Continue reading Avon Is Trying Investors' Patience

Avon Is Trying Investors' Patience originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Hugo Chavez Racing Toward Economic Peril

Hugo Chavez Racing Toward Economic Peril originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Tupperware (TUP) issued Q4 numbers after the bell on Monday. Sales were higher by 10% once benefits from currency exchange were eliminated. Adjusted earnings per share increased 16% to $1.22. According to Earnings.com, net income came in 18 cents better than the average estimate.

Bravo! Tupperware, which counts Newell Rubbermaid (NWL) and Avon Products (AVP) as colleagues, is also doing well with cash flow. In fact, you'll notice from the release that management is increasing its stock buyback by $200 million.

Continue reading Tupperware Reports Strong Q4

Tupperware Reports Strong Q4 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Estee Lauder (EL) closed at $49.76. EL is expected to report Q2 EPS on January 28th. February option implied volatility is at 31, April is 29; near its 26-week average of 31, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

Avon Products (AVP) closed at $32.26. AVP February put option implied volatility is at 35, April puts are at 32, versus its 26-week average of 32, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

Elizabeth Arden (RDEN) closed at $16.27. RDEN is expected to report Q2 EPS in early February. February and June option implied volatility of 59 is below its 26-week average of 72, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Options Update: Marketers of Beauty Products Volatility Low originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Avon (AVP) beats Q2 estimates

Avon (AVP) beats Q2 estimates originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

"Although I'm very leery of the market now, I'll continue to buy gradually when specific stocks are attractive," says Jack Adamo. In Insiders Plus, he looks to a new idea: Avon Products (NYSE: AVP).

"Avon's stock got whacked when fellow paint sellers, Estee Lauder and Elizabeth Arden, guided earnings lower, and analysts lowered earnings expectations for Avon to about $1.90 for 2009.

"They're probably still too optimistic, but I'm buying the stock anyway. We owned Avon for almost 3 years, and sold it for $43.47 in September for a 69% profit.

Continue reading Avon (AVP) calling: Yield and growth

Avon (AVP) calling: Yield and growth originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Analyst upgrades:

• Baird upgraded Regal-Beloit (NYSE: RBC) to Outperform from Neutral based on valuation and growth expectations.
• Black & Decker (NYSE: BDK) and Lennar (NYSE: LEN) were upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS based on valuation.
• Kroger (NYSE: KR) and Public Storage (NYSE: PSA) were added to Goldman's Conviction Buy List.
• CIBC upgraded Biovail (NYSE: BVF) to Sector Performer from Sector Underperformer.
• Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Cowen.

• Merrill downgraded Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) to Neutral from Buy and expects marketing and promotional spending to limit earnings growth in 2009 and 2010. The firm lowered their target to $35 from $42.
• Mechel Steel (NYSE: MTL) was cut to Underweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley to reflect declining coal demand.
  
• Friedman Billings downgraded shares of Legg Mason (NYSE: LM) to Underperform from Market Perform on liquidity concerns given the Legg Mason's leveraged balance sheet and falling EBITDA. The firm lowered their target to $7 from $11.

Continue reading Analyst calls: RBC, BDK, KR, LEN, KR, CPB, MTL, LM, PIR, AAPL, AVP ...

Analyst calls: RBC, BDK, KR, LEN, KR, CPB, MTL, LM, PIR, AAPL, AVP ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In a conversation with an attorney friend of mine, who happens to be a woman, she asked for some general financial guidance. During the course of the conversation it occurred to me that women need to save more than men. There are many reasons for this, here are a few:

The first and most obvious reason women need to save more than men is that they live longer -- often without the support of a significant other. Living longer and living alone cost more money.

Second of all, women still do not have complete earnings parity with men. Some of this has to do with job type and some with history. But nevertheless, we are not there yet. If there is a 15% disparity, then a woman is starting at a disadvantage whether saving for her retirement in the future or for buying a gallon of gas today. This can only be made up by saving more and investing more. This is a worthy goal except that with less resources the difficulty is exacerbated.

Continue reading Three reasons women need to save more than men -- Seriously!

Three reasons women need to save more than men -- Seriously! originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

"Beauty is as beauty does, the saying goes, and Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP) has delivered a beautiful earnings report," says Jack Adamo in his industry-leading Insiders Plus. Here's his latest.

"Despite a 14% increase in advertising (or perhaps, because of it) the company delivered EPS up 26%. In North America, the only underperforming region, revenues continued their slow downward slide. But active representatives increased for the first time in ages, which may brighten the future on the company's home turf.

