CVS posts
Posted Jun 25th 2009 9:00AM by Steven Mallas
Filed under: Earnings reports, Wal-Mart (WMT), Walgreen Co (WAG), CVS Corp (CVS), Rite Aid Corp (RAD)
Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD), which competes with Walgreen (NYSE: WAG), CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS), and Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), saw a big increase in volume on Wednesday after it reported earnings for the first quarter. In fact, as Douglas McIntyre observed, shares of Rite Aid were up 5% at one point during yesterday's session. However, the shares ended up losing their green status by the close of trading. Rite Aid actually lost 3% when all was said and done. What does it all mean?
Well, Rite Aid did beat analyst forecasts by a wide margin. The call was for a loss of 13 cents per share. Rite Aid lost only 6 cents per share once adjustments are made. Revenues dipped a little over 1%, and same-store sales, after excluding the effect of the Brooks Eckerd acquisition, increased 1.5%. Interestingly, the mix of this increase is as follows: the pharmacy sales went up 3.1% on a comparable basis, and the non-pharmacy sales went down 1.4% on the same basis.
Continue reading Rite Aid beats analysts, but not right for me yet
Posted Jun 21st 2009 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, Walgreen Co (WAG), Darden Restaurants (DRI), NIKE, Inc'B' (NKE), KB HOME (KBH), Oracle Corp (ORCL), Economic data
Continue reading The week in preview: End-of-quarter earnings expectations: Nike, Oracle, Walgreen ...
Posted Jun 20th 2009 2:10PM by Steven Mallas
Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, Walgreen Co (WAG), CVS Corp (CVS), Rite Aid Corp (RAD)
Walgreen (NYSE: WAG), a drugstore business that competes with CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS) and Rite-Aid (NYSE: RAD), will be issuing results for the third quarter on Monday, June 22. According to Earnings.com, the analyst community is prescribing $0.56 per share for the company.
Of course, the question is: will Walgreen honor that prescription and fill it? I'd say it's quite possible. Last time around, Walgreen beat estimates. The call was for $0.66 per share in Q2. If you look at the press release from that time, you'll see that, once you adjust for some items, Walgreen went beyond expectations.
Continue reading Walgreen to report Q3 numbers: What should we look for?
Posted Apr 27th 2009 1:00PM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Walgreen Co (WAG), Novartis AG ADS (NVS), Baxter Intl (BAX), CVS Corp (CVS), Hormel Foods (HRL), Tyson Foods'A' (TSN), Smithfield Foods (SFD), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Agriculture
I remember Toronto during SARS. As one of the harder hit areas, it was not a happy place. It was the end of winter, but that miserable, cold winter just didn't want to end. People walked the streets in a gloomy haze, afraid to take the subway and giving dirty looks to anyone brazen enough to cough in public. Worse, I couldn't even visit a friend in the hospital. All things considered though, in global pandemic terms, it was over relatively quickly. Let's hope swine flu will be the same.
In the meantime, let's put on our investors hats and see what's in store for some stocks:
Travel and tourist stocksThis is one of the worst hit areas, especially airlines, as people may cancel their travel plans. For example,
AMR Corp. (NYSE:
AMR) traded over 9 percent lower an hour after the open.
Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE:
RCL) was down over 15 percent. In fact UBS downgraded these airlines and hotels this morning: AMR,
Continental Airlines (NYSE:
CAL),
Host Hotels and Resorts (NYSE:
HST),
Lasalle Hotel Properties (NYSE:
LHO),
Marriott (NYSE:
MAR),
United Airlines (NASDAQ:
UAUA),
US Airways (NYSE:
LCC).
Carnival Cruise Lines (NYSE:
CCL) also declined considerably. Best to stay away from the sector.
