As the second quarter earnings crunch begins in earnest this week, the bear market has investors jittery and prognosticators spinning out dire warnings. In the wake of mixed results from Alcoa (NYSE: AA) and General Electric (NYSE: GE) kicking things off last week, here's a look at what Wall Street is expecting from many of the companies scheduled to report this coming week.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial are expecting the following companies to report a rise in earnings when compared to the same period of the previous year.
Nucor Corp. (NYSE: NUE): $1.80 EPS (36.6%) on sales of $6.4 billion (+53.0%)
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG): $4.74 EPS (24.9%) on sales of $3.9 billion (+41.6%)
Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK): 56 cents EPS (23.2%) on sales of $19.9 billion (+17.8%)
CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX): 90 cents EPS (21.1%) on sales of $2.9 billion (+12.8%)
Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR): 27 cents EPS (18.5%) on sales of $346.7 million (+8.4%)
IBM (NYSE: IBM): $1.82 EPS (+17.6%) on sales of $25.9 billion (+9.0%)
eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY): 41 cents EPS (17.1%) on sales of $2.2 billion (+18.0%)
Today was a good end to a strange trading week, while many shares had light volume with today's half-day trading session. Non-Farm payrolls declined worse than expected to 62,000, and May was revised higher to 62,000 jobs lost as well. The ISM non-Manufacturing came in again under 50 at a very weak 48.2, signaling growth isn't back to being close to the table. The dollar traders were probably less than thankful after the European Central Bank raised its overnight rates and as oil neared $146.00 per barrel intra-day. These are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT) saw a rise of almost 1% to $54.75 after the FDA approved its XIENCE drug eluting stent.
NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) saw a horrific drop after the company's earnings warnings. This is what happens when your new product fails enough that it increased the severity. Shares were down 30% at $12.49 at the close.
Penn National Gaming (NASDAQ: PENN) actually rose despite the merger finally being called off. We knew this was coming. Shares closed up 3.7% at $29.66 today.
Have a great weekend, and remember markets are closed Friday in observance of the July 4 holiday.
Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) got approval for its new drug-coated stent. The products are used to open clogged arteries, often in the place of by-pass surgery. The field has been dominated by deeply troubled medical device company Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX). It looks that the weakened company is in for much more pain.
According toThe Wall Street Journal, ABT "received regulatory approval for its Xience V drug-coated stent, which is expected to be the top seller in the roughly $2 billion U.S. market because it appears to be more effective than rival devices." Boston Scientific will sell the new Abbott product, but with 40% of the revenue going to its rival, it is hard to see how that is a good deal.
BSX has been beaten by competition at almost every turn. It took on tremendous debt when it bought medical device company Guidant. It faced trouble when some Guidant products hit quality control issues. Boston Scientific stents came under criticism a year ago, when medical research questioned how effective they were.
BSX traded at almost $45 in 2004. It is now at about $12. With new competition and a bad balance sheet, that is not likely to change much.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
Many of us would be happy to benefit from a quiet retirement without facing concerns of losing all of our hard earned money. Fortune 40 gives us a helping hand by suggesting some big names to invest in that could offer us the results that we are looking for.
One such company is Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT), whose earnings surged 35% during its last quarter, helped by its famous anti-inflammatory drug Humira and HIV treatment Kaletra. Looking ahead to the company's performance, CEO Miles White is planing to keep his main attention on its medical devices unit which is seen as a key element against strong competition.
Fortune 40 also looks at beverage maker The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO), which benefits from strong international gains able to beat recent weakness in U.S. In addition, it looks like the company's acquisition of Glacéau and its VitaminWater brand offer it a good support to outperform on the market.
"You can invest for all the right reasons and still get the wrong result," notes long-standing turnaround stock expert George Putnam, referring to the poor performance of the pharmaceutical sector in recent years.
Here, in his industry-leading The Turnaround Letter, he offers a fascinating review of 10 leading drug stocks which he now believes offer a combination of growth potential at "pretty cheap" valuations. Here is his overview.
"In 2000 and 2001, when the Internet boom was becoming a bust, many smart investors turned away from technology stocks and put their money into drug stocks. How could you go wrong with the big pharmaceutical companies?
"Demand for their products was growing as the population aged. These companies had huge research and development programs that seemed to keep cranking out new blockbuster drugs. And most of them had great balance sheets, with many paying handsome dividends.
"Much of this reasoning has been borne out in the intervening years. Many large drug manufacturers have rung up substantial revenue gains over the last decade. So what's happened to the big drug stocks? With few exceptions they have gone sideways or down – in some cases down a lot.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: SunPower, Evergreen Solar and Abbott Lab were today's noteworthy initiations:
Citigroup believes SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWR) is faced with high cell production costs, its silicon cost and installation cost advantages are increasingly commoditized and finds the risk/reward even at current levels. Shares were initiated with a Hold rating and $105 target.
Citigroup believes Evergreen Solar (NASDAQ: ESLR) faces significant financing requirements over the next few years, making it difficult to see a sustained period of EPS growth beyond the $1 range. The firm sees downside to $5/share. Shares were assumed with a Sell rating and $8 target.
UBS started Abbott Lab (NYSE: ABT) with a Buy rating and $61 target. The firm is positive on Humira potential growth and expects Xience to drive vascular operating margins to positive.
It's a fairly quiet day in analyst land as far as the most active stocks are concerned, despite there being many movers today. Here is a brief snapshot of some of the key calls today:
Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT) started as Buy at UBS. DRS Tech (NYSE: DRS) cut to Neutral at UBS; cut to market perform at FBR.
