Here are some highlights from last week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) said its earnings report would not include a conference call.
• Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) shares rose after it reaffirmed the 2009 outlook and forecast further growth.
• Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) said its Q4 numbers tumbled despite cost-cutting efforts.
• Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) posted strong Q2 results, though its cash flow was flat.
• Crocs Inc. (NASDAQ: CROX) reported better-than-expected Q2 results and forecast a return to profitability.
• Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) revenue surged in Q1 and its narrower loss beat expectations.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) reported solid Q2 numbers despite competition from store brands.
• DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (NYSE: DWA) missed Q4 expectations, sending shares lower.
• First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) said Q4 profit more than doubled due to strong demand.
• Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) posted a lower-than-expected profit on soft sales and lower margins.
• Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. (NASDAQ: HSII) earnings and revenue declined in Q4.
• Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) earnings beat low expectations even as revenue continued to decline.

So, I'm still trying to figure out a strategy for the coming year for my portfolio. Stocks are starting to feel a little better to me, but I'm very, very cautious about timing in terms of trades. For instance, I'd rather wait until we see a substantial pullback from the recent rally before taking some of my cash on the sidelines and putting it to work. But I've got two ideas in the movie sector that I'm looking at: DreamWorks Animation (NYSE: DWA) and Marvel Entertainment (NYSE: MVL).

First off, both are great companies. No, not every move they make is perfect (example: Marvel still can't properly monetize its Incredible Hulk property with a decent film). But both stocks have held up relatively well, in my opinion, during the financial implosion. Both stocks are also below their respective 52-week high's and above their respective 52-week low's. That's not a bad position to be in (although I should point out that I generally would like to get these two around their 52-week low's). But which stock has the edge?

Well, Marvel's shares have been strong lately. According to the AOL quote at the time of this writing, Marvel is in the green in all time frames (year-to-date, one-month, one-year, etc.). DreamWorks Animation is in the red in a couple spots, but for the most part, it's been performing somewhat similarly to Marvel. I don't really see that much of a difference in terms of strength. Plus, both are arguably essentially equal in terms of valuation (at least in my opinion).

I just came back from an advanced screening of Marvel Entertainments (NYSE: MVL) Incredible Hulk and it surpassed my expectations as did Iron Man before it.

The preview Wednesday night, two days ahead of the premier scheduled for Friday the 13th, is probably too scary for little tykes but it is a superb blend of movie technology magic and the passion of the cast and crew.

It's all in the eyes. Unlike the glib Tony Stark character in Iron Man, played fittingly by Robert Downey Jr., Edward Norton is the emotionally gamma ray charged green powerhouse that only roars, and must communicate his feeling though his eyes. This is the case when the Hulk's temper rages and when he is expressing his affection for Dr. Elizabeth Ross, played by to perfection by Liv Tyler.

Marvel Entertainment (NYSE: MVL) shares are trading higher this morning after Standard & Poor's announced that it added the stock to its S&P MidCap 400 index. MVL is rising today as investors believe that after these announcement, demand for the stock will be unusually high as mutual funds scramble to add the stock. 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 MVL.

After hitting a one-year low of $21.21 in August, the stock hit a one-year high of $35.00 in May. MVL opened this morning at $34.85. So far today the stock has hit a low of $34.48 and a high of $35.75. As of 12:55, MVL is trading at $35.17, up $1.30 (3.8%). The chart for MVL looks bullish and steady, while S&P gives the stock a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a July bull-put credit spread below the $30 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 6.4% return in just seven weeks as long as MVL is above $30 at July expiration. Marvel would have to fall by more than 14% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

The Marvel Entertainment (NYSE: MVL) release of the box office hit Iron Man, still No. 1 in world wide distribution, has got Hasbro Inc. (NYSE: HAS) rethinking its potential opportunities to leverage its stable of characters into larger than life features.

Hasbro, the nation's #2 toymaker, has reacquired the worldwide distribution rights to over 1,000 hours of animated programming.

Under the terms of its new deal with Sunbow Productions, Hasbro has regained ownership of 1,000 hours of cartoons featuring G.I. Joe, Transformers, My Little Pony and Littlest Pet Shop. With the tremendous success of the live action Transformers movie, and a second Transformers as well as a G.I. Joe live action film in production, Hasbro clearly wants full control over its intellectual properties in order to maximize their exploitation.

Hasbo closed yesterday pennies off it's 52-week high of $37.35 and is trading around $36 midday today. Meanwhile Marvel also closed yesterday just off it's 52-week high of $35 closing at $34.27. It is down now in midday trading around $34.50. However, it is up since I posted Chasing Value: Marvel's Iron Man will be HUGE!

UPDATE: HAS closed at $36.26 down -$0.93, and MVL closed at $33.73 down -$0.54.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I do not hold any position or own shares of HAS or MVL.

