Stock Update

MOSCOW--Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov has bought around $100 million of shares in Apple Inc. (AAPL), Mr. Usmanov's USM Holdings said Tuesday.

Mr. Usmanov's stake in Apple follows a decline in the share price of the U.S. technology giant. It could not be confirmed when and at what price Mr. Usmanov had purchased the Apple shares, and USM Holdings had no further comment regarding the purchase.

USM Holdings was formed in early 2012 and holds assets in technology, media, telecommunications and mining.

Shares of coffee giant Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) reached a new 52-week high of $60.92 on Monday, Apr 29, following strong earnings results for the second quarter of fiscal 2013. Starbucks also upped its earnings guidance for fiscal 2013, while retaining its sales, comps and operating margin outlook.

The closing price of the coffee maker on Apr 29 was $60.58, representing a solid 1-year return of about 5.6% and year-to-date return of about 10.2%. Average volume of shares traded over the last three months stands at approximately 5180K.

Growth Drivers

During the second quarter of fiscal 2013, earnings soared 20% year over year to 48 cents on the back of solid margin growth.

Total sales for the second quarter increased 11% year over year to $3.56 billion but slightly missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.59 billion. Beverage and food innovations and the steady sales growth in the U.S. and Asia were partially offset by the weakness in Europe.

Netflix Inc. (NFLX) said its original new series "Orange Is The New Black" will premiere July 11, as the online-video company continues its push to compete with rival Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and muscle into territory dominated by Time Warner Inc.'s (TWX) HBO and CBS Corp.'s (CBS) Showtime cable networks.

Netflix currently has the dominant status in media streaming, but analysts have warned this could soon give way to a more-competitive--and less-profitable--environment, as online rivals such as Amazon quickly have added more content of their own.

To help increase subscriber rolls and retain existing customers, Netflix has been spending heavily to acquire new content and plan original programs, including a reboot of the critically praised "Arrested Development" series, and its highly popular original political drama series "House of Cards."

Netflix described "Orange Is The New Black" as a comedic drama starring Taylor Schilling, set in a women's prison and based on the U.S. best-selling memoir by Piper Kerman. All 13 one-hour episodes in the series from Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.'s (LGF) Lionsgate Television will be available at launch.

Netflix said its members will have access to the show at 12:01 a.m. PDT in all territories where Netflix is available--the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Latin America, Brazil and the Nordics.

Netflix has also been trying to defend its market share by striking exclusive deals to stream content. In March, the video company disclosed an agreement with Fox Entertainment Group, a part of the Fox Television Studios Inc. unit of News Corp. (NWSA, NWS.AU), to make the third season of "The Killing" available exclusively for its streaming members after the show is aired in the U.S. That disclosure came a few weeks after rival Amazon said it had struck a content-licensing agreement with Public Broadcasting Service's PBS Distribution, making its Prime Instant Video the exclusive subscription home for streaming the PBS television series "Downton Abbey." News Corp. owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires.

Earlier this month, Netflix reported it had swung to a first-quarter profit as the movie-subscription company continued to add more Internet subscribers and also disclosed a new plan that will allow users to stream four videos simultaneously.

Shares closed Monday at $215.01 and were inactive in recent premarket trading. The stock has more than doubled in the past 12 months.