Continue reading Don't fear the swine flu . . . trade it
Posted Apr 20th 2009 10:30AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: PepsiCo (PEP), Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Market matters, Walgreen Co (WAG), Citigroup Inc. (C), Target Corp. (TGT), Brinker Intl (EAT), Penney (J.C.) (JCP), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), American Express (AXP), AutoNation Inc (AN), AutoZone Inc (AZO), Centex Corp (CTX), Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW), Kellogg Co (K), Hershey Co (HSY), Sears Holdings (SHLD), CVS Corp (CVS), Gap Inc (GPS), General Mills (GIS), Procter and Gamble (PG), Yum Brands (YUM), Kohl's Corp (KSS), Johnson Controls (JCI), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Nordstrom, Inc (JWN), Unilever ADR (UL), Jones Apparel Group (JNY), Cramer on BloggingStocks, Recession, E*TRADE (ETFC)
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer is seeing signs of a coming boom, but he's still being cautious here. If you had to define the early cycle, if you had to outline what stocks should be soaring coming out of a recession into a boom and which ones should be faltering, you would have to say the action in this market in the last month is the quintessential behavioral pattern.
What are the components of the early cycle? First, it's the homebuilders. As is typical coming out of a recession, the stocks precede the bottom of housing. That's exactly what's happening with the lowest permits and highest affordability and best mortgage rates and massive inventory. Everywhere, except on Wall Street reporting, the bottom is bursting out. When you read the lead story in the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer, and it is all about the thousands of prospective homebuyers heading south to pick up condos and homes for half of what they were worth two years ago -- or even less -- and you know that virtually no one has broken ground in the Sunshine State in a year, you can bet that the bottom's actually behind us. This housing market has wiped out all but the most stable private builders and even the public ones are merging as we know from
Pulte (NYSE:
PHM) (
Cramer's Take) and
Centex (NYSE:
CTX) (
Cramer's Take). So, in the next cycle, you can see some profitability developing year over year even though the new homes don't have much margin because the foreclosed homes next door are going for a song. And don't believe this won't change the dynamic of future foreclosures. In most areas, rent is higher than the interest on mortgages, so you will find that second or third job needed to stay in your home. The incentive structure's radically different than a year ago.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: The seductive pull of the early cycle
Posted Apr 2nd 2009 3:10PM by Steven Mallas
Filed under: Earnings reports, Rite Aid Corp (RAD)
Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD), whose competitors include Walgreen (NYSE: WAG), CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS), and Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), reported Q4 numbers today, and when you read through the release, you sort of come away with a decent feeling. You hear about improvements in this metric and that metric. You wonder if a turnaround might be in the offing. Then you look at the stock price and, even though it is currently being bid higher (it's up over 14% as I write), you come back down to earth and reality hits you in the face. Anything trading under a buck has to give you pause. Rite Aid is no different.
For the quarter, Rite Aid posted a 1.7% decrease in the top line. On an adjusted basis, the drugstore chain reported a loss of $0.14 per share. According to this source, Wall Street thought Rite Aid might lose $0.105 per share. The company is still adjusting to the Brooks Eckerd acquisition. Excluding that effect, same-store sales increased 0.8%. Including the asset, comps decreased 0.1%.
Continue reading Rite Aid up on Q4 report -- can you buy it now?
Posted Feb 21st 2009 3:40PM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings reports, Wal-Mart (WMT), Sprint Nextel Corp (S), Comcast Cl'A' (CMCSA), CVS Corp (CVS), Expedia Inc (EXPE), Hormel Foods (HRL), Teva Pharm Indus ADR (TEVA), Goodyear Tire and Rubber (GT)
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:
Continue reading Earnings highlights: Walmart, Comcast, CVS, Sprint, Hormel, Priceline and more
Posted Feb 19th 2009 8:03AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Earnings reports, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Sprint Nextel Corp (S), CBS Corp 'B' (CBS), Whole Foods Market (WFMI), CVS Corp (CVS), Crocs Inc (CROX)
U.S. stock futures were higher Thursday morning, pointing to a stronger start on Wall Street as investors continued to focus on the economy.
Before the bell: Futures point to higher start ahead of economic data
Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ), reported a
13% quarterly drop in earnings as sales ticked up just 1% due to the recession. Results were inline with estimates, and even though it cut its 2009 guidance, it was still in line with Wall Street's expectations. HPQ shares declined 3.4% in premarket trade.