FreightCar America (NASDAQ: RAIL) Raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies; new price target $42.00 from $35.00.
Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) shares are trading higher after the Food and Drug Administration denied regulatory approval for Merck & Co.'s (NYSE: MRK) cholesterol drug Cordaptive. The Merck drug would have directly competed with ABT's own cholesterol drug. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on ABT.
After hitting a one-year low of $49.58 in July, the stock hit a one-year high of $61.09 in January. ABT opened this morning at $53.32. So far today the stock has hit a low of $52.97 and a high of $53.73. As of 12:10, ABT is trading at $53.24, up $1.63 (3.2%). The chart for ABT looks bearish and steady, while S&P gives the stock a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy rating.
For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a June bull-put credit spread below the $50 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 13.6% return in just seven weeks as long as ABT is above $50 at June expiration. Abbott would have to fall by more than 6% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.
Shares of drug company Abbott Laboratories Inc. (NYSE: ABT) were trading higher this morning after the company reported that its first-quarter profit jumped 35%, helped by strong international demand for its rheumatoid arthritis medication Humira. However, the stock is down 1% just before noon.
For the quarter, Abbott Laboratories reported that its profit climbed to $938 million, or 60 cents per share, boosted by higher sales of its prescription drugs and medical devices that benefited from favorable foreign exchange rates. Excluding special items, the company's earnings came in at 63 cents a share, beating analysts' estimations for quarterly earnings of 62 cents a share.
The pharmaceutical company also announced a 14% growth in revenues, to $6.77 billion, up from $5.95 billion a year earlier. Revenue during the period was helped by a 54% increase in its drug Humira sales which surged to $878 million in the first quarter. Analysts, on average, were expecting the company show $6.53 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Financial.
After hitting a one-year low of $49.58 in July, the stock hit a one-year high of $61.09 in January. ABT opened this morning at $53.81. So far today the stock has hit a low of $53.62 and a high of $55.40. As of 1:00, ABT is trading at $55.07, up $2.00 (3.8%). The chart for ABT looks bearish and steady, while S&P gives the stock a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy rating.
For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a May bull-put credit spread below the $47.50 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 4.2% return in just 7 weeks as long as ABT is above $47.50 at May expiration. Abbott would have to fall by more than 13% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.
ABT hasn't been below $49 at all in the past year and has shown support around $51 recently. This trade could be risky if the company's earnings (due out in mid to late May) disappoint, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by the support the stock might find around $50, where it has bottomed out quite a few times in the past two year. Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer.
DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in ABT or BSX.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: Abbott Lab, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Micromet were today's noteworthy upgrades:
Wachovia upgraded Abbott Lab (NYSE: ABT) to Outperform from Market Perform as they believe their earlier concerns have been addressed. Past concerns included the potential for a negative outcome from the FDA panel on Xience and slowing prescription growth of lead drug Humira.
Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) were raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette citing recent government actions to stabilize the mortgage markets.
Micromet (NASDAQ: MITI) was upgraded at RBC Capital to Outperform from Sector Perform as they expect positive data for its lead candidate, MT103, by year-end.
OTHER UPGRADES:
ThinkEquity raised Atheros Comm (NASDAQ: ATHR) to Buy from Accumulate.
Goldman upgraded US Steel (NYSE: X) to Buy from Neutral.
General Electric (NYSE: GE) was upgraded at Merrill to Buy from Neutral.
UBS downgraded United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAUA) and Northwest (NYSE: NWA) from "buy" to "neutral," according toBriefing.com. The news service also writes that Keefe, Bruyette upgraded Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) to "outperform" from "market perform."
Altria (NYSE: MO) was started as a "buy" at UBS, according to24/7 WallSt. The website also reports that Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) was raised to "outperform" by Wachovia.
Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) announced that it swung to a profit in the fourth quarter from year-earlier results that were reduced by charges for acquisition costs. Abbott's drugs Humira, Depakote, TriCor, and Kaletra all posted double-digit sales gains.
For the quarter ending December 31, Abbott earned $1.2 billion, or 77 cents per share, compared with a loss of $476.2 million, or 31 cents per share, in the same period a year ago. Revenue rose to $7.22 billion from $6.22 billion, exceeding the $6.97 billion estimated by analysts polled by Thomson Financial.
Adjusted earnings, excluding certain items, rose to 93 cents per share, a penny better than analysts' consensus estimate. For the full year, Abbott earned $3.6 billion, or $2.31 a share, compared with $1.72 billion, or $1.12 a share, in 2006. Revenue increased 15% to $25.9 billion from $22.5 billion.
Shares were down about 2% to 56.20 by midday on Wednesday.
For more news on Abbott Labs, see BloggingStocks' Abbott coverage.
As the second quarter earnings crunch begins in earnest this week, the bear market has investors jittery and prognosticators spinning out dire warnings. In the wake of mixed results from Alcoa (NYSE: AA) and General Electric (NYSE: GE) kicking things off last week, here's a look at what Wall Street is expecting from many of the companies scheduled to report this coming week.
Many of us would be happy to benefit from a quiet retirement without facing concerns of losing all of our hard earned money. Fortune 40 gives us a helping hand by 
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Here are some highlights from this past week's .gif){kind=logo}
Serious Money: How 'Stable' after 345 DJIA drop? -- CB, DIS, JNJ, TEVA & XEL
Closing Bell: Dow plunges amid grim economic news; AIG, CIEN, LM, TEX decline, WMT gains
Is BT's offer to save Britain's red phone boxes for £500 fair?
