Perfect World Co., Ltd (PWRD) has been setting new highs for months and with earnings keeping pace the trend should continue.

Company Description

Perfect World develops online gaming in China. The company specializes in huge multi-player games that drive revenue through either time spent playing or individual purchases. While a majority of cash flow is from China it also licenses its games in 11 other countries.

Profits Surge 55%

On Aug 10 Perfect World announced second-quarter results that included revenue of over $76 million. That level is up 56% on a year-over-year basis. Profits grew proportionally to $66.5 million.

Earnings per share came in at 78 cents, 28% higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 61 cents.

Michael Chi, Chairman and CEO, said "Our strong results were primarily driven by better than anticipated performance of our newly launched 2.5D mysterious adventure MMORPG `Battle of the Immortals' and increasingly optimistic results from

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Major cable MSOs (multi service operators) in the U.S. are aggressively deploying DCOSIS 3.0 technology. Intense competition among cable operators, satellite carriers and telecom service providers for broadband market share has forced the cable MSOs to opt for cost effective bandwidth enhancing technology for high-speed network. DOCSIS 3.0 (also called Wideband network) is a digital channel bonding technique that creates one larger and faster logical pipe to support throughput of at least 100 Mbit/second. With DOCSIS 3.0, cable operators are now able to offer one of the fastest Internet speeds available in the market. Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), the largest MSO in the U.S., has announced that it will upgrade around 40 million homes and businesses of the company’s existing networks with next-generation super-fast wideband technology by the end of 2009. Cablevision System Corp. (CVC) is also increasingly deploying DOCSIS 3.0. Time Warner Cable Inc. (...

Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) is likely to start its nationwide TV Everywhere service, named “On Demand Online", within the next couple of months. TV Everywhere is basically a broadband video service that will enable pay-TV subscribers to watch premium cable programming online over broadband networks. Preference for video-on-demand (watching movie on the Internet) has increased significantly among customers. In addition, demand for online gaming and downloading of various multimedia applications has also gone up.  With TV Everywhere, cable TV subscribers will have access to any entertainment content developer’s library on his/her computer, notebook and mobile handset through an easy and quick authentication system that will link their pay-TV subscriptions to watch cable programming using a broadband connection.  Since last June, Comcast, together with Time Warner Inc. (TWX) is conducting a trial run for its On Demand Online service with 5,000 customers. The trial implemented a "check-in ...

China's leading online media and gaming company Sohu.com Inc. (SOHU) today said that its spun-off unit Changyou.com Ltd. (CYOU) has launched Blade Hero 2, a new 2.5D martial arts-style, multi-user online role-playing game (MMORPG) with new contents.

Blade Hero 2 is a sequel to Changyou's existing MMPORG game known as Blade Online (BO). One of the company’s oldest games, BO’s peak concurrent user (PCU) reached a new high of 95,000. Blade Hero 2 has begun its closed beta testing and also employs Changyou's graphic technology.

Earnings at both Sohu and Changyou.com came in above the Zacks Consensus. While this was good news, both stocks fell as Changyou pushed back the launch of three new games: "Duke of Mount Deer" (postponed from the fourth quarter of 2009 to the third quarter of 2010), "Immortal Faith" (deferred from the second quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2010)

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Kawasaki-based NEC Electronics Corp. and Renesas Technology Corp. (a joint venture between Hitachi Ltd. (HIT) and Mitsubishi Electric Corp.) pushed back the proposed merger of their business operations until the end of September for the second time this year.

Due to a delay in completing due-diligence on the companies' assets, including the manufacturing and sales sites worldwide, the companies had decided to postpone the contract to the end of July. Again in July, the companies decided to postpone the agreement to integrate business operations at NEC Electronics and Renesas until the end of August.

In April 2009, both NEC Electronics and Renesas had been negotiating to integrate business operations. The consolidation took place to weather the difficult economic conditions, weak demand and pricing pressure that weighed heavily on chipmakers. This merger would make the combined company Japan's largest chip maker with more than 30% market share, and the third-largest chip

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – August 11, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights tw telecom (TWTC) as the Bull of the Day and Loews Corporation (L) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), Verizon Communications (VZ) and AT&T (T).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

We maintain our Buy rating and the same valuation target for tw telecom (TWTC), a leading provider of managed voice & data networking solutions. TWTC continues to generate sustaining revenue from large business enterprises primarily through sales of Ethernet and IP-VPN services.

This has reduced the company's dependence on telecom carrier customers. Although the balance sheet remains considerably leveraged, we do not expect any immediate liquidity crisis since no significant

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Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) is aggressively deploying Docsis 3.0 technology to upgrade its existing customers to high-speed network. Docsis 3.0 (also called Wideband network) is a digital channel-bonding technique that creates one larger and faster logical pipe to support throughput of at least 100 Mbit/second. Recently, management announced that it expects to upgrade around 40 million homes and businesses of the company’s existing networks with next-generation super-fast wideband technology by the end of 2009. This revised estimate exceeds Comcast’s previous guidance of 30 million homes and businesses.

With Docsis 3.0, Comcast is now able to offer one of the fastest Internet speeds available in the market. The company has not only doubled the speed for its customers but also offers new higher-speed service plans. Offering high-speed Internet access has become essential for service providers since preference for video-on-demand (watching movie on the Internet) has increased among customers. In addition,

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Are techs back and ready for another run-up? No one really knows. If technology plays are poised for a resurgence, the catalysts of today are much different than those of the past. However, the support level that the tech-laden Nasdaq recently touched was not too far off from the bottom it hit in late 2002.

After seeing the 2002 bottom, the Nasdaq gained approximately 160% during the 5 years that followed before tumbling again. Will the Nasdaq, coming off a recent bottom, bring similar or bigger profits? We'll have to wait and see. But why watch from the sidelines? Why not pick a few solid tech plays and ride the wave higher should there be another 5-year surge.

Using the Research Wizard, I found Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) plays that are poised to deliver strong results over the long-term.

3 Tech Plays

Western Digital Corp. (WDC)

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Socialwise, Inc., a leader in the thriving free-to-play online games in the western market, recently announced that the company has partnered with Gala-Net, Inc. to offer the BillMyParents payment system as a payment option on the gPotato gaming portal. BillMyParents, a unique youth payment system, allows teens to shop online without a credit card and gives parents the ability to easily track and control their teen’s spending.

This new partnership with gPotato will add six online game titles and approximately five million registered users, giving Socialwise the ability to provide payment services to more than 20 million registered gamers. In addition, gPotato users will be able to use BillMyParents to purchase accessories and virtual currency for game play upgrades and parents can quickly and easily deny or accept payments.

Jim Collas, chief executive officer of Socialwise, stated, “As we integrate new partners over the next few months, we will gain exposure

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Perfect World Co., Ltd (...