Continental airlines posts
FeedPosted Apr 9th 2010 5:00PM by Sheldon Liber (RSS feed)
Filed under: Rumors, Rants and Raves, Competitive Strategy, Southwest Airlines (LUV), US Airways Group (LCC), AMR Corp (AMR), Contl Airlines'B' (CAL), UAL Corp (UAUA), Delta Air Lines (DAL)

Another day, another airline fee
and this time it's for carry-on luggage! Is there no limit to these fees? Spirit Airlines, out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is going to start charging a fee on August 1, 2010. The only group that is not chagrined are probably the nudists that travel light when vacationing.
Given all the fees the airlines are tacking on they might as well evolve into banks. Actually I think this is another instance where business has learned a bad lesson from government agencies. The government may require legislative action to raise taxes but bureaucrats the world over seem to be able to add new fees at will.
Continue reading Spirit Airlines Adds Carry-on Fee -- Nudist's Delight?
Posted Jan 5th 2010 9:40AM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Good news, Employees, Contl Airlines'B' (CAL)
No profit no bonus -- hell, make that no salary. The new CEO of Continental Airlines (CAL), Jeffery Smisek, says he won't take any salary or annual bonus until he brings the airline to profitability.
Smisek took the top job at Continental after the previous CEO, Lawrence Kellner, left the gig to go to a private equity firm. Last year, the firm lost $367 million in the first three quarters. A Thomson Reuters survey of analysts expects a fourth quarter loss of at least $38 million, though they're looking for a profit of at least $190 million for this year. So, Wall Street has already set Smisek's goal for him.
Continue reading Continental CEO Not Taking a Dime Until Profit Comes
Posted Jul 2nd 2009 9:50AM by Laurie Pasternack (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Cisco Systems (CSCO), Southwest Airlines (LUV), Contl Airlines'B' (CAL), Analyst Initiations, Johnson Controls (JCI), Juniper Networks (JNPR), Delta Air Lines (DAL)
Analyst upgrades:
- Citigroup upgraded Adtran (NASDAQ: ADTN) to Buy from Hold on expectations the company will benefit from the broadband Stimulus funds.
- Morgan Stanley upgraded Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL) to Overweight from Equal Weight based on relative valuation and views the company as a "survivor." Additionally, the analyst lowered 2009 industry estimates but believes it is the last cut for the year and is incrementally more positive on the sector.
- Morgan Stanley also upgraded EXFO Electro-Optical (NASDAQ: EXFO) to Overweight from Market Weight based on valuation.
- Tata Motors (NYSE: TTM) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.
- Ascent Solar (NASDAQ: ASTI) was upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JP Morgan.
- Mechel Steel (NYSE: MTL) was upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse.
Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: ADTN, CAL, EXFO, JCI, LUV, VAR, CSCO, KMT, EZCH
Posted Jun 30th 2009 8:00AM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: International Markets, Industry, Competitive Strategy, AMR Corp (AMR), Contl Airlines'B' (CAL), UAL Corp (UAUA), Delta Air Lines (DAL)
Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL) is seeking immunity from antitrust laws to work more closely with United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAUA) and others on international routes. And, since airlines operate in a state of seemingly perpetual turmoil, what's the harm? According to the Justice Department: plenty.
The airline sought broad immunity as part of an effort to join Star Alliance, which includes US Airways, Lufthansa (OTC: DLAKY), and Air Canada -- along with United. Continental believes that it needs to join Star Alliance in order to remain competitive, especially with airlines that have this type of immunity already.
Continue reading Justice Department pushes back on Continental immunity request
Posted Apr 22nd 2009 10:30AM by Mark Fightmaster (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Contl Airlines'B' (CAL)
It was a rough first quarter for
Continental Airlines (NYSE:
CAL), as the air carrier announced that it
lost $136 million thanks to falling traffic. In addition, CAL saw a large amount of business travelers switching out of first class to save a few bucks in coach. During the quarter, CAL lost $1.10 per share. Excluding charges, CAL would have lost $1.07 per share. While the loss was larger than last year's first-quarter loss of 82 cents per share, CAL did manage to beat the Street's expected loss of $1.19 per share.
Quarterly revenue dropped to $3 billion from $3.57 billion last year, slightly higher than the expected $2.98 billion. CAL saw sales drop across all regions, with the U.S. and trans-Atlantic routes falling the most. CAL saw traffic drop 11.2% compared to a year ago, with empty planes outweighing the flights CAL cut. The company noted that it was helped by dropping fuel prices, as it spent nearly 42% less on fuel compared to a year ago.
Continue reading Continental Airlines posts a first-quarter loss, but tops expectations
Posted Sep 11th 2008 12:59PM by Brent Archer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Major Movement, Good news, Industry, Contl Airlines'B' (CAL), Options, Technical Analysis, Oil
Continental Airlines (NYSE:
CAL -
option chain) shares are soaring higher today after the company announced that
it expects more than $100 million a year in fees and savings by charging travelers to check luggage. Obviously, checked luggage fees irritate travelers, but it is good for the company, then it should be good for the stock, and if you make a little money on the stock then you can afford to pay the extra fees and maybe even a mini-bottle of whiskey too. CAL is also getting a lift today from the drastic
slide in oil prices, which have almost dropped below $100. 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 CAL.
CAL opened this morning at $15.52. So far today the stock has hit a low of $15.13 and a high of $17.90. As of 12:10, cAL is trading at $17.62, up $1.55 (9.6%). The chart for CAL looks neutral and
S&P gives CAL a 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.
For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider an October
bull-put credit spread below the $10 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 an 8.7% return in just five weeks as long as CAL is above $10 at October expiration. Continental would have to fall by more than 43% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade
here.
CAL hasn't been below $10 since mid-July and has shown support around $15 recently.
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 CAL.Posted Jul 13th 2008 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), eBay (EBAY), Coca-Cola (KO), Intel (INTC), International Business Machines (IBM), Schlumberger Limited (SLB), Nokia Corp. (NOK), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), Advanced Micro Dev (AMD), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Baxter Intl (BAX), Safeway Inc (SWY), Gannett Co (GCI), Yum Brands (YUM), Mattel, Inc (MAT), Nucor Corp (NUE), Contl Airlines'B' (CAL), Harley-Davidson (HOG), Economic Data, Honeywell Intl (HON), United Technologies (UTX), Eaton Corp (ETN), Delta Air Lines (DAL)
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%)
- W.W. Grainger Inc. (NYSE: GWW): $1.46 EPS (17.1%) on sales of $1.7 billion (+8.0%)
- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT): 47 cents EPS (17.0%) on sales of $15.7 billion (+17.0%)
- Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON): 94 cents EPS (17.0%) on sales of $9.2 billion (+7.9%)
Continue reading The week in preview: Expectations as the earnings crunch begins
Posted Jun 5th 2008 8:55AM by Paul Foster (RSS feed)
Filed under: Contl Airlines'B' (CAL), Options
Continental (NYSE: CAL) announced it plans to reduce its work force by 3,000 jobs and its Q4 domestic departures would be 16% lower than a year earlier.
CAL closed at $14.50 Wednesday. WTI Crude oil is recently up 0.20% to $122.54 according to Bloomberg.
CAL July option implied volatility of 97 is above its 26-week average of 80 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risks.
Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com
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