Joseph Gacinga

IBM can no longer rely on share buybacks to boost earnings. The company will have to depend on organic growth, chiefly from its cloud business, to grow its top and bottom lines, but it might take years before its cloud business is big enough to offset declines in other business segments.

Cisco has been helping stadiums around the country stay connected by building out their HD Wi-Fi infrastructure and upgrading ethernet networks and PRI connections. This represents a non-traditional revenue source for Cisco. The explosion in mobile data will also increase demand for Cisco's hardware.

Corporate spinoffs tend to create substantial value for shareholders, with shares of the spun-off units often outperforming those of the parent company. A good case in point is TripAdvisor, whose shares have gained so much since its spinoff in 2011 that it now commands a bigger market cap than parent Expedia.

Fortune Brands Home and Security still remains a good long-term investment despite this year's sell-off. The sell-off was triggered by concerns about the lofty valuation of the shares, and although the shares still remain quite pricey, the company's strong growth profile justifies the higher valuation.

The decision to leave eBay and PayPal tied together was the right one. PayPal is not likely to face intense competitive pressure from Apple's upcoming mobile payment platform since it has already built a comprehensive risk model to compete with the challenges of facilitating the sale of physical goods online, while Apple must start from scratch.

Although Cabela's firearm revenue has been declining this year, the trend might reverse itself as the months roll on. This, coupled with rapid new modern store openings by the company, might lift its share price.

Shares of UnitedHealth Group, like many health-care stocks, do not sport a high dividend yield. But, when you factor in share buybacks and the cumulative effects of debt reduction, the total shareholder yield improves considerably.

Shares of Frontier Communication and Windstream sport unusually high dividends. Windstream shares, in particular, sport one of the highest dividends for mid-cap stocks. Investors willing to stomach the high risk involved with these shares should understand the headwinds facing the two companies.

Linux, not Mac OS X, is the most likely operating system to benefit once Microsoft stops supporting Windows XP. Although Windows might cede some market share, it's likely to remain dominant in both PC and server operating systems.

Yelp has been having a slog turning a profit compared to TripAdvisor, another review company. Although its shares have fallen considerably in recent times, they will remain vulnerable to a market downturn unless the company can find a way to make profits.

Google has licensed Hotel 77's hotel booking software. But, if its past efforts in the online travel business (such as the acquisition of ITA Software and the launching of Hotel Price Ads and Hotel Finder) are anything to go by, then OTAs such as Priceline and Expedia have little to fear.

Investors have overreacted to the slight month-over-month drop in semiconductor sales for February. Those interested in chip stocks should use the drop to gain fresh entry points.

Apple's iOS remains the most profitable development platform for mobile app developers. This has attracted more developers to the platform and, consequently, helped the company's revenue grow dramatically.

Contrary to the expectations of some analysts, Oracle is not threatened by Big Data going mainstream. Oracle has a comprehensive cloud portfolio that consists of IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS platforms. This will help the company meet the needs of a diverse range of Big Data clients.

Windows 8.1 is being touted as being considerably better than both Windows 8 and the highly popular Windows 7. This shows that Microsoft has learned some lessons from the failure of Windows 8 and integrated them into the new product. The firm is likely to build further on this success when building Windows 9. The exit of Windows XP is also likely to improve the adoption rate of Windows 9.

Several solar technology stocks, such as GT Advanced Technologies and SunEdison, are moving up as demand for solar technology products and sapphire products surges.

Small cloud startups are likely to be hurt the most by the recent spate of cloud services price cuts by large industry players such as Google and Amazon. Small companies lack the deep pockets of the tech titans, and huge price cuts for their cloud services can be detrimental to the young businesses.

Both TripAdvisor and Priceline occupy huge moats in their respective industries, and their shares are a sound investment. The pricey valuation of TripAdvisor shares, however, makes them more vulnerable to sharp falls in case of a market downturn. It would, therefore, be a good idea to balance between the two shares in your portfolio.

Amazon should charge different prices for the various components of Amazon Prime instead of charging a flat fee for the whole package so that its customers will only pay for what they need.

Outerwall's new business ventures, especially its ecoATMs and Coinstar Exchanges, will help the company to continue growing in the future, even if the demand for DVD rentals declines.