resonates with your target audience. Creating targeted messages for different audiences will make it easier for reporters and editors to understand how your company can fit into their stories.

    Related: Why a Good Digital PR Strategy Is So Important

    Evaluation

    How do you determine success? Review your goals from the start of planning your PR campaign. Did you and your PR team or firm set goals or benchmarks for the number of media outlets that run your story? Or the quality of articles written about your business? While coverage in high-profile publications is always nice, it’s not necessarily indicative of a successful PR campaign. Keep your overall strategy in mind and look to it to determine success.

    You can use several different metrics, but the most important thing is to choose ones that align with your overall goal. For example, suppose you’re trying to increase brand awareness. In that case, you might track social media mentions or the number of people who visit your website after seeing an article about your company. Or if boosting sales is your primary objective, then tracking conversion rates would be more appropriate. Once you’ve selected the metrics you’ll use, make sure to establish baseline numbers so you can track progress over time.

    A more effective way to measure success is by looking at whether or not your PR efforts are helping you achieve specific business objectives —such as generating leads, increasing web traffic, or boosting sales. Keep track of metrics such as web traffic referrals from media placements and conversion rates from press mentions to understand better how your PR campaigns are performing. This data can then be used to adjust future campaigns accordingly. If you don’t have specific objectives before launching a PR campaign, it will be difficult to measure its success.

    A successful PR campaign requires strategy, targeted messaging, and evaluation against specific objectives to be truly effective. A successful PR campaign depends on having clear goals, knowing your target audience, and choosing success measures that align with those goals. By planning your campaign strategy and defining what a successful campaign looks like upfront, you’ll be in a much better position to achieve your desired results.

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    Adam Horlock

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  • Google suffered ‘pullback’ in ad spending over holidays, Alphabet stock falls after earnings

    Google suffered ‘pullback’ in ad spending over holidays, Alphabet stock falls after earnings

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    Alphabet Inc.’s stock slipped nearly 5% in extended trading Thursday after the tech giant missed slightly on revenue and earnings in ho-hum quarterly results.

    Google’s parent company reported fiscal fourth-quarter total revenue of $76.05 billion, up from $75.3 billion a year ago. Earnings were $13.62 billion, or $1.05 per share, compared with $20.64 billion, or $1.53 per share, last year. Alphabet’s revenue, minus traffic-acquisition costs (TAC), was $63.12 billion, vs. $61.9 billion a year ago.

    “We’re on an important journey to re-engineer our cost structure in a durable way and to build financially sustainable, vibrant, growing businesses across Alphabet,” Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said in a statement announcing the results. The company recently announced 12,000 layoffs and has scaled back hires.

    In a conference call later with analysts, Google Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler said a “pullback” in spending by advertisers amid a more challenging economy as well as foreign-exchange headwinds impacted sales.

    Analysts polled by FactSet expected Alphabet
    GOOG,
    +7.27%

    GOOGL,
    +7.28%
    to report total revenue of $76.2 billion and earnings of $1.18 per share, with sales expected to be in line with last year’s results and profit declining from the holiday season a year ago. Revenue, minus TAC, were modeled at $63.2 billion, which also suggests little to no growth from last year.

    Google’s total advertising sales slid to $59 billion from $61.2 billion a year ago, missing analysts’ average expectations of $60.44 billion. Google Cloud brought in $7.32 billion, compared with $5.54 billion last year. YouTube ad sales slipped to $7.96 billion from $8.63 billion a year ago.

    “The search giant underperformed our expectations across almost all business units, most importantly its core ad-search segment,” Jesse Cohen, senior analyst at Investing.com, said. “Once again, YouTube growth slowed to a crawl amid tough competition from TikTok and other players in the video-streaming space.”

    A dip in digital advertising has defined the past few quarters for Google, Meta Platforms Inc.
    META,
    +23.28%    ,
    Snap Inc.
    SNAP,
    +9.93%    ,
    Pinterest Inc.
    PINS,
    +8.99%
    and other companies dependent on ads. Meta’s better-than-expected quarterly report Wednesday was a sign of encouragement after Snap had another desultory quarterly performance.

    Indeed, Alphabet shares closed up 7% in Thursday’s regular session, at $107.74, before retreating 5% in after-hours trading.

    Read more: Alphabet earnings: What to expect from the Google parent company

    “After Alphabet’s advertising revenue cycle reached peak growth” in the second quarter of 2021, revenue for this part of the business is set to decelerate for the sixth quarter in a row, said Monness, Crespi, Hardt analyst Brian White, who forecast a 3% drop in the recently completed quarter.

    On Thursday, Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said that beginning in
    the current quarter, AI subsidiary DeepMind will be included in Alphabet’s corporate costs rather than in Other Bets.

    Alphabet’s stock has declined 24.7% over the past 12 months. The S&P 500 index 
    SPX,
    +1.47%
    is down 6.7% over the past year.

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  • Meta stock spikes nearly 20% as cost cuts and $40 billion for investors overshadow earnings miss

    Meta stock spikes nearly 20% as cost cuts and $40 billion for investors overshadow earnings miss

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    Meta Platforms Inc. shares soared in after-hours trading Wednesday despite an earnings miss, as the Facebook parent company guided for potentially more revenue than Wall Street expected in the new year and promised more share repurchases amid cost cuts.

    Meta
    META,
    +2.79%
    said it hauled in $32.17 billion in fourth-quarter revenue, down from $33.67 billion a year ago but stronger than expectations. Earnings were $4.65 billion, or $1.76 a share, compared with $10.3 billion, or $3.67 a share, last year.

    Analysts polled by FactSet expected Meta to post fourth-quarter revenue of $31.55 billion on earnings of $2.26 a share, and the beat on sales coincided with a revenue forecast that also met or exceeded expectations. Facebook Chief Financial Officer Susan Li projected first-quarter sales of $26 billion to $28.5 billion, while analysts on average were projecting first-quarter sales of $27.2 billion.

    Shares jumped more than 19% in after-hours trading immediately following the release of the results, after closing with a 2.8% gain at $153.12.

