Hot Internet Companies To Buy Right Now

Accenture (NYSE: ACN  ) is angling to become a bigger player in eCommerce -- vicariously.

While not venturing into selling widgets (or virtual widgets) over the Internet itself, the international IT consulting firm bolstered its ability to help other companies practice eCommerce Friday, when it announced a deal to buy Hong Kong-based Acquity Group (NYSEMKT: AQ  ) for approximately $316 million.

Acquity Group specializes in advising companies on strategy, digital marketing, and technical services in order to improve both their brands eCommerce businesses. Accenture intends to merge the new subsidiary into its existing Accenture Interactive business.

The purchase price of $13 per American Depositary Share of the company, amounts to a huge premium over the $5.96 share price at which Acquity closed on Friday -- and sparked an immediate rally in the shares after markets closed, but before the weekend intervened. In all, after-hours trading saw Acquity shares shoot up 110% to as high as $12.55 per ADS.

Hot Internet Companies To Buy Right Now: Amazon.com Inc.(AMZN)

Amazon.com, Inc. operates as an online retailer in North America and internationally. It operates retail Web sites, including amazon.com and amazon.ca. The company serves consumers through its retail Web sites and focuses on selection, price, and convenience. It also offers programs that enable sellers to sell their products on its Web sites, and their own branded Web sites. In addition, the company serves developer customers through Amazon Web Services, which provides access to technology infrastructure that developers can use to enable virtually various type of business. Further, it manufactures and sells the Kindle e-reader. Additionally, the company provides fulfillment; miscellaneous marketing and promotional agreements, such as online advertising; and co-branded credit cards. Amazon.com, Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rebecca Lipman]

  Together with its subsidiaries, supplies technology, integrated project management, and information solutions to the oil and gas exploration and production industries worldwide. Market cap of $91.49B. EPS growth (5-year CAGR) at 24%. According to Morgan Stanley: "Thanks to an estimated $1 billion investment per year in R&D, Schlumberger has what we consider the most advanced technology portfolio in the industry."

• [By Karim]

  Jeff Bezos is a very smart and committed CEO.  They have a stranglehold as the world’s largest online retailer.  It makes a lot of sense to buy stuff online and the younger generations are getting more and more comfortable doing so.  The logistics and economies of scale make it almost impossible for any other company to come into this space.  The stock price has risen considerably lately but there is still a lot more room for growth.  When they start selling their tablets with the ability to sell the largely discounted e-books, expect the stock to jump.  All the readers out there will love to buy this new tablet and they are continually making the online shopping experience better, cheaper, and easier.  People are now even buying from their mobile phones with the Amazon App.  Solid long term hold.

• [By James K. Glassman]

   Amazon.com is an example of a company that's investing heavily to good effect. Last year, the online retailer spent $1.8 billion -- or triple its net income -- on capital expenditures. With $9.6 billion in cash and short-term investments and at least $3 billion in cash flow per year over the past three years, Amazon is not in danger of running out of money. Still, CEO Jeff Bezos is boldly spending to solidify his company's dominant position as the place to buy stuff on the Internet. The stock trades at $237.42.

Hot Internet Companies To Buy Right Now: Yahoo! Inc.(YHOO)

Yahoo! Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a digital media company that delivers personalized digital content and experiences through various devices worldwide. It offers online properties and services to users; and a range of marketing services to businesses. The company?s communications and communities offerings include Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, Flickr, and Connected TV, which provide a range of communication and social services to users and small businesses enabling users to organize into groups and share knowledge, common interests, and photos. Its search products comprise Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Local, available free to users to navigate the Internet and discover content. The company?s marketplaces offerings and services include Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo! Travel, Yahoo! Real Estate, Yahoo! Autos, and Yahoo! Small Business, which allow users to research specific topics, products, services, or areas of interest by review ing and exchanging information, obtaining contact details, or considering offers from providers of goods, services, or parties with similar interests. Its media offerings comprise Yahoo! Homepage, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Finance, My Yahoo!, Yahoo! Toolbar, Yahoo! Entertainment & Lifestyles, Yahoo! Contributor Network, and Yahoo! Pulse, which are designed to engage users with online content and services on the Web. The company also offers marketing services, such as display and search advertising, listing-based services, and commerce-based transactions to advertisers. In addition, it provides software and platform offerings for third-party developers, advertisers, and publishers, such as Yahoo! Developer Network, Yahoo! Open Strategy, Yahoo! Application Platform, Yahoo! Updates, Yahoo! Query Language, and Yahoo! Search BOSS. The company has strategic alliances with Nokia and ABC News, Inc. Yahoo! Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Californi a.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) had a full shareholder recovery under new CEO Marissa Mayer, but now the company has to begin to execute on its strategy. Mayer probably has another three months before Wall St. will demand to see increasingly better results. We only say this because the shares rose by more than one-third from the summer lows to the peak above $20. Mayer has delivered on her promise to monetize the stake in Alibaba in China, and there is hope that more monetization from that may be seen, or from the Yahoo! Japan stake. Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) may represent the biggest opportunity, but it also may represent the largest challenge. Yahoo! looks as though it will be a content destination rather than stepping backwards to become a search and aggregation destination.

  Yahoo! trades at $19.40, but it has lost some momentum after closing at $20.08 and peaking at $20.32 for its 52-week high on the first trading day of 2013. The company has a $23 billion market cap, and we would caution that analysts have a consensus price target of only $19.66 after a fresh downgrade by Bernstein on valuation. Yahoo! trades at about 17-times current and forward earnings expectations.