"International sales continued to soar. Latin America was 19% higher in local currencies, and 32% higher after translation into the American Peso, also known as the U.S. Dollar. In Central & Eastern Europe, first-quarter revenue rose 17% (6% in local currency). Revenue in China grew 29% (19% local). Only Japan dragged things down a bit with its 2% gain.

Continue reading Avon Products (AVP): A 'beautiful report'

Avon Products (AVP): A 'beautiful report' originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 29 May 2008 11:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Avon (NYSE: AVP) delivered not a bag of cosmetics to Wall Street, but a batch of growing earnings. Total revenues for the first quarter were up beautifully, rising 14% to $2.5 billion. Earnings per diluted share likewise did the double-digit-increase dance, rocketing 26% to $0.43.

Now, I would have liked the report a lot more if the company had indicated in its cash flow statement that everything was positive -- unfortunately, that was not to be, as operational cash flow was, in fact, negative. Avon needed to use $41 million for its operating activities during the quarter. Well, one thing I can say is that it's a lot less than the cash needed to fund last year's operations -- Avon burned through over $160 million in the comparable period. A check of the latest 10K shows that, while operational cash flow has been decreasing over the last few years, it has remained positive, so since this is the first quarter of the new fiscal year, we can wait to see how cash flow shapes up as the quarters go by.

Avon competes with companies like Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Revlon (NYSE: REV) and Estee Lauder (NYSE: EL). As I've stated in the past, Procter & Gamble is more my kind of consumer-products business, but I'll give Avon its due since it does have a good product portfolio backing its brand and a devoted base of users. The stock is not too far off from its 52-week high as of this writing, and so long as it can keep sales growing and fight inflationary pressures, it should be a decent long-term bet.

Disclosure: I don't own shares in any of the companies mentioned; positions can change at any time.

Avon's Q1 earnings were fetching (except for the cash flow) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: The charts are amazingly bad

Cramer on BloggingStocks: The charts are amazingly bad originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Avon is restructuring, and it ain't pretty

Avon is restructuring, and it ain't pretty originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Apple adds Avon's Andrea Jung to board

Apple adds Avon's Andrea Jung to board originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Avon starts to connect with homes, globally originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 03 Dec 2007 10:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Net income at Procter & Gamble rose 14% to $3.08 billion, or 92 cents a share, compared with $2.7 million, or 79 cents, a year earlier. Revenue surged 7.5% to $20.5 billion. Excluding a tax-benefit, profit was 90 cents. Analysts had expected profit of 89 cents on revenue of $20.23 billion. P&G expects profit for the current quarter of between 95 to 97 cents; Wall Street expectations are for 97 cents. The company raised its full year outlook by 2 cents to $3.46 to $3.49 to reflect a one-time tax benefit.

"The fiscal year is off to a good start," said A.G. Lafley, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, in the earnings release. "P&G continues to deliver broad-based top and bottom-line growth across its portfolio of businesses and geographies. This momentum, along with a robust initiative pipeline for the year, gives us confidence that P&G will deliver another strong year of growth."

Shares of P&G, which are up about 12% this year, fell in pre-market action.

Continue reading P&G, Colgate, Avon hold up thanks to weak dollar

P&G, Colgate, Avon hold up thanks to weak dollar originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 30 Oct 2007 09:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: The Personal Care, Household Products and Cosmetics industry, Horsehead Holdings and China Sunergy were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Wachovia initiated coverage of the HPC industry with an Overweight rating, starting shares of Avon Products Incorporated (NYSE: AVP), The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG) and Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE: KMB) with Outperform ratings and The Clorox Company (NYSE: CLX) and The Estee Lauder Companies Inc (NYSE: EL) with Market Perform ratings.
• CIBC started shares of Horsehead Holdings (NASDAQ: ZINC) with a Sector Outperformer rating and $30 target, as they believe the valuation discount to other North American zinc producers will narrow as investors become more aware of the name.
• Jefferies would avoid shares of China Sunergy Co Ltd (NASDAQ: CSUN) in the near-term as the company resolves issues regarding its access to polysilicon. The firm initiated shares with a Hold rating and $8 target.

• Goldman reinstated LSI Corporation (NYSE: LSI) with a Neutral rating and $8 target.
• ThinkEquity initiated Advanced Analogic Technologies Incorporated (NASDAQ: AATI) with a Buy rating and $15 target.
• Deutsche Bank resumed coverage of Spirit Aerosystems Holdings Inc (NYSE: SPR) with a Hold rating and $36 target.

Analyst initiations: HPC industry, ZINC and CSUN originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

CEOs like to talk about "traction." It is part of the CEO lingo. Having traction is a good thing. It means your company is going somewhere.