It did not take long for Marvel Entertainment (NYSE: MVL) to announce the intended 2010 release of Iron Man 2. This came one day after Marvel reported its latest earnings and the spectacularly successful weekend debut of its newest hit movie.

Having seen Iron Man with the cast and crew -- a prejudiced crowd if there ever was one -- I can tell you it is worth catching Iron Man on the big screen.

Meanwhile, if you are a Marvel comics fan, as I was growing up, and can't wait for the sequel, let's hope that the June 13 premiere of the The Incredible Hulk tides you over until 2010. And then, starting with Iron Man 2, you can look forward to the gates opening wide for the pantheon of Marvel Super Heroes.

Even if you have not seen the new Iron Man movie yet you can be sure that there will be a sequel after 'Iron Man' Proves His Mettle this weekend topping all estimates of its potential at the box office passing $100 milion dollar mark and easily taking the top spot.

Earlier today Marvel Entertainment (NYSE: MVL) reported an increase in earnings from last years first quarter. Net income came in at $45.23 million, compared to $46.84 million last year. However, net earnings were up from $0.54 to $0.58 per share this year.

Last week after seeing a preview of Iron Man I posted Marvel's Iron Man will be HUGE! and it was. This is only the beginning because in addition to more of Iron Man filling the big screen we can look forward to more of Spider-Man, The Hulk, Wolverine, The Punisher 2, Magneto, Namor and many more in script development. Then there is the product licensing too, so it looks like the world will be looking simply Marvel-ous as Billy Chrystal liked saying way back when on Saturday night live.

The comnpany raised it's 2008 earnings per share estimate to the rangeof $1.35 to $1.55 from the $1.30 to $1.50 range. Marvel increased net income guidnace for the year to $104 to $122 million from $100 to $118 million.

The Stock is up $2.25 to $32.50 per share in morning trading.

UPDATE: MVL closed up $2.85 to $33.10.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I hold no position in MVL as of this writing -- but I am considering buying it

Marvel Entertainment Inc (NYSE: MVL) shares are trading higher after the company reported a first-quarter profit of $45.2 million, or 58 cents per share, beating analysts' estimates of 43 cents per share. The company raised its estimates for full year revenues and profit. Also lifting MVL is the success that the new Iron Man movie has seen over the past weekend and the company's promise to move forward with Iron Man 2. 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 MVL.

After hitting a one-year low of $21.21 in August, the stock has hit a new one-year high today. MVL opened this morning at $33.00. So far today the stock has hit a low of $32.02 and a high of $33.24. As of 12:15, MVL is trading at $32.45, up $2.20 (7.3%). The chart for MVL looks bullish and steady, while S&P gives the stock a neutral 3 Stars (out of 5) Hold rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a September bull-put credit spread below the $25 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 9.9% return in just four and a half months as long as MVL is above $25 at September expiration. Marvel would have to fall by more than 23% before we would start to lose money.

MVL hasn't been below $25 by more than a dollar or so in the past six months and has shown support around $28 recently. This trade could be risky if Iron Man doesn't keep its box office momentum, but even if that happens, that position could be protected by support the stock might find from its 200-day moving average, which is currently around $26.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in MVL.

According to analyst Felicia Hendrix, who works at Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH), Hasbro Inc. (NYSE: HAS), a toy company that competes with Mattel Inc. (NYSE: MAT), might do better than she previously expected. She originally was counting on a 2.5% drop in top-line sales for all of 2008, but she now believes that the business may beat such a dire call. Further, she thinks Hasbro can do $1.93 per share in 2008; previously, she was only willing to credit the company with $1.88 per share for the year. I like it; and in case you were wondering what 2009 might bring, she's thinking $2.10 per share is completely conceivable.

Ah, Hasbro, Hasbro -- I've been watching you, and I've thought about you, but I never pulled the trigger. I should have; I remember counseling myself when the stock was trading near its 52-week low that I maybe should take a chance on it. I was thinking about how the company had some cool catalysts coming up -- Marvel Entertainment's (NYSE: MVL) films Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk might be big blockbusters this summer, so Hasbro could end up selling a lot of product based on the properties. And then there's the upcoming Star Wars: The Clone Wars project -- come on, the figures and sets based on this one should do very well since Hasbro is an ace marketer of Star Wars merch. I should have been on the ball, I guess.

If Hasbro does around $2 in earnings in 2009, that gives the toy vendor a forward P/E of about 15 right now. That's attractive, especially considering Hasbro's current dividend yield. Hasbro looked more exciting to me about ten points ago, but I think it is nevertheless an interesting investment idea at the moment. I'll want to watch for any significant pullbacks in the share price that might make Hasbro even more interesting.

Disclosure: I own shares of Marvel; positions can change at any time.

Marvel Entertainment (NYSE: MVL) announced yesterday that it had succeeded in securing a television deal for its movies with News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) cable entity FX. According to the corporate press release, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk are part of a deal that will include a total of five films from Marvel's self-financed slate of motion pictures.

