Investopedia: Fusion-io Tries To Hit Reset, But The Street Will Carry A Grudge

By no means is it unheard of for tech companies, including storage companies, to stumble in their early years. With Fusion-io's (NYSE:FIO) fiscal fourth quarter and guidance, management can certainly check that box. The trouble now is the question of how to weigh out the balance of the company's interesting enterprise flash storage technology (and the growing marketing opportunity) with the likelihood that the company can and will execute on that opportunity.

Fusion-io deserves the time it's going to spend in the doghouse. Earlier management was brash and bold, and the Street doesn't necessarily have a problem with that, but the failure to deliver is now an issue. I don't particularly like this company, but even I have to say that the valuation is now at a point where the stock is possibly interesting again if the company doesn't have to reset guidance to a lower level once again.

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http://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/081213/fusionio-tries-hit-reset-street-will-carry-grudge-fio-emc-lsi-ibm.aspx

Seeking Alpha: LSI Still Undervalued, As It Shows Hints Of What Lies Ahead

It was six months ago to the day that I wrote about the potential for LSI (LSI), highlighting both the upside if the company executed on opportunities in flash, networking, and storage/servers but also the risk that the path to prosperity would have some bends and potholes. That's proven more or less true so far, as the absolute return over the past half-year (barely positive) is well below that of rival Marvell (MRVL) and the overall Nasdaq composite, but second quarter earnings show some encouraging results.

Provided that the PC market doesn't get even worse (and/or that Marvell doesn't grab even more share), I believe there's still a case to make for LSI as a $9 to $10 stock. While the real ramp in revenue growth and margins isn't likely until 2014, improving sentiment towards chip stocks (at least those outside the wireless space) could pull the stock along in the meantime.

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LSI Still Undervalued, As It Shows Hints Of What Lies Ahead

Investopedia: LSI Looks Too Cheap, But Only If You're A Believer

Investing nearly always calls for some leap of faith – Wall Street is a discounting mechanism, and that requires investors to try to peer into the future and see how industries, markets, and companies will look in a few years' time. If you wait too long, waiting for more certainty on developments, most of the gains will be gone by the time you decide to invest.

I mention this because I think it's a very relevant part of the LSI (NYSE:LSI) story today. As is, the company is not all that exciting. But if you believe that the company's flash technology will lead to share gains in this fast-growing (albeit small) market and that the company can benefit both from a recovery in network spending and increased share in network processors, the prospects for this stock look much more interesting.
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http://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/060313/lsi-looks-too-cheap-only-if-youre-believer-lsi-mrvl-csco-fio.aspx

Investopedia: No Signs That EMC Is Losing The Storage Wars

Investors should have been well-prepared for EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) to disappoint with its fourth quarter results and 2013 guidance, as seemingly every sell-side analyst downgraded the stock in December or January. While near-term bears are likely right that the storage market is going to get more turbulent, EMC remains the market leader and an uncommonly responsive company to emerging/changing trends. EMC doesn't look like a stock that's going to ring up sizable gains in the first half of 2013, but long-term investors can find a lot to like here.


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http://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2013/No-Signs-That-EMC-Is-Losing-The-Storage-Wars-EMC-ORCL-FIO-VMW0201.aspx

Investopedia: Weak PC Demand Weighs On Seagate

Investing in Seagate (Nasdaq:STX) is at least a little like playing chicken with a freight train. While I don't want to entirely dismiss Seagate's potential to transition into new products, technologies and end markets, the fact remains that its core hard disk drive (HDD) market is facing a one-two punch from increasing solid state drive (SSD) substitutions and a switch from PCs to mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets. Although the HDD business is not going to vanish, investors face the difficult prospect of trying to get both the timing and the magnitude of the decline right, as well as Seagate's ability to generate (and/or reinvest) cash during that decline.

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http://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2013/Weak-PC-Demand-Weighs-On-Seagate-STX-WDC-FIO-INTC0131.aspx

Seeking Alpha: The Potential Is There For LSI, But Will They Grab It?

Wanting to like a company or stock thesis can be very dangerous to your portfolio returns, as you often fall into the trap of hearing only the good news and giving the benefit of the doubt to numbers and projections. That's one of my biggest concerns about LSI Corporation (LSI), as I really like the company's long-term potential in server and flash storage products. The revenue and margin potential is definitely there, but the company's uneven historical performance and potential competition calls for real leaps of faith in terms of future margins.

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The Potential Is There For LSI, But Will They Grab It?

Investopedia: Not Even EMC Is Immune To Tech Headwinds

Data storage had been one of the strongest and most predictable segments of tech, but with EMC's (NYSE:EMC) earnings in hand, it's pretty clear that even this market has stalled in the face of more cautious IT spending. On a positive note, EMC continues to gain share in the market and refresh its offerings with new releases. I believe EMC remains one of the best-positioned tech companies today and a good stock to accumulate.

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http://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2012/Not-Even-EMC-Is-Immune-To-Tech-Headwinds-EMC-IBM-NTAP-VMW1026.aspx

Investopedia: Fusion-io Grows When Others Can't

Sometimes being tiny helps. In a quarter where much larger storage players such as IBM (NYSE:IBM) and EMC (NYSE:EMC) struggled to grow, Fusion-io (NYSE:FIO) kept the growth momentum going. While being small and having a limited customer base is usually cited as a bad thing, it probably worked in Fusion-io's favor, as those customers continue to see demanding storage needs. Although there's a risk that this more expensive approach to storage will smack into an even tougher macro environment for 2013, the growth potential here remains considerable.

