Symantec

Symantec (SYMC) had a rare good quarter in this past Wed. Not surprisingly upgrades came and stock went up more than 10% in the following trading days (Thursday and Friday). I did not looked into the detail yet, but the sentiment seems encouraging. This time I will let it run for a while, unlike what I did after Yahoo's good earning last year - I sold it the second day for 34.88 (sth like that) and the stock went up all the way to 40 in a month.

Panera

Panera Bread (PNRA) had a bad day today. Its stock lost 12% of its value from yesterday’s close. The reason is it offered not-as-good-as-expected outlook for the next quarter and the year. Its new product Crispani(R) pizza is not taking off as good as expected. Interestingly, I saw it raised the price of coffee by 5 cents and I think there is some pricing power here. Personally I like Panera Bread not only because it’s St. Louis based, but I also get morning bagel from them almost every day. Last Thursday when the storm knocked out the power I went to 2 Panera stores and they are both closed. Shortly after power restored I saw the store near my home is packed: people bring laptop and cell phone, get charged and doing work. They got wireless Internet which also help people doing their work.

Back to stocks, I will read more on its 10-Q and see if there is anything interesting.

Google's hit the peak?

Google had a great quarter. But its stock did not move too much, although there are some upgrades from some brokage firms. The only thing I can say is Wall Street expected that to happen. On the other hand, its rival Yahoo missed the estimates, and its stock tanked by 20%. Certainly it's not a good time for the stocks.

Back to Google, recently I read more about Google Search and its AdSense/AdWord program. I was amazed at its dorminance on the Search and online Ad. market. And the continuing growth (note Google beat the Wall Street estimate in last 7 of 8 quarters). Google did IPO in August 2004, with a initial opening price of $100.00. Many people (include me) did not understand its competitive edge in search and ad technology and thought it's full valued. After two years, we all know the story. But the question is: can Google continue to grow like this? Will it slow down its growth sometime in the near future? The answer to the first question is easy, not so for the second.

For the first question, we just need to look at eBay. EBay had a great run in past few years. But now it's slowing down. Note Google's business model is very similar to eBay's: connect buyers and sellers of the advertisement. Advertising and maketing is a big piece of the pie in the business world, but its' share is not unlimited.