This is a great announcement; I own shares in Marvel and I believe that there's a good chance that Iron Man and Hulk will do blockbuster business. While the company has increased its risk profile by directly entering the movie business by borrowing from a non-recourse facility to fund projects -- as opposed to just licensing its characters to studios like Sony (NYSE: SNE) -- the upside potential for the stock is awesome if these movies hit it big. FX has obviously given a vote of confidence to Marvel's Hollywood acumen by taking on five of the company's features for one of its media assets. The other thing that I really like about this deal is that FX will be offering some marketing support for the movies when they are in the midst of their theatrical release.

Iron Man will be distributed by Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) Paramount Pictures, and The Incredible Hulk will be buoyed by General Electric's (NYSE: GE) Universal Pictures. I don't know about you, but I think Marvel has some nice partners in its quest to become a bona fide player in Hollywood.

Disclosure: I own shares in Marvel and General Electric.

Ownership of the rights to a cultural icon equals promotion. It's a simple equation found in any basic text on marketing. Ownership of the rights to several icons equals big business is a corollary that has been successfully applied by an outfit headquartered in New York.

Marvel Entertainment (NYSE: MVL) is engaged in the marketing of a library of some 5,000 fictional characters, including Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, The Fantastic Four and X-Men. The firm's Licensing segment sells the rights to use the characters in marketing toys, apparel, video games and films. The Publishing division sells character-based comic books to the mass market. The Toys unit develops and markets character-based toys. The Film Production segment produces and distributes character-based films. Mattel (NYSE: MAT) and Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) are competitors.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Cypress Bioscience, Banc of America, Insulet, Taleo and Vocus Inc were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Friedman Billings started shares of Cypress Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ: CYPB) with an Outperform rating and $22 target, and is positive on the company's lead product milnacipran, in Phase III studies for fibromyalgia. The firm expects a 1Q09 launch and believes the U.S. market could be as large as $7B.
  
• Goldman resumed coverage of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) with a Buy rating and $63 target as they believe the company has around $22.5B of unrealized gains in its strategic investment portfolio. Goldman also added BAC to their Americas Buy List.
  
• Insulet Corporation (NASDAQ: PODD) was initiated at William Blair with an Outperform rating. The firm believes the unique features of the OmniPod will allow PODD to capture a meaningful portion of the 300,000 current insulin pumpers in the United States.
  
• Soleil started shares of Taleo Corporation (NASDAQ: TLEO) with a Buy rating and $35 target and believes the company's recent growth pace can continue.
  
• Shares of Vocus Inc (NASDAQ: VOCS) were also initiated at Soleil with a Buy rating and $39 target. The firm believes the company can gain share in the early stage market for public relations software given its on-demand model and low price entry point.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Cowen initiated shares of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp (NYSE: LGF) and Marvel Entertainment Inc (NYSE: MVL) with an Outperform rating and shares of Dreamworks Animation SKG Inc (NYSE: DWA) with a Neutral rating.
  
• Goldman resumed coverage of Nintendo Co Ltd (OTC: NTDOY) with a Buy rating.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal discusses the efforts of some comic book publishers to reach out and attract female readers. Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) DC Comics and Marvel Entertainment (NYSE: MVL) are among the industry leaders looking to find growth by targeting the 50% of the population that's been overlooked by publishers for decades. They're finding great success with sales of manga, a Japanese genre of animation.

The strategy of targeting women is brilliant, and very similar to what Nintendo has done with Wii, allowing it to thrash Sony's (NYSE: SNE) PlayStation 3 in the video game wars. While video games are wildly popular, it's still a relatively small percentage of the population that plays them fanatically. For years, game makers have been targeting that hardcore group and making little in the way of progress in attracting new gamers. With Wii, Nintendo essentially told Sony, "You can have those hardcore, graphics-obsessed video game geeks" and focused on developing a product that would have massive appeal, especially to those who probably wouldn't even consider buying a PlayStation.

Rather than battling Sony for market share with the the small fraction of game buyers, Wii went and expanded the market, bringing in new gamers. They kill Sony, essentially by not competing with them directly. It's a great strategy, and it will probably lead to great growth for the comic book industry as well.

Despite lukewarm reviews and a smattering of sub-plots spilling over in a bloated script (in this fan's opinion), Spider-Man 3 ensnared millions of fans in its web over the weekend, setting box-office records and raking in $375 million in ticket sales around the globe. The third installment following the escapades of our friendly neighborhood arachnid, trumped the previous record holder, Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith, which banked $254 million in its opening weekend in 2005.

In North America, the Tobey Maguire/Kirsten Dunst vehicle took in $148 million since Friday, topping the domestic box-office record set by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest last July. Additionally, Spider-Man 3 -- distributed by Columbia Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp. ADR (NYSE: SNE) -- set a single-day record on Friday, selling $59.3 million in tickets, inching above the earlier record, also set by Dead Man's Chest. The latest installment was no frugal feat, costing nearly $260 million to produce.