Why Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), Pandora Media Inc (P) and Juniper Networks, Inc. (JNPR) Are 3 of Today’s Best Stocks

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U.S. markets were once again weaker today after breaking through technical-support levels, as well as from continuing shakiness in commodities and a pullback in the biotech index. Gold, however, did manage to rally a little in the late afternoon on some short covering.

Why Amazon, Pandora and Juniper Networks Are 3 of Today's Best StocksIn addition, economic reports from both China and Europe showed weakness in their manufacturing indices. Gold touched a five-year low intraday.

Also, the Commerce Department reported that just two days after existing home sales reached an eight-year highnew home sales were off 6.8% in June to 482,000 annual units, a seven-month low. New home sales usually decline before existing home sales do, because the cost of a new home is higher.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which dropped below 17,600, finished 0.9% lower, while the S&P 500, which failed to stay above 2088, was off by 1.06%. The Nasdaq was lower by 1.1%. Sectors were 100% in the red today.

But as the past few days have shown, stocks that do have upside surprises on earnings and especially revenue are still the toast of Wall Street.

Three of today’s best stocks who scored upside beats were Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P) and Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR).

Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)

Amazon stock just keeps climbing higher and higher. Year-to-date the giant Internet retailer is up close to 100%.

AMZN rose more than 10% today after reporting second-quarter earnings after Thursday’s closing bell, crushing the estimates for both earnings per share and revenue.

The Street was expecting a loss of 14 cents a share, and Amazon instead reported a gain of 19 cents a share. In addition, AMZN’s reported revenue of $23.2 billion beat the analysts’ estimates by $790 million.

With the rise in share price, Amazon now has a market value of $259 billion, about $28 billion more than Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT).

Pandora Media Inc (P)

Shares of Pandora stock rallied nearly 15% today, as the online-music company reported second-quarter adjusted earnings of 5 cents a share on revenue of $285.6 million, besting the analysts’ views for 2 cents a share on $283.1 million.

Mobile revenue was particularly strong, climbing 37% this quarter over a year ago. Advertising revenue was also up 30%. Pandora also made the Street happy by upping revenue guidance for the full year, from $1.16 billion to $1.18 billion to $1.175 billion to $1.185 billion.

The icing on the cake today came from Albert Fried & Company, which upgraded P stock from “market perform” to “overweight,” and maintained a $19 price tag.

Juniper Networks, Inc. (JNPR)

After the bell on Thursday, Juniper Networks reported second-quarter earnings of 41 cents a share, easily besting the consensus of 31 cents a share. In addition, posted revenue of $1.22 billion came in ahead of the consensus for $1.11 billion.

As a result, JNPR stock rose 4% on the day.

JNPR stock also got a small boost from MKM Partners, which upgraded JNPR from “sell” to “neutral,” and raised its price target on JNPR stock from $22 to $28 a share.

JNPR has been expanding its business model into software defined network, which along with cloud infrastructure, helps businesses to lower their networking costs.

As of this writing, Ethan Roberts does not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

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Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2015/07/best-stocks-amzn-p-jnpr/.

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