  As you might have expected, there is an ETF for that! The First Trust Dow Jones Internet Index (NYSEMKT: FDN) ETF trades at $40.60, but note that it hit a 52-week high, and that the 52-week is now $40.67. We would also note that the volume of almost 2.4 million shares seen this past Monday was basically twice as active as the three busiest trading days of 2012 in this ETF.

Top 10 Semiconductor Companies To Watch In Right Now: Symantec Corporation(SYMC)

Symantec Corporation provides security, storage, and systems management solutions internationally. The company?s Consumer segment delivers Internet security, PC tune-up, and online backup solutions and services to individual users and home offices. Its Security and Compliance segment provides solutions for endpoint security and management, compliance, messaging management, data loss prevention, encryption, and authentication services to large, medium, and small-sized businesses, as well as offers solutions through its software-as-a-service (SaaS) security offerings. This segment?s products enable customers to secure, provision, and remotely manage their laptops, PCs, mobile devices, and servers. The company?s Storage and Server Management segment provides storage and server management, backup, archiving, and data protection solutions across heterogeneous storage and server platforms, as well as solutions delivered through its SaaS offerings to large, medium, and small-s ized businesses. Symantec?s Services segment offers implementation services and solutions, including consulting, business critical services, education, and managed security services. The company also provides various enterprise support offerings, such as annual maintenance support contracts, including content, upgrades, and technical support. It sells its products through its eCommerce platform, as well as through distributors, direct marketers, Internet-based resellers, system builders, ISPs, and retail locations worldwide. Symantec markets and sells its products through distributors, retailers, direct marketers, Internet-based resellers, original equipment manufacturers, system builders, and Internet service providers; and its e-commerce channels, as well as direct sales force, value-added and large account resellers, and system integrators. The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jonas Elmerraji]

   Symantec (SYMC) is having a better year in 2012. Shares of the $13 billion computer security firm have rallied around 18% year-to-date, besting the broad market's performance by a slight margin. Much of Symantec's performance came in the late Summer, when the stock gapped up and started moving higher extremely quickly.

  But that straight-up trajectory wasn't sustainable, so shares have spent the last couple of months consolidating sideways in a price channel. Sideways consolidation isn't a bad thing -- it just means that investors are trying to catch their breath after a big volatile run. With resistance coming in at $19.25, buyers have a pretty well defined signal that the rest is over for SYMC and another rally leg is beginning. I wouldn't recommend buying until then.

  Remember, these setups all come down to supply and demand from buyers and sellers. After the huge push higher at the end of the summer, sellers started coming in at $19.25 -- it was a price where sellers were more eager to sell and take gains than buyers were to keep buying. That's why the breakout above $19.25 is a buy signal; a breakout indicates that buyers have gained enough strength to absorb all of the excess supply above $19.25.

  Without that upside barrier, this stock should be able to keep running higher…

Hot Internet Companies To Buy Right Now: Google Inc.(GOOG)

Google Inc. maintains an index of Web sites and other online content for users, advertisers, and Google network members and other content providers. It offers AdWords, an auction-based advertising program; AdSense program, which enables Web sites that are part of the Google Network to deliver ads from its AdWords advertisers; Google Display, a display advertising network that comprises the videos, text, images, and other interactive ads; DoubleClick Ad Exchange, a real-time auction marketplace for the trading of display ad space; and YouTube that provides video, interactive, and other ad formats for advertisers. The company also provides Google Mobile that optimizes Google?s applications for mobile devices in browser and downloadable form; and enables advertisers to run search ad campaigns on mobile devices, as well as Google Local that provides local information on the Web; and Google Boost for small businesses to participate in the ads auction. In addition, it offers And roid, an open source mobile software platform; Google Chrome OS, an open source operating system; Google Chrome, a Web browser; Google TV, a platform for the consumers to use the television and the Internet on a single screen; and Google Books platform to discover, search, and consume content from printed books online. Further, the company provides Google Apps, a cloud computing suite of message and collaboration tools, which includes Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Sites; Google Search Appliance that offers real-time search of business and intranet applications, and public Web sites; Google Site Search, a custom search engine; Google Commerce Search for online retail enterprises; Google Checkout to make online shopping and payments streamlined and secure; Google Maps Application Programming Interface; and Google Earth Enterprise, a firewall software solution for imagery and data visualization. Google Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Chuck]  

  The brokerage expect outperformance for Google, given continued strength in the paid search market driven by a modestly improving economy and online share gains and traction with non-search businesses, primarily display and mobile. The brokerage is modeling 18 percent and 19 percent revenue and EPS growth, respectively, in 2011.

• [By Kevin M. O'Brien]

  Google (GOOG) will surpass $725.00/share. Google has a lot of trouble over the last few years maintaining its all-time highs. I do not think this will be the case in 2012. The stock is really starting to show strength of late and I do believe this carries over into next year.

• [By David Eller]

  With Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) being the king of search, we wanted to start there. Google still has approximately 67% of the online search market. In the past this had been more than 70%, but its dominance is still very much present. What is transforming Google is its Android operating system for smartphones and tablets, and now for little netbooks, on the heels of its Motorola buyout. Google shares bounced handily after a disappointing earnings report and fears about the online ad market, even after the mobile ad cannibalization, have so far been seriously overblown. Shares are now near a 52-week high again, and Wall St. remains very favorable, even with leadership questions being present.

  Google shares trade around $735, with a $214 billion market cap and with a 52-week trading range of $556.62 to $774.38. Analysts have a consensus value of just over $800.00, for upside of only about 9%. Google trades at close to 16-times its expected 2013 earnings.