Sprint Nextel Corp (NYSE: S) posted a $1.6 billion, or
57 cents per share quarterly loss on Thursday and said a total of 1.3 million wireless customers had left its service during the quarter. Revenue fell to $8.4 billion from $9.8 billion a year earlier, and topped the Street's estimate. Sprint expects subscriber losses to improve in 2009. Sprint shares are soaring some 6.6% in premarket trading.
Continue reading Stocks in the news: HPQ, S, UBS, WFMI, CROX, CBS, PCLN, LDK, CVS
Posted Feb 16th 2009 11:00AM by Joseph Lazzaro
Filed under: CVS Corp (CVS), Stocks to Buy, Recession
As drug store chains go, there are few better than CVS Caremark, with the chain taking the CVS name. Further, with the U.S. recession in its 15th month and shares doing their best to form a bottom, now is the time to scoop up CVS's shares, for several reasons.
First, CVS (NYSE: CVS) is a classic defensive stock. During recessions, and especially during this recession, consumers cut back spending, but they do their best to maintain essential purchases, and prescriptions are one such purchase. That bodes well for what analysts call "back store revenue" (the pharmacy).
Continue reading CVS knows that a doctor's handwriting is a code for earnings
Posted Jan 17th 2009 9:40AM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings reports, Apple Inc (AAPL), Intel (INTC), Citigroup Inc. (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Sony Corp ADR (SNE), Alcoa Inc (AA), Bank of America (BAC), Tiffany and Co (TIF), Genentech Inc (DNA)
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:
Continue reading Earnings highlights: Citigroup, Intel, JPMorgan, Alcoa, Apple and others
Posted Jan 15th 2009 11:10AM by Steven Mallas
Filed under: Wal-Mart (WMT), Walgreen Co (WAG), CVS Corp (CVS), Rite Aid Corp (RAD)
Walgreen (NYSE:
WAG ) knows that people want all kinds of options to meet their healthcare needs. Walgreen also knows that it needs to grow and keep up with competitor
CVS Caremark (NYSE:
CVS) and the pharmacy department at
Wal-Mart (NYSE:
WMT). And, yes, I suppose
Rite-Aid (NYSE:
RAD) is technically a competitor, too, although you wouldn't know it by that drugstore chain's stock price. Well, according to
The Wall Street Journal, Walgreen plans to promote an initiative called "Complete Care and Well-Being" to employers. The goal here is to give corporate, as well as government, employees and their families access to healthcare services such as preventive medicine and dental examinations in off-hour time periods. Walgreen will use a network of in-store clinics and health centers to provide these services. That's pretty cool, right? Well, one of the bigger benefits to Walgreen is the synergy it can promote by leveraging this program.
Continue reading Walgreen looking for growth with wellness network
Posted Jan 14th 2009 4:14PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: General Electric (GE), Market matters, Citigroup Inc. (C), ConocoPhillips (COP), CVS Corp (CVS), Oracle Corp (ORCL)
Today was yet another lower trading day straight from the start. If we get another couple days in a row like that, we'll start hearing "I owe, I owe, off to sell stocks I go." Retail sales were expected to be dismal, which they were. And the Beige Book held very little promise or hope.
Here are today's numbers:
DJIA: 8,200.14
-248.42
-2.94%
NASDAQ: 1,489.64
-56.82
-3.67%
Top Analyst UpgradesTop Analyst DowngradesOracle Corp. (NASDAQ:
ORCL) was weak all day after being noted in the
WSJ as having cut about 500 positions in its North American sales and consulting businesses. Shares were down almost 5% at $16.33 late in the day.
CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE:
CVS) approved an 11% increase to its quarterly dividend despite the company having cut its 2009 guidance just last week, Shares, though, fell with the market and were down almost 3% at $25.93 late in the day.
Continue reading Closing Bell: Dow sinks another 248 points; ORCL, CVS, COP, C, GE
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