It Starts (NASDAQ: RIMM) (NYSE: MSFT) (NASDAQ: AAPL)

NEW YORK - The transition in tech has finally been completed. Out is Research in Motion's Blackberry and in is Apple's Iphone. Out is Microsoft's Office and in is Apple's Tablet.

Research in Motion disclosed after the closing bell today that they now expect earnings per share of $1.30 to $1.37 a share. This amount will likely fall below the $1.38 earned last share on a higher share count. The company has gone 28 straight quarters of year over year earnings increases on that particular quarter. The company is now exhibiting signs of negative growth which has been reflected in the company's valuation for almost a year. The company said the shortfall is because less customers are buying their phones. It added that the earthquake in Japan is not affecting supply. The company still expects to earn $7.5 a share over the full year.

Microsoft Corporation also announced their results for the quarter, revenue came in at $16.43 billion and net income was $5.23 billion or $0.61 per share. Like RIMM it has been a long time coming for former tech prince Microsoft to be officially passed by Apple. Apple reported $6 billion in profits in their most recent quarter which is substantially higher than Microsoft's and further cementing its dominance as the industry leader.

No Longer a Distant Dream (NYSE: PNC) (NYSE: JPM) (NYSE: WFC)

NEW YORK - Banks are back!, as the U.S. Government has announced the results of the "stress test" for 19 most economically important U.S. financial institutions.

[To see the full PNC report click here

To see the full PNC report PDF version click here]

PNC Financial, received a clean bill of health and plans to raise its dividend in the second quarter of 2011. While, PNC has the second strongest capital ratio behind Comerica Bank, due to weird Basel III rules, the company has less capital under Basel than it reports. Basel only counts 10% of a banks investment in another bank's stock as capital. Therefore only $2.5 billion of the PNC's $5 billion (on the books) investment in BlackRock counts towards capital. This treatment by Basel will likely be hotly contested by banks going forward. Despite this PNC still has one of the strongest Basel III capital ratios.

Wells Fargo announced a dividend raise to 12 cents giving the company a 1.5% yield. There has been speculation surrounding the company since its CFO Howard Atkins left in February.

J.P. Morgan announced that they have raised their dividend to 25 cents a share, giving the company a 2.1% yield.

U.S. Bancorp announced that they have increased their dividend to 12.5 cents giving the company a 1.85% yield.

BB&T said that they raised their dividend by 1 cent. BB&T was one of the few companies to pay a dividend above 10 cents during the financial crisis. However the company has struggled as of late and the company was only able to raise their dividend by a token 1 cent.

Bank of New York Mellon, which has the highest of quality loans among all banks, indicated today that it will raise its dividend but it did not say by how much.

M&T Bank is not expected to increase its dividend due to its already large payout as a percent of earnings. M&T was the only bank to not decrease its dividend since 2007. Though, Hudson City Bancorp has also accomplished this feat, it is expected that they will decrease their dividend this year, as the bank has been hit by problems.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have not announced anything yet regarding their dividend. It is speculated that BAC and Citigroup will not raise their dividends until the second half of 2011.

Suntrust Banks announced it will issue $1 billion in stock and it plans to use the proceeds to buy back TARP. A dividend raise is not likely imminent for the company.

KeyCorp has still not repaid TARP, meaning dividends are likely not to occur until the second half of 2011.

Fifth Third Bancorp has recently finalized its repurchase of TARP shares but it has not yet announced a dividend raise. FITB has one of the strongest capital ratios among major banks, as it has diluted its shareholder base significantly from capital raises during the last two years.

Regions Financial looks to be the reject of the group as its stock moves lower. The banks has the worst capital ratios, and loan quality among major banks. Shareholders have bid the stock higher in recent months in hopes that another bank will buy the troubled company.

How Ugly is The Windows 7 Phone (NYSE: MSFT) (NYSE: NOK)

NEW YORK - Not often will you see a stock decline 16% on news that is has reached a partnership with the world's second largest tech company by market capitalization to form a mobile partnership but this happened today. Nokia will combine Windows Phone 7 with its current hardware in most of their new mobile devices. On announcement of the news 1,000 Nokia workers walked out but they were likely to be fired anyways.

Nokia is betting on the success of the Windows Phone which was launched last November to steal market share from competitors such as Apple. Microsoft will benefit, by having one of the world's largest mobile phone companies as its partner to use its software and it was puzzling that their stock was lower. This is a testament to how fall Nokia has fallen in terms of creativity. The former titan is telling the world that its developers are unable to make something more visually appealing than the Windows Phone. Microsoft's advertising campaign of creating a phone that people need to use less is comical. People don't use their blackberries and I-phones because they are being forced to. The commercial reworded essentially says, our phone is so terrible that the consumer never needs to use it. Which probably wouldn't sell as well as their current campaign that you can enjoy life instead of looking at your phone.


















It is very clear to see which phone above is designed better. Apple has sleek icons, while Microsoft's blocks often fall off the screen and one has to scroll to the side to read a full sentence. Apple's product is a consumers dream and Microsoft's phone is how the Apple Iphone would look in Steve Jobs's nightmares.

Nokia stock is falling on the news that it has teamed up with Microsoft. The question is would it have fallen if it had teamed up with Apple?

Does Bing Bring in the Bling? (NASDAQ: MSFT) (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: YHOO)

Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) Bing search engine has been taking market share ever since it was launched. According to Net Applications, Bing is the 4th largest search engine by query volume on the Internet at 3.25%. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is in first at %83.34%, followed by Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) and 6.32% and then Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) at 4.96%. Bing does offer similar search results, but also houses some interesting new features for a search engine. Its home page is quite appealing and its Bing Maps shows high quality birds-eye-view images. Although not as easy to navigate as Google, Bing sure is creeping up on Yahoo in the United States. Some reports have said that Microsoft recently passed Yahoo as the second largest search engine, if all of the Microsoft Network search engines are included, such as Windows Live, and MSN.

Will Apple Eat Into Microsoft's Profits? (NYSE: MSFT)

Shares of Microsoft (MSFT) tumbled 2% this morning as Goldman Sachs provided us with details that “Microsoft was being threatened by the rise of tablet computers such as Apple's iPad, which do not run Windows software.” Although it is true that that current tablets to not run Windows software, the new tablet trend should not eat into Microsoft’s profits. Apple’s iPad competes in its own market, as a tablet and a notebook/netbook computer serve different purposes to customers who may require both devices. Microsoft is simply missing out on the tablet frenzy until it is able to launch its own tablet running windows.

Microsoft shares are down 21% so far this year, even as its Windows 7 operating system impresses customers and has been selling at record levels for the tech giant. Microsoft has been lagging in the phone and tablet industry, but the company is best known for coming out with “improved” versions of the competitions’ product. Goldman Sachs’ downgrade comes at a time when the shares have already been beaten to a pulp.

The Microsoft Corporation (NYSE: MSFT) Rewards Good Work

Steve Ballmer the CEO of Microsoft made $1.34 million in the last year which was an increase to the previous year. The board of directors felt that Ballmer had done a good job in certain areas such as expense control and Windows 7. But Ballmer is being paid less than his Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner, who nearly doubled his 2009 earnings to 10.4 million. Ballmer also had his compensation cut. This may have been for his inability to launch any form of mobile competition to Apple or Research In Motion.

The Microsft board was pleased with Microsoft's strong financial results, but the company has not been able to make progress into new businesses. For example their Microsoft Kin which was family of phones that was cancelled just 6 weeks after it began in July at a cost of 1 billion dollars.