    Alphabet Inc.’s
    GOOGL,
    +1.61%

    GOOG,
    +1.56%
    Google and Pinterest Inc.
    PINS,
    +1.56%
    benefited from Meta’s results, with shares for each company rising more than 4% in extended trading Wednesday.

    “Our community continues to grow and I’m pleased with the strong engagement across our apps. Facebook just reached the milestone of 2 billion daily actives,” Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement announcing the results. “The progress we’re making on our AI discovery engine and Reels are major drivers of this. Beyond this, our management theme for 2023 is the ‘Year of Efficiency’ and we’re focused on becoming a stronger and more nimble organization.”

    Read more: Snap suffers worst sales growth yet in holiday quarter, stock plunges after earnings miss

    Facebook’s 2 billion-user milestone was slightly better than analysts expected for user growth on Meta’s core social network. Daily active users across all of Facebook’s apps neared, but did not crest, another round number, reaching 2.96 billion, up 5% from a year ago.

    Meta has been navigating choppy ad waters as it copes with increasing competition from TikTok and fallout from changes in Apple Inc.’s
    AAPL,
    +0.79%
    ad-tracking system in 2021 that punitively harmed Meta, costing it potentially billions of dollars in advertising sales. Meta has invested heavily in artificial-intelligence tools to rev up its ad-targeting systems and making better recommendations for users of its short-video product Reels, but it laid off thousands of workers after profit and revenue shrunk in recent quarters.

    The cost cuts seemed to pay off Wednesday. While Facebook missed on its earnings, it noted that the costs of its layoffs and other restructuring totaled $4.2 billion and reduced the number by roughly $1.24 a share.

    Meta executives said they now expect operating expenses to be $89 billion to $95 billion this year based on slower salary growth, cost of revenue, and $1 billion in savings from facilities consolidation — down from previous guidance for $94 billion to $100 billion. Capital expenditures are expected to be $30 billion to $33 billion, down from previous guidance of $34 billion to $37 billion, as Meta cancels multiple data-center projects.

    In a conference call with analysts late Wednesday, Zuckerberg called 2023 the “year of efficiency” after 18 years of unbridled growth. He recommitted to Meta’s emphasis on AI and the metaverse, a platform for “better social experiences” than the phone, he said.

    “The reduced outlook reflects our updated plans for lower data-center construction spend in 2023 as we shift to a new data-center architecture that is more cost efficient and can support both AI and non-AI workloads,” Li said in her outlook commentary included in the release.

    Meta expects to increase its spending on its own stock. The company’s board approved a $40 billion increase in its share-repurchase authorization; Meta spent nearly $28 billion on its own shares in 2022, and still had nearly $11 billion available for buybacks before that increase.

    “Investors are cheering Meta’s plans to return more capital to shareholders despite worries over rising costs related to its metaverse spending,” said Jesse Cohen, senior analyst at Investing.com.

    “At first glance…Meta getting its mojo back,” Baird Equity Research analyst Colin Sebastian said in a note late Wednesday. “Results and guidance look particularly solid after Snap’s dismal report; however, further cuts to operating and capital expenditures announced this afternoon were perhaps the biggest surprise.”

    UBS analyst Lloyd Walmsley said he anticipates double-digit revenue growth exiting 2023 and strong growth in earnings and free cash flow.

    The results came a day after Snap Inc.
    SNAP,
    -10.29%
    posted fourth-quarter revenue of $1.3 billion, flat from a year ago and the worst year-over-year sales growth Snap has ever reported. But they also arrived on the same day Facebook scored a major win in a California court. The company successfully fended off the Federal Trade Commission bid to win a preliminary injunction to block Meta’s planned acquisition of VR startup Within Unlimited.

    Read more: Meta wins bid to buy VR startup Within Unlimited, beating U.S. FTC in court: report

    Meta shares have plunged 53% over the past 12 months, while the broader S&P 500 index 
    SPX,
    +1.05%
    has tumbled 10% the past year.

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  • Snap suffers worst sales growth yet in holiday quarter, stock plunges after earnings miss

    Snap suffers worst sales growth yet in holiday quarter, stock plunges after earnings miss

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    Snap Inc. stumbled through another bleak quarter to end 2022 and executives refused to provide guidance Tuesday, sending shares sliding.

    In a potential barometer of what’s to come from advertising-dependent internet companies, Snap SNAP on Tuesday posted a loss of more than a quarter-billion dollars in the holiday quarter and declined to provide a forecast for the current quarter, which is likely to rattle investors in Meta Platforms Inc. META and Alphabet Inc.’s GOOGL GOOG Google, both of which report financial results later…

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  • These 20 stocks led the January rally

    These 20 stocks led the January rally

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    The initial version of this story had incorrect price changes for 2023. It is now updated with information as of the market close on Jan. 31.

    Investors staged a January rally, with solid gains for the S&P 500 and an even better showing for technology stocks that led the dismal downward action in 2022.

    This…

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  • Could Big Tech layoffs keep growing? Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google may give hints in biggest week of earnings.

    Could Big Tech layoffs keep growing? Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google may give hints in biggest week of earnings.

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    In the biggest week of the holiday-earnings season, Big Tech results will receive the spotlight amid thousands of layoffs that could only be the beginning.

    After tech stocks were decimated in 2022, investors will be looking for signs of a turnaround in holiday reports and potential forecasts for the year ahead from three of 2022’s top five market-value losers: Amazon.com Inc.
    AMZN,
    -0.66%    ,
    Apple Inc.
    AAPL,
    -0.63%
    and Meta Platforms Inc.
    META,
    -0.60%    .
    The other two stocks on that list — Microsoft Corp.
    MSFT,
    -1.38%
    and Tesla Inc.
    TSLA,
    -0.15%
    — reported last week, and Microsoft’s results in the wake of a mass-layoffs announcement did not bode well for its Big Tech brethren.

    See also: Microsoft could be the cloud sector’s ‘canary in the coal mine’

    Those companies — along with Google parent Alphabet Inc.
    GOOGL,
    -1.32%
    GOOG,
    -1.49%
    — will deliver results after finding themselves in unfamiliar territory: A backdrop of layoffs amid slowing demand for core products like digital ads, electronics and e-commerce, after a two-year pandemic surge and a two-decade-plus honeymoon with investors. Some analysts say the bottom hasn’t arrived, for either their finances or their workforces.

    The one Big Tech company that hasn’t taken a sword to its payroll is Apple, which also increased its staff the least among the group during the COVID-19 pandemic. Apple shed $846 billion from its market cap last year, and now reports after its core product was part of the smartphone industry’s worst year since 2013 and worst holiday-season decline on record. The iPhone maker could also face questions from Wall Street about changing up its product sourcing, which has relied heavily on China, a nation whose COVID-19 restrictions have constrained production of some phones.

    While the tech-industry layoffs have yet to hit Apple, some analysts say the company is unlikely to be spared, despite Chief Executive Tim Cook requesting and receiving a healthy cut to his compensation.

    “Similar to other big technology companies, we expect Apple to adjust its head count to reflect an increasingly challenging global macroeconomic environment,” D.A. Davidson analyst Tom Forte said in a research note Tuesday.

    Rivals that have already cut could face more if profit continues to fall along with revenue growth. Alphabet, for instance, is cutting 12,000 employees, but an activist investor has already said that is not enough considering how much the company grew during the pandemic, and the difficulties it now faces in the online-ad sector.

    Opinion: Microsoft’s big move in AI does not mean it will challenge Google in search

    Analysts have said Meta’s “darkest days” are still ahead, as it navigates a round of more than 11,000 layoffs, competition from TikTok and its early stumbles in the metaverse. While cutting, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has promised to keep spending on metaverse development, even as the efforts slash the Facebook parent company’s previously healthy bottom line.

    “In 2023, we expect Meta to remain engulfed in arduous battles inside the Octagon,” Monness Crespi Hardt analyst Brian White said in a research note on Thursday. “In the long run, we believe Meta will benefit from the secular digital ad trend and innovate in the metaverse; however, regulatory scrutiny persists, internal headwinds remain, and we believe the darkest days of this downturn are ahead of us.”

    Full Facebook earnings preview: Meta’s ‘darkest days’ are ahead, but some analysts say ad sales are still on track

    Online retailer Amazon
    AMZN,
    -0.66%
    was the first Big Tech company to publicly declare cost-cutting was in order a year ago, and still coughed up $834 billion in market value in 2022. It kicked off 2023 with plans to lay off more than 18,000 workers as struggles continued throughout last year, when inflation siphoned away more consumer dollars toward essentials.

    Amazon’s own AWS cloud-infrastructure unit has helped to drive sales in years past, as businesses built out their tech infrastructures. But remarks and the outlook from Microsoft executives — the third-biggest market-cap loser of 2022, and a big barometer for tech spending overall — weren’t exactly encouraging for cloud growth: Executives there last week warned of “moderating consumption growth” for its own cloud business.

    For more: One company could determine whether U.S. corporate profits rise to a record in 2023

    “Sentiment was already bearish on AWS, with investors looking for slowing revenue over the next three quarters, largely confirmed after Microsoft earnings and conversations with industry checks,” Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein said in a note on Wednesday. “Positively, we believe e-commerce revenue has stabilized, and margins should improve from organic scale and announced head-count reductions.”

    Layoffs are also starting to spread beyond Big Tech companies that grew fast during the pandemic in response to massive demand spikes. International Business Machines Corp.
    IBM,
    +0.76%
    confirmed plans for 3,900 layoffs as it reported earnings, despite already reducing its workforce by at least 20% during the pandemic.

    One sector to watch is semiconductors, where a chip shortage has turned into a glut: Chip-equipment maker Lam Research Corp.
    LRCX,
    +0.04%
    announced layoffs in the past week as Silicon Valley semiconductor giant Intel Corp.
    INTC,
    +0.27%
    displayed “astonishingly bad” results while laying off workers. When Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
    AMD,
    -1.64%
    reports this week, it could determine whether there is any silver lining in the semiconductor storm.

    Earnings preview: AMD faces even more scrutiny after ‘astonishingly bad’ Intel outlook

    Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said in a Sunday note that a common theme of this week’s Big Tech earnings will be that “tech layoffs will accelerate with more pain ahead to curb expenses,” though he added that “Apple will likely cut some costs around the edges, but we do not expect mass layoffs from Cupertino this week.”

    Big Tech earnings were a salve to other problems in the market for the past decade-plus, but with layoffs already under way and doubts about the path forward, don’t expect salvation from their results this week.

    This week in earnings

    For the week ahead, 107 S&P 500
    SPX,
    -0.19%
    companies, including six members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA,
    +0.18%    ,
    will report results, according to FactSet. While more Dow components reported last week, this will be the busiest week for S&P 500 holiday earnings of the season, FactSet senior earnings analyst John Butters confirmed to MarketWatch.

    Appliance-maker Whirlpool Corp.
    WHR,
    +1.18%
    reports on Monday, after it forecast fourth-quarter sales that were below expectations, following what it called a “one-off supply-chain disruption” and the pandemic home-renovation boom.

    On Tuesday, package-deliverer United Parcel Service Inc.
    UPS,
    -0.26%
    reports, amid questions about holiday-season demand. So does streaming service Spotify Technology,
    SPOT,
    -0.02%
    following its own layoffs and suggestions of possible price hikes, as well as McDonald’s Corp.
    MCD,
    -0.30%    ,
    amid concerns that rising prices are keeping people from dining out. Exxon Mobil Corp.
    XOM,
    -0.99%    ,
    Caterpillar Inc.
    CAT,
    -0.12%    ,
    Snap Inc.
    SNAP,
    +0.64%
    and Pfizer Inc.
    PFE,
    +0.72%
    also report Tuesday.

    Earnings outlook: McDonald’s earnings haven’t been hit by higher prices

    On Wednesday, T-Mobile US Inc.
    TMUS,
    +0.23%
    reports, in the wake of a data breach and wobbling cellphone demand. Coffee chain Starbucks Corp.
    SBUX,
    -0.58%
    reports on Thursday, with analysts likely to be zeroed in on U.S. demand and China’s reopening, after executives said they were confident that higher prices, along with enthusiasm from younger customers and for customizable drinks, could help them navigate any potholes in the economy.