Chairman and CEO Andrea Jung said Avon's (NYSE:AVP) turnaround is gaining traction, according to the Associated Press. But, the company's stock is down 8% to $35.70 after announcing earnings. Second-quarter 2007 revenue grew 12% year over year to $2.3 billion.

Net income in the second quarter 2007 was $113 million, or $0.26 per share, compared with $151 million, or $0.33 per share in the year-ago quarter. The market didn't like that part and sent the stock plunging almost 9%.

Avon's big problem is that its sales are growing in places like China and Latin America, but in its home market the company is going nowhere. During the last quarter, Avon's US sales were flat at $620 million. And operating income for the region fell 32% to $41.5 million. If the company had not done very well in Latin America during the period, things would have been much worse for the overall bottom line.

Avon seems to be going through endless restructurings. And, it shows. The shares are now trading at the same value that they were in the spring of 2004

That's traction.

Avon earnings have no traction originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 31 Jul 2007 11:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Avon Products (NYSE: AVP) volume and volatility elevated into 7/31 EPS.

• AVP is recently up $0.73 to $40.36. AVP will report EPS on July 31st.
  
• AVP call option volume of 9,189 contracts compares to put volume of 1,499 contracts. AVP August option implied volatility of 38 is above its 26-week average of 25 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price fluctuations.

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) volume and volatility increases on unconfirmed LBO chatter.

• ANF is recently up $1.51 to $72.36 on unconfirmed private equity LBO chatter.
  
• ANF has a market cap of $6.3 billion with zero long term debt. BAMO has a $95 price target on ANF.
  
• ANF call option volume of 7,380 contracts compares to put volume of 439 contracts. ANF August option implied volatility of 36 is above its 26-week average of 31 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Daily Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

Option update 7-25-07: Avon Products volume elevated ahead of earnings originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 25 Jul 2007 14:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Under activist CEO Andrea Jung, Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP) has turned itself around and is posting excellent numbers across the board and around the world. Investors interested in international stocks should still take a look at Avon which, despite being an American company, now earns slightly more than half its revenues from markets abroad. The stock opened the year trading at $33.60 and closed July 12 at $39.55, up 19% thus far this year. Not only do 2007 numbers look good compared to 2006, which was admittedly horrible, but as the reorganization efforts continue to gain traction worldwide, the numbers will only get better.

Here follows a summary of Avon's recent earnings report:

1Q 2007 total revenue grew 9% to $2.2 billion, with all 6 global divisions posting profits. Net income for 1Q TRIPLED to $150 million. The number of Avon representatives rose 4% to more than five million, making Avon the world's largest direct seller. Avon is spending $15 million to provide leadership and sales training for this potent sales channel. Operating profit rose 176%, (not a typo!) to $238 million despite continuing restructuring costs of $27 million. Thus far, FY 2007 cash flow is ahead of FY 2006 cash flow and the company repurchased $130 million of its stock during 1Q 2007. FY 2006 was marked by huge restructuring costs inlcuding inventory write offs and numerous products lines being discontinued. Most of the mess is behind Avon, a fact demonstrated by around the world increases in both revenues and profits.

Continue reading Ding dong, Avon calling. You should answer

Ding dong, Avon calling. You should answer originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 13 Jul 2007 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Jim Cramer, never one to rest on a single industry segment, discussed the quest for youthfulness tonight on his ever-popular MAD MONEY show.

If you want your body to look like a teenager's but your bank balance to scream "old fogey," Cramer advises that you avoid Bare Escentuals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BARE). He calls it a fad that isn't going anywhere, and says if you own it you should "ring the register." It was spun off by an LBO firm, but now it's too late; the company won't make you money. Cramer had regrets over this one: he didn't tell a caller on Friday to sell, and wished he had.

Better options if you want to capitalize on America's quest for eternal youth? Cramer likes Allergan, Inc. (NYSE:AGN) for its Botox and Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation (NYSE:MRX) for its competing product. He counselled against the big, luxury names in the space: Avon Products Group (AVP), The Estee Lauder Co. (NYSE:EL) or Revlon, Inc. (NYSE:REV). Cosmetic companies are unreliable to Cramer.

Cramer did say International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (NYSE:IFF) is a good alternative, even though it is close to a 52-week high. He thinks the company is much better with scents and steady end markets. Soon it will split into two businesses, he says, as it creates sweet ingredients that it sells to large companies like P&G. He said IFF only trades at 16x forward earnings and it has consistent 10% earnings growth. The best pick of the bunch? IFF, Cramer says.

[Photo Michael McCauslin]

Cramer: look younger with Botox, IFF; Bare Escentuals old news originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 23 Oct 2006 18:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.