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http://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2012/Fusion-io-Grows-When-Others-Cant-FIO-EMC-IBM-LSI1025.aspx

Investopedia: Weighing The Improvements At LSI Against Industry Challenges

While it often helps to have strong end markets when trying to turnaround or improve operations, it isn't always a prerequisite. LSI Corporation (NYSE:LSI) management has done a pretty good job of reorienting this business towards better growth and margin, but key end markets like PCs and mobile carriers haven't been doing all that well of late. Consequently, LSI may yet be cheap enough for investors to see worthwhile gains from here if and when these markets improve

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http://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2012/Weighing-The-Improvements-At-LSI-Against-Industry-Challenges-LSI-MRVL-CAVM-FIO0914.aspx

Investopedia: NetApp And The Difference Between Value And Cheapness

Tech is rolling through another summer lull, and there's that familiar worry about whether the revenue and profit growth will come back when the leaves start to turn. In the case of NetApp (Nasdaq:NTAP), there remains a two-fold worry - not only over the state of enterprise and government IT storage spending, but also the company's competitive positioning. While NetApp does look meaningfully underpriced by multiple measures, how much value is really in the shares?

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Investopedia: Time To Play The Micron Yo-Yo Again?

When shares of memory maker Micron (Nasdaq:MU) go up, shares of Micron go down, over and over again. Like the broader consumer electronic device market, the recovery in memory demand is apparently always one or two more quarters away. Although I'm not all that interested in joining the fruitless guessing game as to when the memory market will rebound, I do believe that Micron shares trading in the mid-single-digits are interesting for investors with a medium-to-high risk tolerance.

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http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2012/Time-To-Play-The-Micron-Yo-Yo-Again-MU-FIO-AAPL-HPQ0626.aspx

Investopedia: EMC And The Difference Between Slow And Stop

Worries about hardware demand continue to move stocks in the tech sector. To a large extent, the Street seems to have moderated its expectations, but EMC's (NYSE:EMC) supposed sluggish first quarter and conservative guidance seem to have some analysts concerned. Given the company's strong share across the board, EMC still looks like a great play on the hot Big Data theme.

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http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2012/EMC-And-The-Difference-Between-Slow-And-Stop-EMC-IBM-ORCL-FIO0423.aspx

Investopedia: Good Or Bad, Seagate Won't Be Boring

Oftentimes it's the case that investors can see which companies are likely to have the most volatile stocks by checking out the range on analyst estimates. The bigger the spread, the more uncertainty and the more potential for positive (or negative) developments. With an enormous range of analyst expectations, a traditionally cyclical industry, and encroaching competition, Seagate (Nasdaq:STX) is not likely to be boring over the next couple of years.

Apres le deluge  
Thailand is home to a variety of electronics manufacturing facilities, and the country was beset by nearly six months of flooding that started in mid-2011. That flooding not only devastated the lives of many Thais, but also had major impacts on the hard drive industry. 

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Investopedia: NetApp Puts Some Fears To Rest

The outlook for enterprise IT in 2012 is still uncertain, but one thing that does seem more certain is that the demand for enterprise data storage capacity is only going to increase. While data gets more crowded, NetApp (Nasdaq:NTAP) has established itself as a strong and solid No. 2 player in this growth market and investors can still count this as a name worthy of consideration.

Third Quarter Broadly In Line  
NetApp's financial results for its fiscal third quarter were broadly in line with analyst expectations. Revenue rose 21% as reported, with sequential growth of 4% and year-over-year organic growth of 5%. While the United States public sector revenue was down 7%, U.S. enterprise was up 30%.

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http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2012/NetApp-Puts-Some-Fears-To-Rest-NTAP-EMC-HPQ-IBM0222.aspx

Investopedia: EMC's Steady Growth Still Undervalued

EMC (NYSE:EMC) isn't a hyper-growth story like its majority-owned subsidiary VMware (NYSE:VMW) or emerging storage name Fusion-IO (NYSE:FIO), but it's a dependable leader in a major market. Bears may fret about the magnitude of the IT spending slowdown in 2012 and the potential for management to misspend its growing cash balance, but this stands out as a quality tech holding all the same.

A Good Close to the Year  
EMC doesn't often beat analysts' estimates by a big margin, but the company is a steady performer all the same. As the info storage business was quite strong, fourth quarter revenues rose 14% on an annual comparison and more than 11% sequentially. Mid-range systems grew about 24% this quarter, while the high-range line grew about 11%. Isilon is still a relatively small contributor to EMC, but this acquisition is chugging along at a 100% growth rate right now.

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http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2012/EMCs-Steady-Growth-Still-Undervalued-EMC-IBM-NTAP-HPQ0126.aspx

Investopedia: Can Fusion-IO Outrun The Tiger?

There is a saying that goes, "you don't have to be faster than the tiger, you just have to be faster than your slowest friend." That may be a constructive way of thinking about Fusion-IO (NYSE:FIO) today. There's no question that this is a high-growth tech stock with a huge multiple and huge expectations, but that has never stopped those tech stocks that can deliver the goods. (For more, see Earning Forecasts: A Primer.)

Big Data 2.0  
In some respects, what Fusion-IO seeks to do is relatively simple. In the same way that solid-state drives (SSD) have offered consumers considerably better performance than hard disk drives, Fusion-IO is trying to bring the advantages of flash/SSD memory to the enterprise data market.

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