    For the Big Tech companies, Thursday is also the big day: Apple, Amazon and Alphabet will report that afternoon, after Meta reports the prior day.

    The calls to put on your calendar

    WWE upheaval: World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.
    WWE,
    +0.91%
    reports earnings on Thursday, as Vince McMahon — who returned to the professional-wrestling organization this month following allegations of sexual misconduct — seeks a buyer or some other so-called “strategic alternative” for the company.

    Analysts have speculated how the company’s wrestling events and backlog of media content might be repurposed, with some entertaining the possibility of interest from Amazon or Netflix Inc.
    NFLX,
    -0.39%    .
    But WWE has struggled to develop story lines that stick with viewers, and has thinned its ranks of wrestlers.

    The Wall Street Journal this month reported that McMahon would pay a multimillion-dollar settlement to a former referee who accused him of raping her. Among the changes since McMahon returned was the departure of his daughter, who had been promoted to co-CEO after he stepped down from the role last year.

    There isn’t much clarity on whether Vince McMahon will be on Thursday’s earnings call, which was moved from the morning to the afternoon due to a scheduling conflict. But it should offer drama no matter who attends.

    The numbers to watch

    GM and Ford auto sales: Auto makers General Motors Co.
    GM,
    -2.00%
    and Ford Motor Co.
    F,
    -0.94%
    will issue results on Tuesday and Thursday respectively, amid signs of waning demand and rising interest rates that have made car loans more expensive. Despite falling new-vehicle sales in the third quarter, GM managed to keep its own sales higher, the AP noted.

    Mary Barry, GM’s chief executive, called out the popularity of vehicles like the Escalade, the Chevrolet Bolt EV and some pickups and SUVs during the auto maker’s third-quarter earnings call in October. During that quarter, GM said it completed and shipped nearly 75% of the unfinished vehicles held in its inventory in June. She said supply-chains were opening up again, but added that “short-term disruptions will continue to happen.”

    The auto makers report as they try to put a chip shortage and other production constraints behind them. But some forecasts call for 2022 auto sales, or sales volumes, to be the weakest in roughly a decade. Electric vehicle maker Tesla’s recent price cuts could also cut into GM’s and Ford’s own EV sales.

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  • 3 PR Myths Hurting Your Business

    3 PR Myths Hurting Your Business

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    If you’re building a brand and trying to get recognized as a thought leader in your industry, chances are, you know what it’s like to feel as though you’re talking to a brick wall. There’s no denying that every brand, new or established, is looking to boost its exposure and reach a wider audience.

    While organic and paid media have their time and place, there’s definitely something about leveraging trusted media platforms through Public Relations (PR) that changes the game.

    Whether through published articles on traditional media outlets, or interviews on independent media such as podcasts, PR has built a reputation as a useful tool for brands to establish credibility and increase visibility. But I’ve been around the industry long enough to know that it also tends to get a bad rep

    So, to ensure you’re not misled, keep reading to discover a few misconceptions about PR that could be limiting your brand’s success — and the truth about how PR really works.

    Related: The 3 Wrong Perceptions That Every Business has About PR

    Misconception #1: “You need to be famous to get featured as an expert.”

    One common misconception about PR is that you need to be famous to get featured as an expert. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The truth? It’s not all about fame.

    In fact, journalists and editors are constantly in need of qualified experts to quote in their articles. A journalist cannot claim anything without proof or an expert opinion. For example, if they’re writing about a Vitamin B supplement for eye care, they would reference an expert, such as an Optometrist, and the professional body they’re associated with instead of claiming it is good for eyes.

    It doesn’t matter if you’re a well-known celebrity or a little-known industry insider — as long as you have the right qualifications and expertise on the topic at hand, you have a chance to be featured as an expert.

    There are also times when journalists and editors prefer to find one go-to expert for a specific topic, so there’s a possibility of becoming that go-to expert. I’ve seen it happen with some of my PR clients! That said, many experienced journalists and editors will demand a diverse range of experts, highlighting the ongoing need for fresh featured experts.

    The key to getting featured is to find a writer or editor in need of your expertise, build a relationship with them, and be there at the right time and place.

    Misconception #2: “PR requires a big investment”

    Another misconception about PR is that it costs a ton of money. While this can be true sometimes, it’s not a hard and fast rule. The cost of PR can be influenced by various factors, including the business model of the PR agency you’re working with and the media coverage you seek.

    For example, some PR agencies operate on a retainer model where you pay a set amount each month with no guarantees — which I believe to be outdated. This can be problematic, costing tens of thousands of dollars monthly without guaranteed results. In my opinion, this needs to be revolutionized in the industry.

    Pay-to-play is another model that’s rising in popularity. In contrast to earned media, where a PR agency secures publication placements for free by acting as your representative, this model is used by PR agencies who, instead, act as a reseller of the advertisement space. This can be more expensive, as you pay for each piece of media coverage you receive. The public also doesn’t know about the nature of this paid model, which presents undisclosed advertisements often delivered as editorial articles — and a little gray area if you ask me.

    A better alternative is the earned media model, which my agency mostly operates with. Instead of paying for the publication, the focus is on building relationships with journalists and other media professionals.

    The key to this is approaching publications still in the business of attracting visitors and readers, disclosing advertisements and not making money from their contributors. This model is the most affordable as you can either do it yourself at no cost or pay a PR agency for the sole service of making the connection.

    Related: 5 Inexpensive Ways to Do PR for Your Company

    Misconception #3: “You need to be well connected to get started”

    Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to be well-connected to get started in PR. While it certainly helps to have connections in the industry, it’s not a requirement for success.

    Building relationships with journalists and other media professionals is a key part of the PR process. So, even if you don’t have existing connections, you can still succeed in PR by building relationships and finding the right match from scratch.

    And remember, journalists need media experts! With the trust of their audience on the line, they can’t miss a day. If you know the hustle of creating content, you can imagine the effort it takes to create several fact-checked articles consistently every day. Good news for you: they are searching for good content and people providing this. The same goes for podcast hosts that release regularly.

    Many online tools for connecting with them, including social media, email, and private channels. Many journalists and podcast hosts publicly share an email where they want to receive pitches. You don’t need to know people beforehand to make the right match. All the resources you need are at your fingertips.

    Related: Why Your Marketing Team Should Be Journalists

    Whether it’s traditional or independent media, local industry-specific or national media coverage, getting featured can be accessible and benefit every brand — no matter the budget, existing connections, or fame.

    Don’t let the myths about PR hold you back. Consider PR to help you exponentially grow your brand by boosting your exposure, establishing credibility, and expanding your audience reach.

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    Natasha Zo

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  • Facebook to allow Trump back on platform after 2-year ban

    Facebook to allow Trump back on platform after 2-year ban

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    Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. META will restore former President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts after the social-media platform banned him in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in 2021.

    The reinstatement of those accounts is set to happen “in the coming weeks,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said in a statement late Wednesday.

    “As…

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  • Feds poised to file another antitrust suit against Google this week: report

    Feds poised to file another antitrust suit against Google this week: report

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    The U.S. Justice Department is preparing to sue Alphabet Inc. in the coming days over its dominance in the online ad market, according to a report late Monday.

    Citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported the antitrust suit is expected to be filed in federal court before the end of this week, and as soon as Tuesday.

    The pending filing has been rumored for months, after the Justice Department reportedly rejected concessions offered by Google last summer. A Google spokesperson declined to comment Monday.

    Google dominates the online ad market, earning more than one-quarter of U.S. digital-advertising revenue, according to estimates from research firm Insider Intelligence Inc.

    It would be the second antitrust suit filed by the Justice Department against Google parent Alphabet. In October 2020, the DOJ accused Google of being “a monopolist in the general search services, search advertising, and general search text advertising markets.” In a 2020 blog post, Google called that suit “deeply flawed” and said people use Google because they choose to, not because they are forced to. That case is set for trial in the fall.

    Alphabet faces a number of other lawsuits targeting its business practices, including a $16.3 billion class-action suit filed in the U.K. in November accusing the tech giant of reaping “super profits” at the expense of thousands of smaller companies. Google called that lawsuit “speculative and opportunistic.”

    Alphabet’s Class A shares
    GOOGL,
    +1.81%
    are down 24% over the past 12 months while its Class C shares
    GOOG,
    +1.94%
    have fallen about 22%, compared to the S&P 500’s
    SPX,
    +1.19%
    9% dip over the past year. Both classes of Alphabet shares dipped nearly 1% in after-hours trading Monday after the Bloomberg report was published.

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  • Genesis, Winklevoss twins’ Gemini crypto venture charged by SEC with selling unregistered securities

    Genesis, Winklevoss twins’ Gemini crypto venture charged by SEC with selling unregistered securities

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    U.S. securities regulators on Thursday charged Genesis Global Capital and crypto exchange Gemini Trust Co. with offering and selling of unregistered securities to retail investors, bypassing disclosures and other requirements aimed at protecting market participants.

    Genesis and Gemini raised billions of dollars’ worth of crypto assets from hundreds of thousands of investors through unregistered offers, using a crypto asset-lending program called Gemini Earn, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.

    The complaint seeks the return of any “ill-gotten gains” plus interest, and any civil penalties, the SEC said.

    The SEC is also investigating whether other securities-law violations were committed and whether there are other companies or people relating to the alleged misconduct.

    Twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are the founders of Gemini. The crypto exchange was sued late last year by investors alleging that the company sold interest-bearing accounts without registering them as securities, also through the Gemini Earn program.

    Also read: Gemini’s Cameron Winklevoss accuses crypto exec Barry Silbert of ‘bad faith’ stalling over frozen funds

    The Winklevoss twins were early champions of cryptocurrencies, using the money and fame they won in legal wrangling with Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc.
    META,
    +2.87%
    and Meta’s founder Mark Zuckerberg over their role in creating the social-media giant to launch Gemini.

    According to the SEC complaint, the Gemini Earn agreement between Genesis, part of a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, and Gemini started in December 2020.

    Gemini customers, including U.S. retail investors, were to have an opportunity to loan their crypto assets to Genesis in exchange for Genesis’ promise to pay a high interest rate.

    Gemini deducted agent fees that were as high as 4.29%, the SEC alleges.

    “Genesis then exercised its discretion in how to use investors’ crypto assets to generate revenue and pay interest to Gemini Earn investors,” the SEC said.

    By November, however, Genesis announced it would not allow the Gemini Earn investors to withdraw their crypto assets because of a liquidity crunch following volatility in the crypto market after FTX’s bankruptcy filing, the SEC said.

    At the time, Genesis held about $900 million in investor assets from 340,000 Gemini Earn investors, the SEC said. Gemini ended the Gemini Earn program earlier this month.

    “As of today, the Gemini Earn retail investors have still not been able to withdraw their crypto assets,” the SEC said in a statement.

    “We allege that Genesis and Gemini offered unregistered securities to the public, bypassing disclosure requirements designed to protect investors,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement.

    The charges “build on previous actions to make clear to the marketplace and the investing public that crypto-lending platforms and other intermediaries need to comply with our time-tested securities laws,” Gensler said.

    The SEC’s complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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  • CES 2023: AMD, Nvidia, auto applications get the hype, but analysts say this one chip maker ruled

    CES 2023: AMD, Nvidia, auto applications get the hype, but analysts say this one chip maker ruled

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    As CES 2023 draws to a close, much of the attention in the chip world was lauded on companies like Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Nvidia Corp. but a lower profile chip maker appears better positioned coming out of the convention.

    Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore said there’s still a lot of caution about overall chip demand especially with softness in China, but autos appear to be one of the strong themes of CES 2023, he said.

    “The areas that have been weak remain somewhat weaker – notably memory, semi cap, and generally PC and cloud builds – while the markets that have been strong (such as automotive and industrial) remain strong but with lead times clearly starting to normalize, which likely points to longer term revenue pressures particularly in a weaker economy,” Moore said.

    “Still, the longer term themes remain positive, especially for autos (which is increasingly the focus of CES),around themes such as EVs, ADAS and autonomous.”

    Such was the case when Nvidia Corp.
    NVDA,
    +4.16%
     said on Tuesday it was partnering with Hon Hai Technology Group
    2317,
    +0.41%
     , or Foxconn, best known for being the manufacturer of Apple Inc.’s
    AAPL,
    +3.68%
    iPhone, to make electric vehicles that use Nvidia’s Drive Orin chips and sensors, and bringing its GeForce Now streaming video game service to autos made by Hyundai Motor Group
    005380,
    +0.31%    ,
    BYD
    1211,
    -2.60%    ,
    and Swedish EV maker Polestar.

    “We generally think that Nvidia numbers are likely OK from here, though there was some caution on sell through in China for gaming, and a clear awareness that while the company’s position within cloud is very good, that pressure in cloud budgets leads to somewhat lower visibility,” Moore said. “But we would say that generally we think that they are past the worst of the pressures in their business, in contrast to most of the semiconductor group where there are still likely numbers cuts ahead.”

    Meanwhile, Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
    AMD,
    +2.62%
    used the CES keynote to introduce the Instinct MI300 chip as “world’s first data-center integrated CPU + GPU.” The  combined central processing unit and graphics processing unit meant for AI inference, the months-long process where data centers spend millions of dollars a year on electricity to train and develop artificial intelligence. AMD Chief Executive and Chair Lisa Su said the MI300 can reduce the time it takes for an inference modeling process from months to weeks.

    But one chip maker that doesn’t get a lot of attention appeared to emerge from CES best positioned for the year: ON Semiconductor Corp.
    ON,
    +4.57%    ,
    which focuses on electric vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems as primary growth drivers, leveraging its legacy position in auto chips.

    “Most notably, the company’s push into [Silicon Carbide] remains on track, and expect to still exit the year at a run-rate where the majority of crystal driving the business is internally sourced,” Moore said. “The company remains confident that demand in the EV space will far outpace supply for a long time and have thus shifted their focus over to execution on the production side.”

    Citi Research analyst Christopher Danley lauded ON as being the most bullish chip maker of CES 2023.

    “ON remains on track to triple Silicon Carbide revenue YoY from roughly $300 million in 2022 to $1.0 billion in 2023,” Danley said. “The company stated it is sold out through 2023.”

    But ON aside, Danley said everyone at CES is “nervous” about “cracks” in data-center demand, “and they should be.”

    “There was a tone of nervousness on the data center outlook with many execs and investors cautious and talking about ‘uncertainty’ in data center outlooks from both hyperscalers and enterprise customers,” Danley said. “We continue to believe data center correction will happen given a multitude of datapoints and leading indicators.”

    Back in early December, Danley said his checks “indicate order rates from the data center end market are fading with downside from the enterprise end market (roughly 40% of the data center end market) and Facebook,” which is owned by parent company Meta Platforms Inc.
    META,
    +2.43%
    “We continue to expect a correction in the data center end market in 1H23,” Danley said.

    That said, Danley said his top pick was and continue to believe a correction there is inevitable. We remain cautious on semis until all end markets and companies correct and our top pick remains chip maker Analog Devices Inc.
    ADI,
    +3.65%

    Back to autos: Ambarella Inc.
    AMBA,
    +6.77%
    on Thursday, Ambarella said it was partnering with Continental AG
    CON,
    +2.32%
    to develop hardware and software for assisted driving using AI with the ultimate goal of an autonomous driving system. The companies hope to have systems in production in 2026.

    Moore said Ambarella’s tech “continues to impress,” and said the Continental partnership will provide software revenue that’s shared but with the larger portion going to Continental.

    At CES 2023, “the companies are showing a full L2+ ADAS implementation for a 10-camera system running on a single chip, which per AMBA was only using 8% of the compute value of the chip.”

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  • Tesla stock wipes out three-day bounce, falls to lowest price in more than 2 years

    Tesla stock wipes out three-day bounce, falls to lowest price in more than 2 years

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    It has taken just one day for Tesla Inc.’s stock to erase the entire bounce it enjoyed over the last three days trading sessions of 2022, as disappointing deliveries data helped trigger the biggest selloff in more than two years.

    The stock’s
    TSLA,
    -12.24%
    Tuesday drop knocked the electric vehicle maker’s market capitalization to 15th on the list of most valuation S&P 500 index companies.

    On Tuesday, Tesla’s market cap fell below that of consumer products company Procter & Gamble Co.
    PG,
    +0.01%    ,
    with a current market cap of $359.18 billion, and was just below Nvidia Corp.
    NVDA,
    -2.05%
    at $352.15 billion, according to FactSet data. Tesla sat just above Chevron Corp.
    CVX,
    -3.06%    ,
    which was at $336.43 billion. (See list of S&P 500’s 20 most valuable companies as of Tuesday’s closing prices below.)

    Tesla’s stock took a $15.08, or 12.2% dive, to $108.10 on Tuesday, to lead the S&P 500’s
    SPX,
    -0.40%
    decliners, after the company reported over the weekend that fourth-quarter deliveries that came up short of expectations for the third quarter in a row. It suffered the biggest one-day decline since it plummeted 21.1% on Sept. 8, 2020, and closed at the lowest price since Aug. 13, 2020.

    Don’t miss: Tesla delivery-target miss shows ‘demand cracks clearly happening’ that mean ‘numbers could be materially reset’ for coming years, analysts write.

    With about 3.16 billion shares outstanding as of Oct. 18, the stock’s decline shaved about $47.62 billion off Tesla’s market cap, to bring it down to $341.35 billion. That’s a far cry from the peak market cap of $1.24 trillion reached exactly one-year ago.

    After the stock hit the deepest oversold reading in its history based on the widely followed Relative Strength Index momentum indicator on Dec. 27, following the longest losing streak in more than four years, it ran up $14.08, or 12.9%, over the past three days.

    If there’s a bright side to Tuesday’s stock selloff, it’s that even though the price fell below the Dec. 27 closing price, the RSI ended the day at 24.86, which is up from the Dec. 27 record low of 16.56.

    That could be a preliminary sign of what chart watchers call “bullish technical divergence,” which is when prices make lower lows while the RSI makes a higher low. It’s still rather early to make that determination, however, as the stock needs to start bouncing again to see if RSI bottoms above the previous low.

    Market caps of the Top 20 most valuable S&P 500 companies:

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  • These 20 stocks were the biggest losers of 2022

    These 20 stocks were the biggest losers of 2022

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    This has been the year of reckoning for Big Tech stocks — even those of companies that have continued to grow sales by double digits.

    Below is a list of the 20 stocks in the S&P 500
    SPX,
    -0.72%
    that have declined the most in 2022.

    First, here’s how the 11 sectors of the benchmark index have performed this year:

    S&P 500 sector

    		 2022 price change

    		 Forward P/E

    		 Forward P/E as of Dec. 31, 2021
    Energy

    		 57.8%

    		 9.6

    		 11.1
    Utilities

    		 -0.5%

    		 18.8

    		 20.4
    Consumer Staples

    		 -2.7%

    		 20.9

    		 21.8
    Healthcare

    		 -3.2%

    		 17.4

    		 17.2
    Industrials

    		 -6.7%

    		 18.0

    		 20.8
    Financials

    		 -12.1%

    		 11.7

    		 14.6
    Materials

    		 -13.4%

    		 15.6

    		 16.6
    Real Estate

    		-27.7%

    		 16.2

    		 24.2
    Information Technology

    		 -28.8%

    		 19.6

    		 28.1
    Consumer Discretionary

    		 -37.4%

    		 20.7

    		 33.2
    Communication Services

    		 -40.4%

    		 14.0

    		 20.8
    S&P 500

    		 -19.2%

    		 16.5

    		 21.4
    Source: FactSet

    The energy sector has been the only one to show a gain in 2022, and it has been a whopper, even as West Texas Intermediate crude oil
    CL.1,
    +0.41%
    has given up most of its gains from earlier in the year. Here’s why investors are still confident in the supply/demand setup for oil and energy stocks.

    Looking at the worst-performing sectors, you might wonder why the consumer discretionary and communication services sectors have fared worse than information-technology, the core tech sector. One reason is that S&P Dow Jones Indices can surprise investors with its sector choices. The consumer discretionary sector includes Tesla Inc.
    TSLA,
    +0.70%
    and Amazon.com Inc.
    AMZN,
    -1.17%    ,
    which has fallen nearly 50% this year. The communications sector includes Meta Platforms Inc.
    META,
    -1.21%    ,
    along with Match Group Inc.
    MTCH,
    +0.50%    ,
    which is down 69% for 2022, and Netflix Inc.
    NFLX,
    -0.44%    ,
    which is down 52% this year.

    There have been many reasons easy to cite for Big Tech’s decline, such as a questionable change in strategy for Facebook’s holding company, Meta, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg has put so much of the company’s resources into developing a new world that most people don’t wish to enter, at least yet. Meta’s shares were down 64% for 2022 through Dec. 29.

    You might also blame the Twitter-related antics and sales of Tesla shares by CEO Elon Musk for the 65% decline in the electric-vehicle maker’s stock this year. But Tesla had a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 120.3 at the end of 2021, while the S&P 500
    SPX,
    -0.72%
    traded for 21.4 times its weighted forward earnings estimate, according to FactSet. Those P/E ratios have now declined to 21.7 and 16.4, respectively. So Tesla no longer appears to be a very expensive stock, especially for a company that increased its vehicle deliveries by 42% in the third quarter from a year earlier.

    Analysts polled by FactSet expect Tesla’s stock to double during 2023. It nearly made this list of 20 EV stocks expected to rebound the most in 2023.

    The worst-performing S&P 500 stocks of 2022

    Here are the 20 stocks in the S&P 500 that fell the most for 2022 through the close on Dec. 29.

    Company

    		 Ticker

    		 2022 price change

    		 Forward P/E

    		 Forward P/E as of Dec. 32, 2021
    Generac Holdings Inc.

    		 GNRC,
    -0.84%         		-71.4%

    		 13.7

    		 30.2
    Match Group Inc.

    		 MTCH,
    +0.50%         		-68.9%

    		 20.1

    		 48.5
    Align Technology Inc.

    		 ALGN,
    -0.52%         		-67.7%

    		 27.4

    		 48.7
    Tesla Inc.

    		 TSLA,
    +0.70%         		-65.4%

    		 21.7

    		 120.3
    SVB Financial Group

    		 SIVB,
    -0.38%         		-65.4%

    		 10.8

    		 23.0
    Catalent Inc.

    		 CTLT,
    -0.40%         		-64.6%

    		 13.0

    		 32.5
    Meta Platforms Inc. Class A

    		 META,
    -1.21%         		-64.2%

    		 14.7

    		 23.5
    Signature Bank

    		 SBNY,
    -0.34%         		-64.1%

    		 6.2

    		 18.6
    PayPal Holdings Inc.

    		 PYPL,
    -0.01%         		-62.6%

    		 14.8

    		 36.0
    V.F. Corp.

    		 VFC,
    +0.15%         		-62.5%

    		 11.9

    		 20.4
    Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. Series A

    		 WBD,
    -1.64%         		-59.9%

    		 N/A

    		 7.5
    Carnival Corp.

    		 CCL,
    -0.23%         		-59.8%

    		 38.1

    		 N/A
    Stanley Black & Decker Inc.

    		 SWK,
    -0.42%         		-59.8%

    		 17.0

    		 15.9
    Lumen Technologies Inc.

    		 LUMN,
    -1.79%         		-57.8%

    		 7.7

    		 7.8
    Zebra Technologies Corp. Class A

    		 ZBRA,
    -0.44%         		-56.7%

    		 14.5

    		 30.1
    Dish Network Corp. Class A

    		 DISH,
    -0.96%         		-56.5%

    		 8.6

    		 10.9
    Caesars Entertainment Inc.

    		 CZR,
    +0.24%         		-55.7%

    		 51.4

    		 144.5
    Lincoln National Corp.

    		 LNC,
    +0.26%         		-55.1%

    		 3.4

    		 6.2
    Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

    		 AMD,
    -0.97%         		-55.0%

    		 17.8

    		 43.1
    Seagate Technology Holdings PLC

    		 STX,
    -0.55%         		-53.1%

    		 15.0

    		 12.4
    Source: FactSet

    Click on the tickers for more information about the companies.

    Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information available for free on the MarketWatch quote page.

    Another way of measuring the biggest stock-market losers of 2022

    It is one thing to have a large decline based on the share price, but that doesn’t tell the entire story. How much of a decline have investors seen in the holdings of their shares during the year? The S&P 500’s total market capitalization declined to $31.66 trillion as of Dec. 28 (the most recent figure available) from $40.36 trillion at the end of 2021, according to FactSet.

    Shareholders of these companies have suffered the largest declines in market cap during 2022.

    Company

    		 Ticker

    		 2022 market capitalization change ($bil)

    		 2022 price change
    Apple Inc.

    		 AAPL,
    -0.63%         		-$851

    		 -27.0%
    Amazon.com Inc.

    		 AMZN,
    -1.17%         		-$832

    		 -49.5%
    Microsoft Corp.

    		 MSFT,
    -1.15%         		-$728

    		 -28.3%
    Tesla Inc.

    		 TSLA,
    +0.70%         		-$677

    		 -65.4%
    Meta Platforms Inc. Class A

    		 META,
    -1.21%         		-$465

    		 -64.2%
    Nvidia Corp.

    		 NVDA,
    -1.37%         		-$376

    		 -50.3%
    PayPal Holdings Inc.

    		 PYPL,
    -0.01%         		-$141

    		 -62.6%
    Netflix Inc.

    		 NFLX,
    -0.44%         		-$138

    		 -51.7%
    Walt Disney Co.

    		 DIS,
    -1.62%         		-$123

    		 -43.7%
    Salesforce Inc.

    		 CRM,
    -0.96%         		-$118

    		 -47.8%
    Source: FactSet

    So there is your surprise for today: Apple is this year’s biggest stock-market loser.

    Don’t miss: Best stock picks for 2023: Here are Wall Street analysts’ most heavily favored choices

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  • How to Go From Unknown to a Must-Have for Your Clients

    How to Go From Unknown to a Must-Have for Your Clients

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Going from unknown to must-have in your client acquisition process can be a challenging task. But it is not impossible. By following a few simple steps, you can increase your sales and become an authority in your industry. Below are three easy steps that anyone can follow to achieve this goal:

    1. Targeting

    When it comes to selling your product or service, choosing the right audience is crucial. It will help ensure that you’re offering a solution to a problem that your potential customers actually have. And it will also increase the chances of making a sale.

    First and foremost, it’s important to have a clear understanding of who your ideal customer is. This will require some research and analysis of your current customer base, as well as a deep dive into the needs and pain points of your target audience.

    Once you have a better understanding of who your ideal customer is, it’s time to start narrowing down your target audience even further. This can be done through a variety of methods, such as demographics, interests and behavior.

    Related: Personalization: A Perspective On The Future Of Targeting

    2. Messaging

    When crafting your messaging, it’s important to keep your target audience in mind. Catering your messaging to the stage of the buyer’s journey that your average customer is at is crucial. For example, your average customer doesn’t yet understand the problem that your product or service solves. Then it’s not effective to talk about how awesome your offering is. Instead, focus on educating and informing your audience about the problem and how your solution can help.

    Once you’ve honed in on the right messaging for your audience, it’s important to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Most businesses use similar phrasing, deliverables and outcomes when describing how they can help customers. By changing just one of these aspects, you can create an uneven playing field and tilt the odds in your favor. For example, offering a performance-based model or pay-on-completion pricing can set you apart from competitors and make you more attractive to potential customers.

    3. Leveraging press

    When it comes to marketing and growing a business, leveraging public relations can be one of the most effective strategies. Not only does it increase brand credibility, but if done right it has the potential for short- and long-term lead generation results. Boosting personal and company reputation attracts and converts qualified sales leads at an increased rate compared to competitors. Utilizing press with a well-oiled sales and marketing funnel is like adding the cherry on top to a gourmet cake.

    Boosting your personal and company reputation through press can attract and convert qualified sales leads at an increased rate compared to competitors. Utilizing press with a well-oiled sales and marketing funnel is like adding the cherry on top to a gourmet cake.

    So, how can you effectively leverage press within your business? Here are some tips:

    • Identify your target audience and develop a plan to reach them. This includes determining which publications and outlets your audience reads or watches, as well as identifying relevant journalists and influencers to target.

    • Create a press kit that includes all the necessary information about your business, such as your mission and vision, key differentiators and any recent accomplishments or newsworthy events. Make sure to include high-resolution photos and branding materials.

    • Develop a list of compelling story angles that showcase your business in a positive light and highlight the value you provide to your customers. These can include customer success stories, industry trends and expert insights from your team.

    • Reach out to journalists and influencers with a personalized pitch that outlines your story angle and the value it offers to their audience. Be sure to follow up with them to ensure they receive your press kit and to answer any questions they may have.

    • Monitor your press coverage and track its impact on your business. This will help you identify which outlets and stories are generating the most engagement and leads, and can inform future PR efforts.

    By following these tips, you can effectively leverage press to increase brand credibility and generate leads for your business. In today’s competitive landscape, standing out from the competition is crucial and leveraging press can be a powerful tool in achieving that goal.

    In conclusion, going from unknown to must-have in your client acquisition process requires a combination of targeted messaging, effective positioning, leveraging press and building a community. By following these steps, you can increase your sales and become an authority in your industry.

    Related: 5 Golden Benefits of PR

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    Carson